Kitchen Update

Here are some photos of the kitchen as of today, Halloween:

Baby Attila

Attila is starting to settle in--everyday he gets more comfortable and snuggly...and he definitely looks comfortable and snuggly here:

When It Rains It Pours

I'm beginning to feel like everything that could go wrong with our house, is going wrong with our house.

Of course, we completely opted in for the kitchen remodel mess (although we hadn't anticipated that James-the-Builder would fall through the floor and on through the ceiling in the finished part of the basement, thus neccessitating additional work to be done in the basement), but after one month it is getting pretty old.

Add to that, though, the sewer issue.  Thankfully, after getting a couple quotes and a referral, we were able to find "Gene's Water & Sewer" which seems like a professional, reasonably priced group.  They were planning on starting work yesterday, trenching up a section of our front yard, but the rainy weather complete with gale force winds, has delayed them and now they won't be able to start until Monday.

As if that wasn't enough, yesterday's gale force winds caused our fence to blow over.  This morning Ian and I were preparing to leave the house and I glanced out the window and said, "Oh look, the wind blew over a couple of the lawn chairs."  It took me a second to realize that the lawn chairs were the least of our problems, that three 5-foot sections of the fence were missing.

Ya gotta laugh...what else can you do?

Photos

Here is the kitche as of early last week.  I would love to say that it looks a lot different now but that just isn't true.  The wall are now painted gray and there is hardwood in about 3/4s of the kitchen area but that is all that's happened.

Here's Attila at the vet's office.  He's trying to hide but there just weren't any good cubby holes to crawl into and at almost 20 pounds, he would need a pretty big cubby to fit him.

Attila, Sewers, Kitchen Update, and Sad News

ATTILA

Attila is settling in and doing well.  He went to the vet the other day and got a clean bill of health although it was a traumatic experience for him.  He did not enjoy the car ride to the vet's (thankfully it is under a mile so I did not have to listen to his keening and moaning too long), then a big black dog charged him in the waiting room.  He was, of course, in his carrier and quite safe but it really scared him (and kind of scared me, too!) and the vet had a hard time calming him down.  The vet was fantastic, though, and in the end was able to check him out pretty thoroughly.  He weighs just under 20 pounds.

Everyday he gets a little more comfortable with us but he doesn't show much interest in leaving the laundry room just yet.  I think he's bored though and wants us to stay in the laundry room with him.  We tried to bring him into the den with us last night but the instant he had the opportunity he darted back down to the laundry room.

SEWERS

It appears that our clay sewer pick which goes from the house to the city line at the street has collapsed in a couple places and the the only way to fix it is to trench the front yard, dig up the old line and replace it with a nice new plastic one.  This whole procedure is going to start at $7,900 and will go up if they have to dig up the city sidewalk.  Criminy!  I probably am more interested in sewer systems than the next guy (I am the person who opted to visit the Paris sewer system over the impressionis art museum), but this is not what I want to spend $8,000 on.  We have been advised not to run the washer or dishwasher until we get it fix.  No problem with the dishwasher since we currently don't have a kitchen, much less a dishwasher, and it looks like we will be using the laundromat this week. 

KITCHEN UPDATE

The hardwood flooring guys are ever-so-slowly installing the flooring and if they ever finish the installation, then they will sand and coat them, then cabinets will go in and things should move along quickly.  This week should be a big week.  The cabinets should go in, the appliances are being delivered, the counter guys will be out to measure, and we should be able to start moving some stuff back.  Once the cabinets are out of the living room, we should be able to regain some semblance of normalcy.

I primed and painted the ceiling yesterday and primed and put on the first coat of color on the walls - it's a lovely color (a blue-ish gray) but I might have to go one shade lighter...we'll see...

SAD NEWS

A friend of mine from high school, Stacey Chase, died last night from Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease (CJD).  It's a horrible, hopeless disease and the only good news is that from the time she first showed symptoms to the time she died was only about 2 months so at least she did not suffer long.  CJD is a prion disease and is basically the human form of Mad Cow Disease.  It is always fatal.  Stacey was a lovely person and while I did not keep in touch with her over the years, we were quite good friends in high school and she was a fun, funny, optimistic, smart, and kind person.  I feel very sorry for her husband, 11-year-old son, and family.

Attila the Honey

As everyone knows, Ian and I have been missing poor, departed Schnuffy, and we've been waiting for some cat that nobody else wanted to find us, and yesterday it happened!  We are now the proud adoptive parents of a MASSIVE cat who we have dubbed Attila.  He had been abandoned almost a year ago when his old owner died and he's been living outside since.  While his living conditions may have been sketchy, clearly his food source has been steady because this is no petite little kitty.  It turns out that several people in the neighborhood had been feeding him but nobody could commit to taking him in.

He seems quite sweet in a demanding, guarded sort of way.

Unfortunately, since the house is in turmoil since the kitchen is under construction he's locked in the laundry room and today, Mr Rooter is here to clear out the roots which have grown into the drains causing out drains to back up (yuck).  It is so loud here today, what with the hardwood flooring guy installing 3/4 inch hardwood up in the kitchen and the rooter-guy snaking the pipes here in the basement...poor Attila is probably thinking it was calmer out in the wild.

This is my boss!

Recently, the University of Minnesota started it's new advertising campaign, "Because", which builds upon the previous campaign, "Driven to Discover" which was my favorite but I digress.

One of the first researchers to be highlighted in the "Because" campaign is my boss, Massoud Amin, and his work in "Smart Grid" technologies. Here's the commercial with Massoud.

As a side note, the building where the commercial is shot is not actually the building which houses our offices - rather, it is the new Science Teaching and Student Services (STSS) building which happens to be where I teach my class.

Waiting for a Revolution

I just found this photo on my phone and I thought I would share.  Here's Ken and Mary Jo on a very hot (~100F) afternoon in historic Williamsburg, waiting for the revolutionary activities to begin.  Mock me if you must but I had a fantastic time in Williamsburg!