Hi,
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Japan after World War II, the Smithsonian was founded in 1846, Herbert Hoover’s birth anniversary (1874) and Missouri was admitted as the 24th state.
Andrea & Omar’s wedding this past weekend was a fairy tale event. Everything went great and all had a wonderful time. Once again, I had the best bride ever (don’t get mad at me past brides, the newest is the one I have in the forefront of my limited memory). When I complimented her on her gown, her Mom made it! What a work of art. And once again, Rich’s grew from Jody’s Pantry did an excellent job with food, service and recycling. I had the easiest time yesterday getting all the recycling put together for drop off.
Did you know that effective August 31, the federal house of representatives are eliminating pages? Due to electronic messaging (faxing, e-mail, etc) they feel they no longer need pages. I kind of hate to see them go, it gave a lot of kids a chance to intern and see the inner workings (or lately dysfunction) of our government. I think I read that they were going to save something like $4 million dollars doing this, so I guess we should.
Has anyone followed the saga of Andre the sea turtle? They found this poor guy on a sand bar in Juno Beach, Florida last year. He had gashes from at least two different boat propellers. They removed three pounds of sand, crabs that were living inside him, his spinal cord was exposed and he had multiple life threatening illnesses. They got people specialists to try procedures like skin grafts, getting his cells to regenerate on their own, he even got braces. And the fabulous news is he was release last week to the wild. I like happy endings.
They stopped construction on Bromeliad on Wednesday to give me a chance to get the room together for last weekend. I told Andrea we could have it done for her good friends Jamie & Beau. Dewayne, the job foreman, was going to the Outer Banks, I think on vacation. They did get the bedroom pretty much finished. The fireplace is due in any day now and that’s about it up there. They also need to hang the TV above the fireplace. The push now is to finish the entrance. We’re(they’re) 🙂 going to take a narrow pie shaped piece of out the Ballroom so the entrance makes more sense, patching the ceiling where the chimney used to be, fixing the door so it works like a door, closing off the second entrance through the Ballroom and then painting the entrance and stairwell. They have a few touch up issues in the Loft and then it’s off to new projects. I have the money, so we’re going to replace those rotting windows on the third floor of Bougainvillea. Besides appearance, it should help a lot with heating and air conditioning. If you need a general contractor, I’m very happy with Chuck from Metro Classic Builders. 412.915.1552.
My good friends Tony and Sue from State College are coming down for a visit on Friday. (I’ve talked about Tony in the past, we went to PSU, he was a hort major and I was a business major. He always gives me great advise on my gardens, like the Arondo donex that’s in the front of the “beach” next to the sidewalk everyone thinks is corn). We’ve stayed in touch ever since. I haven’t seen them since last fall. Tony has made just about all of the furniture in their house. Bedroom sets, the dining room set, tables and lamps. In fact, he made the cherry lamp and wooden shade in my dining room next to the fireplace and the walnut one on Chenille’s desk. And these aren’t IKEA kind of pieces, he does all kinds of intricate cuts, inlays, etc. I want a more functional table in my dining room than the one in the center. It’s very awkward to get eight guests around it when I put the extensions in it. So when there were here last fall, I told him what my budget was and asked if he wanted to make it. We discussed the specifics of what I wanted and he said he’d ponder it. Well, when he called to invite themselves down, he said he had problems with it, so he made me a coffee table patterned after the one he has in his living room. I think he entered that in a contest and got an award. So Friday, I get a new coffee table, I’m so excited!
My good friends Dave & Claire are back from four or five years in Angola, also PSU alums. They own a house in Whitehall and have been working on it. He used to work for Exxon and has retired from there. So we’re all getting together Friday. Derronda’s working a manager’s shift on Friday, so I’ll be able to spend some quality time with them.
Derronda’s working a manager’s shift today and Dave and Claire invited me over for dinner to see their house. I’m such the social butterfly now that D’s being such an even bigger asset. Thanx, D.
Have a great day and I’ll talk you ya again soon,
ed
