Switching out an electrical outlet (without dying)

I'm in the process of tiling a white subway tile backsplash in our kitchen. (Finished pictures soon to come!)

As I was working on row 2, I came to this:

butt-ass ugly

So I decided we could switch it out.  Couldn't be too hard, right?

Reading the directions, which told us not to attempt this. 

You see, the previous owners added a garbage disposal switch and just stuffed all the wiring into one little electrical box.

And that box has more shit packed into it than a cooler at a Superbowl tailgating party.

What a hot mess.  

It took serious elbow grease and a few funny phone calls to my brother, who has, in his words, "electrocuted myself more times than I can count."

After he told us he once cut directly through drywall, with a metal knife, into live wires, he told us not to worry and that we could handle it.  (He also asked us to call later to let him know we were still alive.)

Shockingly easy.
Austin did the heavy lifting while I talked
about wiring with Mike on the phone.

And here's the big tah-dah!

before...

and after!

Saturday Morning Male Bonding

Finley and I got in a little quality father/son male bonding time Saturday morning, as we read Sports Illustrated together.

We are both thoroughly enjoying March Madness but sad beyond belief that the Spartans lost.

And now I'm torn.  Part of me would love to see The* Ohio State University take the championship because I love to see the Big10 be successful, and -- of course -- for the sake of my Buckeye in-laws.

The other part of me is rooting for Kentucky to beat  Kansas in the championship because if I win out, I'll tie for first in the office pool.

Mostly I'm just hoping for some really good games, and I'm stoked that I'll get to watch Saturday night's games at my folks' place with my dad.

* (As any good ESL teacher knows, a native speaker of English only stresses the definite article -- the -- for emphasis and when trying to be a pretentious wanker.) 

Another Spartan in the Family!

Victoria, Finley, and I are thrilled with the news we heard today:  my brother Lane was accepted to MSU's Department of Art and Art History and will be starting a 3-year MFA in ceramics in the fall. 

Sportin' green & white for the announcement!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Lane's work, check out his website! 

You can purchase his work at his Etsy site.

And if you're planning to be in Chicago this month, he's got a few pieces in the Terra Incognito exhibition titled Coffee, Tea or... .

More Animal Noises!

Check out our little monkey!

Quack Quack!

Ever since receiving his Spartan Donald Duck painting from his Grandpa Lou for Christmas, Finley has been obsessed with ducks.  In fact, he's even learned to quack on command: 

Ann Arbor

Since Austin has been on Spring break all week, we've gotten some house projects accomplished (more on that later), and we also took a little trip to Ann Arbor.

Now maybe you are thinking: For Spring break you went an hour away to Ann Arbor for a day?  Lame!  

No, no!  For us, this is an accomplishment!  We are notoriously bad at going places.

Even though we lived in Korea -- practically a stone's throw away from all the goodies in Southeast Asia -- we rarely traveled.  Our friends came back from trip after trip while we often stayed put.  Heck, we didn't even travel around Korea all that often.  We tended to stay home and chill on our days off.  This has been our pattern for years now, really.  Once, on our anniversary, we told everyone some elaborate plan we had, but really, we lied.  We just stayed home and did nothing.

Come to think of it, I kind of love being like this.

Anyhoodle, I decided that we must go somewhere this week, so we did.

We hit up Ann Arbor, where we were lucky enough to meet up with friends for lunch.

Our friends Jessica and Jay, with little Nola.
(Incidentally, Jay's band, The Steel Wheels, is absolutely
fantastic. You MUST listen to it!  It's in my top 10.)

We went to Zingerman's, which is a famous chain of establishments.  Deli, bakery, restaurant, and more, this place is incredible.  You can get samples of anything in the store, which the employees happily share.

Sampling bread with flavored oils.  Finn sampled homemade
graham cracker cookies 

Outside the deli. 

 We took home a loaf of Chocolate chunk sourdough bread, and I had some of the richest dark chocolate gelato on Earth (seeing a theme there?).

Afterward, we went to the children's museum.  It was pretty cool, though I have to say our museum, Impression 5, is still my fav.

Mommy smells like sawdust!

I did something very exciting this week: I built furniture.

This might be the most exciting thing I've done since giving birth.
(Well, moving from Korea to America was exciting. Oh, and so was buying a house. This was up there with 'em, though!)

my helper 

I've been wanting to work on our home, but cost is a factor.  The stuff I like in magazines like Pottery Barn is always so expensive. I figured, hey, how hard can it be?  Lucky for me, I discovered Ana White's website, which has all sorts of free plans.

First lesson: measure twice, cut once. 

My family is made up of carpenters.

My father's father and my mother's father were both amazing woodworkers.  My grandparents and parents have houses full of homemade furniture and things like handcrafted grandfather clocks, china cabinets, wooden trains, and intricately pieced bowls.

My cousin built his own house from the ground up at 20 years of age.

My brother can knock shit down and rebuild it better in no time flat.

My uncles send me handmade wooden jewelry boxes and napkin holders for gifts.

And the list goes on! These people are amazing.  I am not amazing at woodworking, but I sure think it's fun so far.

And now, some pictures of what I learned doing this project, just for all my relatives to laugh at me! 

Fail.  (Boards should be seamless).

Fixed.

Fail. (Busted pocket hole.)

Better.  Pocket holes in the right spot, nails securing the shelves.

Fail.  (Warped board.  I'll be more choosy next time).

I stained it with a dry rag and wiped the stain off to achieve
a weathered look. It was so much easier than using a brush!

I am very pleased with the outcome.

This will definitely not be my last project.

The bench has a nice little compartment for gloves, bags,
umbrellas, and mail.  Perfect for an entryway.