Memorial Day Weekend

Friday night, Doug came home from work and we moved the stove from the kitchen to the eat-in dining area. Doug then cut the remaining tile pieces needed to finish the kitchen.
He was finishing up about the time Karl and Audrey arrived for the weekend.Only three more pieces to cut!

Final piece has been cut and is now fit in to place!
Saturday morning, Doug finishing laying the tile
(mortaring it in place)
All of the kitchen tile is now laid!!!!!!
The tile saw was cleaned up Saturday afternoon and put away in the box.
Karl and Audrey spent the afternoon out by the pool.

Shish-kabobs for supper.

Sunday started out by watching the Indianapolis 500.
It was an exciting finish!!

Sunday afternoon, Doug & I went to Lowes to find some trim pieces to stain.
Karl & Audrey spent the afternoon poolside.
Doug did not have too much luck staining the trim pieces with the
DuraSeal Coffee Brown stain we had purchased earlier in the week.
** Sorry no photos of this experiment**

Karl & Audrey left for The Woodlands on Monday afternoon
Doug grouted the kitchen floor and I fetched buckets of clean water.
This grout is called "EARTH" and make the water very dirty in a hurry.

More grout!
Pressing the grout in the tile seams.

Making some progress!!

The kitchen floor is now grouted.
The grout will need to be sealed before we can move the stove and dishwasher back in to place.
Then we will be able to grout the dining area attached to the kitchen.

Things left to do:

1) Purchase / stain a pantry door
2) Purchase/stain the shoe moulding for under the cabinets, baseboards for the floor trim and casing trim for around the back door and pantry door.
3) Purchase and install pendant lighting for the eat-in kitchen area.

First Kitchen Grout

Thursday night we had storms in the area. Doug decided to start the grouting process so we could move the refrigerator back in to place before the long weekend. He grouted the refrigerator area and the area inside the pantry.

The grout color is EARTH. Looks like mud when you put it on, but does dry a whole lot lighter.

A second bloom

Doug's Heart Tests

Doug had his cardiovascular testing today.

He first had a carotid artery study. A ultrasound that looks at his carotid arteries. Both arteries (Left & Right) were unremarkable.

Then he had a heart ultrasound. The heart ultrasound did not show any significant findings. It showed he had an aortic valve that was "modestly" leaking. But if his blood pressure was more controlled, it would not be an issue.

Thirdly, he had a treadmill stress test. He did well on that test and there were no issues detected.

Doug received a clean bill of health but was told to keep following up with his primary care physician about his blood pressure.

Tree Trimming

The palm trees did not do well this winter with the snow, ice and cold temperatures.
One of the palm trees died, there have been several in the area, that did not survive.
So we decided to have both of them removed by DFW Tree Trimming.

They arrived at 10:00am and were finished by 11:30am

BEFORE PHOTO

A tree jockey ~ A man who climbed up the tree and
used a chainsaw to cut the tree down in sections.

Close-up of the tree jockey.

Cutting the first palm tree down at the base.

The other tree jockey working to cut off the palm fronds of the second tree.
Note the pool is covered to prevent debris in the pool.

The last palm tree is coming down.


This is what remains of the palm trees.
Hard to believe it all fit in this trailer.

It didn't even fill the trailer! AFTER PHOTO

Rock of Ages

Doug and I attended this broadway show at the AT&T Performing Arts Center
(Winspear Opera House) on Sunday evening @ 7:30pm.

THE STORY: In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small town girl met an aspiring big city rocker and in LA's most famous rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the '80s. An arena rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of JOURNEY, NIGHT RANGER, STYX, REO SPEEDWAGON, PAT BENATAR, TWISTED SISTER, ASIA, and many more.

Rock of Ages, the show The New York Times calls "Impossible to resist", stars American Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis in his TONY-nominated role and features the following pop hits from the 1980's:
- "Don't Stop Believin"
- "I Want To Know What Love Is"
- "Wanted Dead Or Alive"
- "Any Way You Want It"
- "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
- "Can't Fight This Feeling"
- "Waiting For A Girl Like You"
- "Any Way You Want It"
- "Sister Christian"
- "Shadows Of The Night" and many more!!

It was a fabulous show with some great music!
We had box seats so the view was also incredible.

Kitchen Tile - Day 6

Saturday morning, we went to Home Depot to get
some more mortar mix and get come masonite board.
The masonite board was cut to "mirror" the pattern of the tile,
so we could roll the refrigerator up on the tile floor
without breaking the edges of the tile that has already been placed permanently.

A tricky piece to cut.
Doug was able to measure once and cut once.

A perfect fit!

The tiled floor from the middle of the kitchen to where the refrigerator sits.

A view from the stove area.

Only about 20 more pieces left to lay!

It's a Lily

This morning, I saw my calla lily plant is blooming.

Like most flowers, the calla lily has a symbolic meaning. It is, ironically, associated with both weddings and funerals. The calla lily is symbolic of marriage and purity because of its white color and its trumpet-like shape, similar to a woman's shape. It is also the symbol of rebirth and resurrection; therefore, it is widely used in funeral arrangements and planted in cemeteries.

Jackie's "TO DO" list for Dad

Before Jackie left town, she left a few "TO DO" items for her dad to complete on her Camry.
1) Driver door rolls down, but takes about 15 minutes to roll back up **DONE**
2) Oil change ** Not Needed Yet ~ 1,000 miles to go **
3) CD player/speakers not working **DONE**

Today, Doug picked up a window motor from Napa and is shown below installing it.

It's a Date

Monday, Jackie & I went to book the venue for the Kuklenz-Kiefer wedding.

The wedding date is set for Saturday, June 30, 2012 Location: Fairy Tale Manor, Frisco, TX

http://www.fairytalemanor.com/

Kitchen Tile Project - Weekend 2

Saturday morning, Doug & I had a quick breakfast before heading out the door.

Our errands included:
Sears - one tool needed
Lowes - carpet tack strip, couple pieces of trim and searched for a new pantry door
Home Depot - checked out their selection of pantry doors

Jackie arrived home while we were out. So we had a quick bite to eat. Doug started tiling the area by the carpet while Jackie & I did some errands.

This photo shows the area next to the carpet that Doug tiled on Saturday. He will need to wait until the floor is grouted before the carpet can be restretched and "tucked in" to the tile.

Sunday afternoon, the dishwasher was taken out and moved to the dining area and the cabinet doors were removed to prevent them from getting scraped up.
The tile pieces that were placed on Sunday afternoon/evening.

The view of the floor tile from the dining room.

Jackie's Home

Saturday afternoon, Jackie came home from college.

It is a short visit.

She finished classes on Thursday, left Huntsville on Friday,
driving to College Station for Jonathan's graduation
and then headed for home on Saturday.

Boy she sure does put a lot of miles on that Camry!

Since she is only home for a few days. We headed out to Walmart to get her prescriptions refilled. Picked up her drycleaning that she gave me last week. And finally we did some shopping for the the new apartment.

Tuesday, she will leave for a 2 week vacation in Minnesota/Iowa.
This is the chaos in her room...I think I will just shut the door!

Cardiologist appt

Doug had an appt with Dr David Haynie at Cardiovascular Specialists, PA this morning.

A couple of weeks ago, he had had some chest/neck/arm pain when doing some yard work.

Dr Haynie went over Doug's medical history as well as his family medical history.

Doug is scheduled for a Stress Echocardiogram (An echocardiogram performed before and after exercise on a treadmill to detect abnormalities in the supply of oxygen to the heart muscle) and Carotid Artery Evaluation (doppler ultrasound of the neck veins) on Monday, May 23rd.

Mother's Day Weekend

Friday night, Doug put down 9 more pieces of tile in the kitchen.

Saturday, we did a few things around the house in the morning and then packed an overnight bag. We headed to Huntsville to see Jackie's last choir concert this year.

We got to Huntsville around 4:30 pm. We met Jackie & Jonathan @ Double Daves for pizza. They told us all about the apartment shopping they had done earlier in the day. After dinner, we went to Jackie's and changed for the concert. It was a combo choir performance of the SHSU Symphony Orchestra with the SHSU Symphonic Choir. At 10pm we headed to The Woodlands to stay overnight with Karl.

Sunday morning, breakfast with Karl (bacon, eggs & cinnamon rolls) and then we went to Spring, TX to visit Josh & Jill's for Mother's Day lunch (Stuffed pork chops, spinach salad, crescent rolls & banana pudding)

Everything was YUMMY!

Doug put the plaque on her hope chest made by Grandpa Melvin.

Back on the road by 2:30pm and home by 6:45pm.
It was a long drive home but was great to be able to see all the kids within a 24 hour time period.

Another One...

http://jk-squared.blogspot.com/

For your blog-reading pleasure....

Congratulations Jonathan!

Jackie's fiancée, Jonathan Kiefer, will graduate from Texas A&M University next week (Friday, May 13th @ 7pm) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Minor in Mathematics.

Jonathan has been very busy applying and interviewing for jobs. Today he received an offer from a company he interviewed with yesterday. Weatherford Labs

Way to go, Jonathan!!

Best of Luck in your future enginneering career!!

Dashing Daisies

The door bell rang at 7:45pm last night. It was a floral delivery.
This is the flower arrangement I received from Jackie for Mother's Day.
Daisies are my favorite flower!

It's a beautiful arrangement!
Thanks Jack!!

Blonde to Red

Doug has always wanted me to dye my hair red.
Well today was the day!!!

I am in the process of growing out my hair ~ so the hairstyle is gonna finally have to change.

Plus....for those of you that saw me with my most recent hair cut in February;
you know I don't want to go through that anytime soon!

Kitchen Tile Project - Weekend 1

Friday night, I had laid out the tile pattern on the floor.
Doug drew his lines on the floor where he would begin laying the 20 x20 tile pieces.

Saturday morning, we officially started the kitchen floor.
Doug is "mudding" for the first tile piece.

Doug is "mudding" for the first two tile pieces.

He's on a roll now!!!

Time for a lunch break!!!
He moved the tile saw to the patio.
Less steps to the tile saw the better!!

Laying the last tile piece for Saturday.
Day 1 - Complete

Day 2 - Complete

The rest of the tile in the dining area of the kitchen, all require
the family room carpet be pulled up.