Dusty Shoe and Thanksgiving Too!

It has been a busy time for us, with the Durango Project, and with family visits as well. Last week we conducted our "dusty shoe walkthrough," essentially the time when most of the framing work has been completed and the house is ready to get wired. Also the time when the contractor asks us for a big check (so all we can afford to wear are old dusty shoes after this, I guess). The walkthrough was a time consuming effort, and took a lot of imagination to decide where we wanted to have lighting, electrical outlets, light switches, ceiling fans, AV equipment. Thank goodness we walked in fairly well prepared, thanks to help from Rachel who pulled together suggested furniture layouts and offered some cool ideas for light fixtures!

Our visit with Jay's folks this past week was great fun, enjoying some desert heat poolside while Jay officiated at the Ironman Race in Tempe. We spent a lot of time hanging out, enjoying some wine, shooting pool, and watching football (OK, the football stuff was out of control). It's always a great football day, however, when Ohio State KILLS Michigan. O H _ _! On our way home, we ventured into a very cute little diner, called the "Space Age Cafe" with some great dishes, murals of spacecraft, and posters of aliens for purchase. Food wasn't too shabby, either.

I invited many interesting responses to an experiment with my hair style, with Jay's reaction most interesting - most folks liked it, though, and I thought it was a fun change. Leticia, my hairdresser (shown in the photo above) spent over an hour flatironing it - she had more fun than me. I'm posting her picture, by the way, because she is an amazing woman who has just celebrated 1 year of being cancer-free. A strong woman, and good friend.

Thanksgiving at Jay's sister's house was a ball, and many kudos go to Dave, master chef of the whole affair. Awesome dinner, as always. Post dinner the group engaged in some rather aggressive rounds of Euchre, the official card game of Ohio, I believe. I played a game or two, but had more fun hanging out with our niece, Amy, playing Scribbles - a drawing game that my dad invented when I was a kid - we used to play for hours! That's her sitting on the floor in her bedroom.

We were witness to an amazing rainbow on Thanksgiving morning - the first I've ever seen in San Diego! The photo you see above was taken off of our back deck - the rainbow touches the ocean, and then spread across the entire sky right behind our home. Unbelievably spectacular!

This weekend, our nephew Shaun and his wife, Lindsay, will be arriving for a couple of days. I'm guessing more Euchre and football. They are residents of Cleveland, after all.

Not sure what is happening next week at Durango; but you can bet your dusty shoes that we'll be all over it.

It's All About Me

We are back from Florida, where Jay finished up his racing season at the Clearwater race. The venue was fantastic, weather spectacular and we also got to spend some fun times with my beautiful young cousin Shannon and her boyfriend, Joe. As you can see by the photo, Shannon and I bear a strong family resemblance....not! I spent my birthday standing around with thousands of my close friends watching triathletes test themselves against some of the best talent around. Unfortunately, it was difficult to make that day all about me, which goes against my whole philosophy of birthdays... so I still feel a little cheated. But I got so many beautiful ecards, emails, cards and phone calls (thanks for the singing telecalls, Monica, Larry, Aunt Betty, Madelyn, Brandie, Bobby, and two strangers from Ft. Wayne) that it's clear that I was in everyone's thoughts this year. And a great photo/card with a birthday greeting from my cousins from Italy - Sergio, Daniela and their kids Zeni and Wondi! Not a bad way to kick off a new year of life.

While we were away, the Durango gang put together some cool new framing features, such as the round ceiling that will sit over our library bar, our deck fireplace, and my new decktop garden boxes that will contain something good to grow and eat. It's difficult to stay patient while all of this work is being done!

I want to make special mention of my friend, Ray's, comments from my last posting, which he feels could have had a more powerful title. There's a photo of me next to a stairway that appears to be leading up to heaven...OK, I'm guessing you know where I'm going with this. However, although I am clearly buying a stairway, Ray, and it looks like it's going to heaven, it's a tad on the short side for what might be the distance to heaven. Not that there's anything wrong with being short.

Next weekend we are heading to Phoenix to watch the Ironman race there - Jay may be involved in some officiating at the race. The in-laws arrive, too, so Jay has been instructing me at pool (the game, not the water) in preparation for his dad's visit. He's a bit of a shark.

Otherwise, not much else to report. Just enjoy some of my photos from this past week (I also threw a picture of cousin Elizabeth and Ron from my Beverly Hills Party Night), and be sure to sign up as follower to my site!

Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters

For those of you who are fans of J.D. Salinger, the title of today's blog is for you!

We saw great progress on the house this past week, with some of the coolest ceiling features I've ever seen! Almost wish we didn't have to cover them up with drywall; they are real masterpieces, and Doug and his gang have put a lot of time and attention into the detail. I have a photo or two of them for you to check out. And that photo you see is of me and Elyse, my pal that I wrote to you about in last week's posting. It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the beach in Del Mar; nothing like hanging out by the Monongahela, close to her home in Pittsburgh.

Each week I learn something amusing about our project. I've been informed that the inspector that I referred to as "humorless" in an earlier post actually DOES have a sense of humor and is now reading my blog! Pretty cool. And it appears that yet another neighbor of ours was not following code and was reported to authorities, forcing them to change their landscaping project! Not sure how or if that was related to us in any way, but Jay and I are keeping a low profile in the 'hood these days.

I see that a few more folks are now following this blog, and really would like to see more of you sign up to be followers. For those that sign up, you can expect a special gift from me when this whole project is done. It's real easy, just click on the upper right part of my blog page and follow the instructions.

Today, of course, is an epic day for the country as we forge into new political waters. I, for one, will be deliriously happy when folks stop calling my home, business, and cellphone with their highly personal recorded messages, asking me for my vote. We have a TV ban going on in the house today, because we just can't deal with media and their nuttiness. By newstime tonite, we'll all know the results, anyway, so watching them count the numbers, state by state, well it all just seems sort of silly to us.

It's a busy month for us, between decisions on Durango, our trip to Florida for Jay's 1/2 Ironman race, a trip to Phoenix to check out the Ironman Race there, a visit from Jay's parents and our nephew Shawn and his wife Lindsay. OH yeah, and the whole Thanksgiving thing which has taken on a whole new twist with my inability to digest things like eggs and dairy (no pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, butter, deviled eggs, green bean casserole - stop, you're killing me). At least meat and veggies are in, so we don't have to go the tofurkey route.

I'm getting excited about what Rachel is cooking up for lighting ideas, and John has been tremendously helpful in helping me visualize some other modifications on sinks, lights and cabinets.

We had some rain today - how nice! but Rob and I were disappointed that the pool isn't yet holding water. Just kidding Dan.

A final note about one of the best evenings I've had in a long time - cousin Elizabeth and her man, Ron, treated me to a night out in the Beverly Hills area on Saturday, when I was there for a nutrition conference. We dined at the Mulholland Grill, listened to some jazz at a cozy bar next door, then toured Mulholland Drive, the Beverly Hills Hotel, and landed at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons for dancing and cordials. Did have one movie star siting, Harry Hamlin, who still looked great (although not quite as great as he looked in Clash of the Titans). OMG, the music was unbelievable, and the company devine! It certainly made for a rough morning at my conference on Sunday, but well worth it. When I can grab a photo or two, I'll be sure to post.