JeffHorneWeb Blog - Family Life

The Project To Top Them All

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:36:00 -0500

I am a weekend warrior, a do it yourselfer and have never met a project I didn't like. My last big project, building a titled shower out of our bath only master bath kept me off major projects for a few years. This latest project may keep me off them for a decade.

My detached garage has been leaking for some time. I recently found that it was leaking much worse that I thought and some of the wood was terribly warped. I thought it was be a good weekend project. How hard could it be? Tear off the old stuff, replace the bad plywood, roll out tar paper and put down new shingles.

Unfortunately, it's horrible bad. My neighbor and I both thought it would be a fun, learning project and we both now know we definitely learned one valuable lesson. That lesson is that we never want to roof again. For starters, a very mild week ended in the 90s. That's much hotter on a roof.

Day one was tear off day. That was a lot of work. The roof was put on in the days when felt paper was held in place with roofing nails. That made tear off a lot tougher.

Yesterday was re-wood, tar paper and first two rows of shingles. It went okay but the heat was worse than the previous day.

I took today off and continued. It was not as hot when the clouds rolled in but when it was out, the heat was unbearable. Storms were in the forecast. After several rows of shingles, I decided to move the shingle bundles to the roof to hold a tarp in place. I got the tools off the roof just before the rain started.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the tarp up fast enough so the rain hit the ceiling. My research says that tar paper can get wet and will flatten out when it dries off. I will be placing the tarp down tomorrow before more forcasted storms on Wednesday and Thursday.

So my Labor Day weekend will now consist of a lot of labor and hopefully the completion of the biggest home improvement project of my life.

Back To School

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:11:00 -0500

It's been about a month since I updated the blog. Sorry for the lack of updates but it has been a busy, busy Summer.

G-FEST was great. Akira Takarada was a great guest. Everyone had a great time. Preparations are already under way for G-FEST XVIII.

After that it was off to the Wisconsin Dells for the annual sabbatical to the water park capital of the world. We stayed at the Skyline Hotel across the street from Mount Olympus. It was a great time and the hotel was very nice and reasonably priced. With our stay, each member of the family receives a pass for Mount Olympus for the duration of the stay.

The rest of the Summer has been filled with more activity. We hit Raging Waves and had a great time at Six Flags.

What A Week

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:43:00 -0500

So the week that saw several strong, damaging storms, a 10+ game win streak for the left for dead White Sox, wonderful Lillie's 11th birthday and the start of dismantling the Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks because of the salary cap winds up with The Crossroads Guitar Festival. As June has been, there are storms forecasted for this afternoon and tonight. Argh.

Guitars and Lightning don't mix. We have the sunscreen and emergency ponchos so we're prepared for any weather event.

Waterslide

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:28:00 -0500

The Year project continues with the slightly delayed release of May's song Waterslide. The backing tracks were completed in May but we just recorded the vocals tonight. In continued "The family that plays together, stays together" fashion, another member of the family shines on this track.

Lillie takes the lead vocal on this tribute to one of our favorite summertime traditions, the waterslide. It's an upbeat little rocker with plenty of pogo-osity.

Enjoy.

Waterslide

On The Moon

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:28:00 -0500

Mary and I finally accomplished what we have been attempting to do for 22 years. We wrote and recorded a song together. It is a simple acoustic guitar song that we've called On The Moon. When I hear it it sounds to me like a good end of the album track. I can hear it being sung around the campfire.

The song starts out with a didgeridoo to set the mood that this is going to be something to bring a smile and not taken too seriously. It is basically two lovers singing together as the lay together on a blanket on a Summer's night while looking up at the Moon above.

I'm not completely happy with my vocal, yet. I'm still learning the ins and outs of Mixcraft and it sometimes stutters and throws off the timing of said track. I will get the hang of it, I promise.

Mary sounds wonderful. It was her first recorded lead vocal and understandably she was very nervous. As all of us who have been in her shoes know, it gets easier and with repetition, second nature.

On The Moon

Family Affair

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:43:00 -0500

What a wonderful weekend. My brother is getting set to celebrate his 40th birthday this week so his wife planned a surprise party for him this past weekend. My Mom, Sister and Niece came in for the party. Since it was a surprise, none of us were to announce they were coming or that they were here.

We had an amazing weekend. After picking them up on Friday, we all played a long round of Beatles: Rock Band. They had never played and fell in love with it. On Saturday we did a bit of shopping and a bit more Beatles. Finally at the party, all went without a hitch. The surprise was great and upon seeing out of town family, the happiness was even bigger.

On Sunday, we decided to set out on a whirlwind tour of our home growing up, schools while there and the downtown area. A visit to the hometown candy shop, still open, brought the biggest excitement of the day.

It was a great weekend with the family.

Return The Egg

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:54:00 -0500

Iowa Getaway Getaway

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:13:00 -0500

We went to Dubuque, Iowa for a quick one night getaway to finish off our great Spring Break / Birthday weekend. We stayed at the Holiday Inn right off the Mississippi River. There was a Dog Show sponsored by the Dubuque Kennel Club across the street so the hotel was literally crawling with dogs.

This morning we stopped at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium followed by a stop at the Ulysses S. Grant home in Galena, Illinois.

I've posted pictures from our trip in the Gallery.

It was a great trip and a great week.

Thanks Mom and Dad

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:10:00 -0500

Spring Break-Day One

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:14:00 -0500

Today is the first day of Spring Break. The kids slept in as long as I let them... and I let them. It was my first day to knock a few things off the To-Do list.

First up, basement shower. It has been dripping for a while. I removed the handles and saw the faucet washers were very compressed. Two new washers later ($1.40) and the dripping is over. That will save us on our water bill, no doubt.

Number two on the list, to switch the card used to create monthly payments on the French Horn and find out when it is paid for. Card switched and horn paid off Jan 1, 2012. That's under two years. Great.

The last job for the day was to clean out the Garage to make room for job four. That was not too bad as most of the mess was boxes that I moved to the three season porch. Mission Accomplished.

That brings us to the fun part of the day. Lillie had an outing at Bouncetown that raised money for the school. It was a lot of fun for her. Mom and Dad just watched her. I took some pictures with my phone and will upload them when I can get them off the Micro-SD card.

Tomorrow is the start of job four, to build a new recording desk. I have the plan layed out on paper and can get started as soon as I buy the raw materials... wood and wood screws. I plan on doing that tomorrow.

Movie Day

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:47:00 -0500

What started out as a dark, windy, snowy Chicago day ended up a movie marathon that none of us expected.

We had decided to take in Diary of a Wimpy Kid at the local googleplex on Friday. Circumstances in the positive caused a delay so we decided for a Saturday showing, instead. The kids had read and loved the Wimpy Kid series of books by Jeff Kinney. Lillie, especially, was a fan and we would soon find out this was not a good thing for the film.

Most of learn as we grow older that film that are based on great books rarely live up to the source material. Sadly, Lillie learned that lesson yesterday. There were a number of scenes that presented things differently than the books as well as characters that didn't existing the universe of the written word. As a result, she proclaimed this the worst movie she'd ever seen.

Was it really? Likely, no. Living in the family of a Godzilla fan, who loves sci-fi, horror and comic book movies, she has seen a lot of bad, bad movies. But like all of us who have seen a film version of a beloved book, she was let down that it did not live up to her preconceived expectation of what a film based on these books should be like.

So for the non-reader of the series, was it a bad film. No, not at all. It was very funny. It was full of life lessons and characters we could all relate to. The grownups liked it more than the kids because we had no preconceived ideas of what the film should be like.

Afterward, we carried out a less thn acceptable haircut on the boy. I wanted a good four inches taken off. The hairdresser loved his hair so she would not cut it. Instead she got rid of the unsightly ends to the strands. At least we had a coupon for half off the cut.

A bit of shopping and dinner later and it was time for more movies. I decided it would be Astro Boy. As most fans of the original animated series found out, this was not our Astro Boy. Sure the CGI Astro Boy looked a bit like the 2D Astro Boy we loved and the characters all had huge noses but it was watered down. It didn't have the magic that the original did. It was entertaining enough but not what I had hoped. I know exactly how Lillie felt earlier in the day.

After that, we got ready for The Return of Dr. Phibes on Svengoolie but Mary requested District 9 since we'd recently seen Phibes on Sven. I was happy to oblige. I'd seen District 9 at the theater and really enjoyed it. Much like Cloverfield, it took a film genre that we were very familiar with, in this case Alien Invasion, and presented it in a light that was ground breaking and very riveting. Happily, Mary shared my appreciation for the film.

So it was a Movie Marathon Saturday. Perfect for the turn the weather took. Now if I can just get rid of this stinking cold, I'll really be happy.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Last Dance

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:11:00 -0500

Last night was the last Daddy/Daughter dance as it's time for Middle School next year. We had a great time. Funny moment was when the DJ split up the gym between Dads and Daughter to sing a rousing Summer Nights from Grease. The problem was the girls did not know Grease so it was an Epic Fail. Funny for the wrong reason.

Today was the last of the 13th birthday festivities. It was a nightmare because the 13 year old apparently invited someone without telling us. This would not have been a big deal but the person lives about 30 minutes away and we had the actually invited guests on the way over. We had to delay a visit with teh uninvited/invited guest until a later time. Communication is a wonderful thing. Sadly, with the teens just starting, I'm sure there will be plenty more of those.

Unfortunately, Lillie has a stomach flu. That means no visit by Grandpa tomorrow for the Super Bowl.

Life just stays interesting.

Boy To Man

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:35:00 -0500

My boy becomes a man tomorrow. He is a great boy and makes me proud.

I love you Tom. Happy 13th Birthday.

Love Dad.

Trippin' Into The Big Apple

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:28:00 -0500

Saturday and today were spent visiting the local Men's Warehouse in preparation for a very exciting trip that I found out about last week. My team at work was notified that we were one of three runners up for the yearly Innovator's Award. We were knocked out at the honor.

We received an invitation to take part in the annual awards dinner to be held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City. We will also be staying at the W Hotel in Times Square. I have been to New York City once before and was given the whirlwind tour by my friend Michael in a period of a few hours. This time, in addition to the dinner and awards ceremony, we will be taking a Movie and TV location bus tour.

As I said, we are very excited to have received this honor. Our website received a Top Ten Best Support Website award from the Association of Support Professionals earlier in the year. To start this year is a great way to start.

New York, here we come.

What A Day

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:33:00 -0500

I'd like to recap my day in a few short paragraphs. Today is Sunday. For many people it is the end of a four day Holiday weekend. I spent it shoveling snow. I snapped the handle of the shovel mid-job. Fortunately, it snapped in the middle. I have new, thick leather gloves that allowed me to continue the job. That and my under six foot height made it possible.

I was able to replace the handle with a $5 shovel handle from the hardware store. I then finished off the post break part of the shoveling that needed touching up. The little things in life sometimes seem like great achievements.

The ladies went to visit a friend in Rockford for a girl's day at the mall. More on that in a bit. Tom and I hit the stores for a few things then came back and he disappeared to his new XBox 360 man cave. I saw him for dinner and that was it. I guess that will be how it is from here on out, at least until school starts again and the homework kicks in.

I took on the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 game. When playing real gold, Caddyshack jokes are a constant. When playing this game, Tiger jokes are the new norm. I do fine until it comes time to putt. I generally take as many shots on the putting green as I do getting to it. I finished +37 for 18 holes. The announcer in the game said "That is one of the worst rounds I've ever seen". I believe she was right.

After the ladies got home, we played some Wii. This is where things started to change. I got the new drumset I picked up for Christmas and got ready for a game of Guitar Hero 5 where I could use the orange cymbal which is broken on our current set. Unfortunately, the yellow cymbal stand on the new set is cracked. This is before I even got a chance to use it.

Maybe I should just go to bed so the next experience I have will be a new day.