April 11, 2006

• We are back from Chicago and now have Mom and Beth visiting. The miniature show was just fantastic and I did a lot of work on the Tudor market, but it is still not assembled, so no photos of that yet. The class was great though, even if it was really long days working. A few times I was up till 10 pm trying to finish up things. The instructors were a married couple and very nice, the husband's family is from Ireland and was full of 'blarney' stories he told as we worked. To give you an idea of the sort of things we saw, here is a trombone made by a silversmith. The slide works and the mouthpiece can be removed, just like on a real trombone.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  While there I also was able to visit my dad for about an hour. He is looking MUCH better and will be going back in for surgery in about a week to close a hole in his stomach that has not closed on it's own. He has moved to a full liquid diet now, but everything comes out of the hole and into a bag, so he is really just getting the food taste and not the nutrition. After the surgery they are hoping he will go onto regular food again and finally be able to return home. It has been a long time in the hospital for him, he went in on November 9th.

  
  

  On the way from the hospital to our friend's house we drove through some amazing thunder and lightning storms and later found out there were tornadoes going on all around us as well. I am glad we got there safely. We spent one day at the Field Museum seeing "Sue" the most complete t-rex ever found and then going out for ribs and a Bulls game with our friend Daryl. The Bulls won and we all went home horse from yelling.

  
  

  Now back in San Diego with Mom and Beth we took them to see our new house and then to the Wild Animal Park for the annual butterfly exhibit. The butterflies were so cool, hundreds of them flying all around you and landing on your clothing if you stayed very still.

  
  

  Today I am off to take Becca to the dentist this morning to get her three cavities filled. She is not at all happy, but it does not seem to motivate her to brush any more often without lots of nagging.   Then we will get together with Mom and Beth and do something, perhaps Clay N Latte where you can paint ceramics. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain, so that rules out a lot of things we could do.

  
  

  We went by the house yesterday and it is virtually done. All the lights have been installed, the sinks, toilets, tubs, mirrors, light switches, smoke detectors, etc. The counters and appliances have been installed in the kitchen too. Now it is more of a short list of what still needs to be done. They need to install the heating and A/C units, and install the vents in each room. They also need to put the hardware on the cabinets. And then the floors..that is about it inside. Outside they need to do the final coat of paint on the house, and run the drainage and water for the yards. It is very exciting!! It really looks like a house inside now! Our official move in date is May 26th now, but there is a slight chance it could be even sooner. The time remaining is left fixing all the little fiddly stuff, like scuffs on walls, broken bits, etc.

  
  

  

  
  

  Mom, Megan and Joe checking out the front of the house.

  
  

  

  
  

  The kitchen, looking into the family room. Plastic is over the counters to protect them for now.

  
  

  

  
  

  Guest bath with blue plastic stuff to protect the counter till construction work is done.

  
  

  

  
  

  The laundry room, just waiting for a washer and dryer now. Oh, and proper flooring would help!

  
  

  That's it for now, hopefully now that I am home for awhile, I can post a bit more often.

  
  

   

  • 10:42 pm
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