I'm Back ... Kinda

It's been a long time since my last post but don't worry, you haven't missed much. I haven't really done any work to my house and other than a few fun nights out I've been pretty boring.

I have a pretty busy Memorial Day weekend as long as I can survive past the sunburn I got from golfing yesterday ... or at least attempting to golf.

This morning I am waiting for Comcast to show up so I can get faster internet (currently have slow Verizon DSL). I'll be saving around $15 a month and get about 3x - 4x the speed ... as long as my cable internet is as fast a my neighbors. While waiting in my 4-hour window, I decided to fix something that's been bothering me and really needs to be fixed for a multitude of reasons.

When I exposed the brick in the living room, I noticed that light was coming through from my alley. Today, I decided to scrape out the remaining mortar and clean the area so I could fill it back in. Since it's a relatively small area, i just used regular mortar for the outside layer and will fill the rest in from the inside with something different.

As always, instead of writing, I'll opt for pictures:


From the outside looking in


Living room to the alley


Outside layer of mortar

Once I get the rest of the supplies and finish the inside, I'll take more pictures.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Chimney TV Walls

I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been busy with friends visiting and doing other fun and exciting things that I could write about, but don't want to get back to this being just a bunch of pictures of me hanging out with friends.

The only work I've done on my house involves cleaning ... and it is definitely cleaner than it has been in a long, long time. I even had some of the aforementioned friends sleeping on the first floor. Anyways, the next thing I want to do is frame out around the chimney. This is basically what I want to do:



I used IKEA's room design freeware which limited me from showing what I actually think it will look like, but you can get the idea. The shelving will be built into the wall on both side and there will be a HVAC duct on the left side of the image closing in that section of shelves. The chimney will have a mantle on it with the flat screen hanging above. I am going to use an in-wall mounting bracket so I can wire electric to it and easily hide all the wires. I am looking at the Sanus LR1A system (below). It will bring the TV flush against the wall and also allow me to extend it out and rotate toward the "dining" area in case I am working over there and want to watch something.






If I find better freeware to use, I'll make a better mock-up of this and other areas I need to work on.

I've been interviewed

After commenting on Baltimore Rowhouse's interview a while back, Danny from Urban Discoveries Living Blog asked if I would be interested in being interviewed. I jumped at the chance and even though it took me several weeks to get my answers to him, I am really happy with the results.

Head on over there and check it out. They also have lots of useful information and constant updates on what's going on in Baltimore.

Truffle Shuffle - League Champions!

This isn't a catch-up post since it happened last night. My volleyball team won the championships for our division last night at the Volleyball House. Everyone played great and at one point when we lost the lead late in a match, we didn't fold and came back to win by 3 points.

We are moving up to a new division for the next session (starting next week), and I am looking forward to getting better. I feel like I've come a long way, but I still wouldn't consider myself to be good compared to the other players on my team, let alone some of the other people I see playing at VBall house.



On another note, I sprained my ankle playing basketball over Easter weekend up in CT and it still hasn't healed (to be expected). I sat out vball on Wednesday and football yesterday morning so I wouldn't aggravate it. I thought playing last night wouldn't be too bad as long as I wrapped it up right, but after playing 5 tough games, it feels worse than it did originally. Now, our BSSC team has playoffs this Wednesday and Thursday and I know it won't be feeling much better by then, but I want to play. I guess this will be a never-ending cycle since the other league starts next Sunday and Beach vball starts next Wednesday. We'll see how this plays out.

Charity Happy Hour Re-cap (Catch-Up pt.3)

Last Thursday was the happy hour at Mad River to raise some money for Anna's House, my Dragonboat team's charity organization. The turn-out was pretty good and I think we raised a decent amount for them.

Lee, learning how to make a margarita:



My pops and Linda showed up (after the HH ended though):



From long range (Nick and I ran the table till everyone left for Mother's):



Everyone stayed at Mad River for a while after the happy hour ended and then headed over to Mother's until ... well ... I guess a while (the last picture in my camera from the night was taken at 11:55 PM and showed no signs of us stopping).

Sushi 101: Roll Your Own (Catch-Up pt. 2)

Wednesday night after Habitat, I went to Whole Foods in Mount Washington to take a FREE class in Sushi. The class was put on by Genji's community group. We got a Sushi 101 book that has step-by-step instructions for making your own rolls, but also has sections about terminology, recipes and other how-to sections (use chopsticks). There were about a dozen people there and the guys running the class seemed to think several didn't come because of the bad weather (a girl in our group didn't make it because the weather caused too much traffic).

The class started with a simple avocado roll. We were instructed to take a piece of nori (toasted seaweed) and place it on the mat with the shiny side down. Then we took an egg-sized ball of rice and spread it over the nori, leaving about a finger width at the top:



The chef told us to take 4 of the slivers of avocado and place it length-wise on the rice, closer to the fully-covered end (I only used 2 pieces to make it easier to roll, since it was my first time):



From here, we'll have to go with text only until the finished product (this is from my head because I don't have the book they gave us handy):

• Slide the nori to the end of the mat closest to you
• Grab under the mat with your thumbs and just past the avocado with your fingers
• Roll the mat (and nori) over the avocado, using your fingers to keep it from being pushed
• Once you have it rolled, squeeze the mat lightly
• Unrolled the mat and reposition the roll so the uncovered (by rice) nori is on the bottom
• Wrap the mat around the roll again and use your hands to form it into a square shape
• Unwrap and cut

I found some pretty good step-by-step pictures on flickr if you go through the photostream.

The class was great and would have been worth paying for. At the end, we got the free Sushi 101 book, a free mat and 4 free rolls (the we made ourselves). The 4 rolls included an avocado roll, cucumber roll, avocado and cucumber inside-out roll and a California inside-out roll. I definitely recommend this class for anyone that likes sushi.


An inside-out California Roll

Habitat for Humanity (Catch-Up pt. 1)

On Wednesday last week, I got to take the day off from work and volunteer with Arundel Habitat for Humanity as part of a Earth Day corporate citizenship effort (other workers could volunteer at the Baltimore Zoo or an Environmental Festival). The weather was crappy and it rained all day, but luckily we were working inside a house that had a completed roof. We worked on a house in Brooklyn that had been completely gutted and had new joists and floors. Our job was to frame out the rooms.

Even though the day was crappy, I had a lot of fun and our group was able to accomplish a lot. By the end of the day we ran out of screws, and had to pack up a little early, but we were able to visit some of the other houses that were at different stages and see the transformation these groups are able to make.

I took a couple pictures with my phone: