Basement Continues

The basement is all drywalled and ready for painting. There is a little electrical work left, as well as some kitchen work to be done. This is a picture standing by the sliding glass door.

This is a picture looking towards the door from the stairway entry. 

The kitchen is so cute. We're having a man drop by to pick up our old granite today to cut it out in the shape of our new kitchen. Next week we'll have some lovely granite countertops.

The door behind the kitchen is to the bathroom. The double vanity we bought last week is still in the garage. Nobody wants to lift it, as it weighs a ton! It comes complete with a granite countertop!

And the brickwork around the windows is finally finished! We finally found a color of brick that would match the trim brick. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to find a particular color!

To the Symphony

Friday night Ed and I went to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Jon and Sara had given us a gift certificate for Christmas. We decided to use it for the Paul McCartney concert (easing our way into symphonic music). The Meyerhoff Auditorium was an interesting building. We found our seats through a maze that resembled a secret passageway.

The cellos had a great solo on Cello Submarine. We enjoyed hearing Brother Campora (Amanda's former home teacher) playing the bass trombone solo on Eleanor Rigby. The second half of the program featured a band with the orchestra. The lead singer had some sound/intonation problems early in the second half. The band didn't compare favorably with Rain (another Beatles revival group), who we saw a few years ago. But, all in all, we enjoyed experiencing a new part of Baltimore. Thanks to Jon and Sara for getting us out of the house and out on the town.

Beehive Band

It was fun having the Beehives over tonight for Beehive Band. Joanie, Rowen and Jessica are the girls. Sister Judd (right) may look like she's 12, but she's really their leader! We played different instruments and sang He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, Hey Lolly, and Polly Wolly Doodle. We were just getting hot, when it was time for the girls to go home. It was fun while it lasted!

Beehive Band

The Beehive class is coming over to my house tomorrow night for a music lesson. I spent the afternoon putting together a little book for them with chord charts and some simple songs. There are only four girls in the class, so each bee here represents one of them. I was so proud of my artwork, which I did from scratch, that I had to post it online to share it! I hope the lesson goes well tomorrow!

To the Ball

Ed and I went to the NASA Goddard Memorial Dinner last night. We got all dressed up and drove to Washington DC for the event. We enjoyed the keynote speaker, Robert Ballard, who was the discoverer of the Titanic. It was unusual, but interesting,  to have a deep sea diver speaking at a outer space event. The food and service wasn't spectacular, but after we ate the lava cake for dessert, all was forgotten.

We had considered staying overnight in Washington to go see the cherry blossoms, but the weather was cold and rainy, so we decided to drive home at midnight and get up Saturday morning and do our taxes instead. This was a pretty sorry trade-off!

Cold Saturday Truck

Ed and I borrowed Miss Carol's truck today to go pick up a very large double vanity from Costco. The vanity goes in the downstairs bathroom, and has a granite top and double sinks. It came all assembled in one box! This truck hasn't been out much. It is a 1974 and only has 55,000 miles on it! It had no shoulder harness and no rearview mirror. Talk about living on the edge! People just pretty much steered clear of us if they knew what was good for them.

We stopped by the rehab center to see Miss Carol, who now has her own private room because of an infection. The room had a great view of the parking lot. if you look carefully past the flowers in her window, you can see a classic white Chevrolet truck parked on the end of the left lane of cars! Miss Carol is still in a lot of pain from her leg, but her conversation was as sharp as ever!

Break a Leg, Carol!

Last Friday Miss Carol broke her leg while dancing in the kitchen. OK, maybe she was just making dinner. She did such a good job of it that they spent 4 hours operating on it Saturday and inserted a metal rod all the way from her knee to her ankle!

Ed and I visited her on Saturday in the hospital in downtown Baltimore. I returned on Wednesday afternoon with our neighbor Roni and her sister Alice. We had such a good visit in the rehab center. It was much nicer than the hospital. Despite being in a considerable amount of pain she was in good spirits!