Hi,

We’re going to skip my normal  quotes from Chase’s Almanac and giving a January Birthdays Special.  Born in January were Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D Roosevelt, Nicolas Cage, Paul Newman, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond.

BIG news, if you’re watching THE game on Sunday, watch for me ON THE FIELD.  Yeps, can’t say a lot here and right now, but keep your eyes open

Very cool, I’m not a skilled craftsman, more of a shoemaker.  Luckily, I am at a point that I can hire a professional rather than risk life and limb trying many things I knew I shouldn’t try an tackle.  But I’m still very active in doing handy man things here.  Ruellia, the guest suite in the Carriage house had the original bathroom exhaust fan from when I bought the property.  The fan wasn’t too effective and was getting very noisy.  I went to Lowes to get a replacement and instead of having to buy a whole new fan kit, they sell replacement kit.  You just unplug the fan, pull the metal plate bearing the fan assembly and replace it with the new one.  Very easy and less expensive.  This option has probably been around for years, but I just found it and wanted to pass it on to you.

Abby, the National Aviary’s bald eagle seems to be sick.  She hasn’t eaten in days.  They have her quarantined, they think she has some kind of a fungal infection.  They did some blood work on her and should have the results back in a few days.  I went to the National Aviary’s web site and clicked on the Contact Us  and sent Abby a get well e-mail.  You should also, if it doesn’t cheer her up (she may not have computer access while ill, but I bet the staff will get a kick out of it).  🙂

Ed Coll of Skys the Limit photography called me yesterday.  Ed’s an interesting guy that uses photography to do what he loves to do, travel.  He showed me a few incredible pictures of his travels through central and south America, Africa and the Asias.  Not to say he does shabby work in between his trips, got to his web site and see how creative he is.  As it turns out, he was scouting for a location to take the picture for a group’s new album. So he stopped by yesterday afternoon and loved the place.  He was going to contact the group to see if they wanted to use my space.  He called me and they came over today at three, then four.  🙂  The group turns out to be Lovebettie, I’ve heard them on WYEP.  They’re a cool retro/rock group that’s releasing their Red Door album in March and starting a tour then.  They’re going from Maine to Austin on tour.  Kind of funny, they reminded me of the group from ModCloth that did that photo shoot here, and when I mentioned it, Ed’s assistant is associated with them and the band’s into ModCloth as well.

I’m going to blow my brains out.  I got the $ to do the two rooms (mine and a guest room), both had blue prints by my “previous” architect Val.  When I was approved for the $ in the beginning of December, I contacted Val.   Val is currently semi-retired and living in New England doing research.  He referred me to another Southside architect he knew.  I spoke with a friend that said I should use a local architect we both new.  So I went to him before the holidays.  He was going to stop by over the holidays.  After New Years, I stopped by his office.  It’s on the second floor and there’s no working door bell.  So I called his cell and got his voice mail.  I left a message.  When I hadn’t heard from him within a day, I started calling the architect Val referred.  I called for a week.  If I let the phone ring until it went to VM, the recording said the message center was full, please try again.  My next try was I sent an e-mail to an interior decorator that specializes in historic properties.  I figured she’d have a line on an architect, so I sent her an e-mail asking for a referral, no response.  So I then opened the Yellow Pages (my last resort) and guess what?  There’s ONLY two listed.  Did I say I’m going to blow my brains out?

Good night,

ed