More good Pics from Bri

Well, Laura, Fletcher and Henry are still in Pennsylvania living the jet set lifestyle between Connellsville and Punxsutawney while I'm in MPLS. We were all there for 4th of July, however, after a heck of a week of work in Nashville.

We managed to get a whole bunch of work done on the house, and wrapped up all the bits and pieces that the whiny buyers had been complaining about.

We managed to put in the newel post and railing:

and built a deck as a bonus

and spruced up the outside:

and got rid of the nasty old garage:

Anyway, hopefully something'll happen and we can get it off our hands and into someone else's soon.

There's an open house this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

In more interesting news, Bri took some cool pics of Fletch again while we were in PA - I've borrowed a few for our viewers without access to her pics...

Picking fruit at Granny's house...

Saying grace before a delightful ration of...peas and toast? Jeez, I'd be praying for something better too...

anyway... did I mention that I'm here in MPLS to work? Better get back to it...

Best Headline Ever

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6622I420100703

Seriously? Was the editor drunk?

Hilarious.

Like Father, Like Son...

We had some friends over for dinner the other night, and smoked some ribs... they turned out pretty well, but not great... Fletcher, however, thought that they were great.

In other news, yesterday was the longest day of the year... in Minneapolis, that's serious.

This picture of the house was taken at 9:45pm!

We're heading to Nashville again in a few days,this time to try and accomplish all of the things that people (who shouldn't be buying an old house anyway) say are holding them back from putting in an offer. Things like putting closet rods up. Trimming the bushes. putting up crappy closet stuff. argh. Not my first choice of how to spend a week. I'd prefer to hang out in the honky tonks with Craig, on Kingsley's deck, or at Sam's with Scott. Hmm.... maybe it I work hard enough on the weekend...... on the PLUS side, we ARE going to get a chance to hang out with our homies - unlike the last couple of trips when we've been working or otherwise engaged the whole trip.

See you soon Nash Vegas!

Weekend Fun

This was a big weekend for the four of us... Saturday morning Kim Smuda and Jameson came over for some playdate fun - we went to a great playground and splashpark here in St Louis Park - it was a little overcast and cool, but that didn't seem to slow down the kids as much as it did the adults. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that... so, moving on... later that day my Coworker Kelly and his Family took us to the 'Rock the Garden' music festival at the Walker sculpture garden. The Walker garden is right on the edge of downtown and is full of... you guessed it... sculpture! The ubiquitous Minneapolis sculpture "Spoonbridge and cherry" is located there.

Fletch was a trooper through the whole thing - laughing, dancing and loving life the whole time.

It was a little challenging for him to stand up on the steep grass slope we were sitting on, so he figured out how to wedge himself against either of us or Kelly's daughter Ada to keep upright.

There were four bands playing - we saw three of them before heading home for night-night time.

Sunday we went for a Fathers' Day walk around Lake Calhoun - it's just over three miles of good walking trail and we enjoyed the exercise - then it was home to prep the house and food for 'Gribs on the Rill' with some friends. Justyn, Mark and Brianna and their kids Skylar and Ada came by for some southern deliciousness. We made crackerbarrel casserole, ribs, wings, broccolislaw, cornbread and Strawberry Rhubarb pie. it was a feast!

The next few weeks are looking like they'll be interesting. We're heading to Nashville on Friday (by car) to work on the house -

the complaints from buyers have been that there are finishing touches that need to be applied, and they don't like the looks of the rickety old garage. So, it's bye-bye garage - we're going to demo it and do some landscaping and those 'finishing touches' that are so critical... get the last permits closed out as well I guess. It's frustrating, but not as frustrating as two mortgage payments... From Nashville we'll drive the familiar route to Connellsville for the 4th of July picnic at the Iveys' River house. Laura, Fletch and Henry will be staying there for a few weeks, and I'll be flying back to Minneapolis to work. Then, finally, I'll turn around and fly back to Connellsville so that we can all drive back to Minneapolis at the end of July. Phew. This could be interesting. Better pack the earplugs... :)

FFFA

(Future Fire Fighters of America)

Okay, I admit it. That's a good picture.

Thanks to Uncle John, Aunt Linda and Ross for the super cool firetruck!

Now let's get the heck outta here. Hit it!

Okay, It's official...

...no more school for Drew. unless I do that MBA. Which is not exactly improbable... hmm.

Anyway, as requested, here are some pics from graduation at Vanderbilt. Stinkin' hot that day, but I'm glad that we all made it down.

Whose idea was it to wear the medieval gear on a 95 degree day, anyway?

(Did I mention it was hot?)

Anyway, thanks to Dr Jacobson for pushing when I needed to be pushed, and sticking up for me when I needed the help... for teaching when I needed to learn, and listening when I had something to teach. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for understanding why I wanted to do this... for accepting that I was staying in another country, and for coming to love Nashville as much as we did.

Thanks to John and Nina for supporting student status for so long - for understanding the frustrations, and for letting me move their daughter away, in search of a better life for us both.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for never asking 'What's taking so long?'

Thanks to the faculty, staff and students at the VBWC who taught me so much.

Finally, thank you to Laura for the motivation, support, faith and love that was in never ending supply over the last 10 years. I owe you a debt that I'll never be able to repay. I'll start with shoes. Lots and lots of shoes.

Scary days in Nashville

For those of you who don't live in Nashville, you may be surprised to hear that there is a very serious situation that has developed there over the last few days. Nashville received 16 INCHES of rain over the course of a 24 hour period during the weekend, causing widespread flash flooding. As the flash floods drained into the Cumberland river, the river level rose, peaking at over 52 feet, that's right, FEET above the normal level. As the storm and sanitary sewers filled beyond capacity, downtown nashville and many surrounding areas near the river flooded. At last word, the Schermerhorn Symphony hall had more than 15' of water in the basement and sub-basement, the Predators arena was flooded, Titans stadium was flooded, the Opryland Hotel had almost 10' of water in it, Opry Mills was flooded, along with many neighborhoods. We heard of people being rescued from their homes in the middle of a subdivision by boat.

The saddest part is that they are calling this a 500 year or even 1000 year flood... and the levels of the flood far exceeded the 100 year floodplain, so many of the people who lost their homes did not have flood insurance... meaning that they will get absolutely nothing from their insurance policies.

On the upside, our friends and neighbors are okay for the most part. A few have water in their basements and minor storm damage, but no devastating damage. A weird sense of guilt is overwhelming both of us... guilt I guess that we aren't there sharing in the hardship with the people we've shared so much with over the past 7 years. Our hearts are with you.

All we can say is, wow...