2008:
December 2008: I vowed that I will update my Font Catalog program, which had been dormant for about 2 years. I think CS2 was still the rage when it was first published. At my wife's parent's house over Christmas break I went nuts on coding the new version. I knew where I wanted to go with the app, knew what the new interface needed to do, and how to do it. I surprised myself with how easily a lot of it came together.
11-10-08 » Great news! No not about Obama. THE KITCHEN IS DONE! YAY! Remodelling hell hath been overcome. We started on this, well look, 2 months ago. So about 9 weeks and a lot of money, painting, breathing paint fumes, sanding, and more painting, it's gone from a bland-o white and crappy plain oak cabinet kitchen to a warm and stylish Italian interior. The floor tile is Dolce Vita, made in Italy, "Jerusalem Stone" style in Antico and Gold color, a totally random pattern. We put some small 1.5 inch squares in a stripe down the long wall to give it some accent, and used some glass tile from Magica Tile, Greco Vetro. There is a 4x4 diamond pattern inlaid in the center of the kitchen area. We painted the walls a deep butter yellow, actually called Yellow Frost from the Valspar Elite series.
The cabinets had the most work done. We had to strip off the old paint/polyeurethane/varnish. They are crappy cheapo cabinets with not real wood sides. So I got some real oak pieces and fit them over the sides. We stained the base color of Zar Rosewood stain. Then I really wanted a deep reddish color of cabinet. I tried about 5 kinds of polyeurethane and bought 4 different stains to try to get a good combination of stain and poly. The poly ended up being a mix of 2 colors. Wouldn't you know it, after I picked the colors I found out the one color is probably out of production! I had to call 3 stores and run to another to pick up their last 6 tiny 1/4 quart cans! So it's Minwax brand Bombay Mahogany and Natural Cherry. About 5 parts Cherry to 4 parts Mahogany. Its a rich deep red, almost purple/blackish in dim light, but definitely rich red in bright light. We also put a coat of clear poly on all of it too. It was a split decision, Amanda did not want to put that on, too much work, too shiny. I felt it better to protect the color finish and be easy to clean. She put the first coat on the cabinets attached to the walls and hated it. But well it was done then. I did the poly on all the doors, which are the majority of the visual space anyways. I got a nice system and technique down and painted all the doors, and the finish is nice and even and is sort of satin-y, which was the finish the clear poly was supposed to be.
We hired a guy from in the neighborhood to lay the tile. Jeff Harless is a professional tile layer. We visited his house and it was all done beautifully. I trusted him to do the job, and it looks great. The tile was bought from Color Tile, he just did the install on it. I did most of the trim work, and also put the crown molding on top of the cabinets. The counter is staying the same. We put up a new light over the sink, and a new chandelier over the dining room table. It's very old world style. It's from Lowes, and thought the quality isn't top notch, it was much cheaper then the other style I picked out at the lighting store (by about 3.5x!).
So here's a picture or two, click here for the gallery! Pix of before, during, and after.
11-08 » Let's get our heads on straight and the country on the right track!
VOTE BARACK OBAMA!
I was at the big Obama speech and rally in Lancaster on September 4. There were like 15,000 people there! My friend and photographer Mike went along too and took some fantastic photos! Check it out here.
9-10-08 » We're starting to work on the kitchen remodelling job! Yay, lots of sanding cabinets, and fretting over tile.
8-20-08 » The summer is cruising by quickly and it seems like there's so little time
for relaxing. June was sort of a get-back-to-normal month, and Amanda and I
were trying to merge more things of our lives, open wedding gifts, learn to
grill. We painted the basement walls, just the cinderblock, so we can spruce
that up slowly. It's not going to be full studded walls and drywall, just
some paneling in the built out areas now, plus 1 additional wall. We're
going to do something nifty with our kitchen I promise, but it's a really
big undertaking so it's gonna require planning.
July was busy for me. July 4th weekend we went to Amanda's grandmother's
house in upper New York state. It was relaxing and nice, way out in the
boonie. We learned about a bunch of geneology and played card games. The
drive up/home was rough though, traffic and construction on the highway. I
went to an autocross the next weekend in Washington DC. I got my ass kicked
and plus was rained on during the drive home. I really did not have fun that
day. Then my dad and I went to Mid Ohio to see IndyCar and American Le Mans
races one weekend. The weekend after that I had autocross at the Farm Show,
a 2 day event. So my weekends were not lazy and relaxing. But heck I'll
sleep when I'm dead!
So this great thing we bought at LNT after the wedding is a metal basket for
grilling veggies and stuff. We marinate some cut up veggies and dump them in
this thing before the meat goes on, and bam! Great veggies. Makes a lot of
smoke when the oil drips down though.
6-25-08 » OK look below for the big wedding story blog!
6-01-08 » Our wedding happened smoothly and wonderfully. The honeymoon was great, we went to Orlando and Cocoa Beach. We swam with fishes and rays and dolphins, saw Shamu, and went to the Space Center and hung on the beach. It was a lot of fun. Too much for a quick post here. Check out some wedding pix, and our honeymoon pix.
Pix by my friend Mike Frederick, pix from Aunt Molly
Official wedding pix by Mike Miville here, the password is the place we were married (two words, no space, use caps where appropriate). If you want to order pictures please email me and there is another site you can buy prints from.
Check out some additional blog entries over at chrispaveglio.blogspot.com
5-24-08 » FINALLY here is the wedding story blow by blow, mostly!
Happy Wedding day to us! Our memorial day weekend wedding went super smoothly. Firstly, we were very lucky and very happy that the rain of the past month finally stopped, and fine sunny skies broke out Thursday afternoon.
Thursday I got adjusted by my best man and chiropractor John, then headed over to the bed n breakfast were the Cotten family and our minister were staying. I hadn't met our minister, Babbie, before, and Amanda hadn't seen her for maybe 10 years. We had spoken on the phone a couple times over the past month though. We all chatted and then headed out to an all you can eat buffet, a big tourist thing for eastern Lancaster county. Over dinner we discussed some wedding plans but mostly got to know her and Amanda's mom Cyndy and her were catching up (they were best buds in college).
Friday was a busy day and the start of about 6 more busy days. Amanda went to her chiropractor and the flower lady. I ran over to pick up and try on tuxes. I had an adjustment on mine, a new shirt with better collar. I was also getting John Costa's and Julian's, but the tux place seemed to be missing one! The sales guy was running around taking vests and shirts off the shelf to put it together. Finally the store manager pointed to one hanging in a bag already, it was paid for and ready to take already! OK tragedy averted.
Back home, Jen (Amanda's Matron of Honor) stopped over, and we started to pack the Honda with all the stuff we needed. Including: 4 cases of beer, 12 stringers of party lights, box of table runners, 4 rolls of tulle (shimmery fabric material), 5 road cones (for centerpieces), model cars, shepard's hooks, wooden crates, PA speaker and cords, bag of tools, and probably a kitchen sink. It was packed in the Honda to almost the roof. The drive over was a little harrying, as I was stuck in what might have been an accident just being cleaned up at 772 and Route 23. Stuck for 10 minutes, and I had a schedule to keep!
Getting there after that snag was smooth, and then the unpacking began. All of Amanda's bridesmaids were there and I met them, and Julian and Chris Cotten also showed up. Chris started on stringing some party lights and Julian and I got a system down to put the lights up on the high beams. Thankfully someone had found the tall ladder for us. It took nearly 2 hours to just do all the lights, and Amanda's gals were taking care of the archway and table decorations.
The folks all showed up for rehearsal, and we got things rolling for that. Babbie gave us all a laugh by saying, in her best bugs-bunny voice "we are here to talk about mawwiage." And "wuv." Things were straightened out and we learned out spots and parts, and had Mike Hartman test out the audio system a bit (very important). Amanda really wanted some amplification so everyone could hear our vows in the back row.
A quick yet harried pack-up of the amp, and we all headed over to the Revere Tavern for the dinner. Well a couple people had to stop back at the BnB first. We had a very nice dinner, and "thanks" to mom and dad for hosting that for us. The highlight was that Aunt Joy made some red velvet cake for our official dessert! It was fantastic! To heck with the fancy stuff the restaurant tried to serve us, we had something better! Amanda had a little shadow starting that night, Julian's daughter Allison was dreaming of being a bride or a bridesmaid. She tapped A's arm at dinner and asked if we had a flower girl, and if not, could she be ours?
My bachelor party was going on that night, and also A's bachelorette party too. So we all split ways, and me and John Nissley and Julian headed to Al's Diamond Cabaret in Reading. Amanda and her gals went out bowling and had a sugar-rush party. We both had a real good time. I went home to sleep, Amanda stayed with the Cotten clan at the BnB.
Saturday morning I found myself killing time, I was all ready for the wedding but woke up early and was ready to go! I sat and watched some TV, then packed up my clothes and the Marigolds we had been growing for the past 2 months. They grew great and all had at least 1 nice bloom on them, most of them had 2 or 3. They were our special babies. I left early so to miss any traffic slowing me down along the way. At the last minute I remembered to get Subway lunch to take along. I got there in good time, ate, and relaxed, then went to set up the PA. Guys started arriving, and our time to get ready came. From here on, time really compresses for me.
My groomsmen got ready and Mike Miville was shooting pictures of us. We sort of started late and dawdled a bit, and had to run and get our groomsmen photos done in short order. Good thing Mike had it all planned, the photos he wanted, so we moved with a purpose. When we were done standing around trees, on a wood pile, or on the road, Mike went to shoot the gals. I had been nervous in the morning when I had nothing to do, but now not so much. With only some waiting until the ceremony starts, I was a tad nervous again, and sort of reflective. I stood around and hung out near the winery, so not to see Amanda getting photos up near the vineyard area. I talked with family members, Dan Farrell, and saw other friends pulling in. We could hear the bagpipers tuning and warming up. I was hoping the PA system was taken care of, since Colleen and DJ brought a bunch of speakers, a computer, a mixing board, and all sorts of stuff. It looked out of control to me and I was a bit worried, but they got it set up and working. I knew they would, but from what we had tested the day before, I was concerned it would still be OK with the levels and mic inputs. I really had no reason to worry, my cousins know their stuff.
The grandmas showed up and were seated, and then the mothers were seated, in the beautiful field with white chairs, the archway with tulle on it, the flowers hanging at the end of the aisles, the flowers on the aisle, the archway at the front, all my family and friends that could make it in their Sunday best.
Walking toward the archway was an ethereal experience. I felt odd as I walked, being one of the centers of attention, following some direction, doing something unknown. My guys are behind me, literally. I felt the eyes of 100 people on me for a little while. We all turned to look up the hill, behind the audience, to see Amanda and the girls processing down. The bagpipes were blazing Scotland the brave, the shifted to Highland Cathedral. Since they were far away, it was hard to see at first. I started getting teary eyed as Amanda was getting nearer. The tune she picked was nice, and now it's burned into my memory as her song. She looked more beautiful than I've ever seen, she was amazing. Her hair was great, the dress she picked was simple yet very elegant and classy. Dad walked her down the aisle and then, then there we were. All 3 of us nearly in tears, holding it back, yep Dad included, we could tell.
Our ceremony went pretty well, I said my vows, Amanda said hers. My sis and bro and bro-in-law read their readings wonderfully! My cousins all sang beautifully, but boy I did not get to hear too much of it. We did not have a match or lighter for the Mothers' unity candle, so we had to ask the congregation for one! Fred (Amanda's Jen's Fred) had one. We bumped over the unity candle at first, a funny moment. Then Cyndy couldn't get the lighter started, and then when we did, it was too windy and also the candle wicks had a lot of extra wax to burn through, so we scrubbed it until later. We said our ring thing, and I gave Amanda a nice big kiss. There were a couple audience woo-hoos. After what seemed like an eternity of more reading (well we picked it!) the ceremony was over and we only had to walk out 100 feet to the "recieving area". What a relief! We said Hi and shook hands and hugged.
Our pace really picked up then for photos. The ceremony started a little late, it was a little longer than I thought, and we had less time for pix. Mike was great, he had our list of family members to photograph ready, and everyone did a nice job of getting in quick and out quick. It was really sunny so I know I was squinty a bit in some pix. Oh well, better than inside and rainy!! Our other wedding party pictures were fun and we had to walk around to different areas of the winery. It was a travelling show! Mike had it all planned and little thumbnails drawn out of all the pix he wanted. We had a laugh doing some goofy pics too. The sky was great and the light was nice everywhere. We stood, we were near trees, we were walking, we were in the grape vines, then finally ready to come in for an entrance!
With our music just a hair late, we waved to our friends and walked over to the dance floor, high fived the wedding party. Our first dance went well except I felt like I was totally off the beat and could not move my feet any more! Good thing for enough practice, at least I knew the steps we were going to do, and ended on a nice sort of dip. John N and Emily R did a toast for us, as well as (new) Dad, to a nice glass of white wine. Ah just what I need on an empty stomach! Steve's toast to us was nice but actually required a bit of retelling by Amanda later to make full sense to me, he was referencing something from her childhood I hadn't heard before.
Our dinner was great, we had some personal service from the OGI staff, oh Amen for food. It was great, it was enough, it was sort of Italian. I think there is a photo of the spread somewhere, but it looked great. I remember chowing down and also getting a little tipsy on my wine, oh the great raspberry red wine. As all good newlyweds, we mingled around as we could to everyone. But time was short for us, we were so busy with more pictures. And then we had the mother-son dance, the father-daughter dance, the Cotten family boogie, I was invited in for that, and then the anniversary dance. Molly and Paul Bodden were the longest married and got the bouquet. I had to get the garter off Amanda, that was sneaky fun. I had to go full under, just to say I did it the right way! I tossed that to all single people in the house, and Will the little 7 year old got it. I hope it brings him luck. We skipped the dollar dance since things were behind and people needed to dance. I think it was specifically my Dad that asked about it. And we did our re-take on the unity candle. Then we fed cake to each other, it was a fake cake and was already cut for us, but we thought we were going to cut a fake slice anyway. No face-smashing today! So everyone danced except us, we had more photos and more talking to do. Miv pulled us outside for a picture near the end of the night. And Amanda had to grab the extra wine we bought.
Amanda and I did get a couple dances in before the end of the night. But soon as we were done, we had to pack up. Since we were doing most of this ourselves, we had to take down the light stringers and pack up gifts etc. It didn't even all fit in the Honda, we had mom and dad bring stuff back and stop in Manheim with us. We only lost 2 shepard hooks in the hubub, so that's a good scorecard. Once the other Paveglios left, I carried Amanda over the threshold, to be chivalrous. We had to pack a bit for the honeymoon, and then we turned off the lights.
The Wedding page (May 24, 2008) is still up.
5-10-08 » We got back from our super trip with Clipper to Dominican Republic, in the Punta Cana region, the beachy and touristy area. We had a 5 day all expense paid trip with the company. It was 4 days of Fun in the Sun. We had to attend some meetings to make it more business like, but that means no taxes! Yay! Amanda and I had a lot of good food, even more good drinks, we danced, we laid out on the beach, splashed in the clean beach ocean water, swam and drank in the pool, met other Clipperites, we went snorkelling and touched Manta-Rays and swam with sharks (no not great white sharks silly!), went on a trip to the countryside to see some towns and a cave and a city on a cliff, and had dinner on the beach with Clipper on Wednesday night. What a great couple of days! Neither of us got bad sunburn, we put on tons of Blue Lizard sunscreen. The cap was nifty that it turned bluer the more it was in the sunlight, like a UV guage. We heard Peacocks and Peahens making noises like an angry cat (MEEoooo-AW), saw pink flamingos, and other little birds all around the property. The resort was big, it took 15 minutes to walk from our room to the beach. We had a cool rep for our group, Simone, that knew all we needed to know to go and check in at the right times. We ate lots of desserts, drinks were free everywhere and pretty good, almost everyone smiled and said "Hola" to us. When we were underwater I had my new waterproof camera bag with me and could take pix, there are even some movies of snorkelling underwater.
So... on to the pictures!
4-03-08 » Wedding day is approaching and we still have plans to put together. Meetings with vendors are happening this week, and time seems to be in short supply after work most days. Thankfully it's feeling more like Spring each day and I like that.
Racing (autocross) begins next weekend and I am hoping for dry sunny weather to try out the new tires and brakes. I had to put a bunch of money into both the TA and the Honda this week for brakes and inspection items. Aside from autocross I plan on going to Summit Point maybe 2 times this year, and want to go watch an IRL race and an ALMS race too.
2-26-08 » HOLY MACKERAL! Champ Car and Indy Racing League are merging. Finally after 13 years we'll have just one open wheel racing series. But boy those IRL cars a butt-ugly! The Champ Cars are just physically better looking, more natural, less like anteaters with snouts sucking along the ground. But in any case, I'm looking forward to racing season starting up and being good racing on street circuits, some ovals, and nice road courses. And one sensible TV packaging.
2-14-08 » Happy V-day y'all!
1-26-08 » We've got ourselves a laptop MacBook now. We plan on using it for recipes and I plan on using it for watching those in-car videos during race day for Champ Car and ALMS. I put Leopard on it, and I'm hoping Apple releases that 10.52 update soon. I'm at home today doing lots of computer stuff, some freelance work and setting up this new computer. Watching the Daytona 24 hour race.
Last weekend, or maybe before, we did some wedding registry shopping. It's not done, but we'll work on it more soon. Just last night we went to some dance lessons, the ones I got Amanda for Christmas. We have to know how to at least do our first dance together!
1-8-08 » Ugh. Upper bathroom has no official light fixture box to mount anything. They just used a hammer to bang a big ugly hole in the drywall. What a mess. I had to fab up a crazy bracket to rebuild some wall and make a secure mount. Now I have to fill in a huge hole with spackle. But we have a nice light fixture.
1-2-08 » Happy New Year to you! Happy new bathroom to us! Nearly 4 straight days of prep and painting results in this nifty new bathroom upstairs in my house! Please forgive the horrible perspective uneven-ness in the photo, it was done quickly to get it up.
