Dishwasher: Chapter 3

We are getting back into the swing of work and home after a nice vacation that included some time in the Adirondacks and Cape Cod. We were pleased to find garden full of produce when we returned so we hare busy processing tomatoes, freezing green beans and cheering on the cardoons which are blanching in the garden. The cardoons should be ready for harvest next weekend, stay tuned for an update.

This weekend started out with sunny, but increasingly cooler temperatures. We spent much of Saturday in the yard and garden chopping down trees, spreading mulch, planting irises and harvesting raspberries (they are still going!). After a pancake breakfast on Sunday, we embarked on the latest development with the dishwasher repair, replace and install saga.

During our week of vacation, while Bruno's parents were visiting, the door of the new dishwasher developed the ablility to open far enough to allow the rack of plates roll off the door and onto the floor. While Kokee thinks this is great fun, especially when the plates are in the "to be washed" stage, the rest of us are not so amused.

Armed with tools, mirrors, and a sense of humor, we pulled out the dishwasher and re-engineered a new a stop mechanism to replace the original "doomed for failure" design. We really know how to have a good time!

Vacation on Cape Cod

We spent a week on Cape Cod with Bruno parents, Nick and Pam, in early September with a home base in Chatham. The weather was divine with sunny skies nearly every day. We had day trips to Provincetown and Martha's Vineyard. We enjoyed the beaches near Chatham, and especially the seals at the fishing wharf (we all forgot cameras!), the Mexican food in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard (who knew?) and the quaint villages of Oak Bluff's and Edgerton on the Vineyard. The swimming would have been terrific, however multiple shark sightings kept us beach combing and napping along the shoreline. See more photos from our trip to Cape Cod.

Labor Day weekend

Our labor day weekend was spent at Elk Lake, NY in the heart of the Adirondack Park. We stayed with our friends Eric and Jo in a luxurious log cabin from the mid-1800's (a step up from a tent!) and enjoyed near perfect weather for 5-days. We hiked, canoed, swam, sunbathed, and ate too much (as is the norm on such weekends). Our most significant activity was a scramble up the Macomb slide followed by a fantastic hike along the unmarked ridge trail from Macomb to the summits of South Dix, Hough, and then Dix (http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-Macomb-South-Dix-and-East-Dix-mountains-near-Keene-NY-3525).

Photos from our trip can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/hancockbc/Elk_Lake_NY?authkey=Gv1sRgCICr3cyO4cOBNA&feat=directlink

Earning Stripes

Progress on the spare bedroom continues, we have the decorating complete and are ready to start moving furniture back into place. We had an exciting week figuring out how to paint stripes on wall, a bit harder than you could imagine.

Our bedroom is now complete with new wood floors. We are still adjusting to sleeping on on the opposite side of the room and dialing our new Sleep Number bed settings to high and low. Hary seems to prefer Bruno's setting of 90, as demonstrated in the photo below.

The photo below shows us with celebratory latte having just completed the final coat of tung oil. Bruno is still taking orders at the drive-thru window if you need a coffee fix. Actually he is talking to brother Dmitri and Sheri is dreaming of planting lettuce (when she should be moving furniture).

Progress?

This is the latest update from the rash of "things that stopped working". This started 2+ months ago with the dishwasher, and was followed by a major storm that wiped out acces to the Internet and the TV, the chainsaw that died while trying to clear tress that fell during the storm, the electric fence for Kokee, Kokee's staph infection, S & B get a major summer cold....

Bruno spent the last 36 hours riding out Hurricane Bill replacing the dishwasher with Sheri standing by (the human clamp, holder of the spirit level, coffee/tea brewer). We now have a new dishwasher that brings us out of the 2-month washing dishes by hand (in 90 degree weather) slump (oh how we suffer). Hopefully this is the keeping with a trend towards "normal".

Unfortunately Elmer (the weathers station) stopped working just before the hurricane hit and Kokee has been reacquainted with "the collar" due to another staph infection. Stay tuned for more....

We did enjoy a nice dinner at Skipper's Dock in Stonington Borough with Jo and Eric last night. It was a perfect evening at Skipper's, good sunset, with a few sprinkles and a rainbow We were later amused by slide-splitting hilarity from local thespians who performed "Dress for Dinner" at the Granite Theater in Westerly. It was nice to have break in the dishwasher repair!

Things that start with the letter "c"

The events last week included some amazing progress on the garage and house renovations. The garage dormer has siding and windows, while the 2nd floor in the house now has new hardwood floors. There was much, much more that happened this week; a few things fall into the TMI ("too much information") category, so we will spare you the details!

Purple carrots are ready for picking in the garden. The are dark purple on the outside, almost beet color, but orange on the inside. And the taste, you must come over to try them out...

Bruno's construction skills are once again coming in handy to restore the bedrooms with their new floors back into routine use. He is restoring baseboards and patching some holes in the walls in preparation for re-painting and re-furnishing the rooms.

And finally, it turns out that child's pose is a great post-colonoscopy recovery trick. In fact, there are a few yoga poses that can help move unwanted trapped gases associated with that favorite routine exam. The doctor's and nurses at Westerly Hospital are still shaking their heads remembering Sheri doing yoga alongside her bed during her 24 hour stay.

photo from http://blog.gaiam.com/

More rennovations....

This week we are having hardwood (oak) floors installed upstairs, so we are camping out in the family room. This means everything we own is in two rooms (and the basement), including 3 cats and a dog (!). And of course, its the hottest week of the year.....