Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of General Sherman saying “War is hell” at Michigan Military Academy in 1879 (may people attribute that to General Patton), it is also the anniversary of the electrocution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg at Sing Sing Prison in 1953 (they are the only couple ever executed and were executed together), it is also the anniversary of the first running of the Belmont Stakes (1867).

Well, lets do first things first.  Da boiz are doing well, all things considered.  RJ has recovered from the after effects of his anesthesia.  He was pretty funny Wednesday when I brought him home.  And Razor, rip my heart out, is such a trooper.  Wednesday night was kind of rough, but by Thursday he was a happy camper again.  Even though he had to wear one of those stupid cones to protect his sutures.  I can take the cone off so he can eat comfortably and I leave it off for a little while after each meal.

Anyone that read my rant on the Igloo a while back should remember me being baffled at a $4M mortgage that’s going to need paid off if they demolish the igloo.  It’s fifty years old and still has a $4M mortgage!  Well, I just saw a better one.  Kirner’s the Catholic book store by PPG Place is going into foreclosure on a $400,000 mortgage.  They have owned that building for 130 years!  I do understand using your property to pursue other things, but a Catholic book store that has had the same owners for over 100 years?  The world is a crazy place.

OK, here’s my last room, Ruellia.  I don’t even have one before picture.  The first picture, with the pump organ is right where you come up the stairs.  The space originally had wall to wall carpeting over a sub floor.  The origin layout had a hallway from the wall the organ’s on over almost to the edge of the carpet.  There was a door into the first room which is basically the second picture.  The indent that has the kitchenette/wet bar was actually an anti room going into the bathroom.  The third picture just shows you the rest of Ruellia’s living room.  The fourth picture obviously is the bedroom.  That door off to your right was just an alcove (behind that door is a small door that goes into the crawl space over the center of the Ballroom-where the furnace is).  The new layout for the bathroom has you entering directly from the bedroom there.  Originally, there was an anti room you entered from the bedroom where the coconut pod is hanging in the fifth picture.  You can see on the closet floor where I stole some of the bathroom space for the closet.  You entered the bathroom next to the toilet (sixth picture).  A couple of notes, that arc shaped thing over the bed is the prototype for the Aztec wall sculpture Rich Bach did that sits on the wall in the Courtyard.  And that yellow dresser I faux’d in Florida.  I painted the dresser green, let it dry and then took large fern leaves and sprayed adhesive on them and stuck them to the drawers.  After the yellow spray paint dried, I carefully pealed the fern leaves off, roughed the finish up with sand paper and coated it all with polyurethane.

Slow last night, but sold out tonight.  Have a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers,

ed