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Location: Longview, Washington, United States

I live in a small town in Washington State, USA, with my wife, two sons, two dogs, a cat, and family nearby. I work at the local community college as an I.T. Specialist. In March of '02, we bought a 70-some year old house that needed a lot of work. When I'm not working on the house, I like to throw pots, be outside, and read a lot.

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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Bathroom Remodel


DSCN1073
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.
These pics aren't from my house, although I wish they were. An artist friend of ours has been gradually remodeling their old dairy farm house into someplace fantastic. The last time I saw this upstairs bathroom, it had bare plywood walls and flooring and no real lighting or amenities. Check out what he has done.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:19 PM | 1 comment(s) |

Kyle Blows


DSCN1076
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.
For a living, my friend Kyle blows glass.

For a time, a guy who did custom logging and milling operated out of the back end of Kyle's barn/studio. When he left, he left behind lots of gorgeous lumber like that which went into this counter.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:17 PM | 0 comment(s) |

Very Nice


DSCN1075
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.
Form, function, and style

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:14 PM | 0 comment(s) |

Kick Ass Claw Foot


DSCN1074
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.
This tub was original to the house. Obviously it will be getting an enamel job as part of the remodel.

posted by Scott in Washington at 8:13 PM | 0 comment(s) |

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Umm, You figure this one out


Umm, You figure this one out
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.
Care to suggest a title for this one?

posted by Scott in Washington at 9:47 PM | 2 comment(s) |

Mmm hmmm, One Half comp day well spent

This was them minutes after arriving in their new homes. I brewed Friday, pitched my yeast Saturday morning, and by Saturday night, when I went out to check on them and see if it was time to start heating the water bath, they were both bubbling merrily along. Even in the high 50's, I had a steady stream of CO2 like a fish tank bubbler so I left the heat off. By this evening things seemed to be holding steady with no danger of a blow - we'll see tomorrow. Kyle brought me two more kegs, more hop plugs than have any business with, and a very accurate thermo-coupler this weekend. Garage sales look out. Daddy needs a kegerator. Being able to control the temp. of my kegs means I could start playing with meads and lagers, maybe reason enough to get back into bee keeping, only time will tell how many hobbies I can get away with.

posted by Scott in Washington at 9:45 PM | 0 comment(s) |

Saturday, June 10, 2006

How the heck did it get to be June 10th already?

It’s Saturday morning at the house with a hot cuppa tea and the boys are both still crashed out. It is good to be home. My trip was busy and very interesting – not what I’d call fun but very informative. Tomorrow I leave for an overnight to Yakima but then I get to stay home for the rest of the month.

No brewing news to report. I went out and unloaded the kiln last night and waxed my feet and bases. I didn’t lose anything in the firing, which is a relief because I had some really big pieces packed tightly in there. I’ll sneak out and glaze this morning before we go to a barbecue.

In the exercise/career development area, easily the best news is the possibility of becoming the junior frogman. Our college has a series of swimming and lifeguard training classes that run at noon. I’ve been talking to the instructor and trying to get in there to lap swim on my lunch breaks. He is someone that I work with in a few other capacities at the college and have come to know over the past few years. Anyway, yesterday he approached me and told me that he will be retiring in another few years and hasn’t identified anyone to take over his classes and that I might consider it. How much would that rock? Teach swimming and CIS courses online and do my administrator gig as a supp contract or additional duty? I could get a big chunk of the summers off and maybe even be my own kids’ swim teacher/coach. Obviously I’d better not try to get a job in the English dept. with all my incomplete sentences. Over the next few years, I’d have to get certified as a lifeguard and swim instructor and then state certified to teach lifeguards and instructors. I was a fairly strong swimmer in high school and the military but that was ten years ago. He said to meet him Tuesday at the pool and he’d “get me started.” I think that may end up being a euphemism for kicking my butt, we’ll see.

Corn is up and it looks like a good crop. Only about half as many bean plants are up as I had hoped for. I’m going to try starting a second batch. Potatoes are chugging along just fine.

posted by Scott in Washington at 7:36 AM | 0 comment(s) |

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Joe's Ugly Green Shoes Ride Again


DSCN0958
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.
Brushed the sawdust off my old street bike and took a spin. The tubes held pressure up to the end of the road and back. Next goal is riding down to the office and back to see how long that takes.

posted by Scott in Washington at 2:53 PM | 3 comment(s) |

"What is a house but a place to keep your stuff while you're out getting more stuff?"

Yesterday was a long day. A colleague and I drove up to Redmond for an all day conference/summit deal at Microsoft. Boy, all the stories about how the other half live are true, driving around the campus the little we did reinforced for me that those people have some serious dough and they spend a lot of it. The presentations were good and I’m glad I went, even if it did eat up the entire day.

Today is mostly getting ready for the trip I will leave on tomorrow. In packing, I had to ask myself where the line is that when crossed means you have gone into tech overload (similar to death by OG or over gold). For a four day trip I among other things I have packed:

  1. A laptop
  2. A PDA (with keyboard, etc.)
  3. Camera
  4. Cell Phone
  5. Garmin Forerunner
  6. iPod
  7. Memory Stick

Plus books, magazines, DVDs, and a computer game. When did we/I start needing 6 million distractions to make it through a 96 hour period?

If my new iriver was here yet, I’m sure I’d pack that too.

posted by Scott in Washington at 1:06 PM | 2 comment(s) |