muse | no muse

how does your garden grow

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:07:53 -0700

Earlier this year, I decided that we needed a garden. Our home included a 200 square foot flower bed that was moving steadily towards total reclamation by aggressive, thorn ridden, noxious plant life. People who know me weren't surprised by the weed cultivation -- I insisted for several years that the back yard was xeriscaped with native plant life prior to Nat ordering sod. I spent several weekends and evenings digging out the undesirable material, tilling in compost, busting sod, and removing galvanized sprinkler pipe with my trusty sidekick. We started with eleven 9 foot rows over approximately 24 feet of garden.

Technorati Tags: black raspberries, boysenberries, cole, garden, jalapenos, lentils, pumpkins, raspberries, red bell peppers, roma tomatoes, tomatillos, yukon gold potatoes

and a side of tater tots

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:32:03 -0700

Tate made his appearance at 4:25 a.m. on ~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday, March 21, 2007. He weighed seven pounds and one ounce and was 20 inches long. A few photos have been uploaded.

islands in the kitchen

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:53:11 -0700

My buddy Chuck popped in for a few hours on Sunday last to set the tile on the back splash beneath the cabinets on the south wall of the kitchen. The results are impressive.

Previous to our back splash session, FedEx finally managed to deliver the cabinets for my island without destroying or losing them. The island is quickly becoming space which I long to use. Once the cabinets were in place, I realized I had room for a bar overhang on the east end of the island. Chuck converted some 8/4 maple into corbels for me. The corbels turned out great and will be even better once I figure out how to stain them. In the near future, Chuck and I will need to set the beveled edge pieces over the exposed cabinet cap (the perforated metal below the marble visible on the island).

On President's Day, my buddy Erik phoned for help moving a dresser he and Debbie purchased from a local furniture store. While waiting for some muscle to pull his order, I found and purchased the hutch below. It goes incredibly well with the rest of the kitchen.

back to the babble

erik's wedding cake

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:04:12 -0700

My very good friend Erik married Debbie yesterday in Moroni, UT. I volunteered to make a wedding cake and had fun figuring out the basics of wedding cake production. Debbie selected a cake design and I attempted an implementation.

towards a functional kitchen

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:33:56 -0700

cabinet savignon

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:29:40 -0700

no light for bamboo at night

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:18:55 -0700

paint your kitchen

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:15:43 -0700

the primer directive

Fri, 24 Nov 2006 13:35:16 -0700

The kitchen is primed.

I am incapable of creating invisible sheetrock seams. The next floating job is getting hired out. End of story.

sex and dying in high society

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:24:54 -0700

Clay, the narrator of Bret Easton Ellis’ (1964) novel Less Than Zero (1985), drifts through the narrative in an extended series of perpetual presents. He is the epitome of Paul Virilio’s (1932) terminal citizen (Virilio, 21), existing through the mediation of input and interaction, eschewing community and communication in favor of serial physical contact, and constantly seeking the acceleration of heightened stimulation in a downward spiral from promiscuous sex with any willing partner to the experiences of death and dying. Ellis captures Clay’s descent into the zombie-like terminal state in the opening phrase of the novel, “People are afraid to merge” (Ellis, 9).

muddy days and sundays

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:42:15 -0700

Floating sheetrock is not one of my favorite activities. Given the amount of time I spend dabbling in the kitchen, however, Nat and I are taking as long as the process requires to get the sheetrock seams as disappeared as possible.

kitchen in the rough

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 14:07:16 -0700

And there was sheetrock.

the rules of operation

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:31:02 -0700

Mark C. Taylor’s (1945) essay Interfacing (1997) argues that existing analytical tools are grossly insufficient in the networked or webbed existence of the postmodern world. Like a mirage retreating into the haze of desert heat as one approaches, the network/web structure resists absolute classification. Taylor posits ten characteristic rules of operation for a web or network. Though each of the rules of operation manifests within the text of Chuck Palahniuk’s (1962) novel Fight Club (1996), the Rule of Allelomimesis is perhaps best illustrated in the narrative’s cycle.

the kitchen goes missing

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:17:15 -0700

Nat observed that I had not taken any photos of the current self-inflicted house project as it progressed. I suspect my neglect is likely associated with the hours I've been keeping on the project.

ground zero

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:33:39 -0700

On a recent business trip to Beaverton, Oregon, I found myself in the Streets of Tanasbourne surrounded by the comfortable and disturbing signs of the Gap, Banana Republic, Macey’s, Sunglass Hut, Hot Topic, the Macaroni Grill, and P.F. Chang’s. The [dis]comfort I experienced orbits the idea that simultaneously there is something both very wrong and very right about being able to walk into a clothing store, which exists in an eerie echo of our local Gateway a thousand miles from home, and buy the same unbranded, black t-shirt I purchase in Salt Lake City. If the mental conflict is not “right” per se, then it is convenient so extreme as to affect the façade of “right.”