Blast It!

Over the past 24 hours Carrie and I have been without power. It obviously finally just came on again. After the blizzard in AZ a week ago, we are having some bad weather karma! Iowa suffered a huge ice storm yesterday and it's my understanding that there may have been aroun 100,000 people without electricity. You really do realize how tied into the grid you are when you are lacking power for 24 hours.

It appears that the fish all survived which i'm thankful for. And because it's winter, we were able to put things outside to keep them fresh - instead of the fridge/freezer.

Thanks to Dad and Kathie for putting us up for the night and feeding us.

ARIZONA

A week ago, Carrie and I took an extended weekend trip to Arizona for one last escape to somewhere warm (and just for a last vacation in general) before the baby is born. We drove to Chicago on Friday after work and had a nice dinner with Sue at the condo. Dave was off somewhere playing high stakes poker. In the morning - very early, Dave took us to the airport and we flew into Phoenix on a quick and uneventful flight. We did get to watch the Prestige which we've been wanting to see and it was very good.

After arriving at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport (which is pretty new and nice) we got our rental car from Alamo (who I didn't like) and drove up to Jerome, AZ. We did get a nice car... a brand new Nissan Altima which I have to say was quite a sweet ride.

Jerome is a wonderful little mining town on the side of a mountain just SW of Sedona which was where Carrie had originally intended to visit. Jerome was actually our second choice and kind of a place we had to settle for. In a way that things often seem to happen in life, we discovered that Jerome was not only better than Sedona but really really sweet in it's own right. Much like Mineral Point in Wisconsin which we love, it started out as a thriving mining community at the beginning of the century and had around 15,000 residents. At one time they'd pulled enough copper out of it's mines to supply evey human being on earth with 13 pounds of copper. In the 50's the mining died out and the town dropped to a population of around 50 and everything became very decrepit. In the 60s and up to now, the town has gone through a resurgence and has around 500 residents but gets over a million tourists annually. It's full of cool shops, artsy people, etc... We would highly recommend anyone visit there and could give lots of tips.

We stayed at the Ghost City Inn which is an old old building but run by a wonderful couple who moved there from Michigan 8 years ago to start this business. The proprietor, Jackie, made perhaps the best cookies i've ever eaten in my life. We had oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and peanut butter. I literally could not stop eating them. They have a wonderful little garden area in the back with different tiers, benches and a hot tub.

We spent lots of time in town eating at various places, visiting shops - there was an awesome handmade leather store that Carrie got a bag at and where I bought a new wallet. We also visited Sedona for a day (kind of a touristy bummer - way too overdone) and the Grand Canyon. Carrie also found us a cool short hike outside of Sedona called the Devil's Bridge which was a really pretty morning walk. Here is a picture of her on the hike as well as a picture of the bridge itself. Much like Carrie stated in a email awhile ago - everything in AZ seems like it's named after Hell, the Devil or a Gulch, or perhaps all 3.

At the Grand Canyon, Carrie had researched a point which we visited where there was literally NO ONE. We hiked a mile out to it and were able to spend an hour or so there by ourselves. What a great way for Carrie to first experience the canyon. It was called Shoshone Point and I would highly recommend it. The rest of the afternoon we visited many of the highly visited overlook points, buildings, the Kolb gallery, etc... We saw the train that people take to the Canyon as well. Sorry, no pics of that.

On the way home, I got wise and decided to take the other direction through Flagstaff where we thought we might stop briefly. It turned out not to be so wise... about 5 miles S of town traffic came to a dead stop on I-17 which is a huge interstate, and basically sat at a dead stop until 1:30am in the morning when we finally were able to get going again back to the B&B to get up for the next day's flight home. I am staying away from too much description of the even because it really, really, really sucked. Carrie and I will gladly tell you about it in person, it's quite a tale. Suffice it to say, we're glad it's over.

It was a great trip and a wonderful way to get away.

New Digs...

Here is a picture of our new house! Thanks to Carries' parents very generous offer, we were able to get a house a year in advance of moving in. This allows us to spend a relaxing year (hopefully) working on upgrades for it before we move in next March. Hopefully our current house will sell right away and everything will go off without a hitch.

This is the front of the house which has a 3 season porch. This is looking S from Ronalds St. about 4 houses in from Oakland Cemetary.




















This is the inside of the 3 season porch. There is surface run conduit out here which we'll be getting properly put into the wall when we get the house rewired.

























This is the kitchen looking towards the door that goes to the deck. We have a lot of modernization work to do in here. A new tile floor and new appliances will happen first this Spring. Painting and new fixtures after that. Cabinets will be re-done with a new countertop somewhere in the more distant future.



















This is the upstairs master bedroom that looks out the double windows to the front of the house. NO, the pink is not staying.



















This is a view of the basement which is quite clean and pleasant. It will be getting new coats of sealant paint, a new floor coating and then a playroom - in the corner you see here. Also a small work area with storage and a pinball/game area will go down here.

























This is the undeveloped space upstairs opposite the 3 bedrooms. We are turning this into a master bath and are currently running through various layouts with a whirlpool tub and shower. We will also have a tile floor in here. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one develop. I will be meeting with the contractor this Friday to go over it. I believe Carrie and Sue will be with me.



















This is a view from the living room into the dining area with the kitchen in the back. We will be pulling up this awesome carpet and getting the hardwood floors refinished. We're looking forward to our first dining area and getting a new large dining table with chairs so we can eat/entertain properly. Please come join us. Notice the built-in china cabinet in the back where we can put all of our cool wedding china.



















This is the backyard. We will be building a 2 stall garage back here with a 4' wooden fence for Oscar around the yard. There is an alley that accesses the back of the house.

Looking from the future garage area, the back of the house looks like this. The deck door goes into the kitchen and the right door onto a landing between kitchen and basement stairs (very similar to Will and Sandy's house.)

GRAND!!

First of all, i'll do a real blog entry on our vacation soon. But here is a snippet for now...