Nice week

It has been a really nice week here in Vegas. With the storms dropping all that rain last week everything is damp and starting to green up. The sky is blue and clear and sunny (well, that’s normal around here) and the mountains around us stand out. I didn’t take my camera when we went out last week, and tried to take a photo of the mountains with snow, this one is looking north from in front of our house


Those are the mountains there under the cloud. Yes, we have telephone poles and wires strung around the neighborhood. They are not along the street but run down the back yards, here crossing the street in the middle of the block. That’s our local grammar school down a block on the right, with a big blue canvas cover over the playground equipment. Pretty nice scene for January, with the green pines and palm trees.
The high humidity has given us some nice sunrises and sunsets, with clouds coming in at night and disappearing during the day.


These shots never look as good in pictures as they do in real life. Ah well, imagine the pinks and orange colors in there if you will.

Last week we volunteered to help the Habitat for Humanity group again. This time we were at the World Market Center consolidating furniture donations. Driving down we passed the new Ruvo Brain Institute designed by Frank Gehry being constructed across from the market. (no, I haven't distored this picture, the curves are really there. Wonder what the rooms look like inside)


I don’t know what is more impressive, that someone could design a building like that, that a company would agree to pay for it, or the builder that can actually make it happen. The back is made up of standard office rectangles, but the front is rather interesting.
The World Market Center is also interesting, not as curvy, but comprised of different angles


There are only three buildings constructed, with glass walkways connecting the upper floors (seen at far left in picture), with another three or four to be built as profits are made. This week they are holding the market - these buildings are really only used twice a year, for the week long furniture and furnishings shows. We’ll be back there on Friday after the show collecting more stuff for Habitat. They have two local stores where they sell these things, some of the stuff donated is brand new, just last year’s models of chairs and couches and tables and stuff.

Also doing some things at home. We plan on redoing our kitchen, and were just set to order the cabinets last June when my employer decided to cut back some more (no, still haven’t found anything, job market in Vegas is really the pits) but put plans on hold for a while. Our house was built in the late 60’s, and the kitchen is in need of a change. We still have the full ceiling fluorescent lights that were popular back then but have fallen out of favor. We are testing different lights and trying to decide on what we want, mainly trying out different LED and fluorescent fixtures, we’ve purchased a few different ones and I’ve mounted them in the kitchen ceiling to see what they look like. (well, it’s all coming down when we remodel) We are about settled on the LED spotlights over most of the counters, much more efficient than regular incandescent lights and a lot cooler and long lasting. We have already replaced some spots around the living room with LED spots, liking the way they look in our test situation. For general background lighting we will go with some 3 inch diameter fluorescent fixtures that Home Depot had in stock. B liked them, and wanted some more light in our front room, which does not have any ceiling fixture, just lamps on the tables, so I put up a string of four yesterday along the wall soffit.


They look pretty good, and at 11 watts each they don’t consume much power, or give off any heat (important in summertime Vegas). So I spent most of yesterday crouched in the attic, moving fiberglass insulation and stringing wire. But I also put in a few in the front entryway and kitchen to use as night lights, so as to keep some lights on around when we have guests spend the night. I'm still itching from the fiberglass embedded in my arms from all that, even after some showers to try and wash it out.

Last time we painted B decided to put horizontal stripes up, applied over the paint with a clear glaze. You don’t really notice the stripes as they are not a different color; they just reflect the light a little more. She did the painting too, trying to pull some more color in there without overwhelming things.

So that’s it for around here. Oh - for those of you that like Buster pics; he is getting old and at times has a problem with making it outside. He doesn’t use the flipper doors any more, his eyesight is too poor for him to find them, especially when he is outside wanting to come in, so we have to let him out. In the warmer seasons we just leave the doors open, we don’t have to worry about bugs out in the desert, and when the swamp coolers are on they just blow the air out the doors. We do keep doors closed when it is cold, like now, and really hot and the air conditioners are on, so we have to catch him when he stands at the door waiting for it to open. But sometimes he just gets off the bed and makes no attempt to get outside, heck, at 21 he is what, 147 dog years old? When I get that old I promised B that I would probably just stand up and let go myself, her problem to clean up. But then she will be equally old, so I guess it is up to our daughter (or whatever caretaker we end up with) that will have to worry about it. But back to Buster: we got him some ‘pants’ that hold doggy diapers that work fairly well at containing things. But after wearing them for a day he refuses to let us put them back on. He is rather cute like this, no?