robglazebrook.com

Good golly miss Molly, but I’ve been a busy boy of late! I bet you’d just love to have some more detail to go with that sentence too, wouldn’t you? Well, here’s what’s been going on so far in July.

I ate barbequed or grilled things for seven meals between the 1st and 5th of July. Yay Summer, I guess. If you do the math, that means I was eating grill-food for far more than 50% of my non-breakfast meals during that span (and I did manage to avoid BBQ breakfasts).

On July 1, August Home celebrated its 30th anniversary. As a result, I got to hear a bit of the history of the company, and it sort of cracks me up. Our CEO left Meredith on June 30, 1978, and on July 1st he decided he still liked eating and whatnot, so he’d better figure out something new to do. Yadda yadda yadda, now I have a job too.

On July 3, the UPS guy delivered a very awesome, very large present from myself (and Amanda), to myself (and Amanda). We’re now the proud owners of Rock Band, which is a ton of fun.

Hannah and Tono also came over for dinner, drinks, and some Rock Band action on the evening of the 3rd. We had brats (one of my many grilled meals) and ate out on the back porch, which was great until the mosquitoes figured out where we were.

The 4th of July rocked in all manner of rocking. Amanda and I woke up and headed straight down for a bit of Rock Band fun, then got ready for the day. Then we met up with a bunch of friends (Hannah, Tono, Megan, Klay, Sara, Julie) and had a free grilled lunch courtesy of Meredith. And then we headed to the fantastic and huge 80/35 concert and had a fantastic time. We managed to see four bands in action: Public Property (a local band), Ingrid Michaelson (really funny), Andrew Bird (so good, I nearly cried), and The Flaming Lips (pictured above, rocking). It was, all told, and incredible experience. After the concert, we headed downtown for drinks and got to bed way too late.

We got up way too early on July 5th and drove north to Minneapolis to attend the wedding of Amanda’s friend Nicole. Originally, I was a little miffed to be spending my Independence Day weekend at a wedding for a girl I’d only met once before, but I ended up having a good time, and Amanda and I took lots of mental notes for our own wedding and reception plans. I discovered that I really like Black Russians, and it’s become my new cocktail hour drink of choice.

We got back into town late on the 6th. Grandma and Grandpa drove Miles back up for us (they’ve had him nearly every other weekend ever since we got back from Europe!). They also brought us Arby’s, which was pretty nice, since all I’d had to eat so far that day was cookies and gummi bears. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The 7th and 8th were pretty low-key (which we needed at that point). On the 9th, we toured a reception hall that we liked a lot. The only negative, really, was that it’s a ways out of town, and we were originally hoping to have our reception in the downtown area somewhere. But the place is very pretty, so we may have to compromise on that one.

On the 10th we went to a Tweetup, which is a gathering of your friendly neighborhood Twitter friends. We only stayed out for a few hours, but we had a really good time, and met several new people. We also got to hear a live poetry reading, which I hadn’t done since college.

Ahh, the 11th… how’d it get to be Friday again already? We went out to Friday Fest with new couple-friends Tigon and Ben. We ended up having enough to drink that it seemed perfectly logical to ~keep~ drinking after the Fest bit ended, so we headed downtown to El Bait Shop. Ben is a huge fan of beer, but he’d never been to the Shop to witness their 160 Taps of Glory, so we figured we should remedy that. And after that, we headed back to our place for a little Rock Band action. On the way home, we stopped by a liquor store for even more drinks, and Ben bought a bottle of Iowa-made Templeton Rye. I gave it a try, and discovered that it’s easily my favorite whiskey, so I think we’ll be getting a bottle soon as well.

We were pretty lazy for most of the day during the 12th except a run to the Woodsmith Store for supplies, but that evening we headed to Lindsay Rees’s place for her third annual July barbeque. It was my third year in attendance, which made me the only true veteran there aside from Lindsay herself. We had drinks (well, I did – Amanda was driving, so she mostly behaved herself) and chatted, listened to music, played cards… all the fun mid-July barbeque stuff.

And then on the 13th we got up decently early, moved all our furniture out of the bedroom, and painted that bad boy. It ended up taking all day, because we were painting using three different colors (the ceiling is one color, the three walls another, and an accent wall a third), but I think it came out looking really great. Of course, the paint was still drying when it was time for bed, so we ended up sleeping on the futon in the basement last night. Tonight, we’ll pull off all the tape, put everything back in the room, and snap some pictures. So expect a post covering our handiwork in the near future.

And as for this week… it’s looking more sane and sedate. Which is good. Our only big plan so far is we’re going to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight with a bunch of Twitter friends on Thursday night (technically 12:01am Friday morning). And as a result, Amanda and I are going to take Friday off from work to have a nice, relaxing day to ourselves. Unless something really cool comes our way, of course. :)

Whew. This weekend, Amanda and I successfully hosted our first-ever dinner party. Or party of any sort in this house, actually. And although it was a lot of work, it was totally worth it.

The final and official menu turned out pretty kick arse:

• For Dinner:
  • Turkey (brined & roasted) (via Amanda and I)
  • Chive Mashed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy (Ditto)
  • Apple-Herb Stuffing (Same)
  • Green Bean Casserole (Us again)
  • Cheesy Carrot Casserole (Sara!)
  • Homemade Cranberry Sauce (Anne!)
  • Dinner Rolls (Amanda and I)
• For Beverages:
  • 5 bottles red wine (via Amanda & I, Kate, Lindsay, Megan, and Anne)
  • 2 bottles white wine (via Amanda & I and Julie)
• For Dessert:
  • Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake (Megan)
  • Pecan Pie (Hannah & Toño)
  • Apple Crumble Pie (two of ‘em) (Amanda & I)
  • Flan (Hannah & Toño)
  • Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes (Sara)

So, Holy Crap, in other words. We had a lot to eat. :)

We had 11 people in attendance in total, counting The Hosts with the Mosts. People started arriving around 5:30pm, we all sat down to eat shortly after 6pm, and people filtered out slowly until pretty close to 11pm.

Dinner-Related Happenings of Note:

After peeling five pounds of potatoes what for the mashing, we tried sticking the peelings down the garbage disposal. The intense vibrations from the disposal unit trying to handle the extreme overabundance of ‘tater peels actually managed to shake the drainage pipe lose from the wall, causing a small flood of extremely starchy water all over the new floor. I got the pipe reattached, though, and after a bit of plunging, it didn’t cause us any more problems.

Smaug was being his usual social self during the meal, hanging around the dinner table and playing with anyone who happened to glance his way. At one point, he got bored and jumped up onto the credenza under the window. The only problem with that was, the credenza was covered from end to end with our desserts. He realized his mistake at the very last second and managed a mid-air course correction, missing the caramel top of the delicate Flan by a quarter inch and then stepping carefully around the pies before I caught him an inch from the side of the cake. He spent the rest of the evening locked in the basement.

Miles spent the majority of the dinner outside, because he was just a little too excited by all the new people and smells. Around dessert time, we felt sorry for him, and let him in while we ate our sugary snacks. He happily galloped around the table for a while, saying hello to everyone, and then wandered off for a bit. A few minutes later, we realized that while we were stuffing our faces with cake and pie, Miles was in the kitchen finishing off the turkey left on the platter. He managed to eat a good pound and a half of turkey before anyone noticed. Luckily, I hadn’t finished carving the bird, so there was still some left for leftovers.

But other than that, things went really smoothly. We’re calling the party a success, and are hoping it turns into a yearly tradition. :) And if you would like to see my photos of the evening, you need go no further than right about here.

Patient readers! A lot has been going on in the Land of Rob in the last few weeks. I’ll try and catch you up as painlessly as possible.

The Kitchen – Work on the kitchen is nearly complete! I pulled up all the linoleum, only to discover an entire new floor that also wasn’t wood. So I had to pull that up, too. Then there was the tiling of the new floor. Went smoothly-ish, if slowly. My sanding set off the alarm, and the fire department showed up. That was cool. If you’re into fire engines and large bills, anyway.

Then we took apart the cabinets and painted them Benjamin Moore’s Marble White (you can look it up yourself, if interested). We reattached them with bronze hinges that my parents had half-installed and fully-purchased, so that helped keep the cost down. And we found matching pulls on sale at Lowe’s, so we lucked out there.

After that came the painting of the kitchen. Benjamin Moore again, of course… this time in Sesame, which is a sort of pale green. Not at all the color of sesame seeds. But it looks really nice against the cabinets.

Then, Amanda and I installed the new track lighting and I got briefly wicked smart and figured out how to add the track lighting to the existing three-way switch circuit by just running one new 2+1 wire. There may have been some self-congratulatory fist-shaking immediately afterwards. :) I was pretty stoked that my first attempt at rewiring did not result in fire.

Last night, we got ambitious and reupholstered the kitchen benches. We bought a couple of these tablecloths from Bed, Bath & Beyond and cut them to size. They look pretty nice against the green walls. We also bought a beige tablecloth to go over the kitchen table, a beige curtain to go over the window above the sink, and beige valences to go over the two other kitchen windows.

Today, we ordered the Anise wall decal designed by Ilan Dei from Blik (the graphite color). So in a couple of weeks, we’ll have that decal growing up our green wall from behind our black benches. It should look really nice.

So really, all that’s left is to is lay down the new baseboard. We’ve bought it, and I took a swing at it last night, only to realize that 1) I don’t have a proper adhesive, and 2) It’s a lot tougher than one would think to get one’s miters cut to the perfect length. So that project is going to take a while. But I’m still hoping to have it done by Saturday! Because we’re moving forward with the pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We’re expecting around a dozen friends Saturday evening… we’ve rented a couple of banquet tables and a bunch of chairs, and plan to briefly turn the living room into a dining room, and the kitchen into the serving area. Fingers crossed.

The Job – I scored an interview with Workbench, which I think went decently well. The next day, they gave me a test assignment: write a four-page article on building a room divider screen. It was a pretty interesting assignment… I’d never written exactly in that style before, but it was a fun challenge. And now I have a half-finished room divider screen sitting in my garage. :) I plan to finish it once the kitchen is put back together. But the good news is, I turned in my article last night, so that’s taken care of. Now all I can do is wait and see.

The Future – I’m slowly moving into the 21st century. Last weekend, as part of my randomly ambitious wiring stint, I installed a programmable thermostat. It’s just a cheap little $30 model from Lowe’s, but good lord is it awesome. The house automatically cool down at night the way we like it, which helps us sleep better (and saves energy), then starts warming up half an hour before our alarm goes off. It’s a lot easier getting out of bed in the mornings when the air isn’t frigid. Then it cools down during the day, and warms up again half an hour before we get home. Kick. Ass.

Also, I think I have Amanda mostly convinced that Roombas are not (completely) scary or (entirely) evil, so maybe I’ll be able to get one of those someday. At the moment, I most definitely can’t afford it. Refinishing the kitchen has pretty well taken care of any excess monies I might have had. ;) When I can afford it, though, I’m grabbing myself this model here. You can’t schedule it, but it knows to go home when the battery is low, and that’s key to me.

Well, that’s that. Tune in next month (or hopefully much sooner) for another exciting adventure in the Land of Rob.

It’s a sad but true fact that whenever my life gets busy, and this could really be any sort of busy, my website is the first to feel the effects. If work is busy, then I don’t have time to write articles at work, and I certainly don’t feel like sitting in front of a computer when I get home. If my social life is busy, then I have more things of interest (to some people) to write about, but less time in which to write. It’s a conundrum. And sometimes, I just get distracted by other things in my otherwise ample free time. This week has been a combination of all of these things.

Work has been keeping my nose firmly planted against the grindstone, with a monkey seated between my shoulder blades. Or whatever metaphor you prefer, so long as it makes me really busy and is vaguely surreal. I’ve had a ton of different projects going on at once the last couple of weeks, all of which managed to have a deadline of this Friday. Right before a major holiday. Go figure.

Luckily, there’s my social life to distract me. Tonight, Amanda and I are going to Ames for the ISU football season opener against Kent State, which should be a great time. Friday during the day, I’m a pall bearer in my Great-Uncle Willie’s funereal.* I’m not sure I’d normally consider that a social event, but I’m not sure what other category it should grace instead. Friday night, I’ve gotten a bunch of people to join me on a Clive-based pub crawl from 5pm – 12:30am. This weekend, Amanda and I are planning to paint the office, do a bit of yard work, and enjoy each others’ company (I’ve hardly seen her this week). On Monday, we’re getting up early and driving to Minnesota to visit her family. Tuesday, we’re going to the Damien Rice concert in Minneapolis (thanks for the tip, Monica!). Wednesday is all about the driving of home and the catching of breath before we head back to work on Thursday.

Of course, all of that is in the future. Amanda’s been busy socially this week (I haven’t seen her the last two evenings), but I’ve mostly been haunting the house by my lonesome. Or as lonesome as one gets with two inquisitive cats and a hyperactive dog. So what have I been doing with myself? Well, I’m halfway through book 5 of Harry Potter, if that’s any indication (hint: it’s any indication). I’ll probably get through #5 this weekend, and grab #6 for the Minnesota run. And then, I can finally get on to #7! Go me. For very nerdy values of me.

* My great-uncle Willie died in the night on Tuesday. He was very sick, so I’m going to go ahead and consider it for the best. Sorry to end the article on a downer, but I didn’t like how that information got buried in the middle of that paragraph. :)

Okay, okay, so it’s been a while. Over three weeks, in fact. At first, I wasn’t updating because I didn’t really have anything new and cheerful to update about, and I was raised to believe that if you don’t have nothin’ nice to say, don’t say nothin’ at all (I believe that came from Bambi’s Guide to Parenting). Then, I finally had nice and fun things to say again, and work suddenly got intensely busy. It has remained intensely busy every since. Combine that with the fact that I still don’t have internet access at home (pick your jaws up off the floor, all… I haven’t vacuumed there in a while), and Robby has had very little free time online to do much. In fact, today is the first time I’ve even ~visited~ my own website in weeks. As such, I’ll say now: thank you all for the kind and supportive comments. Oh, and to Wampler: That’s really ironic, because your grandmother smells like the old mayo in my fridge. :D

So yeah. Obviously work has been busy. My weekends have been pretty busy, too, but moreso on the social side of things. It turns out I have a pretty fantastic set of friends. In the last three weeks, I’ve gotten to hang out with Quinn, Scott, Eric, Kate, Lisa, Justin, Megan, Amanda, Anne, Sarah, Carlos, Kelsey, Lindsay, and everyone in this photo. Dana and I even hung out one night last week, trying out our new roles as friends. We had Thai food and talked for a couple of hours. It went fairly well. :)

For various reasons (probably mostly the social ones listed above), work has stalled a little bit on the house. I still have things in boxes, I still need to replace the wall sockets in the basement, and I still need to do something about the walls in the upstairs living room. Oh, and I’ve decided I really need a new desk for my office. All of the desks and desk-like options I have at the moment are far too large for the room. I loved my big desks while I was working on my thesis (at one point, I had ~two~ huge desks set up in an L-shape to hold all my stuff), but now the space is mostly going to waste, and I would feel a lot better if that space were being used for, say, walking.

Okay, my work has been ignored for long enough this afternoon. People have started to respond to my emails, so I can move forward on projects again. I have a ton more that I could say (I’ve been writing updates in my head for weeks now), so I’ll try very hard to update again later this week.