Earth-Friendly Thuggery

'Sup? Lately I've been thinking - the countless evenings spent cruisin' the hood and looking for rivals to smoke and punk-suckas to jack up are taking a toll on the environment, and my wallet! '64 Impalas aren't known for their great gas-mileage, and at $3.50 a gallon for unleaded? SHEESH!! I brought this up in last week's meeting. As a result, my fellow Psycho 7s and I decided that we, as THE R.P. Alpha-gang and integral members of the community, need to set a good example for our neighbors by reducing our carbon footprint.

We tried taking mass-transit for few days, but the "No weapons, no loud music, no cussing" rules were really cramping our style. Besides, trying to coordinate our daily exploits around the bus schedule is not easy! Missing a knife fight because the bus was late is no way to maintain street cred, and when you can see the bus from a mile away it kinda negates the element of surprise. So we scrapped the bus idea.

Finally, we determined that we could kill two birds with one stone by rollin' thru the hood on bikes! We can now help save the earth and still look tough doing it! Best of all, Lupe, our gang treasurer, reports that our "new gold chain and NBA jersey" budget is back in the black! Here's me straddling my new ride. Any ideas on how I can mount Andrei, my AK-47? Now we'll strike fear into the hearts of punk-suckas everywhere when they see the posse rollin' down the street in V-formation...

WORD! RP HOLMES! BETTA RECOGNIZE!

Y'all better check yourselves!!

'Sup? Now that we are living in Rose Park, I'd thought it would be a good idea to try and blend in. I've since joined the Psycho 7 Crips, but i think my crew is starting to figure out that I'm not Crip material. I don't know why, it could be due to my skinny 5' 7" frame, or maybe because I'm may be a little too violent, is that possible for a gang banger? Nonetheless, I've since received several new tats, learned some nifty gang signs, and received a cool new nickname, T-Loco. I'm having a great time, participated in my first drive-by, and the UPS guy just delivered my new AK-47 (see above). It's amazing what you can get from Craig's List.

We now control everything from 600 North to 1000 North and from Redwood to 1200 West.

I'm considering creating my own gang. JRPP, or Jewish Rose Park Posse. Instead of bandannas we will wear yarmulkes, and rather than "jumping" someone in, I'll make them eat Kosher for a month! Word! RP Holmes!

Stay tuned for more tales from the 'hood.

en plein air

Now that the weather is warming up, we've been doing a lot of work outside and dreaming up plans for our patio, yard, and garden. Here are some things on our wish list:


A nice two-person hammock:


A BBQ grill:

A porch swing (don't these look comfy ?):




Some chairs to match the patio table we just bought:

For Carolyn

I saw this on one of my favorite sites today, Apartment Therapy. I can totally see Carolyn doing this. She has a knack for refinishing and repurposing, and generally making things beautiful and fun. I miss you dear!

Bring Trader Joe's to SLC

Go here to request a a Trader Joe's in Salt Lake

What the... ?

I have no words.

Time Flies

Sorry for the delay in updating. It's hard to believe we have already been in our house for 3.5 months! So many disasters in such a short amount of time. But that's for another day.

As far as the flood goes: Not surprisingly, the plumber determined that the sellers had neglected to install a small but very necessary fitting, which is what caused the pipe to burst. After frantically moving everything out of the room, we rolled up the carpet and moved it outside while we borrowed a wet-vac and tried to suck up as much water as we could from the carpet pad. But it was a poorly-made composite pad and was too far gone to fix, so we ripped it all out (that stuff is really heavy when wet!). We rolled the carpet back out and rented a very large blower from the home center to dry it out. That took a couple of days but it did a really good job, and for only $20.00 it was totally worth it. We were able to save the carpet.

We went and bought new padding and arranged for an installer to come put it down. We could have done this ourselves, but the actual carpet had never been stretched and tacked down, so we figured we would get the installer and kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately when he arrived he told us what we had been suspecting all along, that the carpet was cut too small and could not be stretched enough to fill the gaps between carpet and wall. So if you look close, you can see cement and unused tack strips around the perimeter of the room. Eventually we'll get some new carpet, but it's not really a priority right now.