it's snowing!

Hey hey, to my two followers. It's only been EIGHT months since my last post so quite a lot has changed. Mainly to the house, life continues its mundane meandering through the middle class, wage-slave, back roads, Harper continues to grow and change. Having skipped the terribles associated with the twos he has fully embraced them as a three year old. The odd tantrum and lots of civil disobedience and a love of outright lies.

As you can see the front of the house is finished, though you can't see the newly painted charcoal roof because it is covered in snow! It pretty much NEVER snows in Wellington so this has been cause for some excitement, and no work for me today and kindy closed as well.

The kitchen is more or less finished which happened while Harper had a nana holiday and Christchurch and experienced his first decent earthquakes or land burps as he calls them. Hope to whip a little wall up in the garden over the next month once it stops snowing then it will be back to painting the remaining three sides of the house once weather warms up a bit more.

update.... kinda

Welcome back to the least frequently updated blog. I've been meaning to post for a long time but I can never access the damn site because k set it up. Anyways here I am on some down time from house reno's. It seems like lots has been happening but not much has changed if you know what I mean.

We are well settled into the new digs and plodding on through the endless list of "Things To Do". Grandad Derek has been of great assistance lately and I will post more up to date photos next time. i have been making stready progress over the last three weeks as Harper has been at Nana's in Chch and is not back until 21 dec. I did not miss him at all the first couple of weeks but have spoken to him since and can't wait to have him back home. I skim plastered his room today so should have it painted by the weekend. Yay!

Attached myself to the end of a 2000psi water blaster for the weekend so the basement is close to ready to paint and finished the prep on the roof yesterday. The spare room is more or less done and the garage is showing some semblence of order at last.

Some things are gone. About 3-4 tonnes of agapanthas for a start and good bloody riddance to them too. Also a very sad farewell to the "Phenomenary". That's my car (which is pictured), which went where all cars end up going when they fail a warrant every six months. it was a fantastic replacement for the "Extromenal" but alas became an unnecessary expense. I now get around at work in Kimpy's, beyond boring, white toyota corolla. It saps a little of your will to live every time you drive it and raises not a smile or guffaw anywhere it goes...but it's reliable....snore

While Harper's been gone I have ridden my bike, grindingly slowly uphill but fast and rercklessly enough downhill to put a smile on the dial. Also played 9 holes of pitch 'n' putt with Derek. The first shot I tried with my new three wood saw the ball disappear into thin air and the head detatch itself and fly a respectable 80 yards down the fairway. seemed a fair place to play my second from.

Harper got up close and personal with fireworks for the first time and seemed to enjoy the experience. "they're breaking the sky" he'd exclaim as various roman candles cannoned up towards the low hanging clouds. Sweeney was disappointed not to set anything on fire with his sparklers.

It's a picture

Isn't it bootiful. This is my favourite of all our startling wallpapers. It looks quite pretty and quaint in this format. Unfortunately a room full of it makes you feel a bit sick so this is the only place you can see it now as it's all been ripped off the wall. When I'm not outside cutting down pohutukawas, disembowelling agapanthas or wreaking general havoc on the plant life I'm inside stripping paint, installing insulation and being a lacklustre house husband.

It's been a long time since I rock and rolled

Greetings and welcome to my first ever blog post.

I doubt it will be as memorable as many other firsts, but it will hopefully serve as a useful means of keeping those who want to know, in the know.

I'm a homeowner again, in conjunction with my lovely common law wife and son. We are situated in the middle of middle-of-the-road whitebread Johnsonville where we fit right in with all the other middle income earning couples that have spawned and have their .4 of a human in childcare somewhere nearby.

Being as it's a handyman's dream, time (and energy) seem to evaporate like like my patience with a certain 2 year old at the end of a long day. Each chore barely completed opens up the way to begin two more.

Enough of that piffling dribble though. On a brighter note this blog was created by my esteemed partner, in celebration of my 40th a couple of months ago and I have since taken ownership. The night itself was a lot of fun and a humbling number of people turned out to help me celebrate. We kicked off the night with some hardcore go-kart racing which seemed to get peoples adrenalin and endorphin levels peaking then moved on to the pub. When I work out how, I'll post some photos of the night. We had a great congregation of peeps from the courier, music, postie, art and massage worlds, but at the end of the night the youngsters had all given up the ghost and it was just one couple of oldies left to drag me out to a cocktail bar (props to Spring and Neke). I finished the night alone at Hooch for some quiet reflection and a bus trip most of the way home. A truly fun night.

Special mention to those of you who got some postings up for my birthday. It was a fantastic surprise to log in the first time and get those messages. Josh bro your cover was truly inspired. Sorry I've been such a crap correspondent lately.

My brain seems to be hitting the head full of clouds stage, where you just zone out staring at the screen for what could be minutes or chunks of an hour so i'm out y'all.

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY RICH!

A big hello from the Kinney Clan in Duluth, Minnesota-USA. Wishing you all the best. Planning to get together a little video soon. And may also learn how to use the scanner as I have some choice pics from the days at Lincoln. Yes, you are sporting dreads and a B.O.G.A.N.S. t-shirt. Hugs and kisses to you all, wish we could come over and make you dinner. Some day our boys will play... perhaps as we are trading homes?? Have a Great Day, and a Great Decade. Remember, we are not getting older, we are getting Better!



Lot of Love,
Beth(41), Kevin(42), and Alex (6)

Happy birthday from Cat

Went to send a Birthday message to Rich's FB page (you guys being 12 hours ahead & all) and his page seems to have gone... ?? What is he like?

Please give him a big hug from me... Happy 40th Rich! : )
Cat xx

Becc & Neil wish Joe a Happy 40th