So one of my favorite movies of all time is Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks. His character winds up stranded on a desert island, having to fend for himself against the elements, an abscessed tooth and hunger. A few days after his arrival, he has his first big success story and builds a bonfire, boyscout-style: […]

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Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve made my own cards. Birthday cards, greeting cards, advent cards… cards for no reason. It’s just fun! This past week I got me a Silhouette Cameo and boy is it awesome! I decided to go for broke and try a pretty intricate little “cuttable” straight out of […]

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A few weeks back, Ivy started talking about “champing”, and neither Joey nor I were sure what she meant. She was quite excited and got frustrated when we made it clear we didn’t understand. Finally she threw her hands in the air and gave us her best 4-going-on-14 eyeroll: “It’s when you take the marshmallows […]

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Ivy became fascinated with learning to snap her fingers when she saw someone (probably her Daddy, who just *does* it sometimes, for no discernable reason) doing it a few months ago. I saw her attempting something weird with her fingers and asked what she was up to. She didn’t know the word for snap so […]

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Every January, folks around the country make New Year’s resolutions, and stick with them for, oh, about 3 weeks. I’m no exception to that, and have done it a time or two. Every year, though, around December, folks think “this next time will be different!” And I’ve done that, too. Well, I have figured out […]

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So, once we got the patio to about 95% done, we could see how much material was left over for another project. Turns out, it was a decent sized pile of left over retainer wall blocks, so my first thought was: landscaping! And sooo, with that in mind, I quickly hatched out a plan for […]

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I’ve grown up very close to trains, from the age of 7 through today. Joey and I even built our wedding around a historic train theme. Mom’s house is across the road from the B&N line, and just behind our current house is one of 2 freight tracks with the other being a couple blocks […]

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That’s right, I did. My first, in fact. It is my firm belief, after the fact, that everyone should experience a fatty at SOME point in their life. A good smoked fatty is a thing to light up the senses. Wait, what? OK, my PR folks have informed me that I should clarify I am […]

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It started with a question almost as soon as we bought the house, 2 years ago: “So… what should we do with that corner or the yard?” So for two years I turned over lots of ideas in my head and in 3D programs. At one point I was drawing up plans for a detached […]

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Saturday morning I woke up for the usual 2:30am uh… pitstop, and went back to sleep as usual. When I woke up “for good” at 7:30, I knew something was off. It wasn’t Ivy’s insistence that “the sun is awake… stop sleeping!” (where is that same kid that sleeps through my work-weekday 6am alarms??). It […]

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