Memorial Day weekend

We had quite a busy weekend for the Memorial Day holiday. With temperatures getting into the mid-90’s, we did most of our outdoor work before noon and after 5:00 pm. But over three days we managed to get nearly all of the OSB put up on the sides of our addition!

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More photos in the [addition sheathing photoset](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157600284223724/).

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Qiana’s stuffed mushrooms

[Caira][] had Qiana, (one of her friends), over for dinner about a month ago, and they decided to make stuffed mushrooms for us. They were delicious, but I didn’t have a chance to write the recipe down at the time. Tonight, Barb and Caira tried to make them from memory. Here’s the recipe:

* 4 portabello mushrooms
* 1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled
* ~12 oz. hot Italian sausage, ground (or links–just remove the casings)
* seasoned bread crumbs
* Italian seasoning
* garlic salt
* ground black pepper
* crushed red pepper
* 1 egg yolk, whisked
* Parmesan cheese

Wash the mushrooms. Break off the stems and set them aside. Scrape the underside of the mushrooms into a mixing bowl. Lay the mushroom caps upside down on a baking dish. Put the mushroom stems, onion, and garlic in a food processor, chop, and add to the mixing bowl. Add the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, and egg yolk. Mix thoroughly, then put 1/4 of the mixture into each mushroom cap. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in a 350° oven for 35-40 minutes.

[Caira]: http://www.myspace.com/cairalv

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Tokyo Fro’s sushi bar

Barb introduced me to [Tokyo Fro’s][] sushi bar several months ago. It was pretty good, but I just haven’t had a chance to go back there. A few days ago [Andy][] suggested sushi for lunch, and Tokyo Fro’s is conveniently close to [Sac State][], so off we went.

We arrived about 10 minutes before noon. The place was busy, but not packed. The service was pretty slow, which the waitress said was due to our arrival during the middle of the lunch rush. (The place opens at 11:30, so you’d think they’d be expecting people to drop in for lunch, right?) We ordered cucumber salads, which were excellent but took inordinately long to get to the table. We also ordered three sushi rolls:

* “Godzilla”, outstanding!
* “Coach T”, pretty tasty, nice complement to the Godzilla roll.
* “S.O.S.”, which I remembered was very good when my wife and I ate here. Unfortunately, we were served the “G-spot” roll, which was disappointing. (We didn’t find out it was the wrong roll until it was almost gone.)

After visting Tokyo Fro’s with my wife I was pretty happy with them, but if this had been my first experience I wouldn’t come back. I’ll give them one more chance to see if they had an “off” day.

[Tokyo Fro’s]: http://tokyofros.com/
[Andy]: http://warboss.wordpress.com/
[Sac State]: http://www.csus.edu/

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Electrical panels, other remodeling progress

The electrician was out yesterday installing our two electrical panels, the main service panel on the quilt shop and the sub-panel on the house. (Also, Barb and I finished sheathing the west wall of the quilt shop last night.)

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[SMUD][] is scheduled to be out on June 6. They’ll take down our overhead power line and pull underground conductors through our conduit to energize the new panel. The unterminated conduits in the pictures above are for telephone and network lines. [AT&T][] will be out on June 1 in the afternoon to put these services underground.

This evening we should finish sheathing the quilt shop. (We got started on the last wall yesterday, but the mosquitoes came out early and in force, so we quit a little early.) Once we’re done with the quilt shop, we’ll start knocking off the remaining rafter tails on the west and north walls of the house.

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Our lumber package for the roof should arrive today, and a crew should be out today or tomorrow to get started on the roof. Woo hoo!

Also today or tomorrow, one of the framers should be installing the fascia on the quilt shop. Once that’s done, Barb and I can start sheathing the quilt shop roof.

[SMUD]: http://smud.org/
[AT&T]: http://www.att.com/

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Roof delay

Looks like we’re going to have a slight delay before our roof is started. The lumber for the roof won’t arrive until later this week so there’s no rush for us to get the rafter tails pulled from the existing roof. Instead, we worked on Barb’s quilt shop this evening and got the north and east shear walls all nailed.

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Tomorrow night we’re hoping to get the rest of the shear walls nailed.

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W.W.G.W.B.D.?

[Andy][] left a hardcopy of the [W.W.G.W.B.D.? flowchart](http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-02-18%20–%20what%20would%20george%20w%20bush%20do.html) on my desk the other day. It was so hilarious that I *had* to share it with everybody!

[Andy]: http://warboss.wordpress.com/

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Framing finished

Don, our lead carpenter, was on-site this weekend to work on the framing for our addition. He finished the job mid-morning on Sunday, and I must say it turned out very well! We’ll definitely be requesting a bid from Don for our next job, (my shop). He doesn’t have a website yet, but it’s in the works. For the time being, here’s his contact info:

Don Moreno

Moreno Construction

916-727-4447

The next step for our project is roof construction, which is supposed to start this week. (I think our contractor wasn’t expecting us to get the [roof demolition](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2007/05/20/roof-demolition/) done in one day; otherwise, they would have had the crew ready to start *today*.)

Barb and I still need to pull the rafter tails from two walls, which we’ll start on tonight. Once we get that done, we’ll get back to sheathing the quilt shop. After that, we get to hone our skills by sheathing the addition.

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Roof demolition

Eight people came to [our party](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2007/05/15/demolition-party/) yesterday and we managed to take off nearly the entire roof.

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We tried to take good care of our help–Gatorade, water, coffee, and sodas in the morning, more Gatorade, water, sodas and barbecued burgers and dogs in the afternoon. We’re immensely thankful to our friends and family: Dad, Barbara and Reggie, Tod, [Andy][], [Joseph][], Bill (not in picture) and (also not in picture) Punk!

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More pictures are online in the [roof demolition photoset][] on [Flickr][].

[Andy]: http://warboss.wordpress.com/
[Joseph]: http://joseph.randomnetworks.com/
[roof demolition photoset]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157600234159415/
[Flickr]: http://www.flickr.com/

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We have walls!

Our addition is “decked” and the first few walls have been framed!

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Check out more photos on the [addition framing photoset](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157600226916982/) on Flickr.

The framer is expecting to be finished by tomorrow night. As my teenager says, “Woot!”

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Boulevard Coffee Roasting Company

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[Boulevard Coffee][] is yet another one of the businesses I frequent that doesn’t have a web page. Their coffee is always freshly roasted, and they have an excellent selection. My personal favorites are Boulevard Blend, a good crowd-pleasing medium blend, and Celebes, a dark-roast that may be too intense for some folks. They also have quite a selection of teas and there are always some very tempting desserts on display, but personally I just go for the coffee.

The shop interior is done in a very nice mission/arts & crafts style. Between the coffee, the beautiful interior, and the friendly staff, it’s a wonder I ever leave the building!

[7901 Fair Oaks Blvd][Boulevard Coffee]

Carmichael, CA 95608

916-944-0266

[Boulevard Coffee]: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=7901+Fair+Oaks+Blvd&sll=38.585504,-121.377705&sspn=0.080242,0.119133&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=38.636718,-121.318245&spn=0.020046,0.029783&z=15&iwloc=addr “Google map of Boulevard Coffee”

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