Engineering Saturday

He put his arm around me and said, "Do you still remember 395* class?" "Yeah," I said. "Well then, we're mixing some concrete tomorrow."

I did not know what I got myself into. A little back story: The places where they put cribbing needed to be filled in. Concrete guys won't be able to come until next Monday. But, the carpenter needed to put the joists in. Solution: We filled in ourselves!

All I can remember is bagels, back pain, Menards, back pain, kiddie pool, back pain. We went to Menards to get supplies; 6-60 lbs sand mix, 2-90 lbs cement, 1-5 gal bucket. We used the kiddie pool that we bought Lucky that one time. 

1. We filled in the 5'x5' (we had to do 2 of them) with more crushed rocks, so we needed less mix.

2. Then we mix 3-60 lbs sand, 1-90 lbs cement, 20 gal of aggregate (the crushed rocks), and 1.5 gal of water for each 5'x5'. It was so hard to mix. And according to my friend, I did not do it right if my back is in pain. Well, tracing back my memory to 395*, I remember mixing much less of a mix in a group, a group of 4-5 people. Those 4-5 people would usually consists of 3-4 males and 1 female. We took turn and by 'we', I meant the male students. But I did the mixing too this time. (Picture shows John mixing)

3. We then poured the material, spread, and smoothed it out. Oh, we did not forget to put our hand prints.

They all sound pretty straightforward and easy. But, it left me pretty beat up. And yes, my lower back is still sore, but it's much better.

Looking forward to another. Engineering Saturday!


*CEE 395: Material for constructed facilities.

If I have a twitter..

Note: I think it's hard to find a title that always start with 'on'. All these title posts, either they're right on or they're a bit weird. So I may have let that go...

I have a twitter account that I don't use. I don't believe in that anymore. But, I have some things in my mind that I need to say:

It is hard to fall asleep when your husband is snoring, but it's even harder to do when your dog's snoring at the same time.

I always feel bad when I end up buying something that I have previously bought for someone as a gift  just because I like it a lot.

Anyway, today is Fridee. Just to give an update, we have found our flooring for the house. We love it so much. 

1. Natural Hickory

We are using hardwood floors for the bedrooms and living rooms (downstairs and upstairs). Both of us do not like oak feel. The grain. Just a preference, not judging. But surprisingly, we both like the natural character hickory. We like the different tone color.

2. Daltile - San Michele and Heathland

We will have 12"x24" tiles throughout most of the first floor and bathroom. I love the rectangular tiles and the vein cut and that travertine feel. Love it! We'll also staggered them when they're laid out. We'll have mosaic tiles (2"x2") Heathland - Sunrise for the shower floor and a 9"x12" wall tile Heathland - White Rock with one accent wall Heathland - Sage in the master bath :)

Note: Nobody likes my Hello Kitty tiles! If I have a baby girl, I'm going to tell her to ask daddy to install Hello Kitty tiles in her bathroom :p Who could resist a little girl asking for a Hello Kitty tile?? 

Next step is to get cabinets for the bathroom as we need running water before we're moving back in :)

Originally, we were going with quartz. And I love this Bianco River for the clean bathroom feel and Chrome for the more upbeat bar feel. But, you know the price is not as friendly esp. the one that I picked out :( So we're looking at granite remnants where we know we can get a better deal. 

We'll see. Happy Fridee, though!

On what I'm reading

What I've read:

The Cost of Hope - Amanda Bennett

I like this book and I think it's well written. Of course I'm crying when I'm reading it. But it shows her perseverance and how much she loved her husband. It also makes me question our existing healthcare industry. The book covers the actual cost that the family spent, so the title is being up front at the same time, the cost of hope.

Abundance - Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Again, it makes me realize how great our world is and how great the power of the people. The book is filled with positive energy which is needed in this sometimes negative world. I think we need positive reinforcement in every problem we're facing. Yes, the world has a problem such as clean water availability and world hunger. Let's not sit down and be doomed, but put our thinking cap instead because we may live in abundance one day!

These following books are classic books which I have not read previously. They were not assigned readings in my high school.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinback

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger. I really love this book. 

What I'm currently reading:

Snow child - Eowyn Ivey

I haven't actually read a single word, but I'm going to start today. I hope it's going to be good :)

From Amazon.com:

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

On our Minneapolis trip

This past weekend, we (with Lucky!) went to Minneapolis for a friend's wedding. We arrived at about 10:00pm. Lucky was looking super cute checking out this big reception hall at Hyatt Regency (thanks to Priceline). You know like a amazed and all. Wait, who in the world complimenting their own dog? It's like I'm saying to people: "My (future) daughter looks beautiful." It sounds wrong. Also, I want to comment on the hotel. I felt like it was a very pretentious hotel. This "fancy" hotel will charge for internet. I mean, nowadays they have free wi-fi in every other 3-star hotel you know.

Anyway, every time I go to a city, there will be a buffering time. It's like my brain forgets that I grew up in a city. (World ranking for Jakarta: 13th by population, 6th by population density, and 2nd by population with the official metropolitan area, according to Wikipedia - please don't judge my source). So naturally, I should not be wowed by tall buildings or should not feel uneasy about seeing more cars and more people. But I was......not for long, though......

On Saturday, we decided to take a walk around Lake Harriet. I'm gonna say upfront that I don't like walking that much. I'd prefer biking. But for that, we needed to rent it. So yeah, we made lots of  a couple stops as I needed to rest my legs (By the end of the walk, I had cramps). We took pictures along the way too and my fav. one was the shadow pictures. From left to right: Lucky, Mr. and me. Or as I said to Mr.: "Yeah this picture from left to right represents who likes to pass gas the most and whose gas is the stinkiest. I'm just kidding.......NOT!" I'm not kidding, Lucky's fart is toxic.

We then had lunch with my brother and his girlfriend at French Meadow. It was delish! I ordered grass-fed beef burger (I have always thought that it's obvious for a cow to eat grass????) Then time to get ready.

The wedding was awesome, we (my brother and I) danced and caught up with old friends. The next morning we had dim sum at Pagoda restaurant. Mr. did not eat, I'm sure because he never had one before and he found it weird. But I have not had dim sum in a while (spare ribs and chicken feet!). I still like Phoenix in Chicago better.

Anyway, we had fun, but it's just too little amount of time and a bit harder to bring Lucky.

On the bright side ...

On the bright side...my brother received Microscopy Society of America Presidential Student Award for 2012. So proud of his past, present, and future achievements!

We may somewhat still live out of our suitcases. But, on the bright side ... Lucky seems to be settling in just fine. Note: do you notice that she puts her paws underneath her head when sleeping?

We may have very warm weather this summer and our plants are not as fruitful, but on the bright side... we are able to work our magic and make our homemade salsa. Ingredients include varieties of peppers, tomatoes, red onion, lemon juice, and cilantro. That's it. Oh! and lots of love ;)

Life can be full of surprises. But at the end of the day, I know he (and my family too) will be there for me. I don't want to dwell in the hardships, but I want to look at the bright side...

the bright back side of our new tree fort 

Much much love goes to Rebecca G. who is currently in Uganda. If you read this, I'd like to tell you that I keep my calendar open, just in case...You know what I mean ;p

On keeping the chandelier

The chandelier was there the first time we took a look at the house. It might be the prettiest thing that came originally with the place (except for the lake, of course). I can't afford to throw it out just like that. So, we keep the chandelier. I will refinish it with new coat of paint and hang it in the new office room. That way, I still have a piece of memory from when the first period we lived in the house. I am that kind of person who is always trying to preserve memories* 

Even better, if we get a sofa sleeper for that room, I can get this cute chandelier-ish pillow!!

*Hopefully it does not turn into compulsive hoarding.

**I created this post yesterday morning. Previously, Mr. informed me that the tree will not be removed yet during the first phase of demolition. So, I was super excited to find this side table idea. I could not wait to tell him and maaaaayybe I could convince him to keep the tree trunk. But, yesterday evening when we visited the house for the first day of demolition, the tree was gone :'( I just can't get the tree side table idea out of my mind, though.

On harvesting the pepa!

Every summer, we grow peppers and tomatoes. This summer, the tomatoes are not doing good due to the excessive heat that we've been experiencing. But, the peppers are doing ok. We grow them 2 ways; in a hanging planter (L) and in the ground (R). We are testing which way grows more peppers. So far, we have concluded that growing them in the ground will produce more peppers. I don't know if this is the case for everybody, but we plan on growing them just in the ground next summer.

We grow more varieties this year and we have picked some of them. From left to right: Garden Salsa, Sweet Banana, Giant Marconi, Hot Banana, and UFO (Unidentified Familiar Object - We know it's pepper (and hence 'Familiar') but the name tag was missing, so we could not tell what it was (and hence 'Unidentified').  We haven't picked the jalapeño, habanero, and fajita bells yet.

We used the Sweet Banana and the UFO as topping on frozen pizza (sometimes too tired to cook and to eat outside). They were delicious. We can't wait to make salsa with this. I'm guessing we want to buy some tomatoes from Farmer's Market or somewhere since our home grown tomatoes are not growing.

Happy Harvest Day!