One more storm photo . . .

. . . this shot (taken the morning after the storm discussed here, or Aug 29 (happy birthday to Charlie and to Michael Jackson)) is three blocks west of our house.

The view is south along 40th street (in the background you can see the trail we take straight south up into the mountains from the aptly named 40th street trail head). This row of felled power poles is maybe 200 feet from MB's front door?

I read they had power outages in this area. And that there were 100 mph gusts, very odd for this area.

Visit to DC (1 of 2)

All seven of us had a delightful visit to the DC area a couple weeks ago (Wednesday August 13 through Sunday August 17). The trip actually was dreamed up among the five kids, who wanted to celebrate Paul Jr. hitting #21 in an interesting way; unlike the others, he hadn't had a chance to get to DC yet. So that became the destination. Patricia and I decided to tag along, partly because we were very long overdue to visit Kerry. Plus it sounded like fun.

So anyway . . . we (meaning Patricia, me, our three sons, Nedda) had a smooth flight into the Baltimore airport, departing very early on Wednesday. (Nicole arrived later into Dulles.) Made our way to our rental minivan, which was quite the utilitarian vehicle, very blue. Checked into our Embassy Suites in Chevy Chase. But this was just for Patricia and me . . . the rest of the group enjoyed the fine hospitality of one Luis Rosello, just a few minutes walk away. Other than getting a quick bite and saying hello to KHG, we mostly got organized to drive out to dinner at the home of Luis's parents (Pedro and Maga Rosello).

Maybe a half hour drive, it was somewhere in the Virginia portion of the DC area. Also got to meet Ricky and Natasha there. These folks were extremely easy to get to know (maybe in part because we had heard so much from Kerry) and we had a most pleasant evening. It was fun to talk through some of the Puerto Rico info, chit-chat about political and other stuff; wonderful appetizers and dinner, even a birthday cake for Paul Jr. Couldn't have been nicer, very thoughtful. (But I'm still trying to figure out what Kerry is up to in the top photo; thinking about trying out for the Spanish Olympic team?)

Thursday, August 14

Back on the evening of our first visit to DC (N,C,K and me in 2003, per old photo), our hotel was very close to "Old Ebbitt's Grill" - which is a pretty well-known local restaurant near the Mall (we're told patronized by locals and tourists alike). Anyway, we enjoyed it a bunch. So Kerry had made lunch reservations. It was fun to be back there. And they bought Paul Jr. a birthday cake (#2 for the trip, though we had been in town only about 20 hours at this point.)

Patricia had expressed interest in the Holocaust Museum, and Kerry had tickets for us (you'll notice a theme: being well taken care of by KHG). Got our first looks at Capital Mall stuff on the walk over. The museum is really well done, and I liked it. Naturally enough the subject matter is pretty heavy, and perhaps just a bit out of synch with the rest of the Mall. But very much worth the visit. I especially liked an area where they displayed a bunch of pre-war photos of folks later taken up with the camps.

We then wandered the Mall for a minute or three before going back, killing some time, changing clothes, then heading back into town (courtesy of a cab driver who definitely preferred the scenic route) to a restaurant named "Zenga" (I think). This was a place that Kerry and Luis thought would work well for the group, and they were right. I'm pretty sure I ordered the best meal of the group, but it was all good. We then stepped across the street to some Spanish(?) themed place to try their Sangria. I didn't expect to care for the taste, but that stuff actually was tasty. Foolishness and photos ensued. Patricia, Nedda and I left the rest of the group to their devices (which included foolishness and dancing, I believe) and came back to hotel. Turns out the finals of the all around competition for the women's gymnastics were on "live from Beijing". So it was kind of fun to keep an eye on that.

Friday, August 15

More good stuff lined up! Started the day with a tour of Kerry's workplace; this included Patricia, Nicole, Paul Jr. and me. You might imagine this is an interesting tour. Hurried from there to the Washington Monument - this is one that Nicole has been adamant about taking the trip up to the top. So Kerry arranged tix for all of us. The park service guy seemed a little (I mean a lot) hyper but that was kind of fun. The views from the top are interesting, but almost moreso looking up inside the structure even than looking out over the city. Being up to the top makes the monument look more interesting from the outside.

Then got some coffee for folks in our group who were sagging a bit for whatever reason. Walked the mall just a bit; then Patricia, Nicole, Kerry headed back to Luis's place to buy food and make dinner. The rest of us went through the Museum of Natural History. Yes, I really like all the museum stuff. I might have been in the Field Museum in Chicago at some point, but all this seemed new to me. Got a big kick out of the dinosaur bones - as overdone as that topic is, it still amazes to stand beside these things. The pterodactyl was like an image of the devil. Patrick saw a "dingo." There were lots of skeletons, and lots of other stuff. Even bugs.

Good museums are an excellent thing, and this was a good group to tour with. We walked the Mall a bit, then took the Metro back. Luis was a patient guide for this group of tourists. Especially on the Metro, where even things like buying tickets became mildly adventurous, and it always seemed like we were on the brink of some kind of incident.

Anyway, kudos to Patricia and her staff of cooks, who put together a really fine meal at Luis's apartment. It made for a really nice evening.

As fun as this all was, I was getting a little nervous; the days were slipping by and the one thing I really wanted to do - walk my favorite monuments at night - was looking unlikely.

More to come in a separate post . . .

Storm photos

We seem to have a genuine monsoon season underway here. For what seems like the first time in years. Conditions were ripe yesterday. Coming down Squaw (I mean Piestewa) Peak around 7:15, it was unusually muggy, with constant lightning off to the southeast. By 11:30, there was a combination of wind, rain, hail like we haven't seen. It was being driven into the patio doors, hard, which also hasn't happened like that (given the 10' plus overhang). Microburst (or whatever the weather yakkers call it)?

Amazingly, we didn't lose power overnight - as did various in the area including MB Stern. One small-ish tree toppled over right outside the dining room, but roots appear intact. So the Blaha bros can fix that one, we think.

Trees down all around the neighborhood, along Cholla, etc. Much of the valley was hit but there have been enough of those news choppers floating around that the visuals here must be pretty good.

BTW, there must have been concentrated activity down by the basketball court, various photos below.

Back from DC . . .

We had a very fine trip indeed. But my trip notes will wait until I can get caught up at work. In the meantime here are some photos I took (courtesy of a new service I'm testing at this link, it automatically generates slideshows, and does other fun stuff).

Thanks to Kerry and Luis for A+ hosting.

Time to head down the mountain

It was a remarkably pretty evening on Piestewa (f/ka/ Squaw) Peak. I had checked a local radar picture before going to the trailhead, and things in the area looked clear. But the monsoon has been pretty active this year, and things kicked up just a bit later.

The photo (with apologies for low-quality Blackberry photo) looks north from atop Piestewa Peak. The closest activity in view looked to be moving pretty much straight east and, fortunately, it continued on that path. But there were great views in all directions, including a cloud bank to the west illuminated by the setting sun. This type of thing is a v. nice feature for Phoenix.

I did drive into the pictured storm on the way home, and it's still raining now (several hours later). The temperature dropped from 107 when I arrived at the trailhead at 6:30p, to 86 driving home in the rain at 7:45p. Nice all around.

Orchid tree: good bye

Finally got around to removing what had been a large and beautiful tree in the front of the house. The frost during January 2007 did enough damage that the tree didn't survive.

Removal courtesy of DaVinci Landscaping.

Next question: replace with a Chilean mesquite, or a museum palo verde?

Time flies . . . EPG visits . . .

For whatever reason things stay really hectic here. Combination of the house project (which takes time even if it's stalled somewhat), work, stuff etc. And now it's August, with our DC trip coming v. soon (yay).

Anyway, we ended up having a nice weekend. Patrick came up from Tucson on Friday afternoon (with Scholl in tow), and eventually we had a big group of folks in the house that evening for his birthday dinner. Patricia put together cheesecake, pound cake, shells; Mary Beth brought the right salad. A moment of consternation when the cookbook with the traditional cheesecake recipe went missing (a victim, hopefully temporarily, of the construction process). But I hear the reviews on the alternate recipe were excellent anyway. It was the very first time she fired up the new stoves. We even moved all the kitchen chairs into the eating area. Sometimes this feels like we're moved back in.

So it was fun to have EPG around, even if it was only about 24 hours. They went bowling after the birthday dinner, then Chris and Jon came by in the afternoon.

Later in the evening some of us went to a concert by James Taylor, you can read about it on the other site by clicking here.

Father's Day 2008

Just a quick note about several fun Father's Day things.

1. Patricia and I had breakfast at Soma Cafe - our house was entirely unusable due to the painting (discussed in post below). This is the first time during the entire project that we weren't even able to make breakfast at the house.

2. My in-town children (Chris and Paul Jr.), Mary Beth Stern, Patricia and I went to the Phoenix Art Museum - primarily to see a show titled "Passport to Europe". You can read about it at my other website by clicking here.

3. Then we went to Arizona Center and had an early dinner at Sam's Cafe. Which was quite sociable and fun, though the food wasn't as good as I remembered.

4. To top off the day, I talked to my dad (and mom) for 45+ minutes later in the evening. We discussed Iowa flooding, NBA finals, remodeling, some of their upcoming visitors, etc. Always delightful to chat.

Painting

Here are a few views from painting days (Saturday-Sunday). We think the color turned out great.

"Finegrain" is hard for me to describe, it's kind of gray and kind of taupe. It's probably a bit lighter than any of the other colors we are considering, but I think that bodes well for the long haul. We did a "200% " mix for the baseboards, trim and interior doors - looks good. White ceilings (But of course it isn't really "white," it is "Cool December.")

Top photo shows a portion of the incredible amount of taping, drop-clothing and similar that was required before the spraying and rollering began. Middle photo shows inspectors in action. Bottom photo shows a comparison of the new and old paint colors.

Passport to Europe

Trip to Phoenix Art Museum is described here.

Not easy to select a paint color

Partly because the colors have such intriguing names. Almond Latte. Sandpit. Desert Suede. Rustic Taupe. Porous Stone. Flintstone. Desert Grey. Restrained Gold. Bungalow Taupe. High Noon. Birchwood. Crushed Stone. Drifting.

And those are just the interior paint choices that were up on our walls.

The winner: Finegrain.

Installing countertops

Here are a couple photos from the installation of the granite countertops. This happened about three weeks ago. We've made some progress since but have a ways to go.

Kitchenette

We've actually had fun through the entire remodel process. This kind of project is pretty much a once in a lifetime deal for folks like us, and we appreciate being able to make these changes.

The kitchen has been out of commission since April 12. Until the last week, we functioned out of the downstairs bedroom. With a microwave, toaster and coffee maker, it qualified as a kitchenette. And talk about handy - coffee refills simply by turning around. Never more than about three steps to achieve anything.

Anyway, here are a couple looks plus a short video clip.



To make way for the floor install, Patricia and I cleaned out the room in one big effort last week (per photo below). Since then: kitchenette is primarily set up in the upstairs bathroom (per bottom photo).

Within the next couple days: we should have countertops and sinks again in the kitchen.

Tile . . .

A few looks at the slate floor going pretty much all through the lower level . . .

Filling/emptying; out with the old

As mentioned in previous post, at the same moment the living room as being filled in, we emptied the pool. This was perhaps ahead of schedule a bit. However, due to a combination of equipment problems and operator indifference, the pool was turning a nice green color. So we drained it now.

Once our HOA approves knocking a hole in the fence to facilitate equipment access, we'll knock down the pool and start putting in some shade trees etc.

Paul Jr. and Pat Herrara were around that day and somewhat helped pick up the pump and get things set. And they reminisced about pool basketball, recalling the days of yore when CPG used brute strength to throw off would-be defenders.

Last photo: yes, we will need a new Christmas tree. If only we can find one that can be put up, decorated, and taken down without actual work . . .

Who needs the heavy bag?

An accomplished, or perhaps aspiring, videographer (Mr. Patrick O'Connell) submitted this clip showing some fun from way back during the Easter weekend. Going back to the March 25 post (via this link, then scroll down to 3/25), you will recall that we went to a spring training game and otherwise had a fine time with guests etc. back then.

I had mentioned that folks had fun with Wii video games. As illustrated by the video clip below. NMG here displays something. It could be called skill with Wii boxing. It looks fatiguing yet somehow effective. Note how the boxer picks up significant hand speed as the bout progresses.



Speaking of Wii, I might note that a series of Wii bowling matches known only as "POD v. POC" took place during that same weekend. No video exists, which probably is a good thing. A rematch, sort of a Rumble in the Jungle II, is inevitable, and it can only be hoped that the rematch offers a fraction of the action that has been burned on trash talking, trash text messaging, trash scoreboard messaging, etc.

Our living room no longer is sunken

As we remodel away, one of Patricia's goals was to fill in the living room. She saw several pluses - get rid of a dated concept; create a more spacious feeling; more flexibility for placement of the piano and other furniture; etc. I didn't want to bother. I was incorrect. Especially because it wasn't very expensive . . .

Here's how it was filled in. Starting with removal of carpet (which didn't look all that bad even though Kelly seemed to like marking the territory). Then: wheelbarrows filled with dirt. Then: wheelbarrows filled with concrete.

The color of the concrete is starting to match the rest of the slab, though I'm told it takes awhile for this stuff to "cure."

Next: while the living room filled, the pool emptied - on an eerily identical timetable.