A $0.14 loss

To make a short story long, I went to the doctor's office in early September for my annual check-up.  The only thing I had on my agenda for that visit was to have the doctor freeze off a wart on my hand.  As requested, he froze it and it eventually fell off.  All is good and I move on with life. 

In the mail yesterday, I received two letters.  The first was a welcome surprise: a check for a class action settlement from Toyota for the 'Unintended Acceleration' case.  Just for owning the right car in the right year, I was entitled to $29.86!  Sandi, what are we going to do with this free money?

The next letter I opened was from Providence Health.  My bill for the wart removal 'surgery' came in.  I owe $30. 

A loss of $0.14

The Two became One

Ever since our neighbors took out their wall, Sandi and I have wanted a great-room in our house.   

 

 

So, in June we took out the sheetrock and discovered that it was a load-bearing wall.

 

Weeks and months went by and the studs were still there.  It took us quite awhile to find the right contractor and jump through all the hoops to get a permit.

 

Finally, in September, the wall came out and a beam took its place.

 

Getting the beam to pass inspection was a chore.  I would tell that story here but this is a kid-friendly blog.

 

As much as we like the absence of a wall, the plywood beam lacked certain ascetic qualities.  I bought 'merbau' wood laminate (to match our merbau-laminated floor) and wrapped the sides of the beam.  The bottom of the beam is resawn hemlock stained cherry.  It worked for our floor-boards so we knew it would look good on the beam.  I also patched the floor with the merbau laminate.

 

All that was left was the drywall.

 

I only take care of inconspicuous drywall projects.  The new great-room does not qualify.

 

The drywall contractor took four-hours to join the two rooms in a seamless plane.

 

Now we paint.

 

We took the green color into the old dining room. 

 

Since the ceiling was patched, we had to paint that which required me to repaint the entire ceiling.  I had no idea our ceilings were so yellow until I painted them white.

 

The ceiling looks so much better!

 

And now we are finished!

 

San Diego

After 3 awesome days in Disneyland, we continued our vacation with a road-trip down to San Diego

 

 

Joy and Gabe gave us a tour of Lahoya Beach and Coronado Island.  Joy works at a nice restaurant on Coronado so we went there for dinner Saturday night.

 

 

Happy (early) birthday!

On Sunday, Gabe took us on a tour of his work place, the USS Ronald Regan. 

As you can see from the scaffolding, it is under construction/repair for a few months.  Even with all the pipes and crates it is still an impressive war ship.

 

 

each link weighs 500 lbs

Gabe giving us a tour

 

Disneyland!

 

The happiest place on earth!  I haven't been there in over 20 years so Sandi and I were thrilled to join her family on vacation this September. 

If you don't go with the Reimer's to Disneyland, there is a good chance you are missing out.  They know both Disneyland and California Adventure like the back of their hand.  Before we arrived, they asked me what I wanted to do first and then created a primary plan with a few contingency plans.  Good thing too because the Haunted Mansion was being redecorated for Halloween AND Indiana Jones had a temporary closure.  The Jungle Cruise is close by and the Splash Mountain lines are short (plus, its hot enough to get wet).

Main Street heading for the castle

Believe it or not, this was a highlight

I loved walking around and seeing all the Star Wars t-shirts - my favorite was 9 storm-trooper heads in a matrix each describing their unique emotion.  Oh, I laughed.  I should have made my own light-saber but I didn't want to pass through the airport security line with such a powerful weapon.

Gabe (Joy's boyfriend), Joy, Gerald, Scott

Thunder Mountain - one of my favorite rides

 

As magical as Disneyland is, Cars Land (in California Adventure) is just plain cool.

 




Grizzly Mountain was a great inner tube ride through a California River.

Mr. Potato Head at the Midway

Scott guiding us through the Bay Area

Notice the net repair sign in the background

What a catch!

Downtown Hollywood

The Tower of Terror!



Sandi went to an animation studio to learn how to draw a cartoon character. I asked to bring back Olaf, the snowman.  Sure enough, she came with his head. 

Downtown San Francisco

We park-hopped for 3 days.  Sandi and her family showed me their favorite rides (and guided me past the ones to avoid).  Gerald treated us to an amazing dinner at the Blue Bayou Thursday evening.  We rode Pirates as many times as practical and even saw Mickey's house. 

We saw an amazing laser-light show in California Adventure (using water fountains as the screen) on Thursday night.  The fireworks over the castle on Friday night gave a memorable close to a fantastic theme park.  When can we go again!!!???