Cutting up.....

 

Well the other day while I was out cutting grass for one of my current customers I was approached by a neighbor. She wanted to know if I would trim her bushes, not wanting to turn down any costumer I agreed. Now time is of the essence, but I could squeeze in some yard manicuring. Here's a couple before and after pic of some of the bushes.

this is actual to rose bushes

Trimmed up and ready for you to smell the roses.

Purple power........

I know at some point in your life you have been exposed to plumbers crack, but have you ever been exposed to painters butt? You have now, this is a less extreme case being you can't even see any crack just underwear's. Momma mandy the photographer was not thrilled with a little crack showing so the drawers were pulled up to make this pic PG.

So what were we up too? Well we were putting a finishing coat on Malias new room. With both parents being off they tagged teamed Malias room daddy on the trim and momma on the roller, it was knocked out in no time. What color you may ask it kinda looks blue in the pics but it's not blue, it's very purple. the paints name is "rocker girl" and the color is purple(of course Malia will not be a rocker girl, just daddy's girl but that's beside the point).

just some last touch ups to do and soon Malia will be moving in. the goal was to be done by the beach trip, and we're well on our way.

Burger or blunder?.........

 

While at work the other day daddy day was hit with a vision, and a great burger idea came into mind. All that was left was to create this burger and get momma Mandy's approval. First we sliced up some spinach and mixed in some spices with the raw hamburger meat.

we then thinly sliced eggplant and salted to draw out excess liquid. Then an egg wash was made along with some Italian bread crumbs. The eggplant was dipped and breaded then fried in a little olive oil. Above we have pictured the eggplant process and the makings of sweet potato fries, you can also see the patted spinach burgers ready for the grill.

here the eggplant is a frying......

After the burgers were cooked on the grill they were brought back inside to be assembled. First I put a spoon full of spaghetti sauce on the meat patty then a sliver of fried eggplant and another spoon full of sauce. Then a handful of mozzarella cheese atop, then it was slid into the oven to melt and reheat.

And here we have the finished product.................I had to wipe the drool of the I-pad............it was delish to say the least, momma Mandy approves( she was skeptic at first). With a side of sweet potato fries and corn cooked in the husk it was a delish dinner to a evening spent with the ladies. If you think about it it was almost like eggplant Parmesan on a bun.

Who let barks out?....

 

During our last trip o the park Malia wanted to walk her buddy Barkley. Being that daddy Dave had just finished running him and it was hot, he was in no mood to resist.

Keeping cool.........

Today momma Mandy, Malia and I went out into the heat to open up our sweat glands(run). With it being so hot out its important to help keep Malia cool. This was accomplished by putting two half frozen water bottles on both sides of the stroller in the inside net pockets. This kept her cool and gave her a cool drink during the ride. Here she is pictured ready for that ride to the park.

In the red........

Well that darned ol Craig's list did it again. While cruising one day I ran across another steal of a deal and picked it up. Here we have an extended hitch platform. This will allow for more cargo space on our up coming trip. Why you may ask why I might need a measly 2 more feet of space when I all ready have a 6 foot bed, well let me break it down for you.

the red indicates lost space and the white is available space. As you can clearly see with the new rack system, and truck box take up needed space. While the hitch extender and ladder rack help make up for lost space. The extra space will be nice for a cooler and other supplies.

 

Power failure...........

 

The other night After enjoying a dilishes dinner of borchst soup, I went to grab the the camera for a quick pic for a future blog when I noticed my cell phone which had a missed call. When I looked at the missed call it was from one of our tenets. It seems that They had lost power in one room of the house, they had plugged a charger into one of the outlets and were met with sparks and a power loss. Being the land lord it was my dutie to head on over and take a look and resolve the problem. i Hoped it was just a flipped breaker(which has betheir a past case), but this was not the problem. After some inspecting and removing the outlet in question I discovered that the outlet had overloaded and popped, like a fuse. Not having a extra outlet on hand I removed the damaged outlet and completed the electrical sercuit, giving power back to that room of the house. Next move I have to make a trip to that home improvement store and pick up a replacement outlet, and a couple extras to have on hand. I wish all rental calls were as simple as this one. If I had to call an electrician he would have been laughing all the way to the bank, easy money.

 

Missing puzzle piece.....

Here we have a pic of a side table which has its home in the living room and sits comfortably beside the couch. Why the pic you may ask? Well if you take a closer look at the feet of the table you will notice a couple missing pieces to a puzzle. One of Malia's toy puzzles matter of fact, why are these stuck under the table legs? well this old house on lenmore is exactly that, an old house and not everything is level, square or perfect to say the least. In the living room the floor is not level and if the tables legs are not raised in the front the drawers slide out. Sense this table is not equipped with adjustable legs this is necessary in order for daddy Dave to keep a "LEVEL" head.

Reaching new heights.......

 

Well lately Malia has been reaching new heights. The. Other morning I was doing some business duties and heard some ruckus in the kitchen. When I arrived on the seen malia was mixing up some barkly stew. She was scooping with an icecream scooper and stirring with a wisk

 

Here's is a pic of Malias stash of kitchen supplies. Daddy Dave's next project kid locks on the drawers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atop........

 

So who's really walking in the park, here Malia is perched atop daddy Dave's shoulders. She was taking a break from walking herself. what better place than atop daddy's shoulders, relaxing and a view.

 

Style past or present?......

 

Here's your first look at a new fad for 2012. Do away with thoses skinny jeans, forget that dark eye liner now all you need to be cool is the newest and latest crazy..........not one.......not two........but three rat tails. They say fads repeat themselves so maybe this one is on the rotation.

 

She got it.........

 

Yep Malia got the first tomatoe out of the garden. Here she is enjoying it, she loves tomatoes it wasn't enough to share but momma mandy and daddy Dave can wait untill the next one is ready. You can also view what momma Mandy's been up to with nesting at http://mommamandyaa.blogspot.com/

 

Ladder rack con.......

 

Well after the paint had dried it was time to install. After removing the truck box and all the hardware which was added to aid in securing loads, the ladder racks were attached. All though the rack system had a drill free mounting system daddy Dave still had to pre drill some holes for the truck box.

here we have some mods that were made to the cargo tie down system. I had to cut notches in the side supports in order to clear the new brackets on the ladder rack system.

here you can see the cut out notches and there intended purpose.

Here's a finished look of the inside of the truck bed. The tool box reinstalled and the cargo tie down system back in place.

and here we have the ladder rack ready for business. But how did momma Mandy's back get so dirty(last post). Well when daddy Dave was reattaching the tool box he needed a smaller thinner hand to slide a bolt into place, and Mandy's arm was just right....so she laid on her back in order to get the job done.....thanks Mandy .....team player.

Rack it up....

How did momma Mandy's shirt get so dirty.....well this this is actually because of daddy Dave and the root of all evil known as Craig's list.......so I will begin at the beginning.

I was a cruising ol Craig's list when I stumbled across this well priced aluminum ladder rack. Being we are taking a trip to the beach and this would come in handy along with working on property's. It was well used and a little faded but have no fear a can of spray paint is near

here we have a inside look of daddy Dave's paint shop, here the ladder supports have been sanded hung and painted, Now it's dry time. Stay tuned for more ladder rack fiasco.......

 

Short cake........

 

Here's a quick pic of Malia enjoying some strawberry short cake which daddy Dave had made for momma Mandy's mothers day dinner desert. She did enjoy it, but the strawberry glaze did stain her face and hands! The Strawberrys had started to slide down the Sides of the cake but this did not affect the flavor.

 

Mothers day........

 

I just want to wish a happy mothers day to all the mothers out there, including my own. Happy mothers day mom we love ya.

 

Got food?

 

Well tonight I was in a blur trying to get all my closing duties done. It being the Saturday before mothers day it was busyier than normal. With no floriest on hand I found myself quiet frequently doing floral duties! Making corsages wrapping roses and the sort, on top of all the normal produce duties. While I was cleaning up in the back I just so happened to look up and see a costumer walk out the door with a buggy full of Non bagged groceries. Did my eyes deceive me.....no...but wait. Soon after a female follows walking out the door with a buggy full of groceries too. I could take it no longer I jogged to the front of the store just as the female was passing through the sliding doors. Then I said it.....something I've always wanted to say when Ive caught a thief in the act....."excuse me, do you need some help?" I saw the lady hesitate but kept walking so I said it again..."miss do you need some help?".........she knew she was caught and their parked vehicle was too far to make a run for it. She turn and said..."na I got it"......the man who had walked out before her was just in front and he stopped abruptly and came back towards us, stopping beside the lady. I said...." we'll if I can't help you then I'm gonna need you to push these buggies back in". The man paused and looked at me now he started to pled with me. "let me slide man....let me slide" I said "sorry man I can't I'm gonna need those buggies". He said " come on man, I ain't got no food". I then scan the buggies, they are piled high with meat galore, beer, soda and more meat. Non essential items nothing that someone starving needs, I say "sorry man I can't all I can do is let you get out of here" not that I could have actual did anything anyway. If they would have kept walking I couldn't have followed them into the parking lot due to polices and procedures. They hesitantly look around and make a bee line for their car. As I push and pull the two loaded buggies back into the store my heart is pumping. The total dollar amount is still unknown as of now but was a easy $500 but probably closer to $700 easy. I don't know if there's anything that gets my goat like a thief, but at least for tonight its two disappointed thief's.

 

The end?..........

 

Is it the end?.......Book end that is............Malia loves to crawl on and in things just turn your back and it's on. She wouldn't make the best book end though takes up to much space.

 

Easter revisited.......

Well I guess the old Easter bunny couldn't resist himself and decided to come out and romp around and play. Dave snapped this rare pic of the Easter bunny out in the flower bed. Ya know if you take him out of the box he's not worth as much.To bad it was a little hot out and he melted like frosty the snow man. I wonder if in the off season they hangout together? If they both had came out to day they would have made a chocolate frosty. Ol daddy Dave came across this chocolate delight while cleaning out the trunk of the car. Mmmmmmmm chocolate pudding.

 

Crib be gone.........

 

Here we have Malia showing off her big girl bed, we removed the crib which was just there more for comfort.

She has taken well to her new bed. Here she's tucked in snuggled like a bug in a rug. Did ya notice Elmo?

Watching mud dry........

Alas it's time to keep moving forward with Malias new bedroom. Here is a pic of new trim work in place and some filler applied. an attempt to blend drywall with plaster, one more coat to go and the let the sanding begin. This is the where the old closet used to be before the remodel of the bathroom.

And of course the closet, all the trim up and muddled awaiting drying and sanding. Afterwards a primer coat and let the choosing of the rooms color begin, it's not as if momma mandy doesn't already have a color in mind.

 

Relaxing.......

 

This is a typical Malia pose.......I wonder which parent she got it from..possible her pops?

here Malia is Holding on atop the slide.......

A backwards slide what's a show off..........

Bring a friend..........

 

It seems that word of our well stocked bird feeder has traveled throughout the neighborhood and surrounding woods. This morning I was doing the usual morning ritual coffee and cereal and I looked up to see two squirrels enjoying breakfast also. #2 varmint was hanging upside down from the bird feeder and the other was awaiting his turn atop the arm which supports the feeder. I wonder how hard it is to swallow upside down? I do like to surprise them so me and Malia quietly unlocked the door and opened very quickly and surprised them, with there mouths full........those are some fast varmints. It took the one hanging upside down a minute to situate himself....... I didn't find out how hard it was to swallow upside down but I found out its not hard to pass a #2 while hanging upside down. If he had on pants they would have had a load, Surprise surprise.

 

Itsy bitsy ?..........

 

Here we have all the makings to a good morning start...a fresh pot of coffee, sugar, creamer, cereal and a spider.......whaaaaaaaaaaaat.....A spider? Can you spot the itsy bitsy spider crawling in the kitchen? Well in person it wasn't so itsy bitsy it was more like bigey hugey spider.

Well a spider this big can't be left to hang around........haha....."hang" around........the house. Well little miss muffit can sit on her muffit and eat her curds and weigh, cause this spider has mysteriously disappeared.

 

Wheres the heat?.........

What's this you may ask new decor? Is this a new bathroom style? To achieve this look you first need a couple things first a broken dyer, a load of newly washed cloth dipers and shower curtain rod. See we had all of the nessary items and the need to dry dipers before they got the funk.

 

So on to the root of the problem, the dryer was working but it was creating a strong burning smell so momma mandy cut it off, unplugged it and waited for daddy Dave to get off work(smart lady). After some inspecting ol davydoo decided he needed to clean the dryer venting system as a precaution. Dryer fires are a leading cause of home fires, you would never suspect the build up of lent in the dryer could destroy your home. You can clean this yourself though. After a quick trip to the home improvement store and a couple of brushes, daddy Dave was ready for business. First the hand held brush took care of the interior dryer vent.

and then the powered dryer tubing cleaner was taken for a spin.....Haha get it spin......anyways.....after a little vacuuming needed to cleanup the dryer was cut on to blow out any remaining lent. The next load in the dryer, came out as dry as a bag of flour in the Sahara desert. Keep on keeping on DIY'ers

Ear towards the wind.....

 

Barkly is finally at home......here in the new truck he can ride with the rest of the Anderson clan. Before there was no room in the truck and the car has leather and his paws may do irreplaceable damage. Man he sure does love to ride with his head out the window he always get super excited.

Malia loves the company in the backseat, occasionally she gets a passing by lick.