Canine Theology

This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to bring the message to the 8:30 service at our church, Sydenstricker UMC.  Somebody thought it would be a good idea to record it.  Silly.  Anyway, I talked about what our new dog has been teaching me about faith.  Give a listen, see what you think.

Fergie: The Q1 Report

It's been three months since the firm expanded and acquired new human capital...er, canine...and in the interests of keeping shareholders appraised of the status of the firm's latest strategic expansion, the following are offered on Fergie's first three months with us.

Consistent with expectations, Fergie is becoming more and more a team player, integrating into operations fairly seamlessly.  While she had some missteps, especially in the first few weeks, fortunately the rest of the firm did not misstep into her missteps frequently at all.  In fact, over the past month there have been vanishingly few incidents, as she is becoming more confident and capable of managing the independence expected of someone in her position, especially during the six hours each weekday that she's alone.  Evenings, she is most often found in conference with other members of the firm, usually in the family room watching TV; nights are on a rotation among three of the firm's four principals (the fourth tends to keep his door closed).

Fergie has displayed an intellectual capacity we had not fully expected, on several levels.  At a more cunning level, she has demonstrated the ability to pry open cupboards and pantry doors left insufficiently closed, as well as the intellectual curiosity to want to explore all that lies behind those formerly closed portals.  Sometimes the results are amusing, other times more annoying.  However, at a higher level her intellectual curiosity manifests itself in her love of books.  Several occasions she has selected a book from one of our bookshelves and simply devoured it.  While her desire for self-improvement is appreciated, the resulting "book reviews" she creates are not.

One area of growth remains manners around others not of the firm, where she is capable of displaying almost animal-like aggression on occasion, necessitating a quick, impromptu performance review session.  This seems most pronounced among other canines she may encounter, and the occasional moth, for some unknown reason.  However, her essential mien remains one of welcome, as long as the proper amount of scritches are applied strategically.

Into the second quarter, we continue to anticipate further growth and development, while maintaining her healthy 46-pound bottom line.  Simultaneously, we expect further refinement in performance as conditions continue to improve and integration becomes more and more complete.

The Home Renovations Onion

It's now four months since the Home and Renovations Show we attended to begin the process of possibly redoing our kitchen and master bathroom, and three months since we had contractors out to give us initial estimates.

And nothing's begun.

Making progress on this has been like peeling back an onion: nothing is as simple as it seemed at first blush.  For instance, one of our first commitments was to redo the closets with a new closet system for us and for Sarah.  We've signed the contract to get that done.  However, it dawned on us that the new closet furniture will be installed, and pretty immovably, on top of the carpets...the carpets that have been there for at least the nine years since we moved in, and God knows how long before that.  Replacing the one in our closet is easy; it's a stand-alone patch of carpet, since the tile floor of the bathroom begins just outside it.  However, Sarah's closet carpet flows into her room...which flows into the upstairs hall...which flows into the guest room (oy, there's one that really needs replacing), David's room, our room...which means a much larger project than at first blush.  (The carpet guy is coming out tonight to take a look.)

Picking a contractor took awhile; I think we've come to a point of decision on whom we want to use, but we also want to lock in the financing first before we make a multi-tens-of-thousands commitment and find we can't back it up.  So we back up to start looking for a home equity line of credit (HELOC).

A simple query on Lending Tree turned into an interesting snapshot of credit markets post-2008.  Only one lender was willing to talk with us, and quoted us rates that seemed higher than I had expected; apparently these days lenders just aren't willing to take a subordinate position to homeowners, even those of us with credit scores around 800.  They suggested a cash-out refinance, but then when we started exploring that (with a fresh Lending Tree query), everyone said we were asking for too much cash out for the credit markets to bear these days.

Fortunately, one lender made the comment that a credit union has different, looser rules, and so we're now in the process of getting final approval for a HELOC through our credit union.  But the multiple rounds of that have precluded us from making final decisions on a contractor, let alone the scope of work and details of the project.

I do remain optimistic that our plan for the year--that There's Gonna Be Some Changes--will still come about, even in this realm.  It just may be into the fall before the renovations are done.  And it will take all my willpower not to suggest to the designers to put up wallpaper with onions on it, to remind me constantly about the level of effort required to get there.

Our New Laundry Room

When we last left our story, we had two things: a dryer failure, and consequently, the excuse we'd been waiting for to get a new laundry room.

The previous laundry room had been what the builders had installed, and it was unwieldy (and always a bit of a mess):

Side-by-side appliances, no place for the kids to drop backpacks, overhead cabinets that were clunky and beige walls with 1988 lineoleum floors...all just begging to be tossed out.

We pulled out the old appliances and the old laundry sink (which had no underneath storage to speak of), tore up the old lineoleum floor (both satisfying and frustrating), pulled down the old cabinets, and left a shell of a room.

Putting it back together, we put in the new floor, arranged for the dryer power and vent duct to be moved (which also surfaced the fact that the duct hadn't really been connected anymore--now that's fixed), painted a new color of slate blue, and added wainscoting and trim (she had always wanted wainscoting somewhere in the house).  New cabinets and the bench went in.  Here's how it came out:

We did everything ourselves but for the connecting of the appliances, the rerouting of the duct and power, and the connecting of the new sink.

In the end, it cost us about $3,350 for the new laundry room (fully half that is the appliances), plus whatever hours we spent scraping up linoleum glue and putting up the new walls.  We even had a chance to learn more about drywall repair in the process.  Is it worth it? Sure: we finally have a room Mary is happy with, that works well, and that we can be proud of.  I'd call that a good investment.

Disney Cruise 2013!

On Friday evening, March 22, we boarded a flight for Orlando and a seven-night Disney cruise to the Eastern Caribbean aboard the newest ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, the Disney Fantasy.

We had a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l time!

Our ship left Port Canaveral Saturday afternoon, and the Disney magic was in full force throughout.  Some highlights:

• We enjoyed Concierge-level accommodations on the 11th deck, which made so many aspects of an already great trip just seamless.  They were able to make last-minute changes to some of our shipboard plans and to accommodate just about everything we asked for. 
• The itinerary was just about perfect: the first two days were days At Sea.  There was no reason at all for us to have to be up by any particular time, so we could just deflate, relax, and absolutely enjoy ourselves.  I cannot tell you the last time I slept in until 11am!
• The kids vanished almost immediately on boarding, to join up with their respective pre-teen and teen clubs.  We saw them for the first half-hour of dinner most nights; they inhaled food and then begged to be allowed to return to their friends.  So essentially, we had a couples cruise to ourselves for most of the week.
• I really enjoyed the Satellite Falls adults-only "pool" and sun deck on 13.  Shielded from the wind by plexiglas, I read hundreds of pages from my books as the ship steamed eastward, and just...aaahhh...
• In fact, with the exception of the rotational dining, the movie theatre, and one or two other things, we scarcely left the adults-only zones on decks 11-13.  And no one cared!
• I brought three massive books on board with me.  I finished them all.  Heaven.
• Next time on Fantasy or the sister ship, Dream, especially if we're blessed with cruising with friends again, I am definitely getting Suite 11004 again.  Due to the way the ship curves at that point, the verandah we had, looking out over the port side of the ship, was perhaps half the size of our stateroom itself.  Par-tay!

Along the way, we spent a day in St Thomas, USVI, and then another day in San Juan, PR, before stopping at Disney's island, Castaway Cay, which we explored more than we did 18 months ago.  Be sure to check out our photo album for some highlights.

David had himself a little shipboard romance again; this time, Ally from Winnipeg and he really hit it off.  I'm not supposed to say that he got his first kiss, probably.  They've Facetimed regularly since then, and he's stayed in touch with several of the other kids from the Vibe teen zone.  The teens of the Fantasy cruise from that week even have their own Facebook page, although I'm not allowed to see much of it.

Before the trip, Sarah was all worried that she wouldn't meet anyone, that she wouldn't make any friends.  The last night aboard ship, leaving Castaway Cay for Florida, she was in t-e-a-r-s at the thought of never seeing Nicole or Katie or Emma ever again.

Would we do it again?  In a heartbeat.  David is angling for the next one to be a Mediterranean cruise, and you know, there's one leaving next summer from Barcelona, seven nights, stops in France and Italy and he could get to see Vesuvius...