Return to the Index for 1993

On this page, I'm going to put those pictures that weren't tied in to a trip or some other event, like a birthday. Some of these are pictures brought to me by Fred from and of his house; I know him well enough now that I want to include them here.

January 23: Larry's House in Irving

Fred and I have been helping our friend Larry do some renovations in the house in Irving that he has on loan from his friend Bette. We've been out here today and I've brought my camera along to take a few pictures.

Here's Larry at work taking some of the hardware off of the cabinet doors so we can work on them. He plans on getting all new hardware to give the kitchen a newer, updated look.

The house that Larry is living in is in downtown Irving, it what is called the historic district of that city just to the west of Dallas. Downtown, Irving Blvd. separates into two one-way streets, with the one-way east route going along E. 2nd Street. The house is at the corner of E. 2nd and Britain.

Here are a few more of the miscellaneous pictures that we took at Larry's house today:

The Kitchen

(Picture at left) Larry is rebuilding, refinishing, rebuilding and repainting the kitchen cabinets. We have taken all the cabinet doors off and are in the process of sanding them down so that they can be repainted. The range and refrigerator have already been moved out into the dining room. Larry plans on moving that water heater to a closet in the hall as soon as the plumbers can come out and give him an estimate on doing so.   (Picture at right) Rebuilding and repairing the cabinets is necessitating a couple of trips each weekend to Home Depot to get the stuff we need for the project. Larry has done all of the planning and the majority of the work, but Fred and I like to come out and help him, especially since the Winter weather doesn't allow us to do much else but work inside. Larry wants to save the black and white countertop, but it has already broken in places, and more will have to be removed so that the sink can be changed, so we are uncertain about that.

Removing Doors and Drawers

The Kitchen

(Picture at left) The renovations to the kitchen have been coming right along. We have been here two weekends in a row helping Larry, and he has been spending weekdays before he goes to work out here working on the cabinets. You can see that they have been repainted, and some of the doors have been put back on. The kitchen is beginning to look much, much better.     (Picture at right) We have put all these doors back on; and have rebuilt the lower section and fitted the doors back to it. Larry has taken down the old wallpaper, and we have been looking around at new paper to be put up there.

Removing Doors and Drawers

February 15: Fred's House

With the work schedule that I have at the moment, I have the luxury of being able to come up and visit Fred pretty much anytime he also has the time. I came up here this evening to have dinner with him.

We are having a spate of warmer weather, and when this happens, storms are frequent here in North Texas. Fred, being out in the middle of nowhere, and on relatively high ground, has good views in all directions, and so from his second floor we had a good view of one of these storms approaching his house. Seeing the rain coming in from the west reminded me of the views I used to have from my condo in Chicago. Of course, two floors doesn't really compare with 36, but then you don't have to be very high around here to see a long way.

We did get a fair amount of rain maybe 30 minutes later, but when we both left in the morning (Fred to the greenhouses and me back to Dallas), all the weather had moved out and it was a fairly crisp morning.

February 20: At the Galleria

Me came down this weekend, and with little else that we needed to do we went to the Galleria to do some shopping. There is a western store there, and we both needed some jeans.

In the picture at right, I am standing on the balcony above the ice skating rink, which is one of the Galleria's attractions. There is also a movie theatre here, and I seem to recall that we also took in a movie this afternoon. When we left, Fred took a picture of me in the parking garage with Greg's Miata. I have enjoyed driving the Miata, and frankly hope that Greg never comes down to reclaim it. Of course the convertible top stays up when it is cool out, but even then the car has an excellent heater, and if you turn it on full blast you can ride with the top down even when the weather is cold.

June 11: The Cats at Home

This weekend, Fred is down here at my house, and I've gotten my camera out to capture the kittens, Chip and Dale, at play and around the house.

Chip and Dale Asleep in the Bedroom It's times like this that make having a cat or two a real joy.

Chip Sitting Near Fred's Bag in the Bedroom Chip has the cuter face of the two; Dale's whole appearance is more mysterious, while Chip looks wide-eyed and interested. Notice the puff of hair that is growing where the stump of his tail is.

Dale and the Bears

Chip and Dale Playing With the Bears They seemed to be intrigued by the flashes of light from the camera, and I did a good job of avoiding the reflection from their eyes.

I have found that the computer, particularly the monitor, can be a cat toy. If one of the kittens happens to be in my lap, or can see the monitor, and there is something moving on it, they will often try to get up close to the screen to catch it.

As an example of this behavior, I caught Dale at the computer in the den this afternoon.

Both of the kittens do make nuisances of themselves when I am trying to work at the computer. They jump up in my lap and then walk up onto the keyboard, eventually hitting keys that interfere with what I am doing.

This time I wasn't in the chair, and Dale had been sitting in it. Eventually, the screen saver kicked in, and I had it set to the Microsoft flying windows.

As soon as Dale noticed them, he got up out of the chair and climbed up onto the desk to try to touch or catch them. You'll notice in this picture that he's avoided putting one of his paws on any of the keys. Had he done so, the screen saver would have gone off and the screen returned to a static window of whatever I was working on at the moment.

Anyway, he played with the screen for a good three or four minutes before accidentally pressing a key, at which point the fun was over.

Eventually, Chip got into the act as well, and I sat back in another chair and watched them play with the computer. I had my camera at the ready, and took a couple of good pictures of them:

Chip and Dale at the Computer

(Picture at left) Now Chip has jumped up on the chair, and startled Dale so he jumped up on the keyboard, and of course he stepped on a key and the screen saver was replaced by the windows screen. Chip was watching the screen when that happened.       (Picture at right) Dale will obviously be the most computer-literate of the two kittens. Actually, I should start calling them "large kittens" because they are gaining weight rapidly.

Trying to Master Windows 3.1

I might mention that these pictures at the computer were taken on Sunday morning, before Fred got up. It is typical for Fred to catch up on his sleep whenever he comes down for the weekend, as he has to get up so early during the week. After I'd taken these pictures, I happened to head upstairs, still carrying my camera. Chip and Dale raced me to the top of the stairs, and Chip went in the bedroom as soon as I opened the door, and got up on the bed near Fred as if to wake him up. I was lucky I was carrying my camera, for the resulting picture was pretty much priceless:

That's it for this year's miscellaneous pictures.

You can use the link below return to the index for 1993.

Return to the Index for 1993