Vertical Blinds

We installed the vertical blinds for the patio door today.




Its nice to have that done.

Meet Ranger




Ranger is a 2 month old beagle pup that we adopted from the Denton pound. We don't get to take her home until thursday, though, because the vet needs to 'adjust' her. We are both excited. We've wanted a dog for a while.

Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas

BYU 17, UCLA 16

The blinds are here.


When I got home from the concert last Saturday night I arrived to find that the wooden blinds that I had ordered had arrived, a couple of days earlier than I expected.



I went ahead and installed one of them before I went to bed that night.





Most of them are installed now, including the ones in the master bedroom.





And the master bath




The house now has a more 'private' feel now that the makeshift curtains are gone and the bare windows are covered.

Christmas Concert


The Christmas concert went fairly well. Tonight we played the 2nd of two concerts. The choir especialy sounded good tonight. The orchestra was good as well. There was a moment or two of wierdness but nothing serious.




I wasn't all that thrilled with my playing but I think that the overall presentation came off well.


Here's a photo of the Flower Mound Symphony's low brass Section

Fired.


I had a trombone student's grandmother(whom he lives with) call me today and tell me that my 'style' doesn't mesh well with him and that they had found another teacher. Fine. I've lost students before. This one bothered me, though, because the grandmother seemd to imply that I didn't 'respect' him and 'treat him like a man.'

He's 13 years old.

This particular student was actually pretty good for his age, making 1st chair all-city and 1st chair all-region this year. Unfortunately, he felt like he had nothing left to learn. He seemingly just wanted to be told how good he was - which I tried to do, just not all of the time. His reaction was to just sit there and pout.

He needed to take resposibility for his lack of action but why do it when his support system at home thinks that he can do no wrong?

Christmas Concert


The Flower Mound Symphony's big annual Christmas concert is Saturday & Sunday. Last year's was fun and this should be a good time for the performers & audience.


BTW, the tuba player in the orchestra, Rommel Cordova, just released an album. I've had a listen and it sounds great. Check it out.

An Evening of Christmas Joys


Last night our stake performed its annual Christmas concert, 'An Evening of Christmas Joys.' it went rather well. It was a 2 hour program and included performances by a couple of children's choirs, a youth choir, a brass octet as well as the stake choir. Overall, the level of the performances was fairly high for an all-volunteer program.

I played in the brass octet which performed Canzon septimi toni No. 2 by Gabrieli.





It came off pretty well in spite of the fact that we were missing a trombone. I also played in the 'Denton Stake Chamber Orchestra' whose main function was to accompany the congregational hymns as well as the big finale, the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. It was a lot of fun.






Before the program began, several brass players, including myself, went into the foyer and played Christmas carols to the arriving audience.

Done at last


The Master Bedroom Suite is done at last.





I aimed the camera a little high on purpose to get more of the ceiling in on the shot.

I'm looking for more playing opportunities.


I play the trombone on the Flower Mound Symphony Orchestra but I am looking to play in another group as well. If anyone knows of a good orchestra or community band in the Dallas Ft. Worth area that needs a trombone, please let me know.

Painting the ceiling




Using a spraygun to paint the ceiling - a recipe for a good time.

Drywall Repair


Time to paint the master bedroom. I started by moving all the furniture out which was a difficult task for our new dresser and bed. Not insurmountable, just a pain. I had to remove the mirror from the dresser, which I did. I put the mirror in the loft and then dragged the dresser out there as well. Then came the bed.




I didn't want to take it apart if I could help it so I attempted to flip it on the side, thinking that I could get it out the bedroom door that way. Problem is, the ceiling wasn't high enough - a fact that was brought to my attention about the time that the bed frame hit it. Here's the resulting damage:



Its about the size of a quarter. I was mad and depressed for about an hour about it. The I went to Lowes and found something called a orange peel texture patch. It matches the texture of the ceiling fairly cosely and, best of all, I don't have to cut up the wall and force compound into the hole. Just slap on the patch and paint over it. Here's hoping that it looks good.

The grass is growing


I looked in the backyard today and discovered that the rye grass that I had sown there a couple of weeks ago is now sprouting.

BYU 17 Utah 10


A little treat for BYU football fans

Thanksgiving

A few pictures of visiting family playing boardgames.





One of my nieces. Isn't she a cutie?

The Loft


I really busted my can to get the loft done in time for Thanksgiving. The morning of I was still painting, even as family was arriving.


Some 'in progress' photos:









And the final product







It feels good to have it done.

More on the backyard

Yesterday I dug up a rather sizable rock.



I'm since been trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Its too heavy to cart to the dumpster by hand without giving myself a nice-sized hernia. My wife suggested flattening out one of the bigger cardboard boxes and using it to drag the rock to the dumpster. A good idea but it still has to go up(about 6 feet up) and inside it.

I did some more today, including digging up another sizable rock(although not as big as the first one.




Also, I need to paint the loft area in the house before Thanksgiving so as to make it all look nice for the arrival of family.

Seeding the Backyard, part deux

I spent a couple of hours today going through the soil(hand 'tilling' it) and pulling up rocks and weeds. I put the rocks into a used 5 gallon paint bucket and, when its full, I dump the bucket into the dumpster in front of the house that's being built next door. There are a lot of rocks. And weeds. Some of the rocks are rather sizable.

Seeding the backyard



The builders laid the sod for the front yard as part of the purchase price but wanted an exhorbtant fee for doing the backyard. So we decided to seed the backyard ourselves. We've been living here now for about six weeks during which time I've been primarily occupied with painting the interior. In the meantime, weeds have been cropping up back there. Lately, I've finaly gotten around to loosening the soil - and trying to pull up the weeds in the process. I'm using a 3-pronged tool to do it but it is still a labor intensive process. After the soil has been loosened, I'll put the seed back there. Its not much fun but its better than having a backyard full of weeds.

Here's my progress so far:

Evening of Christmas Joys

Every year our church does a stake Christmas music program. Choirs sing, instrumental groups play, and there is a group sing along to the Hallelujah Chorus. Usually there is a brass group that plays although there wasn't last year because 2 of the lds horn players and myself had a conflict playing in another Christmas program for an orchestra that we are members of. This year, there is no scheduling conflict so a small brass choir was organized to play at this years event. Anyhow, we had our first rehearsal Sunday night. I was expecting marginal brass players, as in years past, but I was pleasantly surprised, for a couple of reasons. One was because there were 2 lds trombone players who are both doing graduate degrees in performance here at UNT. And one of the players was a former student of mine from my BYU days. I was her first teacher - 15 years ago. It was surprising to find out that she is now at UNT(where I did my masters degree in trombone performance). Its funny how your past comes full circle sometimes. The other trombone is a former BYU & Manhattan School of Music student. He's here doing his DMA and is also a very good player. In addition, the horns are solid and the trumpets hold their own.

We're playing Canzon septimi toni No. 2. I was worried about how it would come together, because I've played Gabrieli's canzons in some brass groups where it sounded like a train wreck, but this sounded positively great for a first rehearsal! Its very exciting. I haven't felt that good about playing in a group for a long time. Warm fuzzies.

Halloween


Our house in all its Halloween glory.

I treated the fence today


With sealant that is. We like the 'redwood' color so that's what we went with. We used the 'Olympus' brand which consumer reports says is very good. Its the Lowes' proprietary brand and, judging from the price, they are very, very proud of it.

The first picture is when I am in the processing of treating the fence. Its hard to see because of the shadows but the treatment goes left to right and stops on the left part of the picture.





Here is the finished product



I'm happy to finally get that taken care of. If I had waited too long, the wood(pine) would have started to turn brown on its own and begun the decaying process. The treated wood looks quite a bit nicer.


Here are pictures of a couple of upstairs rooms that I am painting concurrently(they are directly across the hall from each other). I am almost finished with the ceilings.

The scrapbooking room


The newspapers are taped to the top of the trim with painters tape. This protects both the trim and the edges of the carpet. When I am painting I have a drop cloth like the one in the picture below(the music room). The newpapers do a good job catching anything that gets past the edge of it.




The music room closet. Its not big enough to have a drop cloth on the floor so I just put down some newspaper.





Oh, and we are FINALLY online. We had to get a phone line put in so the dsl would work but we are now back on the web.

Painting


I painted most of the day Saturday. Here are pictures of a couple of rooms that I worked on.

Tomorrow is closing day


No new pictures to post. Almost everything to show has already been posted.


10am tomorrow morning.

Afterwards, M(my wife) & I are going to celebrate by going out to Maggiano's for lunch. We discovered it during our trip to Las Vegas and were delighted to learn that there was one in the dfw area. I love their creme brulee. Yum!

Then we are getting paint and paint supplies and going to work on the interior. M can't stand the flat paint on the walls and has picked out a color and texture that she likes better; 'toasted coconut.'

The Fence is done.




The bath and shower hardware is in.




And the shingles are on the back patio overhang.