Helping the Time Pass



Our Table



Today was another not so exciting day in Housing as we are still in the calm before the storm phase of WorkFest. Kate and I have exhausted most options for things to entertain ourselves with as making fun of Tony can only last us so long. So we were excited about the newest addition to the housing vehicle bay - a miniature air hockey table. The table randomly showed up last week and it couldn't have been a more perfectly timed present. We spent a good portion of our day battling it out in the loft of the bay today trying to make the hours pass a little faster. As part of our  new hockey obsession, Kate introduced me to a new way of playing - finger hockey. Its basically regular hockey except you use your hand as the mallet. So far as I can tell, the best strategy is to try and fling the puck as hard as you can at your opponent's hand and hope you hit the edge of their finger or palm just right so that they move their hand away from the table in pain allowing you to score. Or at least that's how we play finger hockey. Let's just say, that both of our hands are little worse for the wear after today.

I also have been able to knock off two items from the 101 list that have taken me a while to complete as they were rather lengthy items: #s 54 and 67.

#54 - Read 10 non-fiction books. And they are as follows:

• Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
• Sex God by Rob Bell (Don't judge the book by its title, read it and you'll be surprised)
• Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, MD
• Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
• 3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• Fearless by Max Lucado
• The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Better Off by Eric Brende
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

#67 - Discover 20 new bands that I like and buy at least 5 of their CDs.

If I'm being completely honest, I actually own some music from each of these artists, some of it purchased by myself and some of it given to me by other people. Therefore, I'm calling it even on the 'buy at least 5 of their CDs' portion of this list item.

• Dave Barnes
• Mumford & Sons
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
• The Avett Brothers
• The Band Perry
• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (this video is how I got hooked on this band)
• Ingrid Michaelson
• Joshua Radin 
• B.O.B.
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Mika
• NeedtoBreathe
• Regina Spektor
• Staves
• Adele
• Kid Cudi
• Duffy
• Kings of Leon
• The Weepies
• Ben Harper

So if you're looking for some new reading material or perhaps some new music, than you have quite a lengthy list to choose from now. I've linked each book title/artist to their homepage if you want to know more about them and to help you make a decision. Maybe it'll give you something to help the time pass.

Nine Houses in Two Days

How is it possible that it has already been almost two weeks since my last blog post?

I wish I had some ridiculous adventure to entertain you all with, but honestly it has just been lots of little stuff keeping me busy. The entire Housing Program at CAP is in full WorkFest-prep mode these days. Most of the crews, ours included, have finished work on any projects we had left over and are focusing on making sure we're ready for 3 different sets of 80 to 100 college students to join us here in Kentucky for their spring break. Kate, Tony, and I have spent the last week or so cleaning out the trailer and our bay and organizing all our supplies so that when the craziness begins we'll know where everything is. I must say the sorting and organizing falls right under all my OCD tendencies so that has been a nice change of pace. However, I would much rather be out at the work site doing more physical work. I find myself going a little crazy by the end of the day for lack of doing any real sort of physical labor like we usually do. Tony keeps telling me I'll appreciate this down time in a couple of weeks when I'm two weeks into the craziness that is Workfest.

As part of our prep work for WorkFest, my crew also has been making a birdhouse/feeder for each of the jobs that will be worked on. Each house will be decorated with a picture and information about the participant that it belongs to. They also open up to allow the students to leave an encouraging note to the participant whose house they work on during their time here. Lastly, when all is said and done, the house will be given to the participant as a keepsake. In theory they sound wonderful, right? Not so much in real life. Making nine replicas of the same birdhouse gets old fast. Between losing dexterity and feeling in our thumbs from spray painting and scraping our knuckles one hundred times too many trying to attach door clasps, Kate and I were quickly over the birdhouse build. Honestly, we were probably over the whole idea before it even started; Kate had forewarned me about the birdhouses as she had the privilege of assembling them last year as well. Thankfully, we were able to complete the houses in about two full days which scrapes about three and half weeks off last year's time.

Now that I think about I guess I did have an exciting adventure to share with you: nine houses built from the ground up, including a roof and a spacious front porch.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has got nothing on us.

A Day Late

It seems that I am continually running behind schedule lately, and no matter how much I do I can't seem to catch up. Therefore, it is only appropriate that I am posting this short Valentine's day blog a little late. I guess that it was meant to be however because I did take the perfect picture for it today at one of our new participant's house.

So in honor of February 14th and St. Valentine, I am posting a small portion of #73 on my 101 list - two of the ten playlists. One for those in love and one for those out of love. These playlists have been in the works for so long and even now as I get ready to post them, I wish I had more time to find ten perfect songs for each one, but I am content with what I have here and hope you all enjoy them as well.

You Flew Off With the Wings of My Heart & Left Me Flightless

Without You Here (Goo Goo Dolls)

Hanging On Too Long (Duffy)

Almost Lover (A Fine Frenzy)

The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore (James Morrison)

Dreaming With a Broken Heart (John Mayer)

I Still Ain't Over You (Augustana)

I Never Told You (Colbie Caillat)

Colors (Amos Lee & Norah Jones)

Breakeven (Script)

White Blank Page (Mumford And Sons)

Whatever Our Souls are Made Of, His & Mine are the Same

Stay With You (John Legend)

Vanilla Twilight (Owl City)

You Picked Me (A Fine Frenzy)

Crazy for You (Adele)

The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)

You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates)

Lucky (Jason Mraz feat. Colbie Caillat)

1234 (Feist)

Better Together (Jack Johnson)

I'd Rather Be With You (Joshua Radin)

Un-Building

Today, Kate and I un-built a deck.

And when I say un-built I literally mean we went through the motions of building a deck but as if we were in rewind. It was a slightly strange process as I am used to at the end of the day being used to look at something I have made, while today I was left with a pile of lumber - the pieces of a deck that we had taken apart.

This deck belonged to one of our Workfest participants. He built the deck with his dad who is a carpenter several years ago and it was one of the last projects his dad was able to do before he became ill and therefore he has strong ties to it. This participant in particular is getting a two bedroom addition on his house to accommodate his family of seven. They're currently living in a 3 bedroom trailer which as you can imagine is quite cramped. The bulk of the work on this job will be accomplished during Workfest - CAP's alternative spring break trip for college students. However, in order to get ready for Workfest, we had to prepare and mark out the area for a foundation which unfortunately needs to go where the deck currently is located which meant the deck had to go. However, our participant didn't want the deck destroyed as it was still in good condition and it held a lot of sentimental value for him. So instead of demolishing it, Kate and I, with a little bit of help from Tony, took apart the deck screw by screw, one plank at a time. Luckily, it was built really well and was not too complicated to take apart. We even managed to save every board we took off (except for one piece that Tony broke). The wood was in such good condition that we will be able to rebuild the deck once the addition is built. 

Following are the photos of my day in order from start to finish.

The Un-Building of a Deck

The deck before the dis-assembly

Halfway done removing the decking boards

The bare joists

Taking apart the joists

The pile of lumber and the posts with concrete still attached



57 Degrees Farenheit

That's right. It was fifty-seven, need I say it again, 57 degrees outside today in Eastern Kentucky.



My Momma in RI

 After talking with my mom last night and hearing about the wintry weather they are experiencing in Rhode Island, I am almost scared to briefly share with you the next interesting fact about my day today. But since I am confident that none of my friends and family from New England are close enough to actually induce any physical harm to me, I will elaborate.



In honor of the practically balmy spring day we were blessed with today, Kate and I decided to wear shorts today. Yup, you read that correctly; we wore shorts to work today. Granted, we aren't working outside currently as we are just finishing up patching drywall and painting at our participant's house, but still it was warm enough to wear shorts. We even took our lunch outside on our tailgate and enjoyed what felt like a spring day and not anything like February 1st.

Try not to hate us too much.