MAKING THINGS BEAUTIFUL

Monday at work we finished up this awesome blue concrete drop in sink.  I know blue sounds silly but it is what the customer wants.  The kitchen this sink goes in would put Liberace a notch down on the flamboyant chart.  Here is a pic of the sink, still at the shop.

It will be a shame to wash dishes in it.

Tuesday and Wednesday we made an entry table for the same client.  It will sit right inside the front door, for throwing her keys on when she gets home and what not.  But blue would not do in this case, let's do purple, and curl the concrete for an attractive look.  OK.

This one will go to the show with us first.

So I went to work Wednesday night at the bar (hopeful it would be slow enough so I could watch Idol) and it turned out to be the most busy Wednesday since I started working there.  The place was packed and they were doing shots, a lot of shots.  One big fella I was going to cut off because he had obviously had his share and I'm pretty sure he had someone elses share too.  But his wife walked in so I knew he had a ride. 

  I looked away for a second and heard a crash.  When I spun around he was on top of one of his drinking buddies.  His buddy was saying "What the fudge?!", but he didn't say fudge.  It was like in slow motion, the big guy's motor function was in idle.  I went over to seperate them and the big fella got up and stumbled out the door, mumbling something, with his wife trailing after him.  I asked his buddy what happened and he had no idea.  It was kind of comical, really.  No problems the rest of the night but we had plenty to talk about.  

  I had to work late so Thursday I wasn't much good at work.  I was supposed to start a bathroom remodel for my niece that night but I couldn't do it.  I decided to start Friday after work.  So I started to head that way on Friday but we had some sleet and it was freezing over my window.  My wipers were having a hard time cleaning when I noticed a problem.

What a wiper should look like

See if you can find whats missing

A quick pit stop and I had a new pair.  The parts place offered free wiper install so I took them up on that.  I think the kid they sent out had never put wipers on before.  After watching him for ten minutes the sent out the old pro and he was done in ten seconds.  

Off I headed to my niece's house.  It was time to work my magic.  I will magically turn this turd...

I can hear it screaming for help.  I'm a bathroom whisperer.

...into a diamond.  I will post updated pics of the progress.  Here are some before and after pics from this weekend.

You can almost feel the magic in the air.  By this time next week this half will look beautiful.  When I get some nice weather I will replace the shower window with glass block and tile the shower to the ceiling.  It will be a work of art.

Now, what's great after a long week's work?  Home made pizza, of course.  So that's what we did tonight.  We made three.  One was hamburger with extra cheese, one was chicken and bannana peppers with white sauce and one was everything.  Here are a couple pics of the action.

beat it kid

I think we have enough room to make four pizzas

We had three chefs in this little pizzeria.  It was kind of crowded, it's a good thing we all like each other.  While the pizzas baked we played a game of aggrivation (the marble game of yore).  I would have won if they hadn't ganged up on me.  The smoke alarm only went off twice while we were playing.  Ding.  Pizza's done.  check out these beautys.

yum

mouth watering

It was delicious.  There was a small problem though.  You've no doubt heard the phrase 'too many chef's spoil the broth'.  Well, with all of us trying to do the prep and cooking we missed one small direction.  We forgot to grease the pizza pans.  It was a struggle but we freed the pizzas from the pans and it really wasn't bad.  I just want to say that if your fire alarm is yelling at you, it's probably trying to tell you something.

Grease IS the word

I thank the Lord for another week and thank Him for what he will bring into my life next week.  My prayers are for you to have a healthy and prosperous week ahead and until that time...

Peace

Dan

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

My Tuesday small group met on Monday this week.  We like to shake things up once in a while.  One of the things we talked about is how God reveals himself to us, all of us.  There are three ways and they include through His son.  Jesus displayed all of God's attributes and gave us the example of how to live.  The second is through His word.  The Word.  The Bible is God's spoken word.  The manual of how to live a Godly life.  The third is the one I want to focus on.  Nature.  God's creation.
I explained to the group that this is the way I grow in God the best.  God has given me a gift.  He allows me to see Him in almost everything around me.  So, with that in mind, I set out to find evidence of beauty in all the things around me, on my way to work or home and in places my day takes me.  Following is a series of pictures I took over the past few days (and a couple from past posts) where I find beauty and see God's hand.  Please enjoy them in your own way.  Click on them to enlarge.

From the roof at work

Tree stump in front yard

On my way home

Saylorville spillway

On my way home

On my way home

On my way home

On my way home

Created by floods of '93,  Saylorville

These next ones are my favorites..

Out my front window

By Saylorville

By Menards

Boulder by Saylorville

On my way home

My number one pick..

On my way home

I hope you can see what I see in these pictures.  

My next post will be back to normal, with curly concrete and bar fights.  Until then here are a couple more pics Robyn and I thought were kind of cool.

We like the sun rays

Castles built on sand

Peace

Dan

ALL THAT

Sometimes I make little mistakes.  No, seriously, I do.

Case in point,  after my last blog I said I had to pick Canyon up from work.  Well he had to work until midnight (because McDonalds is open that late) so I got done blogging a little after 11 and went down to watch TV and wait for his call.  When I woke up at 12:30 to my phone vibrating, it was Canyon and he wasn't real happy to hear my voice.  He said, and I quote "I called you twenty times!".   On my way to pick him up I checked, and he really did call twenty times.  I don't think he understands that blogging is extremely exhausting work.
You can see in this pic that he is still not happy with me.  I only asked if I could see the remote.

Got that crazy look in his eyes

We will have to work on those trust issues.

Saturday morning Robyn and I went to the church at 10:00 to prepare to serve at our friends memorial service.  We set out some coffee and a few treats for the guests.

Over 250 people showed up.  She was extremely well liked and loved by many.  The pastor from her home town church delivered a fantastic message.  He said we could all take comfort in knowing that she was with Jesus.  Then he said if you wondered how we could KNOW where she was you only had to read John 3:16.  Even people who don't follow Jesus or even read the bible know this verse.

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

The pastor dismantled this verse and explained every bit so the saved and unsaved could all understand it and then reassembled it.  I wish it had been recorded because it truely was powerful. 

Praying for leftovers

The service ended and clean up was finally over around 3:30.  Our group decided to stop at a local resturant/pub for lunch.  Robyn and I split a club sandwich because we were going out for steak that night at my company Christmas party.

The servers waiting to be served

After finishing our late lunch I mustered the courage to ask the waitress if she could rush our check as we had to go to dinner.

We hurried home and changed clothes, dropped Canyon off at work (we told him to walk home after work) and headed to Rube's Steakhouse.  We found an open tab at the bar and asked for a couple glasses of wine.  As more people began to show up we joined the crowd at our tables.  There were more than 50 people there in all.  Here's a few pics..

One of the countertop guys and his wife.  Chris and Lindy

The best looking one at the party...  and me

Our host and hostess,  Matt and Kim

After a couple glasses of wine it was time for dinner.  It's a grill your own steak place so we all selected our steaks and met up at the big grill.

Too many chefs?

It's hard to drink, talk and grill all at the same time as is evidenced in this next pic.

The right way and the wrong way to toast bread.

Feeling rather bloated after treats all morning, a late lunch followed quickly with an awesome steak dinner, Robyn and I decided to call it a night.

Sunday morning came all to early.  We pulled our selves out of bed, got showered and drove to church.  I opted out of having a donut.

The message was about finances.  That theme is common thru February.  Here is a clip.  it's hard to see but the message is very clear.

After church I ran over and finished a small side job, ran our tax stuff to the tax guy and picked up a movie from red box.  The movie (Inception, with Leo Dicaprio) was pretty hard to follow.  You tell me whats going on here...

??? I told you.  It was very exciting though.  We had a fire for the movie and I decided to video tape a little for you to enjoy.  Make it full screen and listen to the crackling embers.  You can almost smell the wood burning.  I would have taped longer but it was very difficult keeping Canyon quite as long as I did, and dang near impossible to keep Robyn from cleaning something for any amount of time.  So relax, watch this small clip and I'll chat more later.

Peace

Dan

VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE

WHAT?!  Massacre?  What the heck are you talking about?...  That's what you're thinking, aren't you?  Well let me explain.

Monday morning, Valentines day I went into work and we began to make a concrete sink for a client.  She wants a blue sink, and I mean bright blue, so that's what were going to give her.  We are using a form of concrete called GFRC.  That stands for glass fiber reinforced concrete.  It's been around for a while but only recently has been in use for our line of work.  The first layer is applied with a texture hopper.  No.  I haven't been drinking, it is really sprayed onto the mold.  Check it out.

Unfortunately, we had some minor set backs on our first attempt and had to scrap it.  That dosen't happen very often and I happened to be documenting the process.  As you can see in the aftermath, it looks like we spilled blue raspberry slurpie all over the place.

The grizzly murder scene of Papa Smurf

I went home after work and Robyn and I swapped cards, (and spit. EW! I mean kisses) and then Robyn made some chocolate covered strawberries.  They were really good strawberries.  I wish I would have eaten more than just a few because they didn't last long.  When I got home from work Tuesday, Canyon had killed em off. 

Before I came home Tuesday I stopped by my niece's house to look at a bathroom I am going to remodel for her.  I will take pictures of the work as it progresses and post them on the blog so you can see how I use my super powers to turn a turd into a diamond.

Wednesday night is bartending night and it was kind of a slow night, but I fought the urge to watch American Idol as I was tapeing it so Robyn and I could watch it together on Friday night.  I did notice it was a full moon so I snapped a quick pic for you.

It appears to be made of cheese, chedder I think

I took another as I was coming into Waukee,  It reminded me of that sunset picture I took a couple of days ago.  What do you think?

Yup, those are ALL of the city lights

Of course Thursday night means small group.  We just started a study called 30 days to understanding the bible.  It is to help us make better sense of the structure of the bible.  I decided to announce to the group that after this study Robyn and I are going to take a break from this small group so we can spend more time at home, with Canyon.  They were bummed but understood our position and offered an open invitation to return in the future.  My good friend Terry (Penn State fan) has offered to take over the lead of the group which is greatly appreciated.  We will miss this group, but we'll see them in church.

Mixed nuts..  I'm the goober on the right

And that brings us to Friday.  After another day of hustle and bustle at work, I headed home to watch our taped American Idol.  During commercials Robyn and I made some cookies.  Six dozen cookies.  We are serving at a memorial service at church Saturday.  Sadly, a friend and former member of our Tuesday small group passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.  Her family asked if our small group would help serve snacks and coffee at her memorial service.  We all consider it a privelage.  So each household in the group is making a snack to serve.  This picture will make you salivate.

Is that a bite missing out of that cookie?

After the memorial tomorrow I have to finish up a small side job and then we are going to my company Christmas party at Rube's Steakhouse.  It is a nice surprise because they weren't going to have a party.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I think it will give me something to blog about later.

For now, I will sign off with a bit of knowledge for you.  Dogs are cool, cats are... a pain in the butt.  I was trying to get a picture of my dog and cat (Calvin and Hobbs) for the blog and, well you'll see..

Looking Irish with the green eyes and red handlebar moustache

First try.  He's all GQ.  Posing and looking studly.  Hobbs is another story.

Was that a mouse?

Looked away at the last second, so I tried again..

This is my good side

Attacked the camera strap as I snapped the pic.  I was going to give up because those were actually the good pictures.  But just before I started this blog I snuck up on him in the dark and tried one last time.

It ain't great, but at least it's somewhat focused.

OK.  I will write more later.  Gotta go pick up Canyon at work.  He's working until midnight tonight.  He is digging all the hours, saving for a car.  We're pretty proud of him.  Got a job.  Getting his grades up.  He still has a little trouble brushing his teeth, but hey, baby steps.

Peace

Dan

GROUND PREDICTIONS

WOW!  The weather has been really nice, maybe that groundhog is on to something.  I'm beginning to see signs of my yard.  It's getting kind of sloppy though.  We can't let Calvin out in the back yard so he get's to run down the front sidewalk to his favorite firehydrant, he loves that.  Here is a picture that I took yesterday  to show how nice the weather has been..

She needs to work on those tan lines

and here is a pic I took just twenty-four hours later..

Clearly not enough sun screen

A warning to my brother in Florida, you can see what too much sun can do.  Take an umbrella for shade.

This week-end I was working on a side job for some friends, tileing a kitchen back splash.  Trying to earn some extra cash to pay for Canyon's driver's ed.  They wanted a little extra color so we added a few glass tiles.  I took a pic so you could see.

somebody call better homes and gardens

I finished grouting today after church.  Speaking of church, today was our day to work in the Point Cafe.  Robyn and I volunteer one Sunday a month.  We enjoy serving.

The A-Team

We arrive between 7:15 and 7:30 (although Robyn made us a little late today, a hair thing) and prepare a feast for the hungry throng.

Where's Mr. T?

I love it when a plan comes together

This nice weather brings the people out, and the animals.  Driving home Saturday I had to stop and grab a quick photo of the herd of deer by the road.  Really the picture dosen't do it justice because I couldn't get them all in one pic.

This is where Santa's deer vacation

There had to be over a hundred deer in that field.  I did see one big buck, missing one antler, but my picture was blurry.

OK.  I guess I can't put it off any longer.  In my last post I said if the weather was nice I would put a picture of me wearing a speedo on here.  I am a man of my word.  I just want to say that if you are eating right now, you may want to look away.  So, with out further ado..

I shoulda been a plumber

I tried to warn you.  Dang, now Robyn is going to make me work out again.

I don't want to leave you with that image so as the sun sets on another week in my sleepy little community, I am headed for some shut eye.  Here is a picture of a sunset over Waukee, you can see my church on the right with the red roof.  My house is left of the grain elevator, just about where the sun is.

Is this heaven?  No, it's Iowa

Peace

Dan