Stolen Conversation #20

From Elijah's birthday party.  

Andrew (a 6-year-old):  What are you doing?
Tank (a 3-year-old):  Trying to smell my feet.  You wanna smell my feet?
Andrew:  No.

For some reason I found that conversation exceptionally funny.

The Shutters

 Our house, with shutters, Sept. 2009.

We're planning to refinance the house soon, since this is a good time to do it, our current loans suck, and we're planning on being in this house for forever.  This prompted us to ask a realtor what our house would be likely to appraise for.  The results weren't promising, but they weren't horrible, either.

So, our plan is to do some small home projects (seriously.  Small) and THEN have the appraiser come.  We took out a pad of paper and listed off 5 projects to get done.

One of those, simple enough, was the shutters.  They need re-painted or replaced, and re-painting is cheaper. 

So last night Rob was home and we took down all the shutters.  I hadn't realized that there are shutters on every window (at this point can I interject that these aren't really shutters.  They're PRETEND shutters.  Decorations.  And that's lame), and we have 9 windows.  Fine, fine, just more to paint.

But do you know what happens when you take down fake shutters?  You find bugs.  Lots and lots of bugs.  Behind two of the windows on the back of the house were large wasp homes.  One of them housing a LIVE wasp.  Ugh.

Rob and I looked at each other and said, "How's about we NOT put these back up?"  Good plan.  So we hosed down the house, because seriously, the house was dirtier under the shutters, and we're going to leave it like that.

The door will be painted a dark blue, and the storm door may or may not be replaced in the near future (or at all).  So this picture represents a work-in-progress.

And can I also say that I like home projects that require us to take something down and NOT put it back up?  Saves time and effort and money.  Win, win, win.

The End

Stolen Quote #19

After reading some of his quotes and kind of laughing, I was struck by this Albert Einstein quote:

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Amen, Brother Albert.
(Why was I laughing at some of the others?  Well, he said things like "I'm not smarter than you, I just work harder."  Right.  I mean, he probably did work hard, but come on! he was smarter than me and you.  Check out 10 of his quotes here.)

Stolen Quote #18

Inspired by Glenn Beck's recent statements, I found this stolen quote:

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

said by Dom Helder Camara (1909 - 1999), archbishop of Recife. 

find it here

Sites of Cincinnati #2

Today we're focusing on something that I love, love, love about Cincinnati:

Our Public Library System

Lame?  You'd think that if you have a lame library system in your own town.  But our libraries rock the house!  In Hennen's American Public Library Rankings, The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County ranked in the top 10 (of cities with a population of 500k and up) from the years 2003 - 2006 (the last year listed on-line).  Our library tells us that for the last 2 years we've been in the top 5, and some years our circulation is the very top in the nation.  I mean, seriously, we're besting cities twice our size?  Where are you New York City?

Not that I care about the stats, cause it's really not all about them.  I mean, I can't blame my library for being proud of their ranking, but the library in the number 11 spot will tell you that it just doesn't matter.  I tend to lean more towards the "it just doesn't matter" side, but rankings or no, our library system is awesome.

Our library has kickin' programs, excellent on-line accessibility, friendly workers, and a ton of locations.  Within a 5-minute drive of my house, there are 2 libraries.  If I want to extend that to a 10-minute drive, there are 4 libraries (that I know of).

Our system also has a ton of books.  I get really, really annoyed if I want a book and the library doesn't have it.  Since moving to Cincinnati, I've been able to only buy the books I want to own, instead of the books I want to read (there's a huge difference).  This has helped my budget, and it makes me happier with my library, and with the books I actually purchase.

So, while I may not take you to a library on your visit to Cincinnati, it still ranks up there as One of The Coolest Things about Cincinnati, and that's worthy of a spot on Sites of Cincinnati.

Stolen Quote #17

"There are intelligent adults in the world who go to bed each night believing that the other side tells lies, but their side is above all that."

stolen from Peter Gordon's blog