Fishpimp Kitchen

Fishpimp Kitchen
Originally uploaded by fishpimp.

What a weekend. My in-laws are in town. It’s always an adventure when they’re around. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got some of the best in-laws around, but father-in-law is like the Energizer Bunny – he keeps going and going and going…

We got a call from them about 6-8 weeks ago: “Hi, we’ve got a free weekend; we thought we’d come up and paint you kitchen!” Like I said, I got lucky in the in-law department – I didn’t even have to tell them how much fun painting the kitchen would be! The trouble started when it came to selecting a color. For some misguided reason the Fishpimps decided the kitchen must be green. There is no right color of green. We looked at endless swatches, bout 5 test quarts at $10 a pop. All the brands ought to sell testers like Ralph Loren does – too bad I didn’t like any of the colors they had available in the packets! D’ah!

We spent all day Friday prepping & painting. The kitchen has to be the toughest room to paint – all the cabinets & drawers to remove & odd angles to tape off. After hours of prep it only took the 4 of us about 30 minutes to paint the whole room! No sweat. We retired to the sister-in-law’s place for beer and clams.

Saturday Mrs. F.P. & I slapped on a second coat of green. She went for a run. I called Comcast & finally got the internet connection up & running (they call it high-speed, but it took a month to get it hooked-up! There’s nothing high-speed about THAT!), then I jumped on the old bike & ripped off 13 miles – it’s a bitch trying to get back into shape, I’m gunning for the Beaver Lake Triathlon in August, I got a lot of work, a lot of work.

When I got back the in-laws were there. They dragged me off to the Fremont Solstice Parade. I’ll write that up separate – it’s worth it’s own post. After the madness in Fremont we grabbed a bite & dropped by the two places showing my brother-in-law’s art. If you’re into fine art, he’s pretty talented, if you think fine art is goofy, then you might think otherwise. I think he’s got some great stuff out there, then again, I minored in Studio Art in college, I’m kinda weird.

We got home around 5 and went back to work. The American Standard paint we chose turned out to be crap, so the womenfolk spent two hours touching up the bad spots while father-in-law & I replaced the cabinet above the stove & attached the hood fan. After finishing the touch-ups the ladies went to put the new pulls & hinges on the cabinet doors & drawers only to find that they were the wrong size. A decision was made to find a different style of pull that would fit rather than fill 48 holes & drill 48 new ones. Trouble is, there were no corresponding pulls to be had at either box hardware store, completely frustrating the women. While they were out we slapped on the hinges & hung all the doors, replaced the fridge, stove, dishwasher, & drawers, pulled up the paper on the floor & cleaned up. When mother & daughter returned in exasperation I declared it to be Millertime, or in this case, Negro Modelo time. We dined at 8:30 on cheese curds, pico de gallo, and the final jar of last year’s tomatillo-chipotle salsa. We were originally to dine at Sister-in-law’s when she returned from the airport with brother-in-law, but when she called around 9 with the dinner bell, the Fishpimps opted to stay home & flip between the Mariners & Ronin (my favorite line: DeNiro to Sean Bean “You gonna ambush me? I just ambushed you with a cup of coffee!”).

Today I threw down some weed&feed on the lawn & went over to my folks place to make breakfast for my Pa. Now I’m sitting here on the most beautiful day in months stuck inside selling dead fish in a box while the rest of the fam is out sea kayaking. It’s a raw deal, I’ll tell you. Raw deal.