Year of the house

So, I’m sure everyone is wondering where in the world Cas has been?  Well, I’ll tell you where I’ve been.  I’ve been working.  Not only at my job, but also at the house.  2012 is the year of the house.  Little known fact, my bride and I have been in our house for just over three years and we are yet to put any paint on the walls, the horror.  We’ve painted a thing or two in the house,furniture and such, but the walls are all the same bland color that it was when we purchased the house.  So that being said, we’re forcing ourselves to customize our house and make it our own.  Now I can read everyone’s mind, you’re all thinking, “Well what have you done so far?”  Thanks for asking, below I will show you!  There is a lot more to come folks so hold onto your seat! 

The first thing we did was get rid of our old pantry system that we hated so much.

See how cluttered that is?  With only 3 shelves we were limited in our organization.

Look at all this crap we had crammed in there!

But thanks to our good friends at IKEA we put in a new shelving unit and was able to cram even more crap into the pantry!

Next we decided to move our climbing rose to block our storage building from the road.  Sorry I forgot to take a before picture, it’s just an ugly metal building.  So I built an 8x8 foot lattice wall for the rose to climb on.

Now we just need to move the rose and that project will get the done stamp.
Then last month I was walking through the Home Depot and I noticed in the end cap they had a section of doors for over 200 dollars off retail.  And wouldn’t you know it, it’s the exact door I wanted.  Not the door the wife wanted, but at the price she couldn’t argue with me.  After fighting with someone who thought that just because they had already paid for the door that fit my house they could have it, I brought the door home.  You read that right, the door I bought had already been purchased by someone else and put on hold.  I had the Home Depot call the guy and convince him that he didn’t really want the door as bad as I did.
Here is the old ugly door.

*Side note about the old door.  I knew it wasn't installed correctly, but I had no idea just how poorly it was installed.  When I ripped it out the hole I was shocked!  Not one shim was used, and they didn't even glue the threshold! 
And here is the new door, before it was painted.  I need to get a picture of it painted, it looks much better black.

I also framed in a larger floor space in our tiny attic to store some stuff that is crammed in closets to make them a little more usable. 
As we complete more projects I’ll keep everyone posted.  Hopefully by the end of 2012 you guys will have seen a complete home transformation at the Smith House.  *Curse you pinterest for adding even more projects to my todo list!

I'm Homeless!

Well, after all my moaning last year, this year I did it.  I raised my money and I did Homeless for a night.  This is a fundraiser put on by the Fuller Center.  The Fuller Center was started by the same man that started Habitat for Humanity.  It’s a pretty awesome charity, and they’re doing big things in my area.  I decided to help everyone see what was happening during the night I’d start a twitter hashtag and tweet all through the night.  If you want to search for all my tweets, you can visit my twitter feed, or search for #homelessforanight in twitter.  Guys this event was so awesome to be a part of.  It’s really eye opening.  Sure it was cold being out there with the frost and all, but I knew that this was just for a few hours.  I knew that at 7:00 they were sending us all home, after donuts and chocolate, and I could go get in my nice warm bed and curl up with my sleeping bride.  Speaking of my bride, before she left me for the night, I asked her for her socks.  I already had on two pair and my toes were frozen solid.  So she was nice enough to loan me the thick fuzzy socks that I let her wear out of my drawer before we left the house. 
In total we all raised just over 29,000 dollars!  That’s just over half of the cost to build a deserving family a home. 
At the start of the night I figured I’d stay awake through the whole thing, but around 3:00 I decided that standing around a fire barrel wasn’t going to give me the full experience.  I walked way away from the warmth of the barrels and climbed into my home for the night.  Two cardboard boxes that I taped together to make one home big enough for my long body.  I was surprised at how well the boxes kept in the heat once I was inside and closed off all the openings.  Granted, this is not the ideal sleeping arrangement, but for one night, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  I couldn’t imagine having to do this every night though. 
To start the night we had local bands playing, some kids playing football, and a soup kitchen making potato soup.  The rest of us were setting up our homes and decorating.  Everyone kept it a secret from my Bride that there was a contest for the best decorated box.  The prize was an iPad2.  They all knew if my Bride knew there was a decorating contest they didn’t stand a chance so they cheated and left that little piece of info out.  She would have had me a two story cardboard house with a dinning room and seating for eight.  I would have had a working fireplace, a chandelier, DirecTV, and a white picket fence.  My bride is crafty yo!  But alas, no one told us so we had one sad little pumpkin that I had taken from our put away fall decorations and placed him in front of my boxes.  Below are some of my tweets, in my sleep deprived mind these were twitter gold.

My home for the night. #homelessforanight

Hands are frozen, hard to type on the iPhone. #homelessforanight
Made my bride @howardsmithhome surrender her socks before she left for our nice warm house tonight. #homelessforanight
All these extra layers are making using the restroom a challenge. #homelessforanight
Getting a little frosty #homelessforanight

Someone apparently didn't check the weather before coming to #homelessforanight

Someones cardboard box just got jacked. It's hard out here on the streets. #homelessforanight cold blooded.
Cardboard box is very ineffective at dampening train noise. I think it's coming right at me. #homelessforanight
Now that I'm settled I really have to pee. Getting up would destroy my house. I'll have to hold it. #homelessforanight
As a grown man of 32 years I'm very disappointed in myself for not going to the bathroom before getting in my box. #homelessforanight
I can hold it no longer I will risk destroying my house in an effort for the comfort of an empty bladder. #homelessforanight
I'm all hopped up on mountain dew so sleep evades me. Standing by the fire it is. #homelessforanight
5:30 temp update. #homelessforanight the thick sheet of ice on my windshield tells me it's cooler than advertised.

Standing between two fire barrels is 360 degrees of heat and like beck said, where it's at. #homelessforanight

Final temp update. Weather.com is a lying pirate hooker. #homelessforanight

Wearing a toboggan for an extended period has made my head and hair quite itchy. #homelessforanight

And here are just some pictures from the night.

Here's my view from inside my box, iPhone 3G doesn't have a flash.

As Random as it gets

So, I put on twitter that someone needed to remind to post a blog on Friday, and no one did.  So here I sit on a Saturday night posting a random blog.  This blog is all youse guys fault. 
So, I don’t know how many of you guys are followers of mine on twitter, or on friends on the book of faces, but if you are you know that my cat Snoogans got out last weekend and was missing.  How did he get out you might ask?  Well Saturday morning my bride and I were getting ready to go to my folks for their Thanksgiving events.  I woke up not feeling all that great and was dragging around the house.  As the primary car loader in our family I’m guessing on one of my trips o the car to load stuff Snoogs snuck out behind me and into the great outdoors.  Normally when we go out of town we close off our bedroom, which means we have to do a pet count to make sure no one is locked in.  Well, we were in a hurry so we left our bedroom open and hit the road.  Snoogans is out on his.  That long story was told just to tell you this.  My bride and I went out in our area looking for him.  We made the standard flier that we posted around the area with a picture and our numbers.  My Bride goes to a near by trailer park and talks to some of the locals.  Upon speaking to one local and showing her a picture of Snoogans from her phone my bride ask, “Have you seen this cat?”  The replied she received, “YES!  His picture is on that flier posted to the mailboxes.  I saw him in a picture right over there.”  Thanks for your help lady, but no thanks.  Side note, Snoogans found his own way home Tuesday evening and is once again safe at home.
While eating at a new sports bar and grill Thursday night we were told by the owner that he got a discount on his window tinting because he let the window tinter advertise in the window.  The owner then said, “I don’t have a problem with it, if NASCAR can have sponsors, hell, why can’t Vic’s?”
A new liquor store has opened at the corner of my street.  We pulled in the parking lot before it opened to see what it looked like inside.  We noticed they sell, liquor, cigarettes, and prepaid cell phones.  So you have everything you need for a night out.  Drinks, smokes and cell phones to drunk dial and drunk text your exes. 
I’m watching “Vietnam in HD” on History right now.  I know that wasn’t a popular war, but those that fought in that war need to be treated as the hero’s they are.  They went where they were sent and did what they were told.  They didn’t want to be over there, but they were there for us.  So to all our Vets, I thank you. 
This dog has to go out again.  This is serious the third time in the last 30 minutes.  Has she been drinking beer or something? 
As I am every year about this time, I’m already over Christmas.  When Christmas is used as a money making event and not the Holiday it truly is, I get sick of it.  It starts earlier and earlier every year because everyone wants to get in on this Christmas money.  Radio stations in my area were playing Christmas music before Halloween.  So instead of “nightmare on my street”, “Monster mash” and “Thriller” Kids in our area are listening to Jingle Bells as the Treat-or-Treat.  People, this is just wrong.  Someone needs to put Christmas back into check.
The last payment on my truck was made in May of this year and I still haven't gotten my title.  Is that normal?  I've never paid off a car before, but this seems like a very long time for them to mail me my title.  I don't think they understand how bad I want this document.

To each their own

Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam…  (Name that movie).  Alright, so I bet you’re wondering what that has to do with the price of tea in China.  I’ll be happy to tell you how, (DirecTV is playing a commercial with that line from Rango in it over and over and it’s stuck in my head).  A few weeks back my Bride and I went to a wedding of a friend of mine.  The invitations had cowboy boots and said to dress “wedding casual”.  Cool, no suit, just a tie.  Well… what I define as wedding casual and other people’s definition is slightly different.  My Bride told me I was going to be over dressed, but I told her I was still going to a wedding and I had to respect myself while I was there.  More on that in a minute.  I think a wedding should represent the couple getting married.  It’s their day, let them have the wedding they want.  If they don’t want the formalities in their wedding fine, take them all out.  Stand up there in a bathing suit smoking a cigarette, it’s your wedding, and your wedding photos.  I will not judge you for having the wedding of your dreams.  BUT judging and laughing are two totally different things right?  Before I go any further let me just say I enjoyed the wedding, it was perfect for the couple and all the friends and family just kept commenting on how it couldn’t have been a better fit for the bride and groom.  Again, I’m not judging, I’m just making commentary on this beautiful wedding.  With that out of the way, let the festivities begin!
The wedding was held on a local farm.  A very nice setting I might add.  The road leading in was lined on both sides by pecan trees just outside of a white post horse fence like you see in the movies.   In this fenced in field is where the wedding would be held.  I wish I would have thought to take a picture of this, but I didn’t.  But I did get a picture of the Alter.  As we’re sitting waiting for everything to start I lean over to my bride and ask her if she’s Tom Arnold or the crew of “My Big Fat Redneck Wedding”.

And I got a picture of what is considered “wedding Casual” here.  Or basically as much college football attire you can pack on one body.  It was a gameday though... I was a little more than slightly over dressed in my khaki’s and tie.  (I'm also guilty because I purposely wore a navy and orange tie. War Eagle)

I also noticed that Granny got the seat of honor.

Something very fun about this wedding is that all the bridesmaids and the bride came in the back of a huge monster truck.

All the groomsmen had to help unload the bridesmaids.  How gentlemanly of them.

After unloading everyone the groomsmen, in their very crisp overalls, escorted the cowboy boot wearing bridesmaids down the aisle.

I wish I had a better picture of this, but the ring bearer carried the rings in the bed of  toy Ford truck instead of using a pillow.  How cool is that?

And no wedding is complete without the bride.  This might sound totally gay, but that is one beautiful dress she’s rocking.

Here’s the bride and groom at the alter.

And what wedding is complete without play Quad City DJ’s “C’Mon N’ Ride it”, or better known as the ride that train song,  as they walk back down the aisle after saying I do.

Have any of you guys had a fun wedding like this, or been to a wedding like this?  Again, not making fun of them, this was their day and they really seemed to enjoy everything about it.  It was very short, sweet and relaxed.  At the reception the groomsmen even took their shirts off from under their overalls.

Wednesday Randoms

I haven’t had too much happen lately that was blog worthy so I’m going to put my small thoughts together in a randomness blog.

Tip:  To save power and quickly dry your dishes if you’re around your dishwasher when it finishes the last cycle, open the door.  The quick flash of cool air mixing with the hot damp air in the washer will flash dry the dishes.

One of our cats has been having seizures and it’s so sad to watch.  We’ve taken her to vet and are awaiting the test results.  She’s gotten some shots that seem to be helping though.

I haven’t flown anywhere since my trip to Canada in January, and I kind of miss flying.

I remember when you used to have to have a perfect dollar for a vending machine to take it, now the vending machine will take any wadded up bill you
have.  You can even give some a 10 and it’ll give you change back.

Sometimes I don’t comment on peoples blogs because I don’t want them to think I’m stalking them or something.  I think I feel this way because I’m a guy and most other bloggers are women.  Does anyone get bothered that a guy keeps commenting on your blogs?

I might not be able to cook a lot of thing, but the things I do cook, I cook pretty darn well!

My bride and I are trying to get a jump on next years vacation by planning it now.  If it works out it’s going to be beyond awesome.

Today is the coldest day of the fall and my company is serving us ice cream…

We only took about 40 pictures on our last cruise, most of which are all of the same things.

I’ve submitted a request with my company to get an iPhone4s.  Fingers crossed it gets approved.

My bride thinks if I get the iPhone4s it will become hers and I’ll inherit her old iPhone4.

So that's it, my waste of time for the day that I don't really expect anyone to read.

Cozumel Mexico

Well hello everybody!  I hope everyone had as great of a weekend as I did.  I don’t want to brag about all the fun I had soaking up the rays from the Lido deck while on the open seas, taking mid-day naps just because I’m so relaxed it’s making me tired, or driving around the island of Cozumel Mexico in a Jeep with the top down.  Ok, I really do want to brag about that or else I wouldn’t have even mentioned it.  The bride and I had a wonderful 4 day cruise out of Mobile AL to Cozumel Mexico.  This was my first cruise out of my home state of Alabama, all my other cruises have been out of Florida.  I heard things this weekend that I never expected to hear on a cruise.  While going through the security check to get on the boat the man in front of us had the line held up.  After standing around bored for what seemed like forever, especially since I can see the boat right out the window to my left, I decided to start ease dropping the conversation to see what the holdup was.  Upon opening my ears this is what I hear, “Well I didn’t know I couldn’t bring my pliers!?”  Really?  You think if the boat breaks down they’re going to call on you to go down to the engine room with your pliers and get us rolling again?  Really?  Apparently this same guy thought Carnival was just going to let him walk onto their ship carrying 4 cases of Diet Pepsi, 2 bottles of wine, and a box full of assorted snacks?  Really?  Thanks for delaying me from getting onboard so I could enjoy my first of many hamburger buffets and endless Panini’s.  But also thanks for giving my bride and I a good laugh since it became a running theme to randomly say, “I didn’t know I couldn’t bring my pliers!?”  You know it’s bad when the cruise staff is making fun of Alabamians.  While on stage performers would say something totally redneck, followed by “Row Tide”.  All the classic Auburn/Alabama stereo types were in play as well.  Well dressed older man with docker shorts and boat shoes, Auburn fan, a man holding a bud light, smoking in the non-smoking section of the boat, wearing a ratty bathing suit, Alabama fan.  I don’t think I want to go on a cruise out of Alabama again because I realized that I cruise to get away from these people, not be trapped on a boat for days with them.  Thanks for Classing up the Boat and Cozumel Alabama, and Row Tide.  You guys have no idea how bad it was.  Thank God I was on a cruise and completely relaxed.
When we got to Cozumel my bride and I signed up for the “Go Jeep, Tequila and Beach Adventure”.  We really enjoyed this excursion.  In the description of the excursion it clearly said that all jeeps are stick shifts.  Apparently my bride and I were the only ones to read this part as most everyone else stood with their mouths open when our tour guide dropped that bomb.  Four people had to get into one Jeep so we had to find us some riding partners.  When they told us to find our jeeps I raised my hand and said, we have two and need two more.  These two sweet old ladies came running to me and asked, “Can you drive a stick?”  I said, “yes, I can”, so they hired me to be their driver.  Off we went, driving through downtown Cozumel was a treat, there doesn’t appear to be any lines in road, and mo-paders just seem to do whatever they want, including, but not limited to, putting helmets on mom and dad, but no helmet on little Olga who is either sandwiched between mom and dad, or sitting on the gas tank drinking a juice box.  *Yes we saw both of those situations.  Helmet law for adults = yes, helmet law for childrens = no.

Once out of downtown we hit the open roads!  That is until we stop at the Pee-Pee Station, complete with a urinating alligator painted on the sign.  We saddle back up in our jeeps and continue down the road to drink Tequila, that’s right, all the Tequila we want driver or no driver, belly up to the bar.  Since I was the driver and was being watched like a hawk by my passengers I didn’t partake in the sweet nectar of the Blue Agave plant.

Back on the road again we head to our final stop, the beach.  The water is beautiful beyond words, blue, warm, and crystal clear.  After a short hour and a half we go to jump back into the jeeps, only to be met by swarms of bees.  Apparently the local gang of bees was enjoying our “souvenir” Margarita cups.  Every jeep had dozens of bees in and around them.  We quickly pulled our “souvenir” cup out of the jeep and poured out the contents and washed the cup out.  I then stuck my leg into the jeep, started the jeep, and put it in neutral.  (Also engaging the emergency brake to prevent rolling.)  After letting the jeep run with the air on we noticed that most of the bees left so we hopped in and continued our journey.  After driving about 5 miles the jeep in front of us breaks down.  We have been instructed to just keep going, the guide in the back will handle such things.  So we pass them and leave them for dead.  Well a little while further down the road a caution light comes on in the dash of my jeep.  I have no idea what this light is about, I check the temp, it’s good, gas is good, jeep seems to be driving fine, not my jeep, not my problem.  We continue on to the drop off point with no apparent mechanical issues.  I’m driving along happy as can be, I want a jeep, and I want a stick shift, I forgot how much I enjoyed shifting gears.  All the while that light is still lit, and it’s still beeping at me, again, not my jeep, not my problem.  We roll back up to the starting point to return our jeeps, I park, shut off the engine, make sure the jeep is in first gear, reach to engage the emergency brake…  Oh, the emergency brake is already engaged…  Um, hey babe, grab our bags and lets walk away, smile and keep walking…  hahaha.  Well, at least I’m pretty sure I know what all the beeping was about.  Too bad that guy didn’t have his pliers to fix any issues we caused with the Jeep…

Sept 11th

I hadn't planned on making a pot for today.  Today is my first anniversary with my bride.  The church we got married in was only open for this day because no one seemed to want to get married on this day.  We viewed it as a way to bring the day back to the good.  Something positive on a day that is so sad and emotional.  On this day 10 years ago I was working second shift as a conference call operator.  I was still asleep when the first plane hit.  One of my roommates came and woke me up and told me something was happening and I needed to get up.  As we sat in our living room watching in shock I still knew I had to get to work.  Work was strange that day.  On this day came one lowest moments as an operator.  A call was put on my schedule to call 4 people and connect them to a conference.  the first three numbers were 212 area code.  I got ring no answers from all three.  I then dialed the last number.  On the last number I told the person that answered that I called the other three numbers and didn't get an answer.  He then asked me if I knew where those numbers went too.  I said 212 is New York, he said, these numbers go to the World Trade Center and then hung up on me.  I felt so low at that moment.  I don't know these people, I don't know if they lived or not.  I pray often that they did live and that the man I spoke too forgives me and understands that I was just doing my job.  After this I was moved to lead a call that was lines connected to a conference keeping communications up following the president.  Where he was, if he was on the ground, in the air, where he was heading.  It was interesting, but I couldn't wait to get back home and get this day over with.  I think of  this every year on this day.  I was hoping I could replace these memories with new memories of what I did leading up to marrying my bride, but they're burned into my mind.  I'm so happy to be celebrating my anniversary with my bride today, but sadden at what happened on this day 10 years ago.  My bride and I have decided that we will spend one of anniversaries in New York in remembrance of those that lost their lives on that day.