Goble, Goble, Goble!

Oh, long weekends. How I love thee!

My company gives us 4 days off for Thanksgiving. Plus, since many people took the whole week off, the work was pretty slow. But I started my holiday plans on weekend before.

My girl friends J., M., and T. and I planned to have a little Thanksgiving meal that previous Sunday. We wanted to make the meal together, and since I happen to have the most space in the kitchen, I offered to have it at my place. Some girls were doubtful that we can pull it off and suggested we at least get a pre-cooked turkey, but I challenged them. Since all four of us are single, I thought it would be a good opportunity to cook this meal just for us, and practice for when one day we need to cook it for a larger family.

I got us an organic 13lb turkey from Costco, large enough so that we all would have some leftovers. I figured it would harder to mess up a turkey that is better meat from the start. It was nice to shop the whole week before Thanksgiving, as it was not so crowded. Last year I made a big meal with my brother and sister-in-law, but she was the one who pretty much made the turkey by herself and Zoran brined it for a day before. So I decided to follow a similar recipe.

I found some brining recipes on-line, and Zoran found one in his cooking book. The brine helps keep the meat moist and flavorful. It took some 5 hours to thaw the turkey, and even then I had a hard time removing the neck that was still frozen to the body. The brine used 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of sugar, and 4-5 different spices. I used Zoran's large cheese-making pot and left the bird in the fridge for about 20 hours. then I washed it, filled with some onions, garlic, celery and carrots, brushed with butter, and placed it barest-side down in a roasting pan (that I got on great sale at World Market for $3.99!) with just a little bit of water on the bottom. After about 2 hours I flipped it upside down and continued brushing with pan drippings for another couple of hours. The result: A full pan of awesomeness!

We also made green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, salad, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Now, what more can one ask for!

The actual Thanksgiving day was super slow at our house. We dragged our behinds until noon, which is when my brother decided he'll make crapes for breakfast. We finally ate around 2 pm, and of course weren't thinking about another meal until later in the evening. I also wanted us to go for a walk while it was still day light outside, but since we were slow to react that day, we didn't start making plans till 7pm.

I had this idea to try a black Friday shopping for a new digital camera. Walmart started their sale at midnight Thursday evening, so I figured I'll just got there around 11.30, pick up that one item and be at the counter at midnight when the sale prices begin. How naive of me.

Zoran and first tried Domain for a place to walk, but it was ghostly empty. No cars, no people, all stores closed...I've never seen it like that. Then we drove downtown, and it was the same deal. Barely any cars on south Congress. We saw only one open restaurant. It was quite erie actually, like an epidemic plagued the city. We then went up to Hide Park area, sat at one open desert place until 11.20, and then headed back up north to a walmart closest to the house.

As soon as we got off the highway, near where several retail stores were, the traffic picked up. The Walmart parking lot was completely packed, and people walked toward it from nearby parking lots. Inside, a mayhem. Just like the empty Domain, I've never seen a store this full. C-ra-zy! Lines everywhere, crowds, and tension. My brother immediately said he didn't want to stay there and wanted home. I wasn't happy with it, having to leave now that we were already there, but I realized it would be best for the both of us. Once dropping him off, I left the house around 12.05 and went to a different Walmart. I think the demographics of people at that store was different, as they seemed to behaved more orderly. Plus, the store seemed a bit less crowded, and the midnight sale time already started so the lines were moving.

My entire trip was about 1 hour. Which really wasn't that bad considering how some people sat in front of Best Buys for hours before they could get in. I waited about 10 minutes for a guy to find keys to camera cabinets, another 5 for him to help undecided teenagers, another 10 min for a resolution of some transaction problems for a lady at the head of our otherwise really short line, and some more resolving my own issue where the cashier took some convincing that my camera is the one on sale.

The result: I got this 16.1-megapixel digital camera with 10X optical zoom for $129. A pretty sweet deal! It's a great replacement to my old Kodak that broke on the Adriatic coast. If I had to do it again, I think I'd only do it this way; come on the evening to a store that's open 24/7 so I wouldn't have to stand in line outside.

Late night out meant sleeping in on Friday and another slow day when I could play with my new blue shiny toy!

New Garage Doors

I got a new garage doors installed this weekend. I really like how they turned out.

I have been shopping for a new door for some time. The doors that came with the house, were in bad shape from the start. They had a crack on one of the sections, which only got worse as the nuts on the side loosened over time. I had an enforcement rod placed in, some new hinges installed, and the spring repaired few times. All temporary measures, because I knew I will eventually get a new door.

Then last year the opener started to be flaky. The curved arm had trouble sliding down the rail when opening the door, and it needed a little push to go over a troubled spot. When one day earlier this year my mom pressed the remote button sooner than I could nudge the door up as it was opening, I think something broke in that arm as it would not longer open. Even with that little push. Since then, we had to manually open and close the door. After a few months it became old, and I just parked the car outside. We opened the garage only when we absolutely had to get something in and out.

Shopping for the new door was a long process for me. I started some time this summer. I looked at different styles, materials, and companies. There are abundance of choices for each of those. Sometimes too many choices can be so overwhelming!

For materials, I looked at pretty much all options at first: wood, fiberglass, and steel. Wood look great. I drove through some neighborhoods off of 2222, the upscale ones, that have several houses with wood doors. They looked great. But in that area. In my neighborhood there were none like that. They would stood out. And I didn't like that idea. But the 2 determining factors were: 1) price. Those doors cost $10K! 2)They would have to be treated at least once every 3 years. Maybe even every year. No way I was doing that! The fiberglass doors I quickly abandoned. They can crack with an impact, which for being in the garage, where there is "stuff", I didn't feel is safe. They have wood grain on them, but still have some shine to them, so to me that looked fake. On a large door like that. Maybe entry door would be better. That was the same reason why I didn't like steel doors with wood grain look. So, the solution was steel door in regular colors, but nicer design.

Since my house has some arch windows, I new I would like that on the garage door. And I didn't want any windows. I don't spend hours working in the garage, so I didn't need extra daylight in there. And I wanted insulated ones. In the summer the garage was getting way to hot, and some of that heat was making it into the house. The style that I liked the most was Amarr's Carriage House style, CLASSICA, Tuscany collection. I just needed to find the best deal on them.

I got some dozen or so quotes from different companies. Some didn't even work with Amarr, so the selection was getting smaller. I went with Hutchinson, which are actually the same company as Cedarpark Overhead Doors. They've been around for some time, had decent reviews, and best price. They just wouldn't paint the doors for me, and I knew I wanted two tones to make the arch stand out. So I had them order and deliver the insulated door, I painted, ordered the decorative hardware (because they were charging 5x more than Lowes) and then they came back to install it. I also got a new opener as part of the deal. The total cost, for door/opener/labor/paint/handles was around $1670. A bit pricey, but it had to be done, and I love the result!

Pipes, Art, and Lederhosen

It was an eventful weekend around here. I like those.

It started on Friday when I had plumbers come in to install, replace, and fix some things. I've been wanting to replace the kitchen faucet for some time. It was a pain one that was installed when the house was built, and had separate knobs for cold and hot, which always annoyed me. Then some time ago the cold water started to come out with really low pressure and it was time to look for a new faucet.

About that time the garbage disposal just stopped working. It was an old Insinkerator Badger 1, all rusted inside. So now I had two things to look for. But every time I would see one of those in a store that I liked, I would hesitate to buy it because I didn't have the other picked, and I knew I wanted to replace them at the same time. And the cycle continued for about a year.

Well, couple of weeks ago Costco had this German design Hansgrohe faucet on sale for $200, which I knew was a really good price, and this was pretty close to the design I was going for. I had that moment of: "lets do it already!" and got it.

Next on the list was to look for a garbage disposal. I have done some research before and found that after Insinkerators the next recommended brand was WasteKing. Again I checked with Costco, and found this 1 HP Universal Mount on sale for $119. It was an acceptable price for me.

There were few other items I needed to get for this, like sink strainer for the other side of the kitchen sink, the hole cover, and parts for new outlet that I needed to install under the sink myself. (very proud of myself for that!) There were few other smaller tasks for the plumbers, like replacing stoppers on two bathroom sinks and backflow preventer on an outside faucet. They came on Friday morning, and it took two guys to do all that in just over 2 hours. I am so glad I didn't even attempt to deal with the disposer my self, because parts were so rusted then had to use a metal saw! Love the final result!

On Saturday morning I was expecting the garage door guys to come and install it, but he was running late so I decided to reschedule for next weekend. I had other plans for the afternoon. Zoran and I went to the East Austin Art Tour. He went last year with Emilia, and was telling me how interesting it was. They went on bikes then, but we decided to just drive, then walk an area, then drive again. I liked it better that way, since some parts are pretty far away. He was right, it was really an interesting experience. Totally not suburbs like. :) There were all sorts of mediums of art, and all sorts of styles. Some tangible works for everyday use, some visual representations of real world pleasant to look at, and some totally "out there" expression of an artist mind! Some where in warehouses and studios, and some in people's homes, where they opened all their rooms and even served some drinks and food! Totally different. We spent about 4 hours walking on-and-off, and the day was perfect for it. I kept wondering what is the demographics of all these people, what area of town to they live in, what percentage of them were artists themselves...because it all looked so different and I couldn't see anyone remotely familiar. That's east Austin!

Sunday morning I went with two dear friends of mine, Julie and Maggie to the Wurstfest in New Braunfels. It's a festival of all things German: food, beer, music, dances, and Lederhosen! I guess it's close to the Octoberfest in Germany. It was the last day of the festival and we arrived there just 30 minutes after they opened so it wasn't crowded at first. I had some yummy sausage with sauerkraut, paulaner oktoberfest beer, and cherry strudel. Yum! There was music and dancing in few different areas, some rides and games, so we walked around and then enjoyed our time next to the Comal river. Again, it was a gorgeous November day, low 80s, and it drew a large crowd out in few hours we were there. I am so glad we were able to make it to the festival before it ended. The last time I was there was 7 years ago! It was time to go again. :)

11-11-11

"Remember that while today is 11/11/11 in the United States, other parts of the world display the date differently. So to them it's 11/11/11." :)

This year I've had fun with all these dates: New Years Day, Jan 11th, and All Saints Day.

And today also happens to be a holiday: Veterans Day!

I Built a House Today!

Well, I helped build it with some 40 other volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.

I've been considering volunteering with them for some time, and decided to sign up few weeks ago. They are on different sites 3 times a week, 2 full days plus one to finish any loose jobs. Because of work, I can only join them on Saturdays, and today was the first time I did. They ask for people to commit to 8am-4pm shift.

They build houses for low income people, who have to meet certain criteria to qualify. Among other things, in order to qualify, their income needs to be low enough, but also high enough that they can pay the mortgage. Because of all the volunteers, the cost of these houses is pretty low, starts from $60K, and owners sign up for a regular, i.e. 30-year mortgage. So, people are not getting these houses for free. Also, they have to put in 400 hours of volunteering with Habitat. 200 hours before they can even sign up for a lot, and the rest working on their or other people's houses.

This house was in east Austin, toward the airport. There are some 50 houses that the Habitat will build there over the course of two years. It usually takes 9 weeks (2 full days a week, so 18 days total) to build one of these houses. Today just happened to be a site that is just starting, so we came to a blank slab. All the tools, equipment, and material were ready for us. The goal for the day was to put up the walls.

A side track: Over the last few years, since I became a homeowner, I realized I like working on different house projects. There are several that I completed myself on my house, and there are many more that I never had a need to do, or that I don't have the tools for or would need additional help before I would attempt them. But I enjoy working on that kind of stuff. I like hands on work. And I like hands on volunteering. I like learning how things are made. And I've never seen up close how houses are built here in the US. Back in Bosnia we build houses completely different; the walls are made of bricks, not wood, to name just one.

Back to the day...There are people at every site who know what the goal of the day is. They have all the blue prints, measurements, the know hows (like to bring in the shower box before the walls. So, I just asked where I can help. Before any wall frame could be put up, an insulation tape had to be stapled to the bottom, green edge. So, several of us started on those, so that others can start putting them up. With that many people, we were very efficient, and by 11 am all the walls were already up! Next they started putting the roof trellises up and were almost done with all of those by the end of the day. Others of us worked on tarp moisture barrier and beams for heavy hanging loads.

In summary, I used: a staple gun for insulation bellow the walls, drilled some boards that were connected to the concrete, measured and leveled for planks that will be used for shelves and cabinets, cut them with table saw(!) and hammered them in, painted some trims, layered and stapled tarp on the outside of the walls, refilled the staple gun numerous times, cut with utility knife and edged the tarp around the door and window openings, and helped carry, push or hold things whenever help was needed.

Yup, I acquired some skills today!

The day started on the chilly side, and I was in two shirts, jacket and gloves. But by lunch time it warmed up enough that I had to apply sun screen. This time of year is a perfect time to volunteer on this kind of outside project. I hope to go again on some Saturdays. It would be rally neat to work on it in different stages and then finally see it all done, and homeowners get the keys!

I just hope we did a good enough job. :)

11-1-11

Happy All Saints Day!

This year has abundance of these special dates! :)

I didn't go to any dress-up Halloween parties this weekend. But last night we had many a children in costumes at our door. There were princess, super heroes, tigers, bees, fairies, ghosts, forces of good and evil, and myriad of undetermined characters. No saints costumes that I could decipher, but hopefully many saints in the making!

The kiddos started coming just a minute after I walked in after work, around 6.40pm. The little ones came first, and then, as the night fell, the older ones followed. By 8pm I ran out of candy and lolly pops. I didn't answer to the next two trick-or-treat-ers and started looking for more give outs. When the next group of 4 teenagers rang the door, I offered the jello! They were super excited, and asked for spoons right away! After those last 'customers' I turned out the porch light and called it a night.

Tonight we celebrated with all the saints at a High Mass at St. William's church.