The Herman House Blog

Dock

2010-04-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

We're at the point where we're going to transfer the pieces of the stripped dock over to a friend's huge yard so that we can finish it. We spent the last few days tearing off old styrofoam floats and disintegrating plywood to reveal the somewhat twisted angle-iron frames.

Now that the frames are clean we can attach new (used) floats and surface them with pretty fake wood decking. They'll look like brand new dock pieces. We then have to float them downriver to our pilings and attach them with ropes until we can have piling rings made. Here are some pics:

Water

2010-03-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about how nice it is to have water piped into the house? Today our antiquated water filtration system is being replaced and we won't have any water in the house all day. So this morning I prepared lunch and dinner goodies as well as put on some chicken bones to simmer for broth. I love the smell of broth simmering on the stove! Sometimes I even take a cupful out and sip it as a snack while admiring our beautiful camilias.

So no more orange toilets and sinks -- and hopefully no more sulfur smell when I turn on the hot water!! We didn't hurry in our decision about a contractor. We interviewed eight water filtration providers over a one-month period and, as we learned about all of the ways that the water could be treated, we winnowed out a provider. We ended up with the following requirements:

1. No chemicals to be recharged every year.
2. Use as much as possible of our existing plumbing and filters.
3. No water softener initially. If we still don't like our water we'll add one.
4. No chemical filtration of the water.
5. Likely to be in business for the next 10 years.

We ended up going with Culligan, not because they were the cheapest, because they met all of our requirements. So Wayne is down at the well right now sidewalk supervising the installers. He's so cute. I love his fuzzy little head!!

We also had a estimator from Fallen Leaf Tree Service at the house this morning for a confab about annual maintenance. Incidentally, they'll also have to remove the gigantic limb that is precariously perched up in one of our trees. It snapped off and fell into the next tree over during the last big wind storm. We spend about $1,200 per year maintaining these trees and this year will be no exception. We don't want the limb to fall into the cottage and squish the tenant, so what's a guy to do????

I spent an hour vacuuming the livingroom/kitchen and upstairs this morning. Now I have to go and get my teeth cleaned which I absolutely hate. Oh well. The price of beauty:)

New website: http://caloriecount.com

2009-08-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was warned for years by my menopausal friends that I wouldn't be able to eat as much after I moved into that faraway stage of life. I thought at the time, "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. In the meantime, I'm going to eat whatever I want and enjoy the heck out of it." I did and loved it. But I've now joined the ranks of the periodless and I have to readjust my intake accordingly.

Getting my intake down to 1,200 calories is tough. Every little food item counts. For example, I didn't have milk with my oatmeal this morning to cut the 48 calories there. I didn't throw dried cranberries into my oatmeal as usual, because I already ate 1/4 cup of dried apricots. The serving sizes are very, very small and that will take some getting used to.

But I have lots of incentive to lose the weight. I've had plantar fascitis in both feet, on and off, for two years. I've gained 15 pounds in the last year and the pain has increased terribly so I'm starting a diet to 1) reduce the pain in my feet, 2) be able to wear my clothes again, 3) feel more attractive. I have one pair of jeans and one pair of shorts that I can fit into. Since I have to wear my tennie shoes everywhere, number three isn't as bad as it could be. I just don't feel like my cute self when I'm wearing shorts or jeans and tennie shoes. My summer dresses are going unused this year and I miss them.

I must lose the weight for another reason, too. I've noticed my sweet Wayne studying my newly cellulited biceps at the breakfast table and I don't like it. I also understand his point of view because I didn't find his growing gut attractive (which he's since lost without much effort.)

So now I've started using a website to help me keep track. This is a daily battle and I have to have a good battle plan to achieve victory. The website is the first one I've seen that might help me. It's easy to navigate around in and provides about everything I could want. I love the recipes that I can add right to my daily calorie count. It save me a great deal of time and aggravation figuring out my calories. I'll add some of my own recipes after I've gotten used to the website.

So I'm off to sit in a hot bathtub and stretch my feet for the morning. After that I'll go on a bike ride. Yesterday I was out in the river for an hour and a half doing some bank maintenance and swimming. Then the Bee runs a story about a bloated corpse found right down river at Sand Cove. That gives me the creeps!! But it won't stop me from swimming!! It's so beautiful and wild down there.

Air Emily!!!!

2009-08-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

What a doll! I've never seen such a cute baby!!!!! Circ du Soleil may just be in her future!!!

So I didn't blog hardly at all for the last month and I'm feeling guilty. How can something completely voluntary make me feel guilty?? I don't know. It was wonderful to have you all over for dinner on Thursday even though my feet hurt. I'm grateful to have married into such a smart, funny family!

Saw the doctor about my feet yesterday. He gave me some more stretches for my feet and some better pain meds. I hope the stretches work. He said it won't get better overnight since its been bothering me for two+ years, but it should begin to get better within a few days. I can only hope for the best.

Wayne is at another auction. He says he's trying to make money, but I think he gets an adrenaline rush from betting (I mean bidding) on equipment -- akin to gambling. The auction moves really fast and its rather addicting, like gambling. It looks like he's done well so far with his purchases but we haven't re-sold anything yet to actually make any money. It make him happy to go to these and that's good enough for me.

I've applied for a half-time job with the State so we'll see if I get that. Last July, I told an interview panel that we travel for months every year and that killed it. This time I'm going to keep my big mouth shut and see if I get offered the job. I kinda hope I don't get it but I have to give it a try.

Last night we went to the Music Circus and saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was first staged 50 years ago and its still really cute. Wayne used to have the LP and was singing along very softly with the music. He's so charming -- I never can tell what interesting little factoid is going to come out of that fertile brain of his. We went with our friends, Marni and Roger and had a great time. I'm going to go see Cats if I can find someone to go with me. Wayne's seen it three times but I've never seen it before and its supposed to be really entertaining.

Why did it become popular for restaurants to be so loud that everyone has to yell to carry on a conversation? They used to design acoustics to soften the noise, now they try to increase the noise level. I guess I'm getting old, but I like to have a conversation with the people I'm with. Instead we're forced to use sign language to get the condiments and order food. If we're not willing to yell ourselves, we end up listening to the boring conversations of drunk people at the other tables. I cannot recommend DeVeres Irish Pub for that reason. The food was good, the ambiance was crappy.

This week should be pretty quiet on the home front. We may take the boat up the American River for the weekend which is always relaxing.......

Pirate Party Aftermath

2009-07-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda stream-of-consciousness today....please bear with me or just skip this one:)

So the pirate party is over as is the 4th of July. How did it get so late in the year. Next month is August for crying out loud!! We still haven't put away all of the party stuff as my feet still hurt too much. Podiatrist next week. In the meantime I'm rolling around the house on a chair until the vicodin kicks in this morning.

I was so happy to see so many people at the party given the thermometer but I was disappointed that I didn't get to visit much because our help needed so much direction. Bummer. I kinda missed our party. Next year we either hire more people or we hire the same two because now they know exactly what to do and where everything is.

We've given away or thrown away all of the yummy chips people left. That's my weakness -- if they're in the house I'll eat them. Bad me. But I got on the scale this morning and its not as bad as I thought. 1,000 calories a day is the goal until I'm back to where I can fit into something besides my fat jeans and shorts. I'm swimming in the river for exercise and only hope that it doesn't aggravate my feet too much. If they cast my feet I will be unable to swim...

San Francisco was wonderful except my feet hurt so much I was on the verge of tears the whole time. I hate complaining so I tried to shield Wayne a bit from my misery. Which didn't help me because he'd then suggest walking blocks and blocks to get somewhere. However, I can't think of anothe place I'd rather have a mini-vacation at with hurt feet.

Now that all the festivities are over I hope to continue updating the blog more often.

Pirate Party

2009-05-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went out on the Sacramento and American Rivers and we took Kelly Kelly Kelly with us. She's pretty fun and her boat is being worked on so she couldn't get out there on her own. Dinner with yacht club folks and lotsa fun except that I'm not eating carbs because I'm trying to loose this 10 pounds because my feet are killing me because I weigh too much so I kept saying how much I LOVE celery and No Thank You, I just don't have room for the mashed potatoes with butter and garlic and the fritos and the pasta salad and corn on the cob and all alcoholic beverages and I think I'm going to go insane:) Do you like run-on sentences? So do I.

So Wayne and I decided to have a pirate party AAARRRRRR!!!!!! We wanted to have a big party last year and didn't get around to it so this year we just decided to set a date and send out invitations. which we did. We have no idea how many people will show up but we're going to have fun in any event. We're going to roast a pig in the ground. We've heard that it's super easy and very little work, ergo, better than barbecuing burgers (less work). We've looked at WikiHow, etc. and it does look pretty simple. The most important thing is that it is cooked all the way through. So we'll do that and corn on the cob and green salad. At the urging of our friends, we're also going to ask people to bring a side dish. It feels a bit unhospitable but they said that they'd like the variety of food so I should just get over it. Ok.

Other than that, life here goes on as usual. The cottonwood tree is snowing on our yard. When I lay in the hammock on the shade patio and look through the opening in the trees, the cotton floating across the sky about 50 feet up looks like fairy dust, shimmering against the blue sky. The squirrels eat the cottonwood seeds. One of them climbed around the end of a little tiny branch, reaching out for the cottonwood flower pods and munching on them for the entire hour I was out there. I think there was one high up right above the hammock because pods kept dropping on me. The sound of the fountain is very soothing.

The other afternoon we were out by the boat dock stairs and Wayne looked over to the shade patio and said to me, "Did you put one of those big plastic owls over there?" Nooooo. There was ten-inch tall owl sitting right on the corner of the planter looking at us. A barn owl. We walked over to the edge of the patio and he followed us with his big yellow eyes. I walked closer to see what he would do, and at about 10 feet he fluffed up his feathers and hissed at me. He still had a bunch of downy feathers across his back, obviously a new owl that was as yet unable to fly. He hopped away into the ivy and we left him alone. Very National G.

I think the morning dove I saved at the Wells Fargo building is nesting at the top of the cottonwood tree. How cool is that. We didn't have any morning doves here before and I love the calling of morning doves when I wake up each day. They were all over Africa. Our guide said that they are the sound of Africa, but I think they're the sound of morning everywhere.

On My Own

2009-05-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Dozens of boats are flying up and down the river. Some with music booming, but most just have people enjoying the ride. Her's a photo of right now.

Wayne left for Redding to work on the dock pieces this morning. He'll be gone for a day or two -- maybe even coming home as late as Tuesday. I stayed home because a) I can't stand the thought of leaving when the weather has turned so nice and b) I have work in the garden to do.

I must admit that I enjoy the quiet. Wayne is very chatty and he's a bundle of energy so, once in a while, it's nice to be at home alone. Pauline may come over or I may go over there, but it is so peaceful right now that I think I'll just lay low.

PayPal

2009-05-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Every single time I try to use PayPal something is wrong. Either the last 4 digits of my visa, my sign in name, my password, my secret questions -- or some impossible combination of the above do not match what PayPal has on record for me. I write everything down to no avail. The next time I attempt to use it something doesn't match and I'm back to helplessly typing and retyping various combinations of the secret codes into their sadistic little data squares to no avail. Apparently about 7 years ago I opened a PayPal account with a checking account number at a bank I haven't used for 6 years. I CANNOT update my checking account number and use my same email address. Go figure. I have to have create a new email address to update my checking account number. Why would I do that? I phoned to get help this morning and (after 10 minutes waiting in the queue) the Indian customer service rep thanked me for giving him my name and then the call droped and I would have to start all over. Well SCREW IT!!!! I'm not going to try and use PayPal again. I've had enough. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!!!!!!

Monday Morning

2009-05-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

A week ago we flew to Los Angeles and visited the Getty Villa. J. Paul Getty bought 64 acres in Malibu right after WWII and, over the years, re-created a first century Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri to house his Greek and Roman antiquities. We've wanted to visit for years and finally got there last Monday. What an amazing place! If you ever wonder what a Roman villa is like, go check it out.

When we designed our backyard we used materials and geometric shapes that reminded us of the gardens we saw in Italy, France and Germany. We have quite a long way to go before the gardens are finished, but maybe someday it will mirror our fantasies. Monet said his greatest work of art was his garden and that is what I am also trying to do. I have to be patient and do just a few things a year and, maybe in 10 years, it will be as I imagined it to be.

We had some drop-in guests yesterday -- our dock is finally big enough for a boat to pull up. Pauline, Bill, Carla, Steve and one other guy whose name I can't remember honked then pulled up to our dock for a visit. We're thinking about setting up a flagpole along the wall and hoisting our yacht club burgee whenever we're open for guests. That would be fun.

This house is a no-drama zone. Things have been going on pretty evenly around here. No drama to speak of so I'm happy. I don't like drama -- never have. I try to steer clear of folks who like to create little whirlwinds of drama around themselves. They drain other peoples' energy like vampires. Have you ever read the Anne Rice Lestat series? Or the Phantom of the Opera?

We're back from Florida

2009-04-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

We returned last night at about 11:30 from Orlando. That airport is a real zoo! We heard that temperatures were in the 90s while we were gone so we were worried that the garden would be cooked, but the automatic sprinkling system did its job and everything is good. Whew!!

The reason why we went to Orlando was to look at a boat, but it ended up smelling like urine and swamp water and, along with the timing issues, we decided not to take it. We had a wonderful mini-vacation though, going to NASA and the Kennedy Space Center, Daytona raceway and St. Augustine (which was wonderful). I guess the old saying is still true -- when God gives you lemons, make lemonade! The photo of the space shuttle is was taken from three miles away. I zoomed in and then cropped the picture until I got the space shuttle to look a little more detailed. We were fortunate that we saw it on the launch pad like that -- they were in the process of closing this work door over it. It's only exposed for about 24 hours after they get it to the pad then they close the door.

We're tired but happy with the results of our little excursion. While we want a boat we can trailer around the country, we want it to be the right boat. Maybe the next one (next year) will be the right one.

Happy Easter Everyone

2009-04-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!! We woke up too late to go to early service so we're going at 11:30 this morning. Michael always has something interesting and uplifting to say.

I have a suggestion for people looking to save money: Hang your laundry on a line to dry this summer. Wayne helped me install a clothesline and then smiled and called me Ma Kettle and asked what the neighbors would think. I told him that I'm doing it the European way. We saw laundry drying in the sun all over Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. If our friends chuckle at our eccentricity we'll archly explain our newly found sophistication. And our clothes and sheets smell so fresh!

Saturday is Open House Day

2009-04-11T09:14:00.001-07:00

Today we're going to take a second look at a whittled down list of foreclosed real estate. We're looking for places that need a lot of work so that we can fix them up and sell them for a tidy profit. Problems include stripped wiring and electrical boxes, stolen light fixtures, AC units and bathtubs stolen, leaky roofs and destroyed dry-wall on the ceilings, pee and cigarette stench, and other miscellaneous vandalism. The worse, the better. If they accept cash-only offers that means that they're in such bad shape that neither FHA nor other private lenders will make a loan on them and that eliminates a lot of bidders. I can foresee what my summer blogs are going to be like.....

The arch at the octagon is starting to bloom with hundreds of white roses. Our zucchini has it's first bloom, too.

Recovering from Bowling

2009-04-02T16:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we nursed sore fingers and thumbs after bowling! I bowled pretty well but Wayne has done better, shall we say. We had my parents over for lunch and laughs and I showed my mom how to do a blog so (hopefully) she'll have a new career as a blogger now:)

Now it's Friday morning at 10:25 and we're just getting going. I woke up this morning from the kind of nightmare I hate! I was in the middle of a huge, chaotic hotel--hundreds of people pushing past me in this giant open-air lobby. Wayne and I were supposed to be at the airport but we got separated so some people I didn't know threw my stuff into the back of a beat-up junker truck and I sat on top of the pile for the ride to the airport. I was trying desperately to phone Wayne but I couldn't read the little screen on my cell phone which mysteriously was nothing like my actual cell phone. I squinted really really hard to read the screen and kept trying different names thinking that THIS one might just get to Wayne, but no luck. I knew he was worried about me, wondering why I wasn't there yet and I was starting to really panic. One last try at this monsterously complicated phone and then I woke up and he was downstairs making coffee and all was right in the world again.

April Fools Day

2009-04-01T12:54:00.001-07:00

I stayed home today while Wayne finished up a few things at the duplex that I can't help with. Oh darn!! So I stayed home and enjoyed the garden.

Farmer Jane

2009-03-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day we have at the duplex. I am all but finished with the kitchen! All I have to do is wipe/scrape off the oven cleaner and I'm done with it. I'm also nearly finished with the first bathroom and hope to have the second bathroom finished in the early afternoon. Then all that's left are windows, cobwebs, and dusting the ceiling fan. Wayne is finished with the yard so he's going to cut out the moldy caulking around the tub and shower and re-caulk. I think he's going to wash the windows also. This will have been been four days of intense work. Now if the new tenant will only stay for 18 months or more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My tomatoes are two feet high and blooming like crazy. I got a little carried away and planted five of them so if anyone needs tomatoes a little later in the summer, you can get them here. Along with green beans, lettuce, cantelope, watermelon, peppers, peas and various herbs......I'm going to dry the extra tomatoes and pack them in olive oil.

I know, I know. How boring can you get. I think I'm a throwback to the women of the 19th century who took pride in keeping a clean house, cooking well, and keeping a garden going for fresh veggies and fruit. Weird but true. I actually like this stuff. Working around the house is very satisfying to me -- and I've always been this way. I've been gardening since I was in kindergarten starting with swiping some packaged beans from my mom's kitchen and planting them to grow Jack's beanstalk. I kid you not. I must have been a farmer in a previous life...I'm always wishing I had a bit more land to plant more crops. I'm ready to tear up some of the lawn in the back to plant apricots and corn:)

Nirvana

2009-03-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

We're having breakfast right now and the Today show just had a piece on the 40-something woman as the new entertainment hottie. So now the media says women have to remain alluring and emaciated right up until (and soon) beyond menopause. No pressure or anything. It's so easy--just quit eating so I can spend my days working-out between appointments with the esthetician and plastic surgeon. Does heavy housework count as working-out? I'll have to look to see how many calories each type of cleaning activity burns. There's always an up-side!!!

Talk about heavy housework -- we worked all weekend on the duplex. It's vacant but we have a renter moving in on Wednesday and there was a lot of cleaning and maintenance to be done. It took me two days just to get the kitchen clean. The oven was so caked the self-cleaning feature couldn't get it all off so today it's Easy Off and scraping. I had to dismantle the refrigerator to get all the crud out. Oh Boy! Today its on to the bathrooms!! I'm going to get skinny if I keep this up:) Wayne took the outside -- a major clean-up effort. The back yard was like a jungle so he took a chainsaw, hedge clippers, etc. to it and actually overfilled the trailer with all the trimmings. Why do people not understand that when we say that the yard is their responsibility, it means that they're supposed to mow, trim bushes, etc???? And the bonus is that they get to burn off so many calories! We're actually doing them a favor;) They COULD pay higher rent so we can pay a maintenance company to do the yard.....or they can do the maintenance themselves. Their choice.

So today we're going to burn off a bunch more calories. But it will be finished by dinner. Oh yeah, food again. We have leftover roasted chicken, salad & mashed potatoes with sauteed mushrooms. My fave. Beautiful sunset, glass of wine, savory dinner, wonderful husband. It doesn't get any better than that!

Lackadaisical or Livid?

2009-03-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

So the dock fingers cleaned up nicely. We worked on them for a few hours and they're turning out better than hoped. Another few days work and we'll be able to bring them home. Rocky's birthday party turned out to be something of an ordeal for me but fun for W. If you want to know more you'll have to email or phone me.....

Today we're working on the house, getting the drip system finished for the patio, etc. It's going to be warm and sunny -- really perfect!

We're looking at trading the old Promise To for a 2006 MacGregor Sailboat. We've got a trip scheduled for April 16-20 to look at one in Orlando Florida. If we buy it, we'll drive out in May and pick it up for a long return trip, stopping at various lakes on the way back to Sacramento. My sister and I already had a trip to Orlando planned for her birthday on May 27th, so having the boat out there already is convenient for our plans. There aren't too very many of these boats for sale used and this one has lots of upgrades for a very reasonable price.

Emotionally, I'm trying to put out Wayne's fire as he gets all worked-up in the mornings about politics. Then on top of it, this morning we got a call from one of the dock permit agencies to say that another agency shelved our permit application. Wayne immediately went ballistic when he hung up the phone and I can't say I don't blame him. We take turns getting mad and calming each other down. I guess that's one of the reasons why we're so good for each other:) The politics thing is a different animal. I guess he LIKES to get mad because he does it every morning. Maybe it knocks the cobwebs out of his brain in preparation for the rest of the day. I tend to be more lackadaisical......

I thought the Rain Was Over:(

2009-03-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

I thought we were in for warm, sunny days until about November. Today's cold temps and drizzle dampened my spirits as well so I got really busy cleaning house. Among other things, I mopped the floors from top to bottom, moving furniture and all. That took hours.

Wayne worked on getting the boat trailer re-wired. We'd kept it in our neighbor's pasture for a few months and the cows ate through the wires. At first he had it wired so that when he turned on a turn signal, both lights blinked. Darn! He quickly got it wired correctly and left to pick up the two 30' dock fingers we had at a storage yard. That's what he's doing right now.

Rocky said we could take them up to his house to refurbish them (they're real pieces of junk right now so we have to add new flotation and decking.) However, the price was right -- about $135 -- and with some elbow grease, we'll have a functional u-dock. The head dock piece was free -- the Sacramento Marina put in a new marina and we scored a 42' x 6' piece of dock (which is also a piece of junk), but it was free so we're ahead there, too. Lots of work though re-decking and re-floating. We haven't figured out how we're going to work on that one yet. It's here at the house tied up to our pilings as we had to get it out of the marina earlier this week. We're going to try and have everything ready by August by which time we hope all of our permits will be approved and we can put in the dock legally.

So tomorrow we're going to Redding to help Leona out with an insurance problem and to take the dock fingers to Rocky's. Rocky's birthday is Wednesday so we're going to take them out to dinner tomorrow night. Should be fun. Wayne's family members are gifted storytellers and they always have something interesting to say. I love hanging around with people who like to talk. That way I don't have to!

I'm getting a lot of joy from watching my garden grow. I've got pots on the patio with veggies planted and I FINALLY got all of the rocks out of the back of the truck, which I then washed. So now I'm a little more than halfway done with the area along the river. Finishing that will be my priority next week.

I went grocery shopping and am going to cook spegetti for dinner. Probably not as good as Christine's, but I'm trying something new by using hot Italian sausage in the sauce. We'll see........

Tax Day!

2009-03-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's 9:20 and Wayne is heading off to the accountant to discuss taxes. For the past week he's been working hard on gathering the information the accountant needs. I, once again, am going out to shovel rocks onto the path between the wall and the river. I'm tired of looking at weeds so I've laid down weed stop and am in the process of placing 1.5" rock over the top. I've planted geraniums, daffodils and iris back there and it's starting to look pretty good. I'm only half through although I've already shoveled and mostly hand-placed one yard of rocks. At least the weather is cooperating. My vegetable garden on the deck is doing beautifully and I'm going to transplant more seedlings into pots today.

Last night we went to our bowling league and, once again, I bowled miserably. It was fun though and that's what counts:)

Our first blog!!!

2008-10-02T15:47:00.001-07:00

Amber has convinced us to start a blog. Her mother has a FABULOUS blog and Amber is creating one for her household also.

Today is the vice presidential debate. We watched the first presidential debate with Amber and Ben (and Emily) and thought both candidates did very well. I think Biden is going to really put his foot in it tonight so I'm waiting with a certain amount of apprehension for the debate to begin.

I rode my bike nearly 20 miles this morning and came home exhausted. Wayne is doing desk work and didn't have time to come. Hopefully he'll knock most of it out today and will be up for another one tomorrow.