Why Am I Surprised?

The pen show was awful. Let me 'splain...I was hoping (and my sister Mary was also) that this would be like a art supply show or maybe even a coolio stationary store kind of vibe. But what it ended up being was a bunch of dudes (mostly dudes with a smattering of women) who are into COLLECTING pens. Yeah. Not really what I had in mind. I was looking for stuff like Kohn-i-Noor rapidograph pens (they're made for drafting but I use 'em for doodling) and my sister was looking for these fancy-pants pens that she uses in her art. We ended up doing one lap of the room and then bailing. Lame lame lame. Cost me $6 to walk around a hotel conference room once. These people were an odd bunch. We noticed that a lot of the guys were wearing these safari vests. Dunno why that is...more room for pens?

Welcome to 30 Years of Not Thinking About My Roof

Huzzah! The roof is done and done! The guys did a fantastic job and I would recommend this company very highly. As a matter of fact, I'll do just that right now: Hire Ferreira Remodeling. One of the best parts is that Alex (the guy who owns the company) took pictures for us of the work in progress. Check it:


This is from the back of the house looking towards the front.


This is looking down at side of the house. That's The Wiff's office under that blue tarp thing.


This is the roof of The Wiff's office being worked on. The van is in our driveway.



This is a shot of the flat part of the roof. This is the roof that started this whole project. Looks shitty right?


Well...blammo! Here's the new roof. See how pretty!


This is from the roof of The Wiff's office looking at the little bump-out over our dining room bay window. You can actually see the mess that the previous owners made of the roof. All that black crap at the top of the gutter is roofing cement that they slathered on the old roof so stop the leaks that they had. Hey! There's Alex's van! Call him! He rules!


Here's a shot of the main roof and the chimneys. We now have shiny flashing! Previously we had goopy roofing cement. Booo!


And a shot of the front entrance roof. I like the architectural shingles cuz they have a really nice pattern.

Our next-door neighbor hired Alex to do her gutters based on our recommendation and the quality of his work. He also may get another job from the woman who lives right across the street.

Whew. I'm so glad that this worked out the way it did. I've heard (and had) bad experiences with contractors but at the risk of repeating myself, Alex Ferreira is a great contractor.

Ready for conversation whiplash?

My sister and I are going to completely nerd out on Sunday and go to the Boston Pen Show at The Holiday Inn in Somerville. I'll just wait here as you re-read that. Yep. I'm going to a pen show. On purpose. And I can't frickin' wait. I have a problem. I'm addicted to pens. There, I said it. I'm pretty sure I get it from my dad who was clearly addicted to pens (and his napkin for some reason. I remember whenever it was my turn to clear the table after dinner he would guard his napkin like it was a treasure. "Don't take my napkin!" Uh, no problem there dad. I really don't want it. Honest). The pen show is $6 to get in and goes from 10am to 4pm. See you there? Yeah, prolly not huh...

Aaaaaaaaaand The Wiff and I are going to see Eddie Izzard on the 29th. That should be a great show. I'm looking forward to that.