Thanksgiving 2006

We are thankful that we are cooking in our new kitchen because the countertops are done and the sink is installed. We are thankful for the rain, sort of. And Danny has a job. And Amber and Oliver are having fun in Peru. And we got to see Teddy Two Shoes and Judith this past year. And the tree didn't hurt our house.

Tree

Slightly blurry, but you get the point. More later....

Countertops

You asked for it - here they are. These 2 photos show the color pretty accurately. They are a little darker than the floor. They have the sealer on them, still need wax. The next step is to drill holes to anchor them to the cabinets and drop them in place. Getting close!

Meanwhile, election night coverage is on. Yammer yammer yammer. John McCain is on now. Democrats are so far doing okay... We'll see. John Stewart/Steven Colbert joint coverage is on soon.

What Rich is eating for dinner

It is kind of gross and smelly. I had leftover bean soup. Yummy.

Who watches the local TV news?

We never do, but it is dark and cold out and we turned the TV on and watched the last part of the 6:00 news. The theme is, of course, be afraid, be very afraid. Tonight they had a special report on sex offenders who might lure little children into their houses on Halloween. They are not supposed to have any decorations on their house or in their yard, and no lights on. Of course, the taxpayers don't want to pay to have state or county employees monitoring them to make sure they are complying. But the "reporters" don't tell you that. They sent some "reporters" out to check some addresses, and found 2 that had decorations. They also burst people's bubble who thought they didn't have any sex offenders in their neighborhood. Everyone has sex offenders in their neighborhood.

Then, continuing with the Halloween theme, they had somebody tell us that if we didn't have our Halloween costume yet, not to stress. We could just throw something together from things we had around our house. We don't have to go out and buy something fancy. Hellooo? What IQ level of people need someone on the news to tell them that???

Then, the best part was the weather report. The guy said to check the sky about 4:00 tomorrow afternoon to see if it is cloudy, and if it is cloudy, it might rain tomorrow night...???????????????????????????????????????????????

Also we need to be afraid of deer.???????????????????????

Purple

They are getting there. In fact, I think it worked! We did the 20% vinegar solution and left it on for a few hours, and then we did several acetone with purple wood dye and some navy blue fabric dye and finally a little black. We still have to grind some to polish slightly more and get a little more of the black off, but I think they are actually almost the color of the floor now. The picture looks a little blue because there isn't enough light left on the patio this time of day.

Fifteen earthquakes in the world so far today, too. Eight of them in Alaska.

We planted out the black bamboo today too. And divided it so we have a few plants to put in the greenhouse, in case the stuff in the ground doesn't survive the winter. It is supposed to freeze tonight.

Chemistry is Fun

Today we experimented with fixing the color of the countertops, and it seems we had some luck. We figured we had nothing to lose, because we couldn't use them the color they were. Too brick red. So, one of the stains I saw for sale on the internet involved mixing their pigment with acetone. So Rich bought some purple stain intended for wood dyeing, and we mixed that with acetone and painted it on. That had some effect - it at least colored the slurry mix that we had filled the little voids with, and it kind of darkened and mottled the whole thing just a bit. Then after an hour or so, we mixed some other colorant we had - some raspberry colored paint pigment and some charcoal grey antiquing stuff left over from doing our floors - with vinegar, and put that on. That was pretty cool. It was almost dark when we rinsed it off and dried it, but it appears to have pulled some of the red out, lightening and darkening at the same time. So tomorrow we are going to play with it some more, and then I'll post a picture. We have an extra hour this weekend!
So far today there have been 15 earthquakes in the world. Two in Washington, two in Alaska. Interesting.