My lovely new stairs

Just have a look. Cutting those stringers took far too long, and I need to find some shims for the center stringer, which hangs 1/8 of an inch too low.

I started ripping out the old stairwell, and opened up the original rear exit. The cinder block wall will come out only after I've re-framed those doors and found or built replacements. (I wish I could salvage, but they're ready to disintegrate.)

So, new stairs:
Back wall:And the remnants of the old stairs:

New post

The trouble with delaying these updates is that the news and random thoughts just pile up, and it gets more daunting the longer you wait. However, since there are several folks who have not updated their blogs yet, and I need a high-horse from which to scold, here we go. (I refer here to a certain big sister, and best friend, who have mastered their guilt and continue through life with stale blog postings for months at a time.)

So much. Alexe is now 19 weeks pregnant. The 20th of this month we are going to find out if we have a boy or girl. We have no idea, and our preference seems to shift from week to week. I'm looking forward to the transition from "my sweetie has a little pooch belly and is acting funny" to "oh my Lord, we're having a child". Should be a hoot.

I've been away from my building project for two weeks while making a trip to Vegas for work, and then a working vacation to the NC coast with Alexe's family.

Vegas is loud and bright, and working a conference is super-draining. The kind of days when you fall into bed with a sore face from on the talking and smiling, laughing, and generally using up vast reserves of "pleasant Kagan". Nicholas came out for a short visit (in a cute little rented Prius, we had fun watching the batteries charge as we drove along), and we had a wonderful time first catching up, a necessity for a best friend I see once or twice a year if I'm lucky, and then we went out to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. We swam in the lake, beautiful fresh water, and then went and took a peak at the dam. Amazing. Can't say much more about it without pictures, which are trapped in my cell phone.
Oh, and it was 112 degrees in the desert.

A pleasant red eye flight back to Memphis, a 5 am arrival I will never repeat, had me back at work for two days before Alexe and I piled into the car with Dido and Shadow and headed East for 1010 miles to Join Alexe's extended maternal side of the family for a week at the beach. (I worked while there to preserve vacation for paternity leave, not the most moral building location for that sort of thing.) The rented house the 9 of us stayed in was 3.5 miles down a beach of very soft and shifting sand, a novelty that wears off surprisingly quickly and becomes stressful as all get out. Local tow trucks have a field day charging $250 to get folks going again. The mother in law and her sisters went three days before combusting, and then it was a waiting game until Sat morning when we started our 1010 mile trek home.

2 things:
1)Alexe is so much fun in a bikini at the beach. Strutting and dancing with her belly pushed out, and playing in the waves with me without moving her legs too much because she's convinced they will look like baby seals to the sharks.
2)We miss Trader Joe's. Stopped at the nearest one to our house on the way back home, in Atlanta, and packed the car so full that Shadow was surrounded in the back seat by cascading piles of Pirate's Booty, and Dido was "stuck" on my lap.

The new stairs in our building are almost done, which is very exciting. This week is the Watermelon Carnival in Water Valley, and we're looking forward to the street dance tonight.

I'm sure there's more, but I've officially posted so slackers beware.

Week 16

I was just strongly corrected when I asked "Week 14?"

My darling bride is sitting across the room knitting a vest for the impending toddler. (She's been talking about toddlers recently.) I'm back from a night at the building, where I discovered I can't figure out the sine of an angle without a calculator, and square roots of numbers in the tens of thousands don't pop into my mind the way they used to. I spent the whole evening figuring out the proper cuts for the stringers of my new stair case, and only cut one. It fits though, I installed it to make sure, and pulled it back out to use as a guide.

The most recent picture of the growing belly, 16 weeks, baby the size of an avocado.

Kagan's Fishin' Trip

A pleasant interlude from the building project.

I was invited to be the 14th person on a fishing trip over the weekend. I am easily 30 years younger than the median age of the party, a group of good old Mississippi boys that have been taking this particular trip for 37 years, but needed a body to fill out this particular trip. The logistics of the trip: a large boat, with sleeping cabins for all, heads out into the Gulf of Mexico. On top of this boat are 7 small skiffs, which are lowered into the water by cranes after the big boat moors at the fishing destination, and pairs of guys, plus fishing gear and a cooler of beverages, leave the mother ship for fishing adventures, returning for meals, showers, more beverages, and to sleep.

On Thursday I left with the two local Water Valley guys I was invited by, and we were in GulfPort, MS, loading our gear on the boat by 7 that evening, along with the rest of the crowd who had come from as far as Colorado. (The group all went to high school together, or some such thing, and have spread out over the years, but still come together for this trip.) That's the premise. For the next 3 days I slept very little, caught some fish, watched amazing amounts of alcohol processed by suffering livers, toasted under a bright sun, and had a generally hot, odd, and fun time.

We were fishing for speckled trout and red fish. I caught far more "junk" fish than the keepers, but these turned out to be far more fun to fight on the line. Most of these fish were under 3 pounds to give you perspective; we did catch one 3 lb 14 oz trout. Most of the water, as we were fishing off the Chandeleur Island, was approx. waist deep.

On to the pictures.
I'm not going to order them, because as I uploaded these they got all mixed up.

My fishing partner Cliff.
A fun story. Standing waist deep in water with the boat clipped to my belt so it wouldn't drift away, Cliff and I were catching lady fish by the dozens and releasing them. He said, "there's probably a bit of blood in the water now, and there are sharks around here." I turned my head, saw a fin, said "fin", we hopped our butts back into the boat, and I started reeling in the fish I already had on the line. There was a massive boiling of water not too far from where we had been standing, and I reeled in this fish head.
A rookery for Frigat (sp?) birds. Very neat, and large, birds.
A cat fish. Both Cliff and I were surprised to find these live in salt water.
Fishing off a sand bar.
We got stuck in some shallows. I started paddling (see below) and ended up having to tow us out.
Sorry I didn't rotate these folks. This picture is proof working on the building is putting me back in shape.
The second morning. Yes, we started fishing before first light. I was tired, and not so sure this was where I wanted to be.
This was Mason Island, much smaller since Katrina hit it.
Fishing off the tip of Mason Island.
Dolphins in the water. Fun to watch, they scared off the fish. We saw lots of interesting wildlife, sharks and many kind of fish, tons of birds, crabs swimming by.
It rained for 5 minutes the first morning, then was blue skies and scorching hot for the next three days.
Cliff, with a big trout.
Me the first morning, headed out after breakfast. Being the first morning, we didn't have our routine down so the sun was above the horizon when we set out. Just barely though.
The mother boat. Notice what is lining the side of the boat: cases of beer. The hard stuff was inside. After my first two beers, I admitted to myself and the fellas that I really don't like beer, and enjoyed my ginger ale, water, and root beer. I got a little crap for bringing little bottles of Pellegrino, but when they said bringing coolers full of cold beverages to go fishing, I brought fun things I liked.
And that's that. Alexe is counting to 120 for me to be done with this super long post.

Alexe's sister was visiting while I was away, which was great for her. Thanks 'Liza.

And would you believe it, (those of you who know my darling wife won't have trouble) she finished counting to 120 (I told her to give me two minutes), pushed me out of my seat, sat down to read this entry, and said, "you really need to sum up; it's not very good without a summary." Aaargh !!

So I had a fascinating exposure to salt water fishing, 60-70 yr old conservative southern boy bonding, sleep deprivation, and the burning sun over the Gulf. Great lessons learned, stories added to the library, and crispy skin left int he shower.

Two interesting things:
1) Everyone has said it, but I'll add my experience. Katrina devastated that area. I was standing on a dock made of concrete. The end of that dock was a twisted mess of rebar and giant slabs of the same concrete. We drove by a lovely grove of live oaks, huge trees I couldn't fit my arms around if they were twice as long. The tops were still bare, the middle sections just struggling to get some green out. They were still beautiful, and I commented on what a lovely grove it was, so close to the beach. I was told that it used to be a neighborhood, complete with huge Victorian homes over 100 years old. There was not a trace of them left, just the trees and what turned out to be new scrub brush coming up between them.

2) One night the conversation turned to politics. This crowd ripped George a new hole, cursing his ineptitude, intelligence (lack of), war-hunger, and general effect on America. They were in agreement that we went into Iraq for oil and money, and it was a terrible move. These folks are as conservative as they get, and all voted for the president. I had no idea the country was coming together so much. (Also, these guys admitted they voted for W because they all felt guilty for letting his father down when clinton unseated him. Never thought about it from that angle.)

The promised pictures

I've been a bit slow in posting pictures of my pet project. Largely because, though I'm making huge leaps and strides, it doesn't show up well on camera. And I'm tired of telling people how impressed they should be.

The short, after filling the first dumpster single handedly, I've decided to hire a teenager to do some of the heavy lifting. All the walls, rooms, and 1/2 floors have been removed on the first level. As soon as I build the replacement stairs to the second floor, the originals will be pulled, and the second set of rear doors will be opened up again.

Most of the wiring, which was a scary mess, has been ripped out. After finding a live, old wire under the carpet, I stripped everything out of the breaker box except the lights and work sockets I need for now.

But first, the most important progress:
Amazing, isn't it? 12 weeks.

mmkay, on to the building: View from the front right corner.
View from the front left hand corner.

And the pile of materials I'm left with after ripping out all the unwanted walls and platforms. I could build a house out of the surplus dimensioned lumber and plywood I've got, just from the first floor, but it's riddled with nails right now. Another wonderful task for the teenager. (I tried getting Alexe to help, it didn't work out.)

The back stairwell to the second floor, mentioned above. I plan to remove this, as soon as I build the replacements. Notice the double doors trapped behind the stairs. These were sealed on the outside by a cinder-block wall, and on the inside by these stairs. All soon to change.
These are all large pictures, click on them to zoom in.
Have a great week.

Lots to show and tell.

But right now, I have no pictures handy, so I'll simply tell.

#1. We're having a baby. Due Dec. 28th, or thereabouts.
#2. We had a wonderful time at our cabin in VT. Final floor installed, wood stove installed, porch roof complete. And Harry put in a pond for us.
#3. Lots of progress on the building.
#4. We have been eating tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, basil, and turnips from our garden for weeks now.

Pictures of all of these wonderful topics will follow soon.

2 weeks later

Apologies for the delay.
I've been pre-occupied.
It took a while of aimless ripping and tearing, but I've realized I'm simply clearing my canvas before I can start to create. Lots of sweat and fun, and a young wife who is relieved to learn that I want to play, and don't demand anything from her but occasional company and chattering.

Lots of pictures follow, or lead, depending on how this uploading works out.

(The dumpster arrived on Thursday, which helped clear a lot of the piles out.)