Another Day, Another Project

Having our house has made me realize 2 important things about Jay: 1 - we have similar tastes in design (or he just goes along with what I like...either way works nicely for me!) and 2 - he's rather handy. And I completely recognize that measuring "handiness" is quite relative, so he's positioned well in my eyes considering that I've seen my dad cut his finger with a hammer. The man has other endearing qualities - he'll do yard work...cooks a mean omelet - but I wouldn't consider my dad very handy in terms of fixing something that needs fixing. My mother would argue he hurts himself on purpose so that she won't ask him to do things. But seriously...Jay can do things around this place.

First more about our aesthetics... We've gotten on this sort of anti-color kick so that every wall in our house is either white or gray. We just finished transforming our 2 front rooms from sunny yellow to stark white (and I'm talking white-white - not even a warm off-white). Our color is called "Snowbound" and is the same color we used in our bathroom. We like it.

After painting our Snowbound rooms, we decided we HAD to switch out all the outlets and switches; they were yellowish and 100 years old. So Jay goes to Loews for some supplies, flips off the breakers, and switches out all the outlets - and I'm not just talking the plates people! I'm talking rewired the things. Why he knows how to do this, I just don't know. But it looks amazing. And after doing the front 2 rooms, he decided he should just do the entire house. He's about half-way there. Aren't you so impressed?!

The Small Annoyances in Life

I've noticed recently that a lot of people use a "B" in their text laughs. I saw, for example, "bwa-ha-ha" and "bahaha" in recent posts I saw on Facebook and Twitter. And this bothers me - there is something completely unrealistic and unnecessary about that "B."

In fact, this might bother me more than "LOL." My freshman year in college, I took a stance against "LOL" and would instead use "IL"..."I'm laughing." I would perhaps even use "ILRH" for something particularly funny. Because who in life has ever said "laugh out loud"! My text acronyms are always logical.

[This could be categorized with the same annoyance as people using the word "nourishment" in prayer...because when else in life does anyone legitimately use the word "nourishment"?]

Projects for Abbey

First of all, I should say that most "Lindsay" projects inevitably become "Lindsay and Jay" projects. Second of all, Jay did not nearly capture the horribleness that was the "painting the inside of the cabinets" project...by far the worst project I've ever subjected us to. I kid you not - there were tears.

The inside of the cabinets had never been painted, so they were GROSS and took three coats of paint. We did it section by section spread out over a few weeks. Typically, Jay would clean them out while I was at work and sometimes do the first coat and I would do the next coats after work. He would take over when I was near tears. But look how pretty and clean it looks now:

With this pic and the two collages, I feel you can mentally capture the full awesomeness of the kitchen:


And then last night I decided to steal most of the stuff out of our guest bedroom and swap it with our bedroom. You can't tell that the bedspread which my mother and I got about a month ago has a pattern in it that perfectly reflects the square-ish squiggles in the paintings that Kath designed for us a few years ago - pretty amazing. I also went and bought Jay a pretty lamp tonight and of course have no light bulb for it (it's on the bed to prove he gets a pretty one, too):
I also organized my closet. It's pretty incredible. And Jay cleaned my room out (we have 4 bedrooms so one is ours, one is the guest, one is his studio, and one is my yet-to-be-defined space that had a bunch of boxes until he emptied them all out yesterday).

The crazy thing is that's just our recent projects (painted the laundry room, parents helped us with landscaping, etc) and there are so many left to do!

Update

Home
Linz loves projects. I'll bet there's an older post that starts with that......AND I love Linz so...... we painted what will hopefully be the last of the kitchen cabinets (the insides) last night. Tonight we are going to watch "Sunshine Cleaning (Amy Adams)" which we have both been wanting to see for a while. There are also a number of movies we haven't gotten to see, but would like to..... they are the following:
1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. The Informant
3. Zombieland
4. Capitalism: A Love Story
5. The Invention of Lying

I also want to include the albums/records I am currently listening to. This is more for my older sister who sends me emails periodically looking for new music.

1. Muse "The Resistance"
2. The Alternate Routes "Good and Reckless and True"
3. The Beatles "Abbey Road 2009 Remasters"
4. Owl City "Ocean Eyes"
5. Jonsi and Alex "The Riceboy Sleeps"
6. Mutemath "Armistice"
7. Derek Webb "Stockholm Syndrome"



Work
Linz is loving her new job at Waste Management downtown. She drives to work in a little traffic and goes to the 40thish floor where she works with O'dalis, Clint, and Jeff. All I know is she build pricing models for their commercial property pricing strategy. Sounds fun.

I am currently producing a five song worship EP for Neal Mabry. Neal leads worship at Fellowship of The Woodlands for the youth. We recorded drums Monday the 12th in The Woodlands at Red Tree Studios. We are recording most of the rest of the record here at my house. I am sending songs to a bass player I met in Nasvhille (Tony Lucido) and also a keys player there (Cason Cooley). Cason started the band "The Normals" with Andy Osenga and both of those guys have played on pretty much every christian record you have ever heard. Such as : Stephen Curtis Chapman, Nicole Nordeman, Matt Kearney, Matt Redman, Tobymac, Bebo Norman, DC Talk, Starfield, Jennfier Knapp, Ginny Owens, Reliant K, Avalon, Matthew Perryman Jones, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken...... on and on the list goes. I am really excited.



Some pics and video from Monday the 12th.

How Not to Rob a Store

Just read this headline...

Police: 500-pound inmate hid gun in his flab
Three separate body searches failed to locate 9mm pistol, officials say

HOUSTON - An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden in his rolls of fat...

Fighting the sickness and looking ahead.

Looking for a job is hard. People aren't hiring and don't want to talk about hiring and when you think you've caught a break and somebody responds they usually are giving you someone else's contact info.

I'm still sick from Africa, but slowly getting better. I still have sore throats in the morning and congestion, but it seems that it's going around here as well. Lindsay has been sick also, but she always gets over things pretty quick.

I played my typical sunday morning job this last weekend, was in the studio yesterday and will be there today to finish up an X-mas record by Matthew and Cameron Hammon. Robbie Seay is producing and has been great to work with. The drums sounds are amazing thanks to Harold Rubens and RedTree. Thursday I leave with Jimmy (Needham) for a thursday through Sunday stint near college station.

Next week it's back to the weekly grind, but a little more time to look for jobs and then we will have to get ready to move.

Our house renovations are about to begin. Lindsay is going with Adam Wells (our realtor Katie's husband who is who we have hired to do the renovations) to look at tile and counter top options on thursday. He and katie are great. We are very thankful to have had them to help us do all of this. They took care of so much.

To give you a peak as to what we are doing I'll give you a quick rundown: We are very fortunate to have family who love us and have been so great helping us with our new home. Thank you so much to both of our parents.

Kitchen (The Big Project)
Masterbath overhaul
Miscellaneous repairs etc. etc.
Utility room washer and dryer

I've been watering the lawn everyday (last night at 10:30 p.m. while I was hafl asleep ;) and I really believe I am seeing improvement. I thought that at first I was just making myself believe I was seeing the yard get better, but Lindsay agrees. I think the only time the previous owners watered it was the day we came and saw the house. Every other lawn on our street is immaculate. Ours is the black sheep of the street and our neighbors know it. I saw one of our neighbors as I was watering the yard a couple of days ago. I thought I would get a "Hey are you guys the new owners?", but instead she had this dissapointed look on her face like we were now responsible for the shabby yard in the neighborhood and she kind of lifted an eyebrow and said "Got a lot of yard work ahead of you. Welcome to the neighborhood". I felt great.

I'm sure she's a really nice person....

Lindsay started painting while I was gone. We are both really big on the color grey right now. She and GeeGaw painted the entire master bedroom and in low light it looks great, but we went back after they had finished and it was a little purple. It's not bad by any means. I'm not sure if she wants to change it or not.

The home studio is coming along. We had adam bid out the cost of starting work on some of the space I'm going to be using. It's a little expensive so we will have to wait right now, but hopefully soon I'll be up and running. I'm looking to produce some projects this fall unless I happen to land a job so finishing the spaces will be very important.

Anyways. Theres a quick update.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Africa

I am currently sitting in the Hotel International in Kampala, Uganda. We have the evening off after playing music for a local high-school. We have been teamed up with a group of dancers and preachers to deliver a program of music, dancing, and evangelism to different high-schools through out Kampala.

Being here is such an experience and I don't know if simply typing about observations does it justice. The country is very beautiful and the city has it's moments.

People are everywhere all the time. Driving is crazy - the people seem to be pretty nice all around. Sometimes I feel like strangers hate me, but only sometimes. White people are called Mazungos (muzoongoos). The people at our host home are pretty amazing. Getting to know them and spendimg time with them has been great.

I'll post some pics when I get back - I took Lindsay's nice camera with me and have taken a ton of photos and videos.

I miss linz, but have been fortunate enough to talk to her everyday.

J

Coldplay!

Earlier this week, Jay and I went to see Coldplay. It was amazing...it was the happiest concert I've ever been to.

Here is during Yellow (one of my favorite songs in the world for almost 10 years) when they threw a ton of huge yellow balls out into the audience to bounce around - amazing:


Here's during Lovers in Japan when paper butterfly canons went off to shower the entire audience - amazing:


Looking straight up:


Here's where they walked out into the audience (the first time) to play some songs - amazing:


And here's where they walked out into the audience (the second time) to play on the lawn behind us - amazing:


And then, they gave away a free CD to everyone on your way out! The whole thing seriously just made you happy.

PS I love my new iPhone! Though I feel as though we weren't really as far away as the pics look.

This will be a work in progress...

Jay left for Africa yesterday and instructed me to go water our very dead grass at our new house every day to try to help it. So I went over there today and found myself watering more dirt than grass:

I think when the former owners decided to sell, their realtor told them they needed to work on the front yard. So they threw some pieces of sod out there to fill in the holes, but I honestly don't know if it did much good. But today I did water all that dirt and all of our little squares of sod.

Sidenote: Notice all of the neighbors' nice yards across the street. Ours is the ONLY house on the block with dirt and squares, so obviously this is not a case of climate, bad dirt, too much shade, etc.

Dumbest Thing. Ever.

A few days ago, I was scrolling through all the Twitter messages ("tweets") from all the people I follow just to see if anyone had anything more interesting to say other than that they just had another cup of coffee or were sitting on an airplane when I ran across this link someone posted: http://www.supportmfm.org/.

For those that don't actually want to click on the link, it takes you to the homepage of "Meat Free Monday." From the homepage: "It's a food campaign to encourage the nation to help slow climate change by reducing their meat consumption by having at least one meat free day a week." What?! If you actually read on, it is only SLIGHTLY less ridiculous than that sounds. What's even more ridiculous is that Paul McCartney is a huge supporter of this thing.

Beyond the premise of "Meat Free Monday," I get so annoyed that people speak of climate change as if someone definitively proved that it is a threat to the future of mankind (http://climatedebatedaily.com/ tracks academic/scientific arguments for both sides) or somehow think it's a noble cause to throw their weight behind. In short, I tend to think that trying to curb CO2 emissions has a greater cost to humanity than the development that comes with it (as an exaggerated illustration, what if the Industrial Revolution never happened? We'd have lower carbon emissions, but would we really be "better off"?). It's like recycling: everyone just assumes it's a good thing so everyone should do it when in truth some things (like concrete) cost more energy to recycle than to just reproduce - you gotta do your research.

I think Al Gore did a disservice by using worst-case-scenario climate model predictions, relying on source data that is criticized, making much of his argument based on inverted causality (historically, changes in levels of C02 don't precede but rather FOLLOW temperature changes)...I could continue. Hey, remember the little cartoon part about the dying polar bears? Well polar bear populations have actually increased globally in the last 40 years.

I'm not saying that I don't care about the future of our planet or that scientist should not explore facts behind climate change. I think it's a good thing that An Inconvenient Truth brought attention to a branch of science that needs more attention and development. What I am saying is that the only thing you're accomplishing by not eating meat on Monday is missing out on some good food.

You-Twit-Face - Thanks Conan

"In the year 3000 YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook will merge into one super-time-wasting website called 'You Twit Face'." - Conan O'Brien

In response to my sister's blog about all the new technology out there:
http://tigerlilies-leanne.blogspot.com/

America is obsessed with celebrity.

That's the bottom line. Anyone can be a celebrity with you-tube and everyone wants to live like a celebrity. That's why we have these things - not for "news" or "social networking" - we want people to see and hear us. It's like being on stage - except most everyone isn't doing anything that anyone else wants to know, hear, or see us do. It's just narcissism.

The world would still go on without twitter or facebook. Sure I think newspapers will become extinct - there are easier ways of getting the information. But information from everyone? I don't know if I really want that. The media is the most un-objective it's ever been and it's only getting worse. Do I really want to know Joe-blow's opinions from the CNN wiki? no

John Mayer, Oprah, Michelle Obama, FOX, and CNN. Not the most stellar team of informers out there. I think being connected can serve a purpose - but I don't know if getting "Left Behind" is really what's going to happen to people who don't embrace new technology. Left behind what? The goings on of Miss California? John Mayer's next bimbo date? Oprah? CNN or FOX coverage? Seeing all of those names together makes me cringe. ha

I have and use all of the different mediums you listed: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, E-blogger, Flickr - Well some of them I don't use very much anymore (myspace/flickr). I even have all those Apps for my phone. But sometimes I just want to throw it in the trash too.

They definitely serve a purpose - I just don't know how important that purpose is. We'll see I guess.

P.S. *you can view this response on my blog and facebook* ;)

Target... Here we come!

Linz left this morning for her first day at Target. She was very excited and very tired. I am happy she has found something she wants to do. I'm also very proud of her. She is incredibly smart and driven. She is going to go far..... and I'm going with her!

"In the year 3000..."

"...YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook will merge into one super-time-wasting website called 'You Twit Face'." - Conan O'Brien

The Power of One Man

http://tr.im/niLF

(Thanks Stirman)

Chica-GO!

So we took a (very spontaneous) trip to Chicago. My friend Ashley suggested it last Monday, we bought some plane tickets a few hours later, and we were there less than one week later.

Even with less than a week's notice, Jay's good friend Chad and his wife Shana let us stay with them for two nights and got tickets to the Cubs' game. They were playing the Pirates. Chad is a Pirates' fan:

It was really cold (maybe 58...so not really Chicago-cold but definitely cold relative to Texas). And Mr. T sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Me and Jay at the game:

We also met up with Jay's friend Aaron and his wife Jen, who just recently moved to Chicago from Houston, to eat Chicago pizza (one of the few things Jay insisted we do while there). They had a really cool apartment in Lincoln Park with an awesome view of the city from their rooftop deck:

The weather was hazy the whole time we were there. We went up in the Hancock building to wait out the rain at the bar on the top floor one day. Cool (hazy) view:

Jay at Union Station on the steps of the baby carriage scene in The Untouchables:

We rode the El (Jay called it the El Train and someone specifically told him that is wrong...I called it the Metro the whole time). No matter what you want to call it, why doesn't someone tell Houston that public transportation is amazing and efficient:

We drove out to the south side (Hyde Park) and saw some Frank Lloyd Wright Houses (and drove by where Obama lived). The Heller House (one of his "transitional" designs):

And from the porch of the University of Chicago's business school, the Robie House (full-blown "prairie" style; I'm listening to a free audio tour on my cell phone - you just call a number that's posted outside the house - I thought that was so smart):
We took an architectural boat tour, which is always fun. Chicago has so many cool and architecturally significant buildings that literally tell its history over the past hundred years. This is Marina City, residences built in the 1960s right off the river and definitely one of the funkier things out there. They definitely look like two giant corn cobs in the skyline:

And here's Jay with that bean thing in Millennium Park:

And here's me and Ash (who we stayed with the second two nights) in front of the skyline from across the lake:

So all-in-all, it was a really fun trip to see great friends and great sights. And although it makes me feel like Houston is really NOT interesting, it also makes me appreciate our cost of living!

Birthday Fun for Everyone

A little late on this but...

This year, Jay and I planned birthday parties for each other. Mine was at Chuy's. His was at Kelvin Arms. We also took the opportunity to test out the new camera that he got me for my birthday. Oh and I love that half the pictures from Chuy's are portraits of Jay and Patty that they took of each other (I left most out here). Way to document the evening fellas.

Nashville!

This last weekend I went to Nashville to watch my dad and sister run in the half marathon with the other 30,000 people who run in it - it's huge. Here are the runners nearly done with their 13+ miles:


Hudson skipped along with them for a few hundred feet. I'm sure next year he'll just run the whole thing.


Later that day, Hudson had a soccer game. I skipped out to finish a project for school, but he tells me he's pretty good.

The next day we had Hudson's birthday party (#5) at Glow Galaxy. Here we are after running around like crazy in this glow-in-the-dark place with jumpy things and mini-golf about to re-energize everyone with sugar before sending them home to unsuspecting parents. As you can see, the birthday boy gets a tie-dyed shirt so you can spot him in the glow-in-the-dark:


They really got the candles going on those cupcakes there. Opening presents:


Lucy and I sat in the car for a lot of it doing this:


A girl's gotta sleep. This pretty much sums up the weekend, though - exhausting. Hudson has always been an early riser, so things start early at the Johnson household and don't slow down. What I don't have picture proof of is when he climbed into my lap at dinner (voluntarily). He has never been cuddly (and Lucy's not much better - what's wrong with your uncuddly children, Kath?), but he was just so tired.

Thanks for hosting us in Nashville, Jared and Kath!

The Internet is Ruining Our Lives

Well, maybe not our lives...but at least part of our lives...like how we perceive friendship. You see, I had two very emotional experiences with my internet friends today.

First, I noticed on Facebook that one of my "friends" (ie a girl I had classes with in high school, hardly spoke to then, and haven't spoken to since) just got engaged. And I was so happy for her. Like seriously from the heart, felt joy for her. And then I thought, "Why?" I don't know this person. I don't know if this guy is any good for her or if I should feel happy at all.

Later, I was on Twitter and realized that someone I follow was no longer following me. This is the type of person who has like 300 followers and himself follows less than 30. I know I used to be one of those 30 - I was so hurt! He followed me first! Granted, I talk to this person very rarely and have little interest in his life...but he CONSCIOUSLY CHOSE to un-follow me - to kick me out of that 10% of his followers that he feels worthy of following himself!

These people are not my friends. But somehow the internet convinced me they were.

The internet did contribute positively to my day: I downloaded an image of a dollar bill to make these for Hudson:

Dinner with Jun and Jialin

My Chinese friend Jun invited us over for dinner with her husband Jailin and another couple/classmates for authentic Chinese food. Now this was one elaborate dinner. In China, you start with cold dishes:

Jellyfish (Raw! I tried it...very chewy...)

Bamboo Chutes (A little spicy. I liked it.)

And then we had an appetizer:

Mini Buns with Pork (NOT the same as dumplings or wontons because they have liquid in them. You have to bite a little hole in it and suck out the juice first.)

Then Jailin made 6 hot dishes for us. The way it works apparently is that he stays in the kitchen alone and brings em out when they're ready. He doesn't eat until the end. He made a spicy beef dish, Tokyo bomb (seafood over a rice cake), coddle fish, spicy catfish, cooked vegetables, amd tofu noodle thing. Those aren't necessarily what they called the dishes, but I really didn't know what some of it was.

And then we had a rice bun dessert. They were these little rice dumpling-ish ball things that had sweet paste in the middle.

Me & Jun

Chef Jailin

The Rest of the Group

Chinese Beer

Tea

And a little action:

It's your birthday...Linz

Doggie Jay Care

We have a house guest this weekend:


My parents were going to take Oscar to Doggie Day Care this weekend while they're gone, but I thought he should come to Doggie Jay Care instead since Jay and Oscar love each other so.

For those who don't know Oscar, he's four pounds of attitude. But I think we're having fun. We go outside:

We gave him a bath:

He's been relatively polite to the neighbors. He sleeps with us under the covers. He sits on my lap pretty much regardless of what I'm doing. But he'll go home tomorrow, and I think he'll be glad to see his person (ie the Giga).

I should add that Oscar might be the dumbest dog ever (you know it's true mother). For example, Jay moved a chair right by the bed so he could get in himself and tried to train him to jump onto it first...disaster.