Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New Blog!

Our blog has a new home! If you are subscribed to this blog you will no longer see new posts.

Please go to http://happychappyhouse.com and subscribe to the new blog.

See you there!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

A Dog Called Bones

Our neighbors (Richard and Danielle) just took in a stray dog from a pretty bad neighborhood. It had been hanging around Danielle's mom's house for about a week before Danielle went to pick it up. If the dog makes it, they may need help finding a good, loving home for it. The dog is a he and his name is Bones.


They have had the dog for about two weeks now. It has a healthy appetite and has been putting on some healthy weight.
Anyone want a dog?

Friday, August 12, 2011

John's Wizard Card

John's wizard card, put together by Trey when he gave us some home-made chocolate frogs

Front:

Back:

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Pottermore Early Access

Yes, we're gearing up for the big day. We've already printed our wedding invitations and are printing addresses onto envelopes as we get them. We hope to send the invitations out in September. John has ordered his wedding band, arrangements are being made for the cake, catering is pretty much taken care of, and things are generally falling into place at this point.

But what's REALLY exciting is that we both managed to win early registration into Pottermore and will be part of the Beta testing group.
If you don't know about Pottermore, watch the video here.

How it Happened:
First of all, our "friend" Trey was supposed to remind us when early registration was starting but he "forgot." When we saw on Facebook that he got in on the fourth day of registration, we berated him for not reminding us and he accused us of not really seeming that interested. ANYWAY, John and I decided that we were going to do what it takes to get in on the fifth registration day. Trey gave us all the tips we needed and we patiently awaited notification about the window of time between which registration would open. John and I both checked the site every few minutes starting at around 10:30 am because according to the MuggleNet, registration would open between 10:30 and 2:00. (Quite the work distraction.) When registration finally opened, I was working at the Ask-A-Librarian desk in the library. Right when John sent me a text saying "It's Open. Go NOW!" about five students walked into the library needing help completing the Chem Abstracts assignment that was due in one hour.

Luckily, Phil had come to the desk early to relieve me. Still, I was at a computer and registration was open and I wasn't about to risk losing the minute or two it would take to go back upstairs to my office. So while helping these students, I was frantically calculating the answer to the Magic Quill question, typing in the secret web address, and looking for that damn magic quill. Any time the students looked down at their papers, I was switching tabs to the secret web address. I couldn't find it. Phil told me that he could take over but in my head I was screaming "I have to find the magic quill, I have to find the magic quill!" Then I got a text from John. "It's in the ad! It's the glowing one!" So there it was; this glowing quill flying by in an ad at the top of the page. I had to click it as it flew by. I missed the first two times!

Finally I clicked and got to the registration page but had to stop for a while and help some students. I couldn't sit still. Why do these kids wait until an hour before the assignment is due? And why every semester? About ten minutes later, Phil volunteered to take some of these students upstairs and I volunteered to stay at the desk "in case any other students arrived." Luckily, they didn't and I was able to rush through the registration form. When Phil came back down I raced to my office to check and see if I got the validation email. I clicked the validation link in my email and was in! And just barely, because when I went back to Pottermore, registration had closed.

So we're both really excited about getting into the site early. We hope to some day see some of you there. :)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

Save the Date!

Keep checking back for updates!

Save the Date!
November 26, 2011
Inn at Chachalaca Bend - Los Fresnos, Texas



Padrinos
In lieu of gifts, please consider giving money to help fund the event. If you are interested in contributing to any of the following expenses, please message one of us privately:

Venue
Attire
Cake
Food
Alcohol
Music
Decorations
Anything else we've left off the list :)

What the heck is a padrino?
A sponsor.


Gifts and Registry
If you'd rather give us a gift, we'll take it!
Registered at Bed, Bath & Beyond
Will also be excited to receive gift cards for Lowe's


Sunday, April 24, 2011

What a Weekend!

This is what the kitchen looked like on Thursday -

Everything covered in dust from sanding the walls, tools and materials all over the place, appliances everywhere but where they're supposed to be -

It took a lot of sweeping before we could even think about painting the walls while the boys worked on installing the heavy appliances -
Thursday:
-Sweeping
-Working on the Sink
-Lowe's
-Cleaning of appliances
-Faucet installation

The girls painted the walls while the boys continued to do the hard stuff -
Friday:
Painting
Installation - Oven, Range Hood, Garbage Disposal
Plumbing

Lots of different things were going on simultaneously -
Saturday -
Installation - Lights
Face plates
Finishing Touches
Cleaning
Cooking for the party

Cleaning was still going on the day of the party while we started cooking. We may still be in our work clothes and jammies but doesn't the kitchen look good? -

So the timing was a little off; we weren't quite ready to serve our guests but good conversation was had as some of our friends helped chop vegetables, fill samosas, and watch the stove to make sure nothing burnt while I juggled the different items on the menu!

John served chicken teriyaki -

And brought out the cake -

Which he decorated himself -

My favorite part of our party was telling our kitchen stories, talking about the people who gave me cards and presents, and recognizing those who helped out...and posing for pictures. :)
Later, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, John said he had one more thing for me - a ring that his father had given to his mother on their anniversary the day before John was born. He used it to propose.

I said yes.
And we posed for pictures the next day in our morning faces. :)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

March Kitchen Update and other projects

A lot of people have been asking about the status of the kitchen. Well, over two months after starting this ordeal, we still don't have one. Here are some pictures of what has been done so far...

This is the kitchen after we tried sanding and making what was there somewhat decent. We gave up and started ripping this stuff out.


After getting the bar area out by ourselves, we called in the aid of my dad.




All cabinets are out, and the walls have been patched and primed.


And now we have the new cabinets.

We are still waiting for the word on when the counter tops will be installed. Then we'll still need to put up the back splash, lights, finish patching the walls, prime and paint, put up the book shelf around the living room, trim the doors and windows before we'll be able to call this all finished and move our stuff into the kitchen and family room.

You may be wondering what happened to the old kitchen: it's on the patio.


This pile of wood was sitting on our patio, slowly weighing down our already badly weathered ping pong table for about a month, until I spent the whole weekend pulling out nails and sorting.


Now our patio looks like this.


We took a break from working inside to appreciate the weather, do a little spring gardening, and repair the poor old ping pong table.

The table has been sanded, and the backsides have been painted black. I built a frame for each side for better structural support, so when I'm done, we'll be able to use the table for other things as well.

This is the stage they are at currently. I will prime and paint these pieces, and I am constructing some legs which I will attach with bolts to the frames underneath the table top. I will varnish the whole thing to make it more weather resistant.


We also put up a new mailbox. Our old one has been smashed by the fist of a drunk adolescent college kid from next door, warped by someone who doesn't know how to back up a truck, and thrown into the neighbor's yard by a drunk driver. So, we moved it, replaced it, and put plenty of reflective tape on it. Maybe, just maybe, that will be enough to protect it from the ravages of a college town.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Readying the Kitchen

Things have progressed much more now, but here's what happened right after the cabinets came out -

Kitchen Sans Walls -

We took advantage of some pre-existing holes in the wall to insulate the pipes -

After much finagling to get the insulation in -

Some places in the ceiling needed some work -

After patching up some cracks and holes -

Where some cabinets used to be installed over the bar area -

We aren't replacing those cabinets,
so we've got to fix up the place where they were attached to the ceiling -

All patched up. We're going to put an awesome light here -

This is the entire kitchen after patching up the wood paneling so that in the future it will no longer look like wood paneling.

We're still living without a kitchen sink, dishwasher, stove, and oven. We have decided to go on a sort of cleansing diet once we get the kitchen back. Hopefully that will make up for all the eating out and microwave meals!!!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Fringe Fridays

The Happy Chappy House has started up a new little tradition called Fringe Fridays. On Fringe Friday, our entire night is centered around watching the newest episode of Fringe on Fox. (in HD!) If you follow our Happy Chappy Twitter, you'll find that I sometimes can't help live tweeting the episode. After the show, we're usually in the mood to do something geeky. The last time Trey was over for Fringe Friday we did microscope photography and watched Flight of the Navigator.

Fridays on Fox
9/8c
Why we love Fringe -
1. The Nostalgia Factor - Joshua Jackson plays Peter Bishop. John and I were both really big fans of the Mighty Ducks phenomenon growing up. It's fun seeing our favorite Mighty Duck all grown up in a big boy's role!
2. Badass Female Lead - Olivia Dunham is played by Aussie actress Anna Torv. She's a kick ass FBI agent with the ability to move between universes. She has had to overcome a lot but when all is said and done she's a strong women who stands on her own two feet.
3. The Amazing John Noble - Another Aussie with some fantastic acting chops. He plays Walter Bishop, a mad scientist who is missing pieces of his brain because he asked that they be removed. (He's currently trying to grow them back so that he can be on the same intellectual plane as Walternate - the Walter Bishop from the alternate universe!) You may remember John Noble as Denethor in LOTR: ROTK.
4. The Subject Matter - All the best science fiction: Alternate universes, teleportation, time travel, reanimation - I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it!
5. Leonard Freaking Nimoy - plays William Bell, the founder of the appropriately-named Massive Dynamic - a corporation linked to all sorts of mishaps that have threatened our universe. He sacrificed his life to get Walter and the crew back to their own universe.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Cosby Kitty

Believe it or not, we have a cat that doesn't mind wearing clothes.
Odjabiel actually used to wear a tiny bandanna when he was a kitten. But he grew out of it. When Halifax hated the sweater we bought to try and keep him warm, we put it on Odjie. And Odjie wore it for a few days until we decided it wasn't cute anymore...

Ripping out the cabinets

So we've been ripping out our kitchen for a little while now to make room for a new one.


We spent a lot of time trying to sand and re-stain the cabinets to make what is there look better... to no avail.

We've finally decided to purchase new cabinets.

Ripping out the cabinets ourselves saves us over $800!


Ripping out cabinets is a little tricky when they're nailed to the rafters in the attic.


Jiggling it loose...


Trying to figure out how to get that bugger out.


Got it out and moving on...


The original builders certainly didn't spare any nails...


Needed to get Dad's help with some of the bigger stuff... as well as Bowser's advice.


We did most of the rip out in a single weekend.


Having Dad here was a real help!


The dishwasher was tricky: the floor was installed around it, and the cabinets had been replaced around it as well.


We couldn't pull the dishwasher out until the cabinets were demolished around it.


After removing some of the cabinets around it, the dishwasher was finally ready to come out.


And this is what we found...


All the cabinets are out.
(Good riddance!)


Stay tuned for how we prepared for the new cabinets to arrive!