Custom Coasters

We have made an observation, using our leather sofa for the first week.
The built in cup holders fill up with water due to the moisture
dripping off the glassware, from the Texas humidity.
When you lift your glass out of the cup holder, it drips on the leather and leave marks.

So inventor Doug to the rescue!

This is a view of our stainless steel cup holders

Coaster - Recycling / Reshaping
The one on the left is the actual size of a Thirstystone absorbent coaster.
The one on the right is re-shaped using his tile saw to fit the dimensions of the cup holder.

Doug carefully re-shaping the Thirstystone coaster.

The cup holders with the Thirtsystone coaster inserts.

Maybe he should patent this idea!

SHSU Chorale Member Announcement

Jackie called this morning and she made the SHSU Chorale.

This is the top choir at Sam Houston State University.

The first concert will be Saturday, October 30th.
The same day we are to participate in the ALS Walk in Grand Prairie.
Looks like it will be a very busy weekend!!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The choral program at SHSU is recognized and respected throughout the country and is one of the the strongest in the state of Texas. Under the dynamic leadership of its conductors, the choir has performed at prestigious national conventions and appeared at the 2007 ACDA National Convention in Miami, Florida. The Director of Choral Studies this year is James C. Franklin, who brings to SHSU a line of distinguished professional and academic achievements.

The Chorale, a highly select group of fifty-four singers, is an intensive performing ensemble touring at the state, national, and international levels.

The repertoire of the SHSU Chorale includes standard choral pieces from all periods and premieres of twentieth-century compositions. They have been joined by noted professional orchestras, such as the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra and the Texas Baroque Ensemble, for productions of major choral works and have performed with the Houston Masterworks Chorus for many concerts and have sung as a part of the Houston Ballet's production of Carmina Burana. The Chorale's many other joint productions include such works as Bach's B-Minor Mass and St. Johns Passion, Brahms' German Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Mass in C Minor and Requiem, and Bruckner's Te Deum. The Choir has has also worked in collaboration with Paul Salamunovich and Joseph Flummerfelt.

Jackie - SHSU Senior year

GO BEARKATS!

Jackie started her Senior year at Sam Houston State University today.

She had voice auditions for choir placement yesterday. She will find out which choir she made tomorrow. Good Luck Jackie! She also attended the campus job fair, but did not have any jobs that fit her interest/schedule.

Today she texted me that she had a job. I called to talk with her in detail about her job possibilities. Once she passes the background check, Jackie will be teaching voice lessons at Huntsville High School. Pay is $12 per 30 minute session.

Go Huntsville Hornets!!

Jackie will also see if she can teach voice lessons at Alpha Omega Academy (the private school in Huntsville.). The choir director at First Presbyterian Church is the music teacher at this school.
This is great work experience for her and I hope this works into her schedule.

Jackie has a good share of evening classes this year, so if her schedule allows, she may also be working in the computer lab in the music dept or perhaps assist one of the music professors by grading papers some other miscellaneous tasks.

Jackie, we wish you a great Senior year at Sam Houston State University!!

Pool Repair

The water chemistry in the pool has been out of balance and is causing the pool plaster to disintegrate. (Cyanuric Acid = 100ppm) We received a couple of estimates from Wylie Plastering in the amount of $2500-$2700 (depending on the type of plaster finish we use). We can't afford to take that on right now. So we are making some changes with the pool chemistry. Removed about 1/2 of the pool water to see if we can reduce the cyanuric acid. During this time Doug tool the opportunity to repair some missing pool tiles and loose flagstone near the skimmer basket.

Click here for pool repair photos.

Per PoolManual.com: The Cyanuric Acid reading will eclipse 100 ppm (maximum that is accepted), which will cause your pool to hold too strong of a continual chlorine reading. There is no chemical to reduce Cyanuric Acid. It can only be reduced by either partially or completely draining the pool

Cleaning & Tacking & Stretching .... OH MY!

I was vacuuming the carpet in the family room on Saturday,
after our old sectional sofa was picked up by it's new owners.

The carpet by the tiled area at the garage door came off the tack strip.

Something else to add to the Honey Do list!!!

Doug was at a stopping point with the pool tile waiting to set up.
So we proceeded to clean some of the stains that were underneath where the sofa used to sit.
There were some black stains from where the metal frame was rubbing on the carpet.

Blue Magic - Carpet Stain & Spot Lifter works awesome.
We used to be able to buy it at Walmart, but they didn't have any
...... so we purchased 4 cans at AutoZone.

This stuff is very easy to use, spray it on and rub with a white towel.
Presto! Magic! No more stain!

We use it on the bathroom rugs as well as the carpets in the car & house.

Doug did use our carpet clean and touch up a few other spots
in the family room. We are anxiously preparing to receive our new sofa.

Pre-drilling holes in the concrete to add the new carpet tack strip.

A power carpet stretcher, rented from Home Depot
$18.00 for 4 hours.
Doug was able to get both door thresholds completed in a couple of hours.

Both door thresholds fixed.

Master Bedroom threshold fixed!

Family Room threshold fixed too!

A Purchase from The Dump

We have been searching for a new sofa for our family room for about 6 months.

The sofa is 13 yrs old and has been repaired multiple times by Doug.
The fabric is now see through in many spots and it was in need of being recovered or replaced.

We were particular on our wants for our new sofa.
We wanted the dual recliner function and a place for our beverages.
We did not necessary need the hide-a-bed feature any longer.

So our 3 piece sectional sofa was sold on craigslist.

Our new media furniture is leather and purchased from The Dump.

This is a 6 piece leather media furniture set purchased from The Dump

SET 1
left side recliner
right side recliner
storage console with beverage cup holders

Set 2
left side recliner
right side recliner
armless recliner

Now we will be able to sit in style and watch our new television.

Crabgrass killer works

We've been getting a number of emails from those of you that have your own yard. Yes the crabgrass killer really works. Below are a few photos I took of places in our yard this morning. This shows the crabgrass is dying and the bermuda grass is thriving.

See this post to see the product Doug is using on our yard.

Holy Hubcap!!

Jackie came home from college on Sunday, August 8th
missing a hubcap on her Toyota Camry.
Apparantly she lost it traveling on Hwy 45 between Huntsville and Dallas.
She knows where she lost it, but the embankment was too steep to go after it.
After all, in her words "it's just a hubcap".

Doug spent the next week checking local junkyards to see if he could fine one. No Luck! Not of interest to stock by the junkyards he visited. So he went to the intenet!!
He found several "replica" hubcaps, but wanted the real deal.
He even contacted the Toyota dealer ~ no luck!

So I checked ebay and found a gently used one for not a cheap price ($40)
Doug had me order it. The hubcap was delivered by UPS today.
So now the Camry is all set to take another trip south.

The Camry looks much better now, with all it's OEM hubcaps...don't you think?

Jackie will leave for Huntsville in the morning.

She has vocal auditions on Monday morning.

SHSU academic classes begin on Wednesday, August 25th.

I will miss her when she is gone.
It's so nice to have someone around the house
(it gets kind of lonely working from home).

She also makes a great assistant.
Now I'll have to go back to doing my own errands :-(

We hope you have a great SENIOR year at college Jackie!

A Dental Experiment

Jackie and I went to the dentist yesterday. We were trying a new dentist in town. Our last dentist has relocated to the east coast.

We had back to back appointments. The office was very nice. The office staff was not!
The dentist was not! This was our first visit, you think they would be nicer.
They told both of us we had periodontal gum disease.

I think not! We visit the dentist every 6 months for preventative cleanings and we've never been told this. I've been speaking to some people in the community and hearing the same thing from them. It appears this dentist and staff tells everyone they need the periodontal deep cleaning. I said I would like a second opinion, since I was hearing this for the first time.

The dentist was very offended and said maybe my last dentist wasn't doing his job. He did not act very professional at all.

So Jackie and I are again looking for a new dentist. I don't like going to the dentist anyways and so anyone that can make that a more enjoyable experience, will be fine by us!

So all in all, please do not patronize this dentist: Dr David Hubbell, DDS

The Hunt for Crabgrass Killer

Doug ran out of crabgrass killer last week.
He has been unable to find anything to kill the crabgrass that is sneaking into our yard.
It turns out the the weed killer contains arsonic acid.
Arsenic is currently banned by the EPA effective December 31, 2010.

Doug searched EBAY and found a distributor of the MSMA Crabgrass killer.
It was available at a cost of $9.99 for each 32 oz. bottle.
Each 32 oz bottle, makes a total of 60 onces.
He bought a total of three bottles and this should be enough to kill any
crabgrass in our yard for the next 10 years or more.

MSMA = Monosodium Acid Methanearsonate

New Glasses for Jackie

Last week Jackie went for her annual eye exam.
She got new glasses.

She is trying contacts for the first time.
She had to go back and get a different pair.
The first pair were made from silicone and made her lower eye lid itch a lot!
The pair she has now is flimsier, but more comfortable to wear.
She loves her Acuvue Oasys with Hydraclear Plus.

Jackie - Future Contact wearer?

Jackie had an appt today at the Frisco Eye Clinic in Stonebriar Mall.
She is shown here trying to insert her first pair of contacts.
She will try them for a week and go back next week
to see if she wants to wear them in the future.

She did it!

Weekend

The weekend started by Doug and I doing yard work. I mowed the yard and Doug did the edging, trimming & blowing. While I was mowing I noticed the concrete flag in our front yard was missing the heart/star. I searched through the mulch and found it. Now Doug had a new TO DO item for his weekend list. He not only put the heart back on the flag but updated the faded paint color as well.

This is the before photo of the missing heart/star.

This is the concrete taped off in preparation for new paint.

The finished product. Doesn't it look beautiful?
It is now placed in it's rightful position in front of our home.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Home Depot (for spray paint); picked up some cole slaw at KFC to have with our burgers later that night and rented a DVD from the local REDBOX. We rented "Brooklyn's Finest", I would not recommend it to anyone. We had rented "Green Zone" on Friday night, hardly worth mentioning either. Doug picked both of these movies, now I get to pick next time.

Sunday: Church at Trinity Presbyterian Church in the morning; Jackie came home from college for a 2 week break. We all enjoyed a home-made brunch together and then later in the afternoon Doug & I visited Kathy & Gordon Mayfield (our old neighbors). They have moved to Denton and their daughter Britney, recently had a baby. So we took a gift and visited their new home. Dinner was pizza/beer as we watched the Cowboys play in the preseason opener in Canton,Ohio. They won the game, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 16-7.

Hotter than blazes

This is what the temperature showed at the Pipeline Autospa on Main Street today.

I think I've died and gone the other way!