I was chatting with my friend Chris and somehow the topic of this web site came up. I knew I hadn’t posted to it in a while, but gosh…I didn’t realize it was Memorial Day Weekend! Here it is well after Labor Day weekend already! The summer has absolutely flown by! Let’s see if I can recall where it went??
In June I had one more trip for a week to SLC for work. I haven’t been there since, and it has been quite an adjustment to be home. I miss the people there both in and out of work, and I miss the chance to work out at the local 24Hour Fitness (we don’t have them here…and if we did it would be insanely crowded). But it is really nice to be home.  Oh, except for that trip to San Jose, California for 3 days.
That month we also took a quick mid-week trip to Chicago to see the True Colors Tour at the Auditorium Theatre. We met up with my friend Stephen from Nice (who is now working in Chicago) for a nice dinner on the Miracle Mile and then headed to the show. We were treated to performances by Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Debbie Harry and several others. It was a great show benefitting the Human Rights Campaign.
I also completed my horseback riding lessons that month.
July marked my first month without travel since maybe September of 2005. It was simply wonderful to be home. We didn’t really do a lot that month, but we did get new kitchen countertops, sink and faucets installed. After an exhaustive search and many changes of mind, we settled on DuPont Zodiaq in the shade of Smokey Topaz. We had a new under-mount stainless sink installed, and selected Price Pfister faucet. A bonus feature (and not without installation agony) is the under-sink water filter with dedicated faucet. It’s so nice to have freshly filtered water available any time. A new quiet disposer polished it off. Thankfully my parents and my Aunt Mary came for a weekend visit, as per usual, Dad’s help was much appreciated with the projects. We ended the month with another concert treat, this time seeing Erasure for a rare appearance in Minneapolis! It was a great show again. Anyone who hasn’t heard my band lately needs to check them out on their web site.
August was relatively low-key as well. I decided I’d been home enough that I could manage to drive to Milwaukee for my brother Ken’s birthday (ha ha…I’m not the only one in my 40’s now), and we had a nice visit with the whole family. Near the end of the month I started to catch a cold, which I still have.
And that, technically, was the summer! Over Labor Day weekend, we finally attacked the last of the nasty blue carpeting. We had the stuff on the steps going downstairs replaced with a nice mocha-brown color low pile. And in the upstairs guest room, we ripped out the last of it and applied hardwood flooring once again. I guess by the 4th room, you get pretty good at it, because it went fairly smoothly. And we had just enough flooring to finish the room. And I mean just. We cut the last board to put in the last row in the closet!
When it came time to put furniture back in, we’ve decided that the room isn’t going to be a guest bedroom any more. It is so rarely needed for that purpose. Instead we’re making it a little study. We found two cute new chairs at Slumberland’s Grand Opening sale, and a lamp and some bookshelves at Target, and a rug at Pottery Barn. It’s not quite done yet. So photos are to come.
I guess that’s it for now. I promise I’ll post updates and thoughts more often.Â