If you think it, post it

[DZ]

I am a sunflower freak. I love them. I have probably 20 growing around the garden now, probably 15 Zenias (they get HUGE), and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't identify, just stuff from those "flower mixes" that you buy. Here is a picture of a red sunflower (I can't get them to download): https://www.edenbrothers.com/store/s...red+sunflowers

Seeds at Eden Brothers are about 2-3x more expensive than Walmart, and grow 5-6x better (Eden Brothers Linked here) I didn't know you could get red-Orange-dark yellow- and normal bright yellow sunflowers, either - until I went there and saw all the mixes.

The other thing I love about this company is that every time you order something, even if it is just a $18 order or something, they throw in 4-5 packets of just "flower mix" seed just to "be nice" I guess, with a note "Try these!" They'll send different stuff you never knew about - not a ton, but just a few packs. And they email to tell you when they're on the way, they ask if the package was dry - just fantastic customer service, and - again, as the famous line in Pulp Fiction says, "A bit more expensive, but you'll know where your money went"

I have become a bit of a Zenia freak bc they grow so huge here, like a big bush, and I had no idea how big they're be so I stuffed them all together way too close, but it's made this incredible "wall" of flowers that has sun flowers stick up just above the line of them, plus barrels. I water probably 4-5 times a day. 2x would be plenty, but I water to relax as much as anything, and we're in no need of "saving" water here, it all ends up back in the water pond eventually anyway or in a plant.

And Zenias attract butterflies. My daughter calls it a butterfly refuge. At any given point there are probably between 10-20 butterflies in a space the size of half a tennis court. Bumble bees love the sun flowers, butterflies like the zenias. I love bumble bees bc they're so docile. You have to be trying to kill a bumble bee for it to get aggressive, I have put my hand right under a sunflower to watch it better and he just kept right on working. Butterflies act like you're not even there. Of course, I don't even kill grasshoppers out there. I only kill snakes and LIZF gave me good advice on that - I just can't take chances, over half are poisonous and I'm not good at I.D.ing them.

[gu03alum]

So for the last few years we haven't used our finished basement because it's so cold in the winter. We've been using it to store the kayaks and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff. Basically all they did to finish the floor was put padding and carpet over it. It's a basement, the floor is completely sloped and there's a drain (when the hot water tank broke it soaked the carpet previously so we put a drip pan under the new tank).
Friday we built a kayak rack in the unfinished part of the basement. It was an easy project, just a lot of prep work. We also decided to fix the finished section. So Friday night I tore up the baseboards, carpet, padding, and tack strips and tile (my dad did floor covering so this is something I'm comfortable doing) . The part that involves building a big grid of lumber and making sure it is level from every possible angle is completely new to both hubby and me. We've run a hose from the closet with the hot water tank to the drain. We're still finishing up framing everything in today and hopefully tomorrow we can put insulation in over the concrete, then we can put plywood down and my dad can carpet it for us. This is probably the most involved home project we've ever worked on and it's actually going pretty well! I can't wait to paint and relax down there when it's all done. We're already picking out the celebratory beers we'll buy each other.

That sounds great! Good luck with the rest of it!

[gu03alum]

I didn't get much sleep last night. It was hot in my bedroom in spite of running the A/C. It's an upstairs bedroom and usually my upstairs is too hot and my downstairs is too cold. This is only a problem a few times a year in Western Washington. Anyway, I kept waking up hot and freaking out that I had Covid19. In half sleep state I would think just go downstairs and see if I can still taste food, but then I would talk myself out of it when I realized the whole room was hot. I think I have been feeling guilty. I went camping with about 15 other family members over the weekend and it seems like a lot of stories of Covid19 start out that way. Something like, I thought it would be ok to get together with a bunch of people because it would be outside and then 13 of us all got it. My brother-in-law is coming up from California today with his son from Bakersfield and Kern County's 7 day average of new cases is 43.4 per 100k people. We are going to climb Mt Adams together while my wife watches our nephew. I feel like I just keep taking unnecessary risks and at some point it's going to bite me in the ass.

[Jazzgirl_127]

I didn't get much sleep last night. It was hot in my bedroom in spite of running the A/C. It's an upstairs bedroom and usually my upstairs is too hot and my downstairs is too cold. This is only a problem a few times a year in Western Washington. Anyway, I kept waking up hot and freaking out that I had Covid19. In half sleep state I would think just go downstairs and see if I can still taste food, but then I would talk myself out of it when I realized the whole room was hot. I think I have been feeling guilty. I went camping with about 15 other family members over the weekend and it seems like a lot of stories of Covid19 start out that way. Something like, I thought it would be ok to get together with a bunch of people because it would be outside and then 13 of us all got it. My brother-in-law is coming up from California today with his son from Bakersfield and Kern County's 7 day average of new cases is 43.4 per 100k people. We are going to climb Mt Adams together while my wife watches our nephew. I feel like I just keep taking unnecessary risks and at some point it's going to bite me in the ass.

I hope you're all okay. Our room has been unbearably hot too so I haven't been sleeping well (the sleepless hours are actually when I thought up the plan for finishing our floor haha).

[Jazzgirl_127]

Here's the progression of photos.
We put the last bit of floor in yesterday and I promptly spilled paint on it (I was painting behind the TV on a platform and the drop cloth from the TV fell onto the roller try and knocked it off the platform, it's a good thing there's no carpeting yet. I have one more coat to do of each color.

We still need to put baseboard in and buy carpeting but aren't seeing eye to eye. I want something commercial so it holds up (between 3 kids and being right by the outside door I don't think the higher pile carpet he wants is going to hold up or show wear well).

[gu03alum]

That is awesome and looks like a lot of hard work!

[DZ]

I could never do that. There are so many different "types" of genius, artistic, math/analytical, mechanical, ... I am so lucky my survival doesn't depend on me being mechanical.

That looks like a lot of work JG

Question: How many of you when you were little and saw Star Wars for the first time just presumed Darth Vader was some kind of monster/alien guy and didn't have any shred of human in him and were then confused by the "I am your father" thing? Who else thought stormtroopers were just droids like R2D2? I am just thinking the other day (While watching another rerun of that awful "Last Jedi" how different I viewed those as a kid.

[Jazzgirl_127]

Cutting all the insulation to fit inside the supports was a pain, I'm hoping it actually pays off in the winter. We definitely have a new respect for people doing trade work every day, it's fun to do a project every once in awhile, but I wouldn't want to troubleshoot problems everyday, or lift 1" thick sheets of plywood, I'm done with that too lol.

[gu03alum]

I'm getting less optimistic we will have a college basketball season if MLB can't even last a couple of days.

[LongIslandZagFan]

Weather cooperating today as we hit some
of the north fork (of LI) wineries today.

[LongIslandZagFan]

Holy cow! I have never seen so many downed branches and trees in my life. We closed work at 1 because we lost power... Normal 30-35 minute commute was 1.5 hours as so many roads were closed due to branches and trees. Just getting out of the parking lot at work was difficult Glad I am home with no trees on our around my property to do any damage.

[gu03alum]

Holy cow! I have never seen so many downed branches and trees in my life. We closed work at 1 because we lost power... Normal 30-35 minute commute was 1.5 hours as so many roads were closed due to branches and trees. Just getting out of the parking lot at work was difficult Glad I am home with no trees on our around my property to do any damage.

Glad you got home safe.

[Corky]

Got these cut out, jointed, and tapered. Cut the mortises. Legs for the piano bench I’m building.
Now to chill away from the too hot shop with some Dolphy.

[Zagceo]

Nice wood work Corky.

I was in Santa Barbera last weekend and saw a record store with actual vinyl....nice

[Zagceo]

The "Krak Heads" can be found in the "Krak House"

cool logo

[RenoZag]

Do I have to shave and wear a proper shirt for a Zoom wedding ?

[willandi]

Do I have to shave and wear a proper shirt for a Zoom wedding ?

Yes, but pants are optional.

[LongIslandZagFan]

I cannot believe how much damage tropical storm Iaisas has caused. My building at work... STILL doesn't have power.

[former1dog]

I have really enjoyed the Slipper Still Fits website over the years. Unfortunately the twitter feed of this site has gone 100% political, and maybe 75% of that has little to nothing to do with Gonzaga Basketball. I sent a respectful note regarding the content of the tweets being political and not about Gonzaga Basketball (the reason I was following the twitter feed at all) and the response was that because the author thought the issues were important they therefore were not political (?!?!?) and was told to unfollow, which I did. It’s a sad ####ing time, my friends.

[gu03alum]

I have really enjoyed the Slipper Still Fits website over the years. Unfortunately the twitter feed of this site has gone 100% political, and maybe 75% of that has little to nothing to do with Gonzaga Basketball. I sent a respectful note regarding the content of the tweets being political and not about Gonzaga Basketball (the reason I was following the twitter feed at all) and the response was that because the author thought the issues were important they therefore were not political (?!?!?) and was told to unfollow, which I did. It’s a sad ####ing time, my friends.

I'm not sure that wearing masks is a political issue

[kitzbuel]

I'm not sure that wearing masks is a political issue

I suspect he is referring to this tweet

https://twitter.com/slipperstillfit/...363505666?s=20

[gu03alum]

I suspect he is referring to this tweet

https://twitter.com/slipperstillfit/...363505666?s=20

Oh, I took that as a joke.

[ZagNation]

2020 Sucks

[Jazzgirl_127]

I'm so glad my oldest picked percussion for school band. I know, it sounds like that would be the loudest instrument, but it's not, and there's no tuning or squawking as he's trying to figure it out.
The bell kit doesn't sound bad even when he hits the wrong notes. He's picked out some of the Harry Potter theme on his own just playing around.

[DZ]

I cannot believe how much damage tropical storm Iaisas has caused. My building at work... STILL doesn't have power.

Yeah, it is very tough even with ones that don't seem quite as bad on the news. Hang in there.

The tropical storm that sort of busted up before the hurricane went right over our place and there was very little wind but the rain was so bad that it basically turned my garden ground to slushy texture and I lost nearly everything. Kinda upsetting bc I put a lot of work and money into it. But, it happens and people in LA got it a lot worse.