August Excursions & Miscellany

Steve and I went out to enjoy hot and sipping chocolate flights at Mutari in downtown Santa Cruz.

Steve is ridiculously adorable...

 ... and a little suave...

... and can definitely still make me laugh (often at inopportune times such as when my mouth is full of hot chocolate).

While I was visiting my parents to work on some of their projects, Steve went to Big Sur with friends he knows through the UC. 

Chiseled coastline (and chiseled husband):

Steve, Cassy, Kathleen and Nick:

 Steve tiptoes amongst the rocks:

One of the projects I worked on with my folks was sorting and putting away family photos. I took one photo home with me to show Steve, and now I present it to you, my loyal readers. I've titled it "withering":

I'm ten years old in that picture. And, so I'm been told, that charming expression remains in my repertoire. I truly am a delight.

Back on the home front, Steve sands the fascia board before he repaints and we rehang the rain gutter at a proper slope (it was previously completely level, preventing it from draining properly):

Things went well other than one minor mishap when the gutter fell from the roofline and hit me in the arm. Some collateral damage is to be expected in the home renovation game.

Steve pets Lady Stew, my brother and fiancee Brooke's bunny, whom we were rabbit-sitting for a week and a half while said brother and Brooke went on a cruise:

And that's about it. Barreling on toward September we go...

There and Back Again: Utah Family Reunion

Last weekend, Steve and I attended a Loveridge family reunion in Springville, Utah. I attended one previous such reunion many years ago, and was completely overwhelmed. I did better this time, recognizing more people and feeling a little less awkward. 

I check out traincars in a park in Elko, Nevada on our way.

Steve's brother Ed in the background with our delicious Basque dinner leftovers. Nephew Camdan checks out the car behind me.

Steve and I decided to camp in our car (the back seats come out allowing us to place an Ikea foam mattress inside) instead of doing the whole tent thing. Turned out to be a good decision, since occasional pouring rain and thunderstorms made sleeping outside a bit of an uncomfortable proposition.

There were a lot of crafts and activities, good conversation, and games.

Steve and many relatives (including brother Philip, brother-in-law Richard, sisters-in-law Jenny and Stacey, and nieces Libby, Brooke and Sage) play volleyball before the storm comes in:

I asked Steve and his brother Philip to pose for me because I was so amused by their very different fashion choices:

Nieces Sage, Rosie and Libby and nephew Camdan launch rockets with Steve's Uncle Mack:

The rocket activity was pretty ingenious. Using PVC pipe as a form, each participant first wrapped a piece of paper around the pipe (to create a base cylinder) and then wrapped the paper in layers of duct tape. The duct tape is tough enough to create a surprisingly durable rocket, which is then blasted skyward (often repeatedly) by compressed air.

The young woman in the red shirt in those photos is my niece Libby (Steve's brother Lee's daughter) who, once upon a time, was the first baby I ever held. Time sure does fly... as do rockets.

Steve is on the young end of his generation within the family, and doesn't know his extended relatives as well as his older siblings do. He only has one first cousin younger than he is. But we were able to chat with a lot of great people, and we were definitely glad we went. 

We take a short break at the salt flats on the long drive home:

Hard to know where life will take us in the next couple years, but if things work out, we'd certainly be glad to see everyone again at the next reunion. 

Flowers for Fifteen

The flowers you see above are brought to you by Steve in honor of the anniversary of his and my first date, which was fifteen years ago today.

On that first fateful eve, we had pizza with Steve's cool (yes, Scott and Eric, I thought you guys were cool... and I suppose I still think so) older friends, went to a 9:45 pm showing of a terrible, terrible movie called Bless the Child at Lakewood Center, then Steve drove me home. He was so nervous he didn't even try to kiss me on that first date. I thought it was completely adorable... and I suppose I still think he's adorable. So things are looking good. This thing may work out yet.

End of a TV Era

Last Thursday, Jon Stewart retired from hosting The Daily Show. Steve and I started watching Jon on TDS when we started college fourteen years ago, two years into Jon's sixteen year tenure. We watched his final show in a motel in Elko, Nevada on our way to Steve's family reunion in Utah.

There are a lot of people with a lot of opinions about Jon and the show. Most of them I suspect never watched TDS. But whatever his legacy with the rest of the world, for me and Steve, Jon and TDS taught us to talk about and care about politics. 

It was common when I was growing up to hear that it was improper to discuss politics. As a child, Steve remembers distinctly asking an adult who they were voting for, and being told that the question was impolite and he shouldn't ask such things. Steve and I both feel that this sort of feedback only served to teach us that politics was taboo and, frankly, unimportant, and we started our adult lives terribly ignorant of such things. Steve didn't vote in the first election after he turned 18; he didn't see the point. Jon Stewart and The Daily Show (and also later Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report) taught us that this stuff matters.

The picture above is from our kitchen. After Stephen left the Report (we're looking forward to seeing him host Late Night starting next month) and Jon announced he would retire from TDS, I took pictures from a 2006 Rolling Stone feature on the two men and put them up on the wall. They make me smile every time I see them, and remind me to stay sharp and pay attention. 

A lot of people seem to see TDS as some sort of liberal brainwashing, and believe that viewers of the show only got their news from Comedy Central and didn't understand the "real world." For me and Steve, that couldn't be further from the truth. To fully appreciate TDS and the Report, one needed an extensive knowledge of current events. Issues raised on the show sparked desire to learn more. Both shows encouraged their viewership to be skeptical and make their own decisions. To detect and reject empty rhetoric (or "truthiness" as Colbert so delightfully coined). TDS and the Report skewered the disingenuous and shortsighted on both sides of aisle. 

Steve and I will be forever grateful for Jon, Stephen and their shows. I firmly believe being viewers in our formative college years made Steve and I better, more informed citizens. Though we'll very much miss seeing him regularly grace our screen, Steve and I hope Jon's life after TDS is wonderful and fulfilling in every way.

Laundry Room Adventures

The handy-person or persons used by our home's previous owner(s) definitely took on projects beyond their knowledge base. We have discovered many issues with past construction as we and our contractor have worked on the house over the past three years. 

We had noticed from time to time a very faint sewer gas smell in the laundry room, and finally investigating that issue rose to the top of our to-do list. Steve opened up the wall to discover, as we had suspected, that whoever plumbed the drain line and vent stack for the washing machine had not installed a trap. While most of the unimpeded sewer gasses likely rose out the vent stack in the roof, whenever Steve ran the stove ventilation fan in the nearby kitchen, the gasses were pulled out of the washer drain opening and into the house. 

The fix was not terribly complicated, but did require pulling the wall apart. 

Steve begins cutting away the drywall:

Steve adds the finishing pieces to the new trap and drain line:

New plumbing complete and electrical moved:

Steve pours water down the line to check for leaks before closing up the wall:

After I painted the resealed wall, a brand new LG washer and dryer were installed (our old washer was leaking quite a bit and rusting, so it was definitely a good time to replace it):

The sewer gas smell is gone, hooray! The laundry room looks pretty darn civilized. One more project down.