Brian and I celebrated our 21st anniversary on June 28. We had a picnic in the woods he likes to frequent (for hiking and hunting). It’s off Route 271–not sure if it has a name. Anyway, he bought a bottle of bubbly and a bunch of delicious food from Conzatti’s and we hung out in the woods for a bit. Instead of exchanging gifts this year, we’re going to buy a piece of artwork for the house, so that is still pending. We’re moving stuff around there, too (though not to the extent of the office artwork update). In particular, our bedroom could use some art, but we’ll have to see what we like and where it might work best.
4th weekend
Well, we had to work on Monday, but I kind of lump the holiday in with the weekend. It was a pretty productive couple of days. Brian got the downstairs bathroom sink installed. It gave him quite a bit of trouble, so he was not able to get to the trim. He also put in the rest of the outdoor lighting and adjusted the location of a couple of the security cameras.
We also made some additional headway on the driveway. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this project recently, but our driveway has needed replaced since we moved in almost 21 years ago. We share a driveway with the neighbor, so this has added a layer of complication to getting the project done. We’ve been trying to get him to agree on replacing it for about 10 years now. And, since we’re hoping to move next year, the urgency for completing this project has increased. So, we gave him a deadline of this summer and he’s not going to do it. But, we’ll be getting our half done–they’ll just have to cut through the asphalt on the property line. It’s not a big deal, but it’s going to look weird (like one of those double houses where the one side looks all nice and the other side is dilapidated). That said, due to our budget, we’re only getting the top half done. The bottom half is in repairable shape, so we’ve been working on that and made some good progress in the past few days.
Also, we spent yesterday afternoon updating all of the artwork at the office. Brian’s been framing up new stuff since last fall, but wanted to hang everything at once. It looks great! And we won’t have to worry about that again for a while as this is the first time he’s changed things up since we opened in 2008.
As far as fun activities go, there weren’t many of those, but I sure do like making good progress on things that need to be done. I did go to Judy’s baby shower on Sunday and that was a nice break from the action.
I’m sure we probably did some other stuff, but I can’t think of it.
back in order
A couple of weeks ago, we intended on getting our basement powder room back in working order. It had been out of order since the sewer project. We got the floor all fixed up and Brian put down new laminate flooring, only to find out that the plumber put the toilet drain too close to the wall, so the toilet could not be installed.
Fast forward to today…the plumber made another appearance and installed an offset flange to fix the issue. Brian relaid the flooring (which wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was still annoying), and the plumber installed the toilet. So, at least that is done. Brian still has to reinstall the sink and make and install new floor trim. But, hopefully most of that will happen this weekend.
In another turn of events, Jake was driving to his guitar lesson yesterday and saw someone with his stolen bike. So, he got out of the car and got his bike back. Some people have all the nerve.
thunder 2017
We kicked off Thunder as we usually do–by attending Richland Bike Bash on Wednesday night. We typically run into someone we know there and this year was no different.
On Thursday, we took the afternoon off and went for a motorcycle ride in search of the elusive Beaverdale Reservoir, which we did not manage to locate. It was still a nice ride. That night, we went downtown, but not much was going on. They used to have a kickoff event that would draw some crowds. Not sure why they don’t do that anymore.
Friday was a total washout. Three inches of rain does not equate to good motorcycle weather. But, it wouldn’t be Thunder without a little (or a lot) of rain.
Saturday, we went for another ride. This time, to Dilltown and back. And, we went back downtown that night to check out Jasmine Cain and to hang out for a bit.
Sunday we took Lizzy for a ride through downtown and Ligonier. She spreads joy everywhere she goes when she’s in the sidecar, so we couldn’t deny people that.
All in all, a pretty good Thunder.
arrival
This was a pretty interesting film about a linguistics professor who has to figure out how to communicate with some aliens that landed on earth. There was also this crazy non-linear time thing going on (but I couldn’t completely figure that out until I Googled the movie after watching–I hate when I’m not smarter than my entertainment).
My rating: 3.5/5