Fax Line

Today I installed a Fax line into our house. This is how bad i wanted a Fax line that was separate from my house line. I hooked an unused phone line from down stairs to the upstairs office by drilling lots of holes and stringing 75 feet of phone line.

The $2,000 Hotel

I got to stay in a $2000 hotel last night i figured i should right a review of it for HOTELS.COM. So here it is:








DESCRIPTION:
Location:
The Oshner Hotel New Orleans in uptowntown New Orleans, La., is located across from River Road and just steps away from the mighty Mississippi river, surrounded by traditional New Orleans shotgun houses. Only 50 blocks from the festive atmosphere of the French Quarter, the Oshner Hotel is the perfect place for weary locals or travelers.
Hotel Features:
The Oshner Hotel New Orleans has unique amenities and very helpful staff who will watch you all night long through the in room surveillance camera to be sure you have the best possible night. Oshner Hotel offers a morning in room wake up service at 6:30am. Great for guests who have to be at work early in the morning.
POPULAR AMENITIES:

• Elevator/lift
• Gift shop or newsstand
• Parking (Parking Deck) - Self and Valet Parking available
• Room service all night with voice activated call box above bed
• Cable TV and DVD player (Welcome movie on arrival)
• Power Tilt Bed (To raise your head)
• Complementary Oxygen Mask at 2:00am
• Doctors on site
• Complementary Heart rate monitor on right hand
• In room surveillance camera

ROOM RATES:
Premium Room- $2,000 a night, 6:30am checkout

Weedeating and framing a window

Yesterday (Monday) was our day off, but also Sarah's School day. Sarah takes the car to school cuz its just easier, and i get to sleep longer :c). So while Sarah was at school i decided to touch up the yard with the weedeater to be sure that everyone felt my yard looked nice. I got a little sweat from the 110 heat index but it went well. I'm learning more and more about the weedeater the more i use it. DID YOU KNOW: If you push the bottom of the weedeater on the ground it releases more string ( i had been stopping it and pulling out more string every time it got low). Anyways you learn something new everyday.

Next I went around back to my window and put in the cross frames and added some thin wood to the back of the cross frames to hold the glass when i put it in. Next i wiped the glass down with goo gone and attempted to break off pieces of glue/mold/hard stuff from the corners and sides of the glass panes. The goo gone only worked a little, so I am going to try mixing goo gone with a razer and see if that works...So all that is left is to paint the window seals (its chipping bad so a fresh coat of white would look nice), to put the glass in and secure it. Pictures to come...Thanks for the feedback Kelly :c).

Pig Tails...Amish drug dealers...Framing New Orleans...and Lawn Care

I had my first experience with a food i never thought i would eat last night. Pickled Pig tails mixed with cabbage and pickled pig ribs. I actually enjoyed! Funny how your food tolerances change.

Last night me and Sarah watched a movie about Amish kids. When they turn 16 they are able to do what ever they want in the "English" world and then decide if they would like to commit thier lives to the Amish church for life. Well these kids do it up BIG...they would have parties out in the fields and invite Amish kids from like 5 states. A few of the boys moved into a trailer down by the tracks and ran a drug dealing business. One of these boys in the middle of doing drugs talks to the camera about how he thinks he is going to join the Amish church. And i thought Amish kids were tame.

Today Sarah and I went to a local framing shop to get my Antique Map of New Orleans framed. I have been looking at this map ever since i saw it in a gallery window in the mall about a month ago. Well i found it in a shop in the French quarter but it was $270. I found it online as a print for $15 a few days later, I ordered it, and when it came in the mail Sarah and I went to Michael's to get in framed. We took it to Michael's because we had a 50% coupon. Well even with 50% off it was going to cost almost $400. Not in our price range. Well back to todays framing experience. We went into this way cool frame shop and this nice old guy helped us pick out a frame and we triple matted it for about $225. Good thing people were nice enough to send me birthday money so we could afford that :c). THANKS GUYS. It should be ready in 10 days.

Tonight i did the whole lawn again. This is my second time doing this. If you will remember last i did the lawn i was given some not so good feedback from an old drunk man who had been doing our lawn before Sarah and I moved in. See post Landscaping from July 18th if you need a refresher. Hopefully this time I did a better job :c).

Painting...Walking...and Windows

I finally got to use my sander...I sanded the swinging bench on the back porch and painted it with some white paint i found in the garage..I got a lot on the ground but it looks good....YEAY MATT!!

Yesterday Sarah had her first day of school and took the car until 2:30pm. Knowing of nothing else to do i decided to get the true New Orleans Magazine St. Experience. So i began walking at 6020 Magazine at 12pm and experienced all the shops and houses as i made my way to the end of Magazine st (6 miles later) and a way cool Salvation army...where i bought 2 books for $.50. One of the books I bought was The Natural. By this time it was 2:30 and Sarahd had gotten out of class so i sat on the curb reading my book and asked her to come pick me up. Thanks Sarah.

Sarah had asked me to get her a window so that we could paint new orleans stuff on the glass and hang it out front of the house. She has a vision...and i can not wait to see it :c). Anyway, I was driving back from a 2 hour Wal-Mart experience by myself with the girls and I saw a pile of old doors and windows for a gutted house. So i pull a U-Turn and go to the pile. I discovered that there was no complete window with all the glass in tack so i grabbed 2 windows and a pane of glass and have been putting all the pieces togther the last few days. So far i have the outside frame of the window done and just need to put in the cross peices and panes of glass. Its quite fun but its hard to sit outside in the heat for more than 30 min so its going to take some time.

Happy Birthday Brother

Tomorrow (August 10) is my Brothers 29th birthday...Its amazing how old we are all getting...We not only are all adults, but we have been for a good while..
My Favorite memories with Mike:

Working on his truck...I got to help out putting the tool box in his truck, putting the bull bar (the first one) on the front, and just me and him putting the air intake in the truck.

Getting lost in our back yard in columbia and having to listen for cars and walk towards the road.

Listening to him talk about stuff that he is excited about...Its funny how a tree can be so interesting when he talks about them.

While i didnt act like it at the time i want to thank him for playing catch with me. Your the best big brother i could have asked for and i look forward to Will growing up and Sarah and I having kids so they can all play together like we did with our cousins.

I love You Mike! Happy Birthday!

Fixing up the Apartment

Today Sarah and I didnt just sleep and eat all day....We did sleep in and take a nap....and we did eat...But we also bought a computer desk and i put it together while Sarah went to get us dinner from McDonald's. When she got back we put the computer together and she unloaded some book boxes...we are coming along. We want to have the room all clean so we can have a guest room (baby room...shh.. don't tell our moms)...It will just feel so good to have a clean apartment.

I was kidding around with our assistants and our boss saying i had a sander now so i could sand and repaint the house. Well my boss offered a pressure washer to me and i was like " YEAH WHAT A GREAT START TO CLEANING" i was quite excited..well he called the next day and told me not to fix up the house anymore because BGT's finacial officer was coming to take pictures and we wanted her to see how bad the house was so she would give us "fix up" money. So ive been trying to only fix unseen stuff lately :c). I told Sarah that I have always looked for things to "fix" everywhere i go (fixing tables at the daycare, etc.). Well here at 6020 EVERYTHING needs to be fixed...its like heaven to me :c) lol... Ill keep y'all updated on what i get to do next.

Woops there went the power!

So i changed my third socket into a grounded socket and of course this time was different than the other times. I flipped breakers for what seemed like forever waiting for Sarah to yell "ITS OFF". After i tried all the breakers without labels i tried a few with labels and found that they do not turn off what they say they do...ALWAYS CHECK YOUR POWER BEFORE WORKING ON ELECTRICITY.....I finally found the circuit i was looking for under "Stairwell lights"...Thank you Mr. Electrician for your massive skills...When i get the socket open i find that the wires are unmarked and wrapped in some sort of fabric. So install the socket by putting all the wires back in the right place and screwing it back into the wall. I turn the breaker back on and i got nothing. So the more i explore the house i find that not only is my socket out, but all the sockets in our bedroom and some in one of the girls' room. The next day i found out the doorbell caught the not working bug. Then that night (ruffly 36 hours later) Sarah informs me the refrigerater in our guest room had not had power in the last 36 hours and had defrosted itself all over our floor (we had been meaning to defrost it anyway). So now we have a wet floor too. Well all was fixed this morning when our trusty mantnance man came over...all except the wet floor. Oh well life goes on at 6020 Magazine!!

4 simple rules for living in my house!

Rule 1: Don't mess with my Wife.

Rule 2: Let me sleep.

Rule 3: Keep all bodily fluids in the correct place (litter box, outside in grass).

Rule 4: Do not mess with my babies.


Nola ignored rule 2 and 4. She wined, yapped, and barked all night long, which i could forgive because shes "new" to my house. Rule 1 and 4 are unforgivable because that is a habit i do not want any part of. Rule 4 was broken Sunday night when she went digging under the bed and dragged out my sweet peaches by the tail. So i jumped on Nola and found out how strong she was, kinda scary. Well a rug burn on my knee and a scared kitty later i had to say "Sorry Nola your out!!!"

Nola

How Sweet is she!!!

Dog proofing the yard

Yesterday Sarah and I went to Home Depot and picked up a few dog proofing the yard supplies. I got a new latch for the wooden fence and i needed a small piece of scrap wood to put under the end of one side of the fence door to make it level with the other side of the fence door. Well they cleaned the store pretty well and had no scrap wood..so we bought a 7 foot 2x4 for $3 and a saw. Problem solved. This morning i woke up and got to work on the fence because the SPCA yard patrol was coming to check us today. Well about the time i finish the fence Sarah comes downstairs and tells me the SPCA is on the way. They approved our yard and we headed out to get Nola (thats her name). YEAY SWEET DOG!!!

How to not change a tire!

So we had all the girls in the car and we are driving down the road on the way to a back to school bash...I do a U-Turn to get on the street we needed (you can not turn left onto most major roads, you have to do a U-Turn). Well I ride up on the curb a little cuz the van is huge...after i make the turn i feel the van PULLING to the right bad...so i figure out what it is and pull into a NAPA autoparts parking lot because i thought they would be a good resource should changing this tire not be as easy as i think. Long story short i told the ladies to go into a nearby family dollar (Sorry Sarah) and i go to work on the tire. I get the spare out from under the van with not much trouble (it was slightly complicated)...then i could not get the jack to work....went to the NAPA for help...all they did was give me a jack that was harder to use than mine...Well after about an hour of crawling under the van trying to get it jacked up, the ladies come back and stare at me...PRESSURE...well this guy rides by and asks if he can help...Before i could yell back the most used male statement "Naw I've got it" one of my girls said "YEAHH!!" well this guy comes up to the van jacks it up and changes the tire in like 4 minutes...the whole time I'm trying to do what i can...Well he finishes and i dig into my wallet and hand him a $10...Dude man deserved a Man Plaque...Oh well I'm glad that God brought him into our life and that God closed my stubborn mouth and got our girl to call for help. Always trust God...don't always trust a mans stubbornness...