New Floor

As promised, here are the photos of the completed Laundry floor. Got all the molding installed last night, and moved the washing machine and dryer back into the room.

New Floor, View #1 

New Floor, View #2 

Floor Project

Mrs. Stumbler has been wanting a new floor in the Laundry for a long time. She was finally able to get me to do the project this week. Since we have done wood laminate floor before, we decided to do it again in the laundry room. Here is the old floor:

Old Laundry Floor 

The work went surprisingly fast. Compared to the last time we did this kind of project, the technology has improved. There is no glue needed, and the thin styrofoam pad is now build onto the board itself. From start to finish, it took us about 5 hours for this small room - about 100 square feet, or for my Korean friends, 9 square meters, or 2.8 pyong (평). That time does not include removing the washing machine and dryer, and cleanup. These have been sitting in the same place for 14 years - the things we found underneath were amazing! It was like an archaelogical dig. We even found some cat toys from the previous owner of the house!

Here are a few photos of me working. Since it is so unusual for me to actually do work around the house, I have included several different photos.

Is it "Measure Once, Cut Twice" or... 

... or "Measure Twice, Cut Once" ? 

Installing The Stumbling Floor 

We finished up installing the floor last night, but still have a few small things to do. When it is finished, I will include photo of the completed room.

Family and Falling Trees

We had some excitement at the Stumbling House the past two days. It began Tuesday morning whem Mrs. Stumbler noticed that a tree had fallen on our roof! I had been wanting to call a tree man to look at some trees and limbs, but now I HAD to call him. He arrived just after lunch, about the same time as my Stumbling Brother, Stumbling Step Father and Stumbling Mom arrived from out of town to celebrate Christmas. The tree man started by removing the fallen tree from the roof, and we were very luck there was no damage. Only one shingle was broken at the edge of the roof. When he finished work that afternoon, Stumbling Brother and I were so happy - he left his bucket truck for us to play with:

The Stumbler Preparing for Bucket Ride 

Stumbling Brother Preparing to Operate the Bucket Truck 

Young Stumbler #4 wanted Her Picture Taken Also 

Stumbling Brother gave me a perfect gift for Christmas. I love the Dilber comic series and books. He had been colleting this set for me for a year. What is really great is that you SLAM them on the table, and they speak!

Dilbert Characters - Best Gift Ever 

Tuesday night, we ate dinner, and I heated up some of my remaining Rice Cake soup for Stumbling Step Father. He liked it a lot, and then asked if he could try some of my kimchi. He likes spicy foods, and has been enjoying the red pepper paste (구추장) that I brought him from Korea. I also gave him some Korean ground red pepper (구춧가루) this year for Christmas. So, I introduced him to kimchi, and you can see from this photo he really enjoyed it!

Stumbling Step Father LOVES Kimchi 

Wednesday, there was more tree work:

Wednesday: Crane and Bucket Truck Working Together 

And chipping:

Wood Chipper Machine - Gotta Get One of These 

Christmas 2006

Here are some photos from our Christmas Day 2006.

Chrismas Tree 

YS#4 Opening her Stocking 

YS#2 with new Cellphone 

YS#3 Get's a Digital Camera 

YS#1 Opening Her Gift 

Mrs. Stumber (Right) and Her Sisters 

The Stumbler and The Stumbling Brothers In Law 

The Young Stumblers and Their Cousins 

Soup and Rook

My latest Korean food adventure began on Friday, when we had a small dinner pary at Mrs. Stumbler sister's home. After dinner, The Stumbling Grandparents took all the children to see the Christmas park (the place I wrote about previously, Santa's Village). When they were gone, the four of us played the card game Rook until midnight. (The Stumbler, Mrs. Stumbler, her sister, Stumbling Sister-In-Law #3, and her husband, Stumbling Brother-In-Law #3). It was men against women, and the men won almost every game (except the last game, when we let the women win to make them feel good).

Rook Game 

SBIL#3 expressed an interest in getting some kimchi, and I needed some, too. So, the next day we went to the local Korean grocery store. He bought some kimchi, and the round flat puffed rice cakes (I don't know the korean name for this). I bought kimchi, and also some ingredients for making a new soup, ddok mandu guk (떡만두국). SBIL#3 and I agreed to prepare some korean food and share it that night (Saturday was Christmas Eve, and we had another small party at their house). So, Saturday aftenoon I began cooking my soup.

Making Ddok Mandu Guk 

The shop keeper at the store had told me some instructions, and I remember watching SY make it back in Korea. The one thing I always remembered was telling SY, "put more garlic in the soup" as she was cooking it. So, perhaps I added a little bit extra garlic in this dish. As the soup came to a boil, I noticed none of my family was nearby. Mrs. Stumbler went upstairs to our bedroom, closed the door and opened the windows. Apparently, everyone was being gassed out by the strong garlic smell.

Anyway, the soup was finished, and we went to Christmas Eve church service then on to SBIL#3 house. Everyone else ate some snacks, while he and I ate some of this delicious soup. Also, he had made a soup using his kimchi, rice, and sausage that afternoon. It was delicious, too. That evening when we arrived back home, YS#1 complained that her eyes were burning from the remaining garlic smell in the house!

The soup appeared once more at our family gathering on Christmas Day and the Stumbling Grandparent's house. I re-heated the soup, and fried the remaining dumplings (군만두). Grandpa Stumbler, Stumbling Sister-In-Law #2, and Mrs. Stumbler tried some of it, and proclained it good (although Mrs. Stumbler was still tasting garlic in her mouth for the next 2 horus).

I think my ddok mandu guk cooking experience was successful, although I believe next time I will be told to cook it outside.

Sundubu FINALLY

Last week, John and I found a Korean restaurant in our city that offers Sundubu Jjigae. Today we went back to that place and ate it for lunch. It is my favorite Korean food these days. Delicious...

Lunch - Sundubu Jjigae 

John is Surprised at the Deliciousness 

The taste is a little different from Seoul, but it is still great. I realized after I started eating that the egg is missing. I asked the waitress, and she said next time if I ask she will put the egg in it for me.