Basement Clean-up

It was time to do a little basement clean-up. We had recently had some water in the basement due to the rainwater backup from the sewer in the street. Apparently a lot of houses on our block had water in the basements because of the clogged sewer. The city came out and cleared the blockage after receiving numerous complaints. I heard this from the workers when I went out to talk with them when they were working on the lines.

We had some water in the basement but not a lot. It was enough to cause some problems with a few of the boxes we store down there for Becky's e-Bay shipping containers. The ones on the floor had some water damage so I went down there to clean it all up. I ended up throwing away about six boxes that had been wet and some had some mildew on them. I cut them up and put them in the recycling container. Then I rearranged the remaining boxes and cleared some space. The first pic here are the boxes I

threw out. I did a lot of sweeping too while wearing a mask. The next couple of pics are the sorting process and the clearing of space. 

I later went out to the backyard and grabbed a couple of old little plastic tables that we weren't using anymore along with a couple of crates and used them in the basement to hold some pieces of wood that made a shelf for some of the boxes. The idea was to get everything off of the floor in case water got into the basement again. The second pic is the new configuration. Then a couple of pics of the process. The next thing to be done is for Becky to go through the remaining boxes and get rid of any she may not need.

The last pic is the final configuration.

The next step in the basement clean-up is to get the old refrigerator, electric stove, old air conditioner and microwave oven out of there.

Dinner @ Dave & Donna's

We had a wonderful time at Dave and Donna's house this evening. A nice take-out dinner from Wegman's and Mr. Pizza. Several people brought desserts including Becky bringing cheesecakes from the Co-Op. Made for a regular family Gasper Special. 

It was a perfect Friday night weatherwise and we all enjoyed hanging out in their backyard. It was nice seeing Jim and little Sonny. There were sixteen people there not counting the small children. We had a great time socializing and spent about four hours there.

Duct/Vent Cleaning

Today we had our duct vents cleaned. The guys from Stanley Steemer were very good at what they were doing and we are happy with their job. It had been many years since we've had the ducts cleaned... probably 20 years. They took two hours to do the job. It was noisy but effective.

They arrived at 8:30 am and were gone by 10:30.

The cleaning cost us around $670 total which was very reasonable especially after I got quite a few quotes online that were all over the place. Our plumbing service gave me a quote of $2100 and several other services were in the $1000 range.

The Secret History - A Novel

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Last night I finished reading this dramatic and dark mystery thriller novel from 1992. It was a very interesting and beautifully written book but I found that none of the main characters were sympathetic in any way. They were all snobby, greedy, selfish, obnoxious and one dimensional. It actually took me two months to read this novel which is unusual for me but the author's writing was amazing. I just didn't like those college students... or their so-called classics professor.

This is the third Donna Tartt novel that I've read. I previously read The Goldfinch in December 2013 which I loved and The Little Friend in May 2014 which was so so. 

Nice Salmon Dinner

Becky made a wonderful salmon dinner tonight. We also had some delicious fresh corn on the cob. It really has been great this season. Some leftover rice from the other night rounded out the meal. So good.

It was a very strange day today. It was supposed to rain all day but then it rained hardly at all. It seemed to go up and around or below us but there were only a few short showers.

Well, it was a good day for this meal.

The Russia House - A Novel

The Russia House - John Le Carre, 1989. I also recently read this wonderful espionage novel that I picked up while browsing the Canisius College library. This was a good spy thriller and love story that takes place in Moscow during the early geopolitical changes of the glasnost period. I enjoyed this book very much.I was also interested in the detailed descriptions of the daily life and culture of living in Moscow during those days.

This is the 8th novel of John Le Carre that I've read.

Sausage & Pasta Dinner

This evening Becky cooked up our leftover sausage, peppers and onions with some pasta for a very tasty meal. It was a very efficient use of leftovers and we also had some of that great French peasant bread to go along with it. That was a yummy meal.

Pork Sausage Dinner

Tonight Becky made us some pork Italian sausage. We've mostly had chicken sausage recently and it's been some time since we've had pork sausage. This was delicious. We had some nice boxed rice along with freshly sauteed peppers and onions.

Dinner @ Cafe 59 then Songbird

This evening Becky and I decided to go out for some dinner to Cafe 59. We had wanted to go there recently but got stuck in some traffic and then couldn't find a nearby parking space. That was a Friday evening and we ended up at JT's. This time we avoided the traffic construction mess on Main Street and looped around to Franklin where we found a parking space right outside the restaurant.

The restaurant was very quiet since it was early on a Thursday. We got our favorite table at the window in the dining room. I had their Harvest Wrap which is one of my favorite items on their menu along with a Community Works Let's Go Pils draft. Becky had a Chicken Finger Classic sandwich. She also had a Weilhenstephaner NA beer. It was a wonderful dinner with great service as usual.

We had said our goodbyes to Katie, Todd and the kids in the morning. They left about a quarter after ten after getting up a little before nine. Todd is really good at packing the car and the kids made a good effort getting ready quickly.

After we got back from the restaurant we decided to go for a walk but then also realized it was Thursday evening and the Farmers Market would be happening at the Martin House so we walked over there. It was a happening scene as usual but there was also a monthly concert on the Martin House grounds featuring a Fleetwood Mac cover band... Songbird. There was a sold out crowd for that concert. After we checked out the Farmers Market we walked around the Martin House and were able to get into the concert area from the back end of the grounds. We found a place to sit along a window ledge to check out the band. They were not very good overall. Well, the band was bad but the vocalist was no Stevie Nicks and she sang lots of clunkers... over and over. We did not stay very long and then headed back out the way we came in before walking down the street again to loop around back to our house and some time to relax. Back at the house you could hear that cover band in our backyard with clunkers and all. 

More Selfies

As always the kids wanted to take some selfie pictures with me on my phone. It's become a regular thing. We had a wonderful week together with them staying at our house the whole time and of course it ended with a selfie session. We did individual ones and then some group shots.