d a v e j e n b a r n e s » family of five

I’m so glad I’m not just putting all this out there for the spambots to crawl.  That sounds all Matrix-y… I imagine the web crawler bots like google has (I think they’re even called spiders??) to look like the long tailed things that they fight in Matrix 2.  Of course, made up of lots of 0’s and 1’s … that are green.  I mean, of course.

I’ll post some about the home improvement projects we have going on this week… I mean, I’ll post this week… not that the home improvement projects are going on this week.  Not necessarily.  We tend to do things 2/3rds around here and that makes me sad.  Maybe by blogging about it, I’ll be held slightly more accountable to getting that last 1/3rd of the way done.  Now that I think of it, maybe it’s more like 3/4ths or 4/5ths than 2/3rds.  Eh, who’s keeping track anyhow, right?

Maybe that’s the Austin way… get things most of the way done but not all of the way done.  Oh, I’m just referring to the metro rail fiasco.  Set to open March 2009 but had all kinds of issues.  One of which is that their trains didn’t weigh enough to trip the sensors in the crossing guards up here in Leander.  D’oh!  I mean, come on.  They’ve made so many mistakes with that thing that there’s even a MetroFAIL website up.  Ha!  I had to laugh.

Having lived in Chicago, I know (and appreciate) what a good public rail transportation system can do for a community.  I doubt we’ll get that here in Austin as it’s only set to run from Leander to Austin in the wee hours in the morning (with, like, way fewer trips back than down – huh?) and at rush hour from Austin to Leander.  No mid-day runs, no back and forth.  If I were to ride down with my boys to visit, say, the Children’s museum… we would have to leave at 6 AM something to go down and catch a train back before mid-morning when they stop running.  OR be stuck downtown until 5 PM.  That, my friends, is truly a MetroFAIL for us.  That is not what I voted for when I voted for the rail system, what?, six or seven years ago.  So disappointing.

Okay, off that tangent.  (I just heard a train go by and they’re not supposed to toot their train horns at that crossing (once the MetroRAIL starts running, however many more false “opening” dates they give us) which reminded me about the whole rail fiasco.)  It’s a mess.  I hope commuters will get good use of it, but Austin needs to take some lessons from DC and Chicago regarding making a useful rail schedule.  I know I know … they have to run freight trains on the same tracks, I know.

Where was I?  Yeah, 2/3rds..

We got the crown moulding up but not finished.  I was debating changing the interior paint colors so I never finished with the moulding.  I need to paint the joins and then go around with the wall color and edge in a new line.  For that, I’ll need a new brush, though.  We don’t have the right kind of paint brush.  I tried.  I failed.  I made a mess.  I’d also like to paint the ceilings.  Uhghhh… I think we’ll need the boys out of the house for a few days to accomplish a project of that magnitude.  I know it will make a big impact, though, so it’s pretty high up on the wish list.

Some smaller projects will be easy to photograph.  Namely peg racks for stuff to get hung upon.  Ah!  I just added 7 of them and LOVE THEM.  Why have I not added peg racks to the walls earlier?!  It keeps the hallway soooooooo much cleaner and the two in the boys’ room gives them a place to hang their superman capes and the jeans that they wore out but didn’t get dirty.  SO Handy!  Yes, I will photograph those.

Enough rambling for tonight.  I leave you with a picture.  of a clothespin.  Because I can.

And that, my friends, is why I bought a two thousand dollar lens.  Oh, not for the picture of the clothespin, but for the blur.  The delicious creamy magnificent blur.  Or bokeh, whatever you want to call it.  Mmmm!  If it can do that for a clothespin, imagine what it can do for portraits.