Just Passing Through...

Just a few notes about our 'happenings'.

On August 21st, Luann reached a milestone of 40 years of age. We decided to let it slip quietly by with little fanfare. That turned out to be a good choice.

The 'Living Room Renovation' has been going well, what with getting rid of the monsterous oak armoire entertainment cabinet that took up one whole side of the living room. We placed it on blocks in the carport, trying to decide what to do with it. It was about 2 weeks before the Brewsters, (parents of a friend of Karina's) asked what we wanted to do with it and we asked them to haul it away. It looks like it has been welcomed into their home. This is nice because we were so full of indecision on the thing that it could have ended up in the dump or the Salvation Army, and it deserved something better than that (we've had it for 17 years). We just had to admit that our house couldn't support such a large piece of furniture and had to let it go.

As for the rest of the room, the carpet was ripped out and the whole area has been tiled with a neutral Earth-tone granite finish that helps to lighten up the room. We ended up having to replace a section of drywall under the front window due to some carpenter ants, but after they were discovered, that was the last day in the life of those ants. Everything was sealed up and 'mudded over' to keep them from getting back in. Since the baseboards had to be pulled up to get rid of the ants, all of them have been replaced in the living room and most of the painting has been done. So now, we need to focus on the trim and such, and deciding what we want to move back into the living room and what will be 'eBayed', donated or dumped. Lots of work ahead of us on that one...

On the second week of September, I had to provide a training session for the products I helped design, so I drove up to Mebane, North Carolina to visit the GE plant there. I drove up on Sunday the 9th, talked my fool head off for 2 days and drove back on Wednesday, the 12th. On the way back, I decided to pick up a few geocaches in each of the states I passed through (of course), so now we have found caches in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina & Tennessee. We haven't been looking for geocaches much lately, what with getting our legs torn up and the Florida heat. We're hoping the outdoor life will pick up more once things cool off some.

Speaking of Geocaching, the Cat in the Hat travel bug that we sent out with a request to be delivered to a cache near Jody, is finally back in action and it looks like it might be moving out of Georgia, on its way to Minnesota. Hope it makes it there before his birthday.

School has been tough for Katrina so far this year, what with having changed over to a 7-period day instead of the 4-period days she had the past couple of years. It seems like the work-load has increased, but the quality of the information being disseminated had fallen drastically.

In case I didn't mention it, Katrina has her driver's permit and has been driving the truck and the Magnum (she prefers the automatic transmission in the Magnum). She's been having trouble with getting into first gear on the truck because of a lack of practice, but she is determined to get more time in to start shifting smoother again.

Other than that, we keep plodding along, trying to get things done around the house. Now that Katrina is driving, I need to start working on my old Volvo so I can have something to drive after she takes the truck. It's kind of hard to get motivated into working on it again.

Labor Day Labors

Most people prefer to take a break and rest on Labor Day. Instead, we decided to overhaul the living room. It's turning out to be a bigger job than expected. More details are coming.