Veritas99

Nats game

2008-05-25T16:27:00.000-04:00

I thought about live blogging the Nats game today, but I wouldn't want to subject everyone else to this level of boredom. Especially since you also don't get the experience the ridiculously overpriced food.

Kitchen Remodel - The Finale

2008-03-03T22:09:00.009-05:00

Alright, the painters are done and the kitchen is effectively complete. (We still have someone coming by to fix the minor things from our walk though, but let's ignore that fact).

As a reminder of where we started, I've set it up as somewhat of a before & after:

Original view from family room

View from former family room

Original kitchen workspace

New kitchen workspace (complete with cat)

More workspace (also with cat)

View from original kitchen

View from across new kitchen

View from dining room

Kitchen Remodel - Painting Day 1

2008-03-01T20:09:00.006-05:00

I have been informed that it is not acceptable to wait until Monday and that I must post pictures of today's progress. Without further ado, here's the kitchen somewhere between the first and second coats.

View from former family room

Space between fridge and pantry

Close up of painted wall next to tile

Kitchen Remodel - The Interlude

2008-03-01T18:46:00.007-05:00

I had hoped to be posting the final kitchen pictures tonight, but the painters need a second day to finish.

While we're waiting for them to finish on Monday, here's a before & after shot of our basement bathroom. After hiring people to fix the walls and put in new tile, my father and I tried to install the rest of the bathroom. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the adapter we needed for the sink drain and efforts to bring in a plumber were derailed after one attempt. With all types of handy people around for the kitchen, we managed to get the kitchen plumber to finish the installation on Friday.

Original Bathroom (missing from photo: nasty vinyl tile & huge hole from medicine cabinet)

Updated Bathroom

Kitchen Remodel - Update

2008-02-26T08:47:00.007-05:00

The painters are coming this weekend and we have a final walk through to clean up the little things, but the remodel is effectively over.

I'm going to hold off posting any more pictures until Saturday night or Sunday after the painting is done. Check back then for final pictures of the completed kitchen.

After that, posting and viewership of this blog can return to normal. In other words, I'll go back to infrequently posting unfunny things that nobody will read.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 15

2008-02-23T00:22:00.006-05:00

We've reached the three week mark in the remodeling project. The delay on the backsplash prevented us from finishing on the original schedule, but only by a day. The tile is now laid, but they have to wait until Monday to fill in the grout.

We have someone coming in tomorrow for an estimate to paint the walls and ceiling. I'm hopeful that we'll have the painting done within a week, but I'm not optimistic. It's been months and we still need to hire a plumber to come out and finish our last project (the basement bathroom).

Backsplash by fridge

Backsplash by wine rack

Backsplash by stove & microwave

Looking across the island

View from the other side of the island

Kitchen Remodel - Day 14

2008-02-21T21:49:00.004-05:00

Although we've clearly entered the homestrech of the remodel, the backsplash is slowing things down considerably. The person we talked to yesterday went home sick, and the guy who came in today did not finish much. I'm guessing we spill over to Monday at this point.

View of today's progress

Close up of backsplash

Plenty of supplies

Comforting shot of wet saw on top of new glass-top stove

Kitchen Remodel - Day 13

2008-02-20T20:56:00.008-05:00

Despite spending time this morning explaining the pattern to someone, they didn't actually put in the backsplash today. Not really sure what the deal was with that, but at least all the appliances are now in and working. The electrician also finished all the lights, including those under the cabinets, as well all outlets not effected by the lack of backsplash. Several of the minor issues we had pointed out this morning were also cleaned up (missing screw, new threshold, door stop, etc). Not sure of the timing on the remaining items, but there can't be much left at this point.

View from former family room

Close up of island & sink. Dishwasher is the far panel in the island.

Stove & microwave (and cheap radio)

Refrigerator and cabinets

Kitchen Remodel - Day 12

2008-02-19T21:52:00.009-05:00

Apparently kitchen remodelers and lawyers treat President's Day differently, with one group getting the day off and the other working...I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which group is which.

They were back to work today, however, installing the silestone. The appliances were moved into the kitchen, but not actually installed. The combination makes the room feel much smaller than it is. Also, today's pictures don't do a good job of reflecting the color of the counters. It's a little lighter than what the sample seemed to suggest, but not as light as it appears in the pictures. Once the appliances and some black accessories are added, it should seem darker.

The plumber & electrician are coming tomorrow to finish installing the appliances and under-cabinet lights. The backsplash is also getting installed tomorrow. After that, we should be done except for some minor details.

View from old family room

Opposite view

View of the Island & Table

Another shot of the Island

Sink with holes for faucet and soap dispenser

Closeup of counter, cabinets and dusty stove

Kitchen Remodel - Day 10

2008-02-15T23:05:00.011-05:00

We're two full weeks into the project and things are really coming together. Here are pictures that will look just like yesterday, except to the die hard followers of this remodel who can now see the grout. Also, the island table was removed for the tile installation, but will be attached to the rest of island on Tuesday.

View from former family room

Spot for the fridge

Closeup of tile & grout

Fully paneled dishwasher just waiting to be installed

Kitchen Remodel - Day 9

2008-02-14T21:45:00.011-05:00

After the minor setback yesterday, we're back on track. The floor went in today, with the grout getting applied tomorrow. Nothing is set to happen after that until Tuesday when the countertops go in.

We weren't allowed to walk on the floors tonight so the pictures are somewhat limited.

View from the Dining Room

View from the hallway

Closeup of Tile

Closeup of hardware

Apparently refrigerators also go well in the living room

Kitchen Remodel - Day 8

2008-02-13T21:54:00.003-05:00

We had our first real setback today. Because of freezing rain this morning, the tile guys had no place to cut the tile and couldn't put in the floor. Fortunately, tomorrow's forecast is for sun, which means the floor can be set tomorrow and grout applied on Friday.

Given that all the other work is on hold until the countertops arrive on Tuesday, this won't throw the overall schedule off, but does make it so there are no new photos to share (sorry Christine).

Kitchen Remodel - Day 6

2008-02-11T22:13:00.000-05:00

Once again, they're back to minor, but important, details that don't warrant new photos. Today they finished the trim work on the cabinets and put on the door pulls. More exciting than today's progress is the overall schedule, which is on pace to finish in less than 15 working days.

Here's the remaining line-up of projects:

Tuesday - Measure for Silestone
Wednesday - Tile guy arrives and puts in the floor
Thursday - Tile guy grouts and finishes the floor
Friday - Finishing touches on wood work
Monday - Likely off
Tuesday - Countertops installed
Wednesday - Backsplash installed, appliances installed
Thursday - Final details
Friday - Done!!!

Kitchen Remodel - Day 5

2008-02-08T23:46:00.001-05:00

What a difference a few days can make. When I left on a business trip Wednesday, the space was empty and they were just putting in the lights. Now, all the cabinets are installed and there's an island. The only significant screw-up so far was that the island table showed up with damaged table legs and had to be sent back, thus the plywood mockup in the photos.

Cabinets & Island (with faux table)

Pantry and cut-out for fridge

Cabinets on other side of fridge

Custom cabinet to hide pipes and house TV

Kitchen Remodel - Day 4

2008-02-07T21:50:00.000-05:00

Apparently it doesn't take very long to get things inspected in Arlington. Courtesy of the wife, here are the most recent photos of the remodel.

Island & Cabinets over stove

Close up of Wall Cabinets

Part of Island & Pantry

Pantry (much better here than in the living room)

Kitchen Remodel: The Slow Days

2008-02-06T08:43:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to post much for the next few days because they're doing the "behind the scenes" electrical and plumbing work that isn't very obvious. Well, that and the fact I can't take any pictures because they took out all the lights to install the new recessed lighting.

After the electrical work is done, we have to wait for the inspector to approve it before anything else happens.

Kitchen Remodel: Day 1

2008-02-04T19:15:00.000-05:00

Or as I like to think of it..."How much damage can 4 guys with crowbars do in 8 hours?"

The answer is readily apparent in the following photos: a whole lot.

Main Kitchen Area

Pretty sure there used to be a wall there

Yep, definitely no more wall

It's most likely in the truck-full of trash

Worry not, those pipes will be covered again

Probably with one of these cabinets

Pantries go well in living rooms

Pre-Remodel Photos

2008-02-04T00:36:00.000-05:00

With the workers showing up at 7:30 AM, it's too late to be witty (assuming I ever am). Here are some shots of the kitchen as it looked tonight. If you can't tell why we're remodeling, just look closer.

Main Kitchen Area

Refrigerator Without a Freezer

Disgusting Painted Ceiling Wallpaper

Alleged "Family Room" set to become part of new kitchen

Been Awhile...Now It's Kitchen Time!

2008-02-02T15:15:00.000-05:00

So I haven't posted much at all, despite figuring out how to do so via the Blackberry surgically attached to me. For at least the next month, this will change.

On Monday, February 4th, we start a kitchen remodel some 10 months in the making (even longer if you count the fact we knew we'd need to remodel when we bought the place in 2006). We signed the contract with Cameo Kitchens back in April of 2007, but the first available slot wasn't until February 2008. As you can imagine, it's difficult to wait that long and we're excited to finally get started.

Anyway, my plan is to post pictures of the progress on a fairly regular basis for the 3 people that might actually want to following along. Tomorrow I'll post some shots of the empty, 70s-tastic disaster that prompted the remodel. Surprisingly, we're not going to keep the mustard colored appliances and painted ceiling wallpaper scheme in the new design.

Quasi-Music Related Post

2007-11-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

I wanted to throw this video up on the blog, mostly so I could easily find and watch it later, but to also highlight a good song and a great trend. It seems more and more artists are putting official videos for their songs on YouTube or MySpace. These official videos are so much better than when people try to film the video off their TV or at a concert with their cell phone.

Foo Fighters -- Pretender:

The big music news, of course, is that Led Zepplin is finally releasing its entire collection online via iTunes. A mere $100 will get you the digital versions of all that great 70s rock.

Although they've been out for a year or so, fans of Zepplin should also check out
Wolfmother. Hands down the only new rock band worth listening to.

posting out of boredom, not a good thing

2007-11-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

I warned about how I just discovered I could post via blackberry. So now you will get an unentertaining post from the mall while I wait for my wife to pick out overpriced Christmas decorations.

I really never question Christmas purchases because it's her favorite time of year and I tend to spend too much on random stuff throughout the year anyway. In fact I'm typing this post from my new blackberry.

Well, it looks like, after 25 minutes, we have finally found the appropriately sized candles for the centerpieces she picked out.

May your holiday shopping be merry (and done online)

Update: After all the effort to locate suitable candles, an all too frequent event occurred - my wife decided it was too expensive and we left empty handed. The quest for holiday decorations continues.

one more reason to be addicted to my crackberry

2007-10-19T08:52:00.000-04:00

I'm attempting to post from my blackberry.

I'm not sure if this will work, but if it does, I may actually post more than once a quarter.

Consider that more of a warning than a promise.

Inane Song, Take 2

2007-04-02T22:49:00.000-04:00

Some of you might be familiar with the group known as the Black Eyed Peas, or the recent solo efforts of their female band mate, Sarah Ferguson (aka "Fergie").

I'd like to take you way back to 2005, when this unintelligible song rose to #3 on the Billboard charts:

(Seriously, who buys this crap).

Anyway, flash forward to today. It appears that Alanis Morrisette has done her best Weird Al impersonation and mockingly covered "My Humps." No further words are needed, so I'll just leave you with this glorious YouTube clip:

How much for your soul?

2007-02-18T23:33:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not offering a Faustian bargain with anyone.

It's a question perhaps better phrased as: How much money is my personal time worth?

I find that it tends to come up most when I or my fellow attorneys realize that we have again foregone the normal weekend activities for work or disappointed friends by canceling plans (or to a lesser extent, when we consistently fail to depart the office before President Bush falls asleep next door).

Young professionals frequently work long hours as they strive to define and differentiate themselves at their workplace, and there's nothing wrong with that, per se. The question is always: are the sacrifices I'm making now worth what I am getting (or expect to get) in return. When they aren't worth it, you owe it to yourself to think about another career path.

But, the debate has become thornier recently, as law firm salaries have gone up again this year. This bump, in addition to the annual lockstep raise based on years at the firm, only serves to tighten the "golden handcuffs" and further exacerbate the dilemma.

Making so much money at a relatively young age distorts the rational balancing of home, life, and work. In the end, who knows the right balance. All I know is that I need some sleep.

Night,
Veritas99

'Tis The Season

2006-12-12T23:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays!

My gift to you is what can only be described as the single best rendition of "O Holy Night" in the history of man (even if the video is a little choppy).

May you get presents and enjoy the Christmas trees and pie.

For those procrastinating men out there, here is a gift idea for your significant other, courtesy of the first funny SNL skit in years.

Fantasy Season Wrap-Up In Two Words: I Sucked.

2006-12-05T01:38:00.000-05:00

Not that anyone cares about someone else's fantasy football league (or kids, pets, etc for that matter), but my performance was so poor that I feel compelled to prevent others from screwing up as bad as I did.

Somehow, watching football every Sunday for the whole of my existence was not sufficient to stave off crushing defeat. As you can see below, I managed to come in dead last out of 10 teams.

The Basement

I'd blame it on my fantasy inexperience, but as it was the first time for the guy with the number 3 team as well, I think the real problem was me. I never got anything going in the first half of the season, and, like I was fearful of before, the lack of depth at RB ultimately killed me.

Solid advice for next season: Focus on getting the best 2 running backs, then a QB or WR, the best WR left (or a third RB if a decent starter is left) and then worry about a second QB or defense. Without fail, there is always a decent QB, WR, or defense floating around as a free agent by week two.

Now I only have 8 months or so to wait to see if this approach works out better. Of course, at the rate I post, this may be only 2 or 3 posts from now.

Umm, yeah...so I was supposed to update this thing like a month ago

2006-11-29T22:10:00.000-05:00

Trial ended in October and I immediately found myself with an abundance of free time. Rather than update for the three people who occasionally read this nonsense, I chose to ignore my blogging duties and pursue loftier goals such as watching hour upon hour of shows Tivo'd while I was away.

[NOTE: Remind me to spoil the plot for just about every episode of SciFi's Eureka sometime. Here's a hint, the "outsider" sheriff doesn't understand the high tech catastrophe caused by resident genius, but then somehow comes up with simple solution just in time for credits.]

Setting aside my burgeoning TV critic career, the real highlight of this update is that we adopted a second cat over Thanksgiving.

World, meet Smacky. Smacky, meet world.

Lest you think from his name that I beat my pets, our cats are named after the Get Fuzzy comic strip by Darby Conley. Smacky gets his name from the toy bear carried around by Bucky, the Garfield-esque cat in the comic. For those that care, our other cat got off easy and is simply named Fuzzy. It's not like it really matters with cats anyway, they aren't going to come no matter what you call them.

Gotta run, but I'll leave you with another sweet song from a commercial that everyone should check out. Here's Mad World by Michael Andrews with vocals by Gary Jules

This song was originally done by Tears For Fears (they of puffy hair, 80's fame) and revised by Andrews for the Donny Darko soundtrack. Like most of you, it only came to my attention in the recent Xbox 360 commercial for Gears of War (extended fan version below):

Kinda depressing in the context of the commercial, but a nice low key song. Frankly, it puts the Tears For Fears version to shame, but as we're talking a mid-80's pop duo, that's not necessarily saying much.

Well, I make no promises, but I'll try to update more often until work ramps back up again (we can't all be freelance writers and update every day).

Ciao.

Mess With Texas

2006-09-15T02:11:00.000-04:00

It's trial time, baby.

Coming to you live from Austin, Texas...or more accurately, the one block radius between the Stephen F. Austin hotel and an office in downtown Austin.

Gotta love trials. All expense paid trips to exotic locales, yet every waking minute is spent in a climate-controlled environment that could be located anywhere.

I suppose it's common practice. A couple years back, I was at a trial in West Palm Beach, Florida during the winter where we stayed at a 5-star resort for 2 months. I'm told that this resort had a beach, but I never managed to come home with sufficient daylight to confirm this. That said, the families on vacation that I saw at the coffee shop every morning seemed to really be enjoying the place.

Austin seems nice enough. If one believes the signs in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, however, Austin cares about only two things: Texas football and the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Avoiding the Texas-Ohio State debacle by a week, we managed to time our trip to arrive just before Austin City Limits. Unfortunately we still missed out on all the acts because, well, this is a business trip.

I'm not a big indie music guy. I know what I like and I basically listen one station on my XM Radio (that would be Ethel for the folks keeping score at home). Every now-and-then though, I'll hear a song and I'll have to head over to ITunes to give Steve Jobs more money. One of the recent songs that stuck was by a guy who was playing at Austin City Limits (see, ramblings can come full circle).

For those of you not named Shaffner, you should head over to his blog and read up on Jose Gonzelez. He's behind the music to this sweet Sony Bravia commercial...

In case you're wondering, they didn't use CGI...that's really 250,000 bouncy balls launched down a SanFran street. If you don't believe me, here's the making of video. Impressive.

Unfortunately, I don't have much time to blog these days, so my threat to Shaffner's dominance in the blogsphere isn't too great at this point. In fact, while I'm down here messing with Texas, why don't you just follow along on his "exciting" trip to Buffalo.

Veritas99

Who's In Your Fantasy?

2006-09-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

No, not that kind of fantasy you pervert.

I'm talking fantasy football and the glorious games of the gridiron. The season is finally upon us as my beloved Steelers (sans Roethlisberger) take on the Dolphins tonight! I'm a huge football fan and always look forward to the season, but this time I'm even more excited because:

1. I Recently Purchased A 40" Sony HD LCD TV.

2. It's My First Excursion Into The World of Fantasy Football.

In retrospect is seems odd that it's taken me this long to actually join a fantasy football league. That said, my novice drafting skills were on full display Tuesday as I managed to end up with 2 of the top 3 QBs (Palmer & Brady) but a severe lack of depth at RB (S. Jackson, C. Dillon, W. Lundy, and B. Jacobs) and WR (T. Owens, K. Johnson, M. Jones, E. Moulds, and T. Williamson). For those scoring at home, that means I'm sitting a QB that can routinely score as many points as any two guys at RB or WR. It's tough to figure out what kind of trade to make that shores up my team, but doesn't undervalue Palmer or Brady. Whatever...I'm starting Palmer against KC this week and we'll take it from there.

Oh yeah, I'm also taking Seattle this week in my survival pool...I'm not afraid to announce my picks like Shaffner.

Go Steelers!
Veritas99

UPDATE:

Steelers 28 Dolphins 17

Now that's what I'm talking about. As an added bonus, in my only "hometown" fantasy pick, I took Pittsburgh's defense, which managed to shut down the run, force a fumble, intercept 2 passes, and score a defensive touchdown. Icing, baby, icing.

My Blog Will Be Better Than Shaffner's 3 Blogs Put Together

2006-09-01T02:05:00.000-04:00

I really wasn't going to do anything with this blog. Honestly. I was fumbling around GMail shortly after creating a new account and somehow found myself on the Blogger page. Seeing yet another mindless distraction from the doldrums of work, I went thru the steps to create the blog with the belief I would never return.

Then Shaffner decided to create not one, not two, but three separate blogs. As if he has that much to say.

To add insult to injury, he proceeded to rip my preferred form of travel to NYC (The DC to NYC Acela is awesome if you want to fit into your seat, avoid the airport security lines, and actually arrive in Manhattan) and then spent an entire post confessing that he now drinks fruity tea by the kettle. This man once downed flaming shots of sambuca with me...how the mighty have fallen.

Anyway, this endeavor may be short-lived as the time demands of work are steadily increasing in anticipation of trial at the end of September (yes, like 90% of DC, I too am a lawyer). As nobody is reading this (except maybe Shaffner), I'm sure no one will mind the irregularity of postings.

Can you handle the truth?
Veritas99

Test

2006-07-19T15:04:00.000-04:00

This is a test post to establish the page