The title of this post is how I'm feeling at this point. Not surprisingly, the wiring infrastructure of Old Town is not the organized and simplified structure you'd probably find in most planned communities. Over the years the electric, phone, cable, and fiber optic services for Old Town have grown somewhat organically as the technologies have improved. While the city has kept up with things for the most part, this has left a bit of a hodge podge of above ground/underground services throughout the city.

King street and the first few blocks from King are largely underground services, while the residential areas are still largely above ground. So when a transformer exploded last week on King Street it meant some serious traffic delays for a little while, but no ugly wires overhead.

A few weeks ago we started to experience rather poor performance from our Internet service, or latency as it's commonly known. It seemed that each evening at around 6:30pm-7:30pm on weekdays our network speeds would drop from the usual of 30 mbps+ (very fast) down to about 0.2 mbps (very slow). After a few tweets to Comcast about the issues, they scheduled a tech to come out and take a look.

Just in case anyone out there has Comcast as their provider, if you ever have a problem, just tweet it to @ComcastCares. The service you will get via Twitter is far superior to the service you'll get by calling their 1-800-COMCAST number.


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Monday, May 13, 2013
Code Name: #AroundOldTown
Posted by Alex

So here we sat Sunday night, a project list a mile long, but rather than working on anything serious, we were actually lounging on our urban hammock.

The weather was so perfect, crisp, and cool, the mosquitos are not mature enough to terrorize us, our puppy was tuckered out from a long day of running around, and we had just finished up a wonderful and healthy meal, prepared by the expert culinary hands of Wendy (at least expert in my eyes, no matter how modest she may be). Sometimes, even though life tends to be swirling around you, you need to take a moment and really enjoy yourself for a day, an hour, or a moment to help you get the clarity that you need.

But this begs the question, what do you do when you have a minute to relax and take it easy, especially when you and your significant other are typically total type-A "go go go" people? Well, apparently, we write blog posts! (No, I'm totally serious, that's what popped into my head as I pondered what to do.)

Wendy and I are actually in the midst of a few major and minor items right now. Whether we're talking about home life, work life, or DIY life, we have lots of irons in the fire that we're both so excited to share, but they're not quite to the right temperature yet, so they must wait a but longer. Now, as is apparently normal in the ebbs and flows of blogging, we feel like we've hit a bit of a lull when it comes to our blog posts.


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Thursday, May 9, 2013
Holding Onto the Vacation Buzz
Posted by Alex

Earlier this week we filled you in on some of the details of our weeklong trip out to California in celebration of Wendy's birthday. Now that we're back on the east coast, we're still trying to get caught up with the work, projects, and other chores we missed while away. But like any extremely fun vacation, we can't seem to shake that vacation buzz.

Hopefully you know the buzz I'm talking about. Whether you'be been to a far away destination, or a local favorite, it's that feeling where you wish there was just some way to grab onto the freedom and feelings associated with vacation and make it last all day every day. It might mean quitting your job, moving away, and striking it rich elsewhere to make it a reality, and as unrealistic as it may actually be, you can't help but dream.

From our vacation there was one day in particular that is more or less the epitome of enjoyment that we keep thinking back to and wishing we could be transported back to in the blink of an eye.

This day started in Carmel-by-the-Sea. That alone might have been enough to make it a nearly perfect day, but it only got better from there. After venturing out for some morning shopping we dropped by a cheese and wine shop called, not surprisingly, The Cheese Shop in the Carmel Plaza. This shop is beyond awesome. When you walk in you're greeted by an amazing selection of cheese and related goodies, an amazingly friendly staff, and stacks of wine. What more could you want?

We wandered around the store for a little while perusing the collections and admiring the selections.


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Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Deep, Dark, Bathroom Fixture Secrets Revealed
Posted by Wendy

Not to be too sensationalist with a post title, but I have an embarrassing admission to make. We've aired a few dirty secrets here on the blog in the past, and I think it's about time we publicly own up to this little known fact that both rivals and contributes to the hot mess that is our basement. This little secret sits in boxes covered in dust, tucked away in a dark corner of shelving having not seen their intended use in years.

Our secret? We're slow at renovating. We're also terrible at estimating project timelines. So much so, that we purchased the majority of our master bathroom hardware nearly five years ago. Yes, you read that right. During the summer of 2008, spurred on by a mean deal and a healthy dose of naïveté, we bit the bullet and purchased a couple thousand dollars worth of bathroom hardware and accessories, because we were sure that we'd be renovating...and completing...our master bathroom in just a matter of a few short months. That was a long. time. ago.

Fast forward roughly 1,800 days (or 2,592,000 minutes if I want to feel really bad about the situation) and these boxed polished nickel friends of ours are sad, lonely reminders of what might have been and could hopefully be.

From time to time I venture down into our crowded basement and dig through the stacks of boxes to pay these lonely friends a little visit. I open the boxes and brush off a piece or two, just to check in on our purchase, but mostly to ensure our selections still jive with our design aesthetic.


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Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Posted by Alex

Last week we were celebrating a very special day week in our household, known locally as "Wendy's birthdayweek," and we decided to celebrate in style. For the second year running we opted to take a nice vacation out to California in honor of the occasion, because it's been proven that a state must have a minimum size equal to that of California to adequately support the week-long festivities. If there's one thing I've learned as a dedicated spouse over our 10 years of  (mostly) wedded bliss, a birthday for your significant other is often best celebrated in an alternate time zone, preferably one they truly enjoy.

Our vacation was about a week long and we broke the trip into three parts. While we made our annual pilgrimage to wine country (this is my seventh year running and Wendy's eighth) and a day in San Francisco to visit a few friends, this year we added Carmel-by-the-Sea onto the list of our destinations.

If you've never been or haven't heard of Carmel-by-the-Sea (yes, that's the actual name of the city), you're missing out on one of the true jewels of places the United States has to offer.

Located just about two hours south of San Francisco, this sleepy little town is nestled into the coastline of central California just a hair south of Monterey and a stone's throw from the famous links of Pebble Beach. The town was founded 1902 and hit its stride in the early 1920s as an artists' colony and coastal enclave. Since its inception, the town described simply as "a village in the forest overlooking a white sand beach" has served its inhabitants and guests as a spectacular inspiration and muse for artistic creativity.

Wendy and I have been to Carmel before, several times actually. My parents first took me there on a family trip back around 1984 or 1985, and more recently Wendy and I visited on two previous occasions, the last one being about three years ago. If there's one thing I can say in my trips that have now ranged almost 30 years, the town has changed very little in that time, save for the astronomical increase in real estate costs.


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