What the...?

I was checking my gmail backlog (well okay, I'm at an all-day workshop with a presenter that is talking about family therapy concepts at the level of a high school psychology class, relying on her East Coast, New York City, "we've got all the answers" chutzpah) and I came across a two month old e-mail from Charter advertising an auction for life-time broadband access. I clicked on the link figuring it was already over, it was. Some chucklehead actually paid $71,540 for Charter internet access! That gives him the highest speed available in his area, a FREE modem, and FREE installation from one of the lowest rated cable companies in the nation for service and products. Yippee, skippee. See http://connect.charter.com/forlife/ if you don't believe me. I hope the guy is really healthy and really young, at $30.00 a month he's going to need to be around for 198 years and 9 months to break even. I imagine he's saying to himself, "Heh, heh, heh, in December, 2206 I'll really start sticking it to Charter." I guess he (I'm assuming it's a he because no woman would be that dumb) loves Charter. But if you didn't know already, I Hate Charter!

March Madness

Imagine! Two postings in two days, will wonders never cease. Last night I was talking with Zach and he mentioned that Max had called him about joining a NCAA pool -- no money involved -- with a bunch of those Utah relatives. Until now they have never invited those of us in the true Zion (just a hop, skip, and jump from Jackson County) to join in. Looks like it will be fun. Hey guys, activate your myespn.com profiles so that we can communicate when things get going. The profiles are cool, you can even pick a theme of a favorite team (Scarlet and Cream for me).

I know, I know, it's about time

I'll admit it, I'm a lousy blogger. The holidays have come and gone and not a word. What can I say? I go to Maggie's and Jake's blog and they've covered everything (well, at least they've covered Evie--the important stuff). I'm not going to make any promises but I'll keep trying. I'm sitting with my feet up today because I threw my back out last night, so there's no excuse not to post something.

One thing that I've been encouraged (read that "pestered") to do is to post some pictures of the basement. We decided to finish the basement and got started with it about two months ago. It was slow going at first because of the weather but it's rolling right along now. The drywallers were here today and so by the time we get back from Nebraska (heading up for the Easter weekend) on Monday we can get going on the painting.

From the time we moved we had planned to finish the basement and now over a year later we just might get it done. We are putting in a quilting/sewing/craft studio for Kim, an extra bathroom for the whole family visits, a small exercise room, and a workshop for me. Actually, I'm getting excited about getting the project done and having an actual workshop. Just as long as no one has any expectation that I will do any work in it. Maybe that's why Kim wouldn't let me put a cable outlet in there, which isn't really fair--there are two in the quilt studio and one in the exercise room. I could easily pull an Uncle Dean and put a fridge, microwave, etc. in and just hang in the workshop all the time. It will be nice to get it done and for Kim to be able to finally unpack all her stuff and have a place to work her magic.

So, here are some pics of the progress we've made.

This is the bathroom space. Part of the current storage room.

We had to install a window that allows emergency egress otherwise it couldn't be considered a finished space. Eureka is tyrannical about building codes.

The quilting studio. The drain pipe and support post are a bit of a problem.

The exercise room and in the back the workshop area.

At the end is the framing for a storage closet with two french doors for access.

Here the support pole has been moved and it and the drainpipe will be enclosed in a built-in bookcase.

Maki is fretting over a bit of water that made it past the window that had not yet been sealed. Today we had over 9 inches of rain and they are expecting the Meramac to flood part of Eureka tonight.

Drywallers make a really big mess!