Neighborhood excitement

Posted on March 5, 2007 by Donna

I came home tonight to cop cars and yellow police tape at the intersection in front of my house. It’s always disconcerting to drive down your street and see cops in front of your house.

Come to find out, this afternoon there was a fire in the house across the street from me, and after seven fire trucks responded and got the fire put out, they found a body in the back. Apparently, the woman who lived there did not die of smoke inhalation, so there is an investigation going on.

I didn’t know them at all, so I can’t even speculate. I’ll watch the news like everyone else. Here’s the initial report. See my house in the background?

Posted in Life & Family | 7 Comments

A Good Day

Posted on March 3, 2007 by Donna

I’m not sure what to call what I’m doing to my laundry room. It’s not remodeling, because no construction is taking place. It’s not redecorating, because you don’t really “decorate” a laundry room. I guess I’m giving it a face lift — new paint and flooring. It has never been redone since we bought this house 21 years ago. I pulled everything off the shelves, pulled up the old tile, and started painting last weekend. Today, I got the rest of the painting done, and half the new tile laid. I’m putting in the same that I used in the bathroom.

But that’s not what made it a good day. That was a lot of work! I’m tired out tonight, and still have more to do tomorrow. No, it was the overtime win against Stanford that offset all that wearying work. What a game! Up by 19 points early in the second half, and we let Stanford come back to tie it up with six seconds left. I think if six of their players had not been suffering from food poisoning, we would have had our clocks cleaned. But in the end, we pulled it out and got the “W”. That makes 20 going into the conference tournament, enough to get us into the Big Dance.

Diamondbacks spring training has begun. With Randy Johnson back, but Gonzo gone, it could be an interesting year.

Posted in Life & Family, Sports | 1 Comment

Another loss

Posted on February 17, 2007 by Donna

This is the time of the year when there’s almost more on TV than I can keep up with. All of my favorite fall shows are really ramping up for the second half of the season, plus there are several shows starting their new seasons now. Maybe it’ll be a good thing if the Wildcats don’t make it to March Madness so I have more time to watch Lost, Heroes and American Idol. NO! Perish the thought! After 22 consecutive years, that’s almost unthinkable. However, at this point, it’s looking more and more like they may need to win the Pac-10 tournament to secure a seed. The way they’re going, it’s not guaranteed they’ll get an at-large bid.

Today’s loss to UCLA was sad enough, but it was also the seniors’ last home game. Sigh! It has not been the fun year we thought it would be back in December.

Posted in Life & Family, Sports | 5 Comments

New Floor

Posted on February 17, 2007 by Donna

B4-1 b4-1-sm.JPGFor the past few weekends, I’ve been working on replacing the tile in my small hall bath. Here are the before pictures (or I should say the “during” pictures).

And here are the afters:

After1 After2 I did all the tile removal and new installation myself, but had a little help with the tough – as in “manly” – parts. Daryl came over to help me pull some of the old glued baseboard out from under the sink cabinet, and Brian came (along with Mark’s miter saw) to help put in the new baseboards. Well, okay, Brian put in the new baseboards without my help, but I made him lunch while he was doing it! 🙂

You’d never believe that is vinyl tile at first glance. The new patterns look so much like ceramic you have to inspect them closely. I’m very pleased with the result. I think I’ll put the same pattern in my master bath and kitchen.

Posted in Life & Family | 4 Comments

How many share your name?

Posted on February 5, 2007 by Donna

From a friend’s blog, I linked to this site. I thought it was fun and interesting to check names I know. I felt pretty common after finding I share my name with 1067 others (including the famous TV actress), but all of my brothers and Robin have more unique names. Ken and Mom are the only ones with their names. However, Gisele wins the prize. According to this site, there is no one in the U.S. with her name (including her, apparently!)

Posted in Life & Family | 8 Comments

Cold Office

Posted on January 29, 2007 by Donna

The HVAC at work was damaged by construction workers on Friday, and all weekend long the blower was bringing outside air into the building.  This morning, it was only about 58 degrees inside.  Everyone complained loud and long!  At about 10:00, they got the blower turned off, and slowly the ice started melting from our ears and elbows. There was no heat, but luckily it was a pretty nice day outside, and by about 2:00 it was almost comfortable if you still had your jacket on.

They expect it will still be broken tomorrow, so everyone will be bringing warm clothing and wraps. My office is in a location that is always a bit colder than the rest of the building, so I have a little fleece blanket that I keep there all the time.  I think tomorrow I won’t be the only one with my legs wrapped up.

Posted in Life & Family | 3 Comments