mikesusz

chilly northwest

so, here in the Pacific Northwest (or “PNW”), at least on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, we’re used to moderate temperatures. this is all thanks to the enormous body of water that most of our weather travels over before arriving here.

this weekend shifted to a pattern from the north/northwest instead of the west/southwest — which means the air comes from a much colder place. last night we dipped into the 20’s, and are looking at the same for tonight. our average lows for this time of year are around 40 degrees. (yes, this is all fahrenheit).

so, we’re bundling up and keeping the woodstove going at night. and wishing (at least i am) that i’d gotten more done outside when the weather was nicer. oh well.

parents: dress the kids up as something warm — an eskimo, perhaps, or even the michelin man? otherwise they might come back from trick-or-treating tomorrow looking like popsicles.

new building, new desk. awesome!

so, as i sit here at work, supporting a software deploy, i’m compelled to blog about my new office space. my team just moved to a new building (and by new, i mean brand new). 39th floor. it’s absolutely amazing.

read on for more details and pictures, but here’s a teaser — this is the view as i approach my cube.

Buffalo gets hammered

and not in a good way, like when we were there for the Buffalo Brew Festival. several feet of snow have fallen (in mid october!)

my brother is hooking up a generator for my parents right now, as they’ve been without electricity for 2 days.

here’s the story at the buffalo news: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061014/1042271.asp

the dahlias continue to bloom.

yes, it’s the middle of october. but some of our late Dahlias are just getting started! let’s hope they all bloom before we get out first frost.

sadly, some of them succumbed to their own success — we had some heavy rain, and the blooms were so big, and collected so much water, that it toppled the stems. but most of them did well. next year, we hope to make them bloom a little earlier, so we’re not going so late into the season and risking bad weather at the end of the season.

all hands on deck!

yep, that was our weekend. work on the deck.

i have to say, fixing a deck, restoring, refinishing, replacing bad parts, etc. takes a heck of a lot longer than actually building one.

about halfway through this project, i stopped and thought to myself…. wouldn’t a nice patio look better in this place? heh.

but today we got major carpentry and staining/preserving done. all we have left is installing the lattice, and making the “gate” for the “loading dock” end. but i can build that in the shop, so good weather isn’t particularly necessary.

also, last weekend – we moved a ton of gravel. yeah, literally. (why did the stone yard load 2600lbs of gravel into a 1/2 ton truck?) but the front walkway was re-set into gravel (instead of sand) and now it feels rock-solid.

of course, all of this is useless without pictures. will try and get some this week after work. and we still have dahlias blooming, which is crazy. i hope they flower before the first frost hits.

back in town

no posts in a while, but we’ve got good reason. we were out of town for a week, went back to Buffalo, NY to celebrate my stepfather’s birthday, and attend the Buffalo Brew Fest.

it was awesome. read on for details and wistful yadda yadda. gosh i miss the east coast. and did i mention, nobody knew we were coming?

projects, projects, projects.

why no update in so long?

see the title, it says it all. we’re elbows deep in summer projects on the house. currently happening simultaneously: exterior paint. refinishing deck. continued landscaping upgrades/maintenance. we have to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

the weather has gotten more cooperative, for the most part. as long as it stays dry until we re-install the gutters, i’ll be happy. (and so will the gutters – they’ll actually be functional once we re-install them correctly!)

i could drone on and on but instead i’ll choose to wait until tonight, to take and post more pictures of the front yard. the dahlias are blooming!

meet: julie

well, it had to happen eventually, right?

in raising over 200 foster kittens, we’d only adopted 3 kittens. here’s #4 that we couldn’t pass up. her name is julie.

guess what i did this weekend?

can you guess what i did this weekend?

i can't stop the world

the goo goo dolls, on the ipod, who i’m seeing perform with the counting crows tonight at white river amphitheatre in auburn, wa. looking forward to it – these two bands have been guilty pleasures of mine for a while. so what’s been going on?