A hot morning in Pasadena at The Rose Bowl, but another wonderful Wiggle Waggle, the yearly walk to raise money for the Pasadena Humane society. The D-Man and I took our Pasadena alumni Samantha. Every year, we talk about how amazing it is to see so many different types of dogs all in one place and all behaving so well! Even Sami, who sometimes gets a little exciting when meeting a new friend, is calm and collected. Some photos below of some of the dogs, including one of me with my favorite pound pup!
 It has been a long summer for me.
I am sure most of you have heard of “The Winter of Discontent”? This has been a summer of too much sh**! Starting a new job in May that involved a career change, a lot of learning, a hellish commute and customers in Dubai that required an morning alarm being set for a 300am wake up time should have been enough. Add to that, the regular L.A. Lyon gigs. I laugh when someone on Facebook posts, “I have been up for 24 hours!” At the Lyon’s Den, (aka my house) being up that long is known as Fridays. To add to the fun, the D-Man and I embarked on what I thought would be a three weekend outdoor renovation. Instead, it ate up almost EVERY WEEKEND OF THE ENTIRE SUMMER. Add to that a dryer that died and a tire that blew out at 230am on the 57 freeway on the way home from a gig and I have to say, even The Girl In The Band was starting to feel like the end of her rope was in sight. But it is now water under the deck. My new outdoor living room is complete. When you see the pictures, I know you will go, “THAT took all summer?’’ But truth be told, I imagined myself having the construction talent of Nicole Curtis (HGTV’s Rehab Addict) only to find out I had skills more like Nicole Ritchie. The plan was to put up a composite deck where the former redwood deck had been. The D-Man and I had hoped to keep the original joists (no such luck, they were rotted), and with no composite experience, we ended up doing and redoing things more times than Elizabeth Taylor got married. We also ended up with a ton of extra materials when in total frustration, we made some design changes and added an area in front of the deck instead of more deck. I got creative finding uses for concrete supports, extra joists and extra decking pieces. Some things I learned: YOU TUBE has a purpose Use it to look up things you don’t know how to do. I can’t tell you the time we would have saved, including the very home stretch of the project, when we realized we were laying the composite boards the wrong way over the joists. Cute cat videos are great, but you can also learn, so do it! Men and women do not possess specific handy/cooking genes The D-Man has many wonderful qualities. The best one being he allows me to be the best me I can be. But he is not Jonathan from “The Property Brothers.” Once I took control of the project, it moved a lot quicker. All those hours of HGTV were good for something and just because you are a woman and he is a man, doesn’t mean he knows more than you do about building things. It gets better Labor Day Monday, as I worked on making pallet plant stands out of the extra deck boards in my garage, a construction guy from across the street came over and asked to borrow a tool he thought I might have. Me, working my miter saw in my tank top. He actually thought I knew what I was doing! So check out the photos on my HOME IDEAS page. A break is definitely in the works. I am feeling like I need to watch some football and get some sleep. But after that? Who knows? I have been thinking about a bedroom and dining room addition……. |
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