All washed up!

Our battle with appliances continues. This week our clothes washing machine died. The last time we had it serviced, the service man said we should replace it when it breaks again. So we went out and decided on one of those new-fangled front loading washing machines. And we got the matching dryer to boot...because then we could stack them on top of each other, saving floor space in the tiny basement of our tiny house. We went with GE...partially because we own their stock but more so because we were able to get a good deal on them.

The GE Frontload Washer/Dryer Pair we purchased...at Sears...

Paul bought our old washing machine/dryer off of a relative some years ago. On it was a picture of Jesus (from the Sacred Heart Auto League) which his relative had put on it...back in 1984/1985. We're not sure what the SHAL has to do with appliances, but we can't complain as we got many good years (10+) out of those appliances. When our washing machine died this week, Michele got it to work again briefly...enough to empty out the water left in the tub. Then the picture of Jesus from SHAL fell off the washing machine...the masking tape from 20 years ago gave out. Michele tried to put the picture back on the machine, but the tape would no longer hold it. The washing machine has not worked since. So we took it as a message from a higher authority that it was time to get a new machine.

The Sacred Heart Auto League...they apparently have pull w/appliances too!

When did my life become a G-Rated movie?

Instead of Joan Jett we now find ourselves listening to children's music by Justin Roberts and Raffi. Long after Sammy has gone to bed we find ourselves singing tunes like "Baby Beluga" and "Willie was a Whale" to ourselves. So it goes when you have children. Enjoy the link to youtube that we found.

Michele and Sammy go home...

On the TV series "Jericho," a small town has to deal with a post-apocalyptic world where none of their electronic devices work. Well, no EMP occurred while Michele and Sammy went home, but unfortunately our small Sony camera did not take very good pictures (we postulate that it was a low battery). So just like our spy photos of the house Paul grew up in, the family photos taken while Michele was home did not come out all too well. So here are the ones which aren't overly blurry (sadly, none were good with Michele's Grandmother in it)

So as the story goes, Michele and Sammy went home for the better part of a week to see her family. There were able to see just about everyone minus Michele's sister down in Altanta. While there, an intense crisis arose when Sammy's cousin Noah locked himself and Ana in the office. But more on that later.

Sammy and his Grandpa & Grandma...

Sammy and his Grandma...

Sammy, Aunt Diana, his Godfather/Uncle Andy, and his godfather's Yankees cap...
...go Yankees!

Jaime's beau Chris attempts to rescue the little ones locked in the study...

Although Sammy was not in the study himself...
...he still somehow managed to get rescuted (and attention)...

Ana...
tells her mama...
all about the drama...

Michele, Sammy, and her brother Paul...
...and Paul's Yankees cap...
...go Yankees!

Sammy and Paul's fiancee Shirley...

Sammy and his uncle Paul...

Chris and Sammy conversing...

Sammy with his Aunt Jaime and her beau Chris...

Michele with her high school friend Amy and her daughter Madison...
...and of course Sammy too..

Sadly, a better quality pic than what our Sony camera took!

Spy Photos!

Vince Burlapp (if he is for real) is this guy who has an automobile blog where he shows spy photos of upcoming new automobiles. The photos usually are kind of grainy and blurry. But so it goes in the spy game.

Earlier this year, Paul's parents sold their house (built in 1927) and moved from New York to Texas. A fellow bought the house, gutted it, and is reselling it. While Michele and Sammy were back home this past week visiting family, they swung by the house and talked to the fellow renovating the house. He was kind enough let Michele and Sammy look through the house Paul grew up in and take photos. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the photos are quite blurry...but so it goes in the spy game.

Michele and Sammy in the back of the house...
...to the left are the kitchen windows Paul would climb in late at night...
...because he never carried a key to the house...

The back entrance to the house...
...a hallway now of sorts...

The entry way is tiled now...

The downstairs bathroom...redone...

The kitchen nook...
...the windows Paul used to sneak in through late at night...
...apparently they replaced every window in the house...

Sammy and Michele in the kitchen..
...note how they made it L-shaped...
...nice granite countertop...

A fuzzy picture of the maple cabinets...

The dining room...
...they stripped and repainted all the woodwork...

The fireplace...
...you can't see it, but they put in recessed lights everywhere...

They replaced the front door and side-lights...

The sun-porch is now a 4-season room with heat...

The refinished stairs...
...with a protective covering...

The attic view into the back yard...

A view of the attic...
...we've seen clearer photos of bigfoot...
...but so it goes in the spy game...

Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

Paul's brother David lives far away in Texas. Paul and his sisters (who live in the Twin Cities) rarely get to see David and his wife/kids. So when we found out very recently that David would be in La Crosse, Wisconsin they took they day off to meet him there. Not knowing what to expect (or even why David and his family would be there) Anne, Diane, and Paul (Michele & Sammy are back East on vacation) piled into a car this morning and drove from Rochester to La Crosse to see David & family for a few hours.

Apparently, David's family was traveling with another family and they were stopping to see the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse. So that's where we went to meet them...at the shrine in La Crosse. As the three of us pulled into the Shrine's parking lot we saw what looked like a very little shrine and collectively thought, "David and his family/friends traveled all this way to see this?"

The rest of the story is told in captions of the pics shown below in sequence:

So this is the Shrine?...later we found it, it's the Votive Chapel...

Anne has her cake and eats it...at the Shrine restaurant...

Celine, Aunt Diane, Dominic, Andrew, and Aunt Annie...

David & his wife Jacci and their Nikon D50 camera...
...the exact same model Paul has...

Unexpectedly to us...they piled us into these golf carts...
...David's friend Scott drove one of the carts...
...we soon found out he isn't the world's best driver...

We twisted up and up this winding path...
...much steeper than it looks here...
...just ask those in the golf cart David was in...

We stopped and they passed out construction helmets for us to wear...
...note how good David looks as a construction worker...
...you can almost imagine him snarling, "Where's my donut?"

Ah...so this is the Shrine Church...now it all makes sense...
...it's still under construction, hence the helmets...

It's stunning, so large and under construction...
...nothing like during the Middle Ages back in old Europe...
...with modern tools and scaffolding...

Here is the nun who gave us the tour...
...she kindly answered all Paul's questions regarding their project management...

They showed us just about every part of it...
...multi-level basement and all...
...though we saw no gargoyles or secret passage ways...

This is the room for the bishops and higher to put on their vestments...
...when finished their bathroom will have real towels...
...while the bathroom for the regular priests will just have paper towels...

David steals the blueprints which were left unattended...

From what it sounds like, no expense has been spared...
...Italian marble...exotic woods...all with modern techology...
...reinforced concrete, steel construction, thermal stained-glass windows, etc...

For the trip back down the hill...
...fewer people chose to ride in the cart with David's friend driving....
...oh yea of little faith...

A model of what the finished Shrine will look like...
...only bigger..
"Thank God for the model trains, you know?
If they didn't have the model trains
they wouldn't have gotten the idea for the big trains."

Aunt Annie giving Dominic a kiss...

Anne and Diane contemplating a higher calling...
...inside the Votive Chapel...

After saying goodbye, David, his friends, and some of his kids left for the airport...
...and by leaving I mean they left behind Jacci and Tricia...
...notice the van leaving them...

We had a wonderful visit with them. We were impressed by what we saw. It's definitely a place worth visiting. Since it's only an hour or so from Rochester, we'll have to take Michele and Sammy there too.

Paul is in T-R-O-U-B-L-E

While Michele and Sammy traveled back east to visit her family, Paul (bankrupt of remaining vacation days) remained home. He planned on doing a good deal of sanding and painting (of hallways and the kitchen) while Sammy was out of the house. He mistakenly frittered away his first day watching Steven Segal (an actor he can't stand) movies on cable. He would have watched something else, but he couldn't find the remote control. The next day, January 31th he went to Sherwin Williams and unbelievably they were closed! He went to another store, bought some primer and ceiling paint, and tried to progress as best he could.

Today, after numerous interruptions, he was sanding along in the kitchen when his random orbital sander exploded on him. Paul had bought a new pad for it and apparently it was not fully fastened. The material fatigued and eventually the disk came flying off. So back to the store to buy another sander. So far, Paul has not even completed 25% of what he hoped to do.

Not many days are left before Michele and Sammy return.

Will Paul be in big trouble when Michele gets back? Will the kitchen look worse than when he started? Will Michele be as patient as Pope Julius II (see Charlton Heston's movie)?

The disk that almost killed Paul...
...will Michele finish him off?

What would you do to your husband...
...if he did this to your kitchen?
Note the spots where Paul sanded clear through into the plaster...