Carpentology

Where’s Home?

OK, why did no one tell me that I forgot to link the header to the root of the site when I put the new header image?

Finishing Touches

We moved into our new home a couple of weeks ago, and are anxiously awaiting the finishing touches. I bought all new phones yesterday, which brings the “Finishing Touch Task List” down to two remaining items.

Every room in the house was previously wired for the telephone … with two separate lines. I could have wired them together, and had both of the outlets in each room lead to the same line, but first I would have to find all of the lines. After numerous hours in the basement testing phone lines, I could only find the leads for three of the seven major rooms in the house. I am a big fan of VoIP phone service, so this was going to have to be done by me, or I would have to pay someone to come out. (The phone company will usually do it for no fee when it is installed as long as you purchase the “linebacker” program for a couple of dollars a month.)

I called around and all of the estimated were more than I would like to hear. My solution: AT&T 5.8G Expandable set. It was half the price of having someone come out to redo the phone lines, and it was immediate (Beth really wanted the home phone hooked up.) It has more features than you can shake a stick at, and it was on sale at Sam’s Club.

Now I just wish someone would call the new home number so we can test it out. (I refuse to call myself to test the phones.) The only two finishing touches that remain are getting the rest of our living room furniture, which should arrive any day now, and replacing some of the blinds. Things are coming together nicely.

A Quarter of a Century Later …

My lovely wife has just hit the quarter of a century mark. That is not old to me by any means, but let me tell you a story:

Not surprisingly I was away from home a lot when I was on active duty. I knew that Beth was going to have some work cut out for dealing with a brand new baby (This is when RJ was first born), and living in a new town. We would talk every other day, or at least when time would allow, to keep each other up to date on the goings on in our lives.

I had been out of town for a couple of weeks when Beth told me that she had met another mother at playgroup, and that they were going to get together sometime and go for a walk (or something like that. C’mon, I am a good husband, but all you wives out there know that we do not listen all of the time.)

I am protective of my wife, especially when I cannot be there with her in person, so I played twenty questions with Beth about this new “friend.” When the question of age came up, Beth answered, “Oh, she’s an older lady.”

OK, so now I am thinking that Beth is hanging out with some 40-something lady. (Again, that is not old by any means, but we a talking relationally here.) A couple of weeks had passed, and as I heard more about this “friend” and I began to suspect that there was no way that she was a 40-something. However, maturity is not always a learned trait. I asked my wife, again, how old her “friend” was and she said that she was 25!

Being twenty-five at the time, I was quite offended. I asked Beth if she thought that, since her friend and I were the same age, I was an older person, too. Beth said that is not what she meant when she said “older” person. I asked her what she did mean, and she would not answer.

Ever since that day, I have been patiently waiting until Beth’s 25th Birthday. Can I officially call her my Old Lady now?

Happy Birthday Beth!

Happy Birthday Marines

On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines (United States Marine Corps) was created by a resolution of the Continental Congress. Since that date, many thousand men have borne the name Marine. In memory of them, it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the Birthday of our Corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history.

The record of our Corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world’s history. During 90 of the 146 years of it’s existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the nations foes. From the battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home. Generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in was in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our Corps Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term Marine has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the Corps. With it we also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our Corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as “Soldiers of the Sea” since the founding of the Corps.

Obsolete?!?

You are ‘growing one’s own food’.

You are guided by two words: ‘Live simply.’ You
value quality over quantity in most things, and
you have little use for the materialism and
consumerism of modern culture. You know the
value of hard work and try to be
self-sufficient as much as possible, and what
you do you do well. Unfortunately, no man is
an island, and you cannot do everything
yourself. Your puritanical work ethic makes
makes people think that you are weird, and not
much fun. Your problem is that growing one’s
own food has been obsolete for a long time.

What obsolete skill are you?
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