The Great Kitchen Make Over, Part II

So tonight I enthusiastically took out the trash, and with it went 732 ugly tiles, one ugly kitchen sink, the ugliest rust-colored counter tops you'd ever find, and a few other odds and ends from the old kitchen. Now behold, our kitchen is complete....except the new stove and hood, which will be delivered Friday.

The Great Kitchen Make Over, Part I

Well, let me recap for you how the first day of the great kitchen make over went. At 7:00am, I took the first picture you see, which basically shows how our kitchen looked when we moved in (minus the new dishwasher, and the repainted cabinets with new hardware). Anyways, We hated three things about the kitchen: The lack of counter space, the ugly ugly ugly red counters, and the ugly tile backsplash. It just needed a face lift. In the second picture, during demolition, I am showing you just how much I hated the old counters. By the third picture, which was around lunch time, you see the counters are gone, as are the tiles. In fact, most of the new under-cabinet lights were hard wired to a dimmer switch at this point. By dinner time, you see the cabinets are in, the wall has been sheetrocked, the new sink is installed, and the island has been added. Not bad for day one! Over the course of tomorrow and Wednesday, I will be sanding the walls and painting them a pale yellow color, which will look nice with the grey counters and stainless steel apliances. Oh yeah, the stove and fridge will be going in the near future too, to make way for the new ones. Stay tuned for a final "reveal" some time in the coming week. So long for now!

What's a 5:00am post look like? This.

Well, it is a little past 5:00am, and I am already dressed and ready to go to work. It is a little early, even for me, but Brady decided it was time to get up, and so we did. Let's see, here is what has been going on with me since I last posted:

1. I've gotten just about all my Christmas shopping done, and everything is wrapped. (Thank you, Supterintendent, for that wonderful Friday off).

2. I've started thinking about what I'll do on my vacation next week. Some of the leading choices are: Spending time with Brady & Erica, finishing my kitcken counters, and maybe even painting my stairs and hallway. Hmmm...doesn't that sound like fun!

3. I've come to the conclusion that I need to stop teaching seniors (which is all I have this semester). While I enjoy the fact that I can treat them like adults, they just don't act like them! I've had better behaved freshman classes.

4. I came to the conclusion last week that I need to invest in a snow blower. Shoveling a foot of snow off my driveway just isn't fun! Perhaps I'll look for one next week.

5. I opened Brady's first bank account up. He is now a legal financial entity.

6. Patriots again this year? They've started to kick things up a notch these past few weeks. If they keep this up, they might have as good a chance as any of the other playoff teams for making the Super Bowl. Oh wouldn't it be great, too, to see Indy's streak end with the Pats.

7. I was secretly hoping for a Pats-Dallas Super Bowl. How cool would it have been to see Brady vs. Drew, little Bill vs. Big Bill. The networks would have LOVED it. Oh well, maybe next year.

8. I actually watched Bush's propaganda speech last night to drum up support for the war. I knew it was going to be a waste of my time, but I couldn't reach the remote, and I was waiting for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to start. Its funny, after three years in Iraq, he has still yet to come up with a good reason why we went there in the first place, and why the helll we can't just leave now. AT least put together a plan of exit, anyway.

9. Speaking of Iraq, my brother has been there now for a few missions. Not sure if he was involved at all in the recent vote, but since we haven't heard from him lately, I'd say he likely was. He's got to figure out what he'd like to do next. He was saying possibly a year in Korea. AT least that would potentially be a little safer than where he is now.

10. And finally, not for nothing, but I'd like to give a little shout out to my mother, her brother, and her parents, who recently celebrated their 43rd anniversary of coming to America. Yep, don't know what you were all doing on December 17th, 1962, but they were waiting in a customs line to get their visas stamped. Congratulations!

Erica's Back

My dear wife has finally started updating her blog. Check it out at http://www.ericalynnestack.blogspot.com.

Everything is just a little harder.

I went to the mall today to do some much needed shopping. It was just me and Brady, and it seems everything was just a little harder. First of all, I had to push around a stroller all day. That meant being in people's way, having to look for elevators and ramps, and having to make two trips to the car with bags because I had no where to put them since I have the stroller. Trying to use the bathroom was interesting too. But I'm not complaining, not at all...just noting that things are just a little harder now, that's all.

No In-Flight Movie On This Ride

Lt. Jason E. Satck is seen here, about to board his ride for a trip into Iraq for a special assignment.

Jason says he is doing quite well. A couple weeks ago, he had a one-day leave to Doha, Qatar's capital city. As the pictures suggest, Doha is very accepting of American culture. Jason even spotted an Applebee's, a Toys 'R Us, a KFC, and a shopping mall with a Christmas tree on display.