Stairway Heaven...Well, Almost

Well, it's officially project time again at our house.  The kids are gone until Tuesday night so Al and I decided it was time to get the stair project finished since we won't have anyone needing to go upstairs until they get home.  We worked hard all day and we got quite a bit done.   The last of the carpet is off of the stairs, the osb treads have been turned over and the bullnose trimmed, the walls have been painted (except for cutting in the corners up high and cutting in up at the ceiling which will be Al's job since I don't do tall ladders), and everything is ready for putting the new treads on tomorrow. 

bye bye fugly carpet!

Can you see hints of my new wall color?

Here it is in all it's blue loveliness!

It feels so good to have finally started to make this new house feel and look more like home.  Other than all the painting I did when we first moved in (which was a necessity for maintaining my sanity), we haven't done anything inside.   I have a long list of stuff I want to change and it feels pretty darn good to finally be able to tackle a few things on the list.  :)

I might even get crazy and start on the kitchen tonight!  :)

Frustration and Film

It's been about 5 months since I started my photography adventure.  I've been wanting some way to chronicle my journey so I can look back and see my progress.  I've posted albums on Facebook but some of my friends don't have FB pages so I promised I'd get some kind of link here on the blog so they can take a look.  But sometimes technology just won't cooperate.  I decided to add a gadget to my blog today that would have links to each album, but the dumb link gadget won't work.  GRRRRRRR!  So, In lieu of that, I'm going to just put a link in this post and hopefully (cross my fingers really tight) it will work.
 

As a tease, here's a photo from my latest roll.  My filmmaker son said it's the best shot I've taken so far.  High praise to this mom.  :)
                         
Here's the link.  http://picasaweb.google.com/allenmeader

Anyway, happy viewing!

Signs Along the Road

Al and I just got back from a trip to Arizona and Nevada.  Our original plan was to fly to Yuma and take care of some stuff of his mom's and pick up her car and then drive up to Lake Havasu City to see my stepdad who had heart surgery in January and then take the Pacific Coast Highway and Highway 101 home as a mini-vacation.  Well...life interfered.  My stepdad isn't at home recovering, he's still in an acute care hospital in Las Vegas.  So when we finished with our tasks in Yuma, we drove our packed-to-the-roof car to L.H.C. to pick up some needed supplies and clothes for my mom and headed to Las Vegas to be with my folks. 
We tried to take a little bit of time on the way to Vegas to see a few things like Hoover Dam (it's been on my "to see before I die" list since I was a kid) and I stopped along the road a few times to take some fotos of vintage signs.  Here's I took one in the teeny tiny town that I think was Parker, Arizona.  I'm not quite sure but I know it was close to Parker Dam.

The guys standing out front probably thought I was nuts but it's a cool old sign so I had to have a foto.

We stayed in Vegas for about 3 1/2 days and then it was time to head home.  We had an 1100 mile trip ahead of us and only 2 1/2 days to make it.  On the way out of town, my sweet, sweet husband took a detour so we could drive the Las Vegas strip.   I noticed one building  that had something moving at the top so I took the camera and zoomed and discovered that some lunatic put a ride on the top of the building.  Not something I'd ever put on my to do list.  :) 

Seriously!  The building was about as tall as the Space Needle.  Yikes!

As we neared the end of the Strip, Al said he had one more stop that was a surprise.    Have  I said how much I love this man? 

 How could you be in this town and not take time to see this sign?

Our first day traveling was across Nevada to California.  We stopped in Barstow for a little bit since it's on Route 66 and I took some time to find some more funky, vintage signs.

 

Not sure why they appeal to me so much but I love them.

The rest of the trip was a blur of 75 miles an  hour for 9 to 11 hours a day, mostly taking quick fotos from the car.  Along the way I saw lots of beautiful scenery and fell in love with northern California and southwestern Oregon.  Can't wait to find an opportunity to take another road trip that direction.