My Kitchen Mural. Let Me Show You It.

Jane, If you are reading this, sorry it took me so long to post.

Two Weekends ago, my Inlaws came down, armed with boxes upon boxes of painted and glazed 2-inch ceramic tiles. My Mother-in-law is a Potter, professionally, and bought several hundred pounds of these tiles from eBay or some Warehouse-going-out-of-business sale a year or so ago. She used a whole lot of them to make a beautiful aerial scene for the Eastern wall of my kitchen.

The scene is based on the view from the hang-gliding ramp operated by Tennessee Tree Toppers, which overlooks the Sequatchie Valley. Bill Colvin, a "Tree Topper" himself, was there to help, along with his lovely wife, Jane, a world-class cook, who prepared some terrific White Chicken Chili for the occasion. Bill and Jane live within walking distance of the ramp, so this mural is also roughly the view from their backyard.

The mural is still not entirely done, but we got a lot more done after Bill and Jane Had to leave, and I promised I would post the pictures of what got done Monday Morning.

So here it is folks. For larger pictures, you should be able to click on the slideshow.

So, How's That Home Remodel Coming Along?

Slowly but surely.

My In-laws keep coming down, every weekend, to chip away at fixing up our fixer-upper. Drywalling the kitchen has been their main project, and it has, so far consumed three weekends and 8 sheets of Drywall. Apparently the supplies were paid for courtesy of my Grand-In-Laws, so it seems that extreme generosity runs pretty far up the Carter family tree. Only one sheet of wallboard more is needed to complete the kitchen ceiling, and with a few more applications of Tape, "Mud", and Paint, we will have a beautiful, steeply vaulted ceiling with some old, rough-sawn, oaken rafters exposed beneath it. I will try to have some Before, During, and Further During pictures up pretty soon. If I don't take the pictures in the morning, while the Sun is still in the East, there is not enough light to take a good picture of the room.

The Ceiling will be painted, but as for the end wall and sink backsplash area, Ma Carter, the Stoneware Artisan, has got big plans for a piece of art in the medium of tile. She has brought over little color swatches and samples of glaze finishes and things, and I have heard that a Mural-y, Mosaic-y depiction of an aerial landscape might be in store. I am not sure exactly what it will end up being, but I have not seen any of her artwork that has failed to impress me, so I know that whatever we get will be the kind of thing that makes visitors go "oooh!", and "aaaah!".

Kind of like our Hand-crafted, Four-poster Bed that Pa Carter made us for our wedding present. I take it for granted nowadays, but in the rare instance that we have visitors, that bed gets oooh'ed and aaah'ed over, every single time. The Posts on it are tree trunks about 4 - 5 inches in diameter, and still have the bark on them. I can't remember if it was intentionally themed after "Where The Wild Things Are" or not, but that is certainly the look it has.Speaking of "Where The Wild Things Are", there is a live-action film version coming out sometime next year. Maybe we can get some life-sized Monster cardboard cutouts from a local theater's promotional display, and do up our bedroom in a real "Wild Things" Theme.
<--These Wild Things...Not These-->


Speaking of movies coming out next year, What's the latest on The Dark Knight Movie? Well, I'm Glad you asked, because that is the next (and likely Final) post in today's Post-A-Palooza!

My Inlaws Return!

Ma and Pa Carter are due to be at my house in thirty minutes. I am not sure what we/they have planned for today, but I think it will involve my kitchen. If we do any more terrible damage to my house, I will post photos.

Last night was the best night I have ever had at the pizza joint where I am a server. After splitting my tips with the folks who helped me out, I walked away with over 80 bucks! But the best news was how smoothly everything ran to get there. Usually if we do that much business, I am tearing my hair out at some point. Not last night though. Everything went smooth as silk. Hoping for a repeat performance tonight!

Toot and PC hung out together on the bed last night. Toot has been gradually warming up to sharing her living quarters with other quadrupeds, but until last night she hadn't truly relaxed within three feet of another cat. As prevoiusly mentioned, PC is fine with things, but Marbles now only comes in the house to grab a bite to eat and boogie back out the catflap.

Well, I'm off to go do innovative things with a table saw... so, ciao!

Photodump! - Bathrooms, Burros, and Balloons!

Hello, Blog-Appreciators!

I have seen a great many things this week.

I have seen Tiny Donkeys, Toilets Overturned, and Giant Bags of Gas ascending into the Atmosphere. (These items were all completely unrelated, though it would be funny to combine them all in a single story!)

For starters, I have now re-mounted my motorscooter, which has earned the name "Red Devil" after its attempted Frank-slaughter back in March. (It has since tried to kill someone else, but I strongly suspect that he was being a jerk and probably had it coming. It is a long story, which won't be told in this forum.) My arm is healed, and my psyche as well, and even though scootering is not as fun without the sense of invulnerability I previously possessed, it is still very practical, allowing me a bit more freedom of movement during the day when Becca is at work.

I take the back-roads on the Red Devil whenever possible, So I can go slower, without anyone (metaphorically) breathing down my neck on the highway. On one such backroad, I saw these guys.


in the picture on the left there are a Dog, a Donkey, a Horse,and a number of Goats, all of which are approximately the same size! I have only occasionally before ever seen these "Minis", but gosh, they're cute! actually I think the Dog, a Great Pyrenees Sheepdog, is actually the largest animal in the field!


Also, I put up a picture with yesterday's post, but my cellphone would only let me send one. I didn't actually take any "Before" pictures, (they probably would have been too gross anyway), but I did want to put up my collection of "During" and "After" photos. Here are a Few.

This is "Pa" Carter, either taking rotten flooring out of our bathroom, or putting a great big hole in, depending on your point of view.

This is my lovely wife Becca, taking time off from her busy schedule to vacuum up debris from around the newly formed "Cavern o' Plumbing" (located right next to Ductwork Falls, off exit 72!)


Two views inside the "Cavern o' Plumbing"! It's a Spooky Adventure for the Whole Family!!!


And here is the "After" picture. Not quite "after" the job was all done and cleaned up, but "after" bedtime, and "after" a long, hard, day of serious work by my parents-in-law. Thanks a lot!

Note to self: When photographing bathroom, avoid odd combinations of items (like monkey wrench and Vaseline) in the foreground... Somebody is sure to make a joke, sooner or later.

I also, completely by accident, saw a Hot-air Balloon launch late Sunday afternoon. It brought back some good memories, because just about two years before, Becca and I took off in that same balloon from that same spot! It is fun, but not for those inclined to be nervous about heights.


I also got video of the event, or rather had Becca get video of it. I think that maybe she forgot she was also getting audio, because she is having some odd, unrelated conversation while she shoots. Just ignore that. She is a busy lady, and can't show her face at the airport without something needing her attention.