Ghost Busters

I feel like a Ghost Buster!  We replaced our older, not working that well power washer with a brand new one - and now I want to BLAST CLEAN everything in sight!  We're working on the patio cover more tomorrow and then we'll tackle the front porch, back patio and driveway.  Eventually, we'll power wash the garage doors and possibly (lightly) wash the windows and window frames!  Before we know it, everything will be fresh and spotless.  The machine is a beast!  It's pretty fun!

We're going to finish up tomorrow when it's super hot outside so the water dripping down from the patio cover will feel refreshing.

H. had done a magnificent job on the back side yard - the concrete looks amazing!  But he's super glad to have equipment to make it a bit easier - he scrubbed the side yard by hand and it was a huge job!

The painters made progress and things look better - but I'm still not sure about the baseboards being done really well up there.  And apparently, they aren't painting the base of the spindles or the spindles themselves on the staircase, which frankly was one of my top priorities.  J. will talk to the paint company owner tomorrow and if we need to augment the work for hourly time to do those, we will.  They need it - and it feels incomplete to have tidied up so many other surfaces while leaving those untouched.

I packed up another box in the study - last of the cupboards on my side of the office officially cleaned out.  J. needs to tackle his side and I'll help because one cupboard is a 'craft'

We had a different pool company come out and look at the issues with the pool/spa heater - this guy seems like the McGyver of pool repair - exactly what we need.  He thinks he can get a capacitor to fix the issue - part around $300 plus labor to install it.  He'll also change out the light bulb in the spa and viola!  We're back in business for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands!  Yippee!  (Fingers and toes crossed - just want to get it running to sell the house....and it would be nice to heat the pool up a bit one last time).

I cancelled the trip to Reno this weekend - there's plenty to do here and while I was looking forward to the slot play and seeing friends, I'm also looking forward to working on the house more (here) and sleeping in my own bed.  We're heading up on the 12th for a few days.

B. is trying for his Expert Infantryman Badge - haven't heard much from him since he returned to Kentucky just after the 4th of July.  Hopefully, the news will be good and we'll know in a day or two how he did.  He works hard at everything he sets as a goal for himself - super proud of him no matter how it turns out.  (But I hope he gets it!!)

Full Calendar

This will be a very busy week - painters, carpet cleaners, pool maintenance people, dryer vent wizard.  We're on the downhill slope to listing the house and we're working to get things nice and orderly.

The bathtub fitters company came out and gave us an estimate to recover the bathtub.  $1800+.  That's another project for tomorrow's list - I'm going to use some super scrubbing paste to give it a good scrub and then we'll see where we're at - we're not going to spend money on fixing it at this point. 

The pool needs $4000+ in repairs and we've decided that's the highest priority to fix.  The other things - like the tub - are cosmetic and we're not going to put a ton of money in those little things.  Like J. said 'the pool heater and light aren't working - so we need to get those repaired'.  Scratches on a tub - not that big of a thing because the tub still 'works'. 

I had a great few days in Reno earlier this week and will possibly return again on Friday for a few days.  I'm going to work my heart out Monday through Thursday around the homestead and see where I am on Wednesday evening - might cancel (before midnight) or decide to go.  We'll see.  There's much to do at home so leaning towards staying home.  We'll see. 

We've got reservations about every two weeks from now through August and I'll add September as I get offers.  When we go mid-August, we'll do the lighting appointment to select lights throughout the house - and hopefully we'll also rent another storage unit. 

We plan to get the house listed the first week of August and we'll see how it goes.  Still hopeful it will sell quickly and once we have accepted an offer and are in escrow, it will be easier to start making plans for temp housing in Reno/Carson City area.

I spent time outside today - in the pool twice.  Scrubbed the tile and then worked on cleaning the chaise lounges.  With cushions and/or towels, they are perfectly fine but the vinyl straps are permanently discolored and I can't get them clean no matter what I try. 

Packing continues - china hutch almost completely packed.  The boxes of china, etc. will be the next load up to our new storage unit. 

We're keeping very busy and working hard to make daily progress.

Delayed and Couldn't Be Happier

The painter showed up this morning around 7:30 - he had scheduled to come by this morning to get the colors for the painting they were going to start on Tuesday.  Somewhere in the conversation, he said 'I'd like to ask something and you can say no'.  J. said 'I was hoping he wanted to delay' - and he did!  Bumped our job back two weeks.  (Could have been the week of the 22nd but we are in Reno/Carson City for a few days that week). 

He also confirmed THEY will clean all the walls before painting (something I thought we would be doing) and move furniture as needed.  Whew!  Big, huge overload of worry lifted just like that. 

J. was working up in B.'s room most of yesterday and I finally decided to go check it out.  He kept reassuring me 'it's not too bad'.  It was horribly bad.  So much stuff....but we got to sorting and trashing - items to donate, items for trash, items to reconfirm with B. that he truly doesn't want (and then trash or donate).  His entire childhood and elementary/high school educational years gone in a poof.  I felt sad that he was letting go of so many of those memories....but then I reminded myself that when my mom passed away, she left me a box of stuff - most from grade school - and I let it all go.  Those memories are intact no matter what 'stuff' relates to them - and stuff is just stuff.  So...guess I'm sort of glad B. is able to let go of the stuff. 

There are a few boxes we have been asked to keep for him and we will move those to storage in the upcoming weeks. 

So instead of today being a completely frantic, super overloaded Sunday, it's going to be a very productive but no panic required kind of Sunday - which is much preferred. 

A friend and I are meeting for lunch tomorrow and both enjoying that we can do that on a weekday.  During school time, she babysits her grand kids and when I was working, weekends were my only option - so we're looking forward to getting together on a weekday to catch up - it will be fun. 

Tuesday lunch with another friend here in town. 

A third friend posted on Facebook how much she missed our chats - to which I replied - call anytime.  I've pondered a lot about friendships these past few days - 'cuz I've had plenty of one-way friendships where it feels like I'm the only one making any effort...and I really hope the friendship with this friend won't be like that.  But maybe it will.  I'll have to wrestle with the 'do I keep being the only one who initiates contact'...and that makes me sad.  I didn't think we were 'work friends' that would stop being friends when we changed work status - but perhaps we are. 

We have so much recycling to offload that there are now 'recycling' boxes lingering around full to the brim with stuff we can't put in our bin until after the Wednesday morning pickup.  Trash is looking the same.  It feels so great to be getting so much 'stuff' out of the house....really, super great. 

Goals for today include sweeping the garage and organizing our empty box collection - many small boxes available but I finally broke down and ordered 10 medium boxes from Amazon.  Also a goal to start packing up the china hutch contents - every item a treasure and incredibly fragile.  Hoping to get most of those very fragile pieces safely in a storage unit so the painters can easily move the hutch without fear of damage. 

H. worked today and will possibly work another shift later today - getting to work at 3:15AM this morning on his first day back in a week was hard but he did it!  He's back on the schedule and hoping for lots of hours - he'll know at the end of today when they post the schedule.  He's been a huge help!

Give Away!

J. just scheduled a massive Salvation Army pickup - a dozen furniture and/or outdoor things leaving the house in a week.  Added to the stuff moved to storage this week and wow!  What a difference.

I look around and think 'we're never going to get all this done' - but we will.  Though I can already feel (sometimes) being on the brink of 'ready to be done'.  As in 'I'll pay a king's ransom to have people come here and finish 'cuz I'm done'.

I culled out my coffee mug 'collection' which will be part of our family lore forever.  Admittedly, I've acquired way too many - but we get them primarily when we travel and they are sentimental to me.  However!  Three full shelves of them - most of which out of reach of the shortest person in the house (me) - makes it pointless to have so many.

I (sort of) easily identified 13 I could do without.  Then I put back the ones we're keeping for the 'here and now' (before we move and while we are in this house and when we are in temp housing).  There was still a huge bunch of 'others' and most were sentimental and I didn't know how to start deciding.  J. said 'in the new house, we have plenty of room for all of them'.  I love him.  So now there's two boxes - one to donate and one to take to storage.

Next we're going through that same process for pots, pans, baking pans, etc. .  Plenty we can do without and while the new house has tons of storage, I'd rather not move a bunch of things we don't use very often.  One cupboard at a time -

We spent part of yesterday reseeding the rest of the back lawn - fingers crossed it does as well as the first reseeding we did - growing like gangbusters and looks really great!  Poor Chloe is confused because the existing grass is (mostly) covered with a bit of top soil so she's not sure where to go.  We're trying HARD to get her to go in the side yard along the fence but...sometimes she heads to the grass.

J. sent an email to our builder because honestly, it's been close to two months with very little movement forward on the house.  I sure hope we're still on track for October/November - because Christmas in a rental apartment is going to be really hard.

When we go up again in a couple weeks, we're going to rent an additional storage unit.  In some ways, I'm hoping we'll be able to only need one POD to house the things we would need right away - and the rest will be in storage.  It's hard to realize we will be moving three times - once from here, then from temp housing to the new house and then moving stuff to the house from two storage units.  Sounds exhausting - feels overwhelming. 

Tomorrow is a new day and every day is a day to just dig in.  I have lunch with my former former boss (not the boss I just left but the one before) and I'm driving to him (about 40 minutes away) since I'm retired and have more time than he does.  It will be a treat to see him -

Feeling Great!

I've gone back to basically the sleep schedule I had when I was working - upstairs 8ish and lights out 9ish.  I wake up once to go to the restroom and then back to sleep and wake up pretty close to 5 or just a smidge after.  And I've been getting up because going back to sleep is nice...but then I wake up feeling groggy and 'off' all day and I don't like that feeling.  The early mornings are beautiful and quiet and it's nice to start the day off slowly. 

And being retired (!!!), if I feel tired during the day, I can take a nap.  I haven't been - because I sleep a lot better at night with no naps - but I can if I need to.  It's great. 

Also great is no rumination.  There's lots to think about but I can do that thinking during the day.  I'm doing much better on that at night and it's starting to feel like it - more energy, more focused.  It's great.

I started watching a vlog series 'Sailing La Vagabonde' on You Tube.  It's like reality TV only it's REAL LIFE.  Fascinating.  And one of the things that it's helping me regroup around is routine. 

J. has done a fantastic job of adapting to retirement because from the start, he developed a routine.  He sticks to it pretty much and he keeps lists of things to do daily.  The LaVagabonde couple do the same and because their home is a catamaran, they have a lot of daily things to do to keep the boat ship-shape.  It's really made me think about how to organize my day and to do things that need doing - keep track of things so it's not so overwhelming because you know what's needed and you know what you've done (or not done).  I know these are all simple concepts to most folks, but I struggle with that a lot - things that feel overwhelming to me are things that I just can't get the oomph to tackle - but I'm doing better.  Trying to chunk things up more into small steps. 

I think clearing the house of a MASSIVE amount of 'stuff' really helped as well.  I feel like I can 'see' more of what still needs to be done and while that list is MASSIVE, it's OK.  We will chunk it up and get to it.  Painters arrive a week from today and today, I realized that we are going to have to just spend the money to get the kids bathtub replaced - there's no other option. 

J. and I head up to Reno again on the 22nd and I also have reservations to head up on Friday - I have to decide about this weekend by midnight tomorrow and so far, I'm leaning towards skipping it.  It's the Annual Chalk Festival which is always a lot of fun but it's also very crowded and hot - walking around a black top parking lot is scorching.  The artists and their creations are shaded via large tents but spectators just meander.  There are vendors and food and music and that event last year is when J. found the golf course home development we are now building on - so it has great memories attached.  But we will enjoy (very much) the visit on the 22nd and the weekday visits are always great - we can schedule some house stuff (lighting hopefully so we can order the fans), etc. . 

Turns out the concierge room they all enjoyed last night was a TWO BEDROOM SUITE.  HUGE - with a full dining room, bar area....crazy.  I've NEVER stayed in those suites before - prior 'suites' have been just an 'indoor' bar area with fridge - but the upgrade is MAMMOTH and I can't wait for my turn in two weeks - with J. . 

I'm pondering that it must have been the hand pay that provided the upgrade availability - but not sure.  I'm going to check with my host because seriously - it's a really nice thing and I want to do whatever I did again to get Concierge Tower as often as possible!! 

J. just texted they are already in Auburn so I need to leave soon to trek to the Stockton Airport (which is where the Enterprise rental is located) to pick all of them up - then back home, Rich will head home to Livermore and the troops will be home.  We need to move a lot of stuff from the living room to the garage and schedule a Salvation Army truck pickup - but we can do that later this week or even this weekend.  We're giving away a lot of stuff and that also feels great! 

First Huge Load Up

A 16 foot box truck with lift gate left here close to 12:30PM and headed to our storage unit in Carson City.  In a twist of fate, the issue with H. needing a note for work ended up being a good thing because he was able to go with J. and our friend R. .  There were some pretty large, heavy items in the load - the BowFlex being the bulkiest - and without H., I would be worried that J. and or R. would overdo and/or injure themselves.

We were fully prepared to rent another unit upon arrival but they managed to get everything in - which is great!  We might rent a much smaller unit where we can store things we might want to get to before the house is ready when we're living in temp housing.

The garage is the emptiest it's been in ages and I plan to get up pretty early tomorrow and work away in there.  Consolidating boxes, sweeping floors, making lists of things to do next.

The living room is packed with items from upstairs that we aren't planning to keep - so on the list of things to do will be setting up a Salvation Army pickup.

There's still lots of large items to go but we'll most likely do those items in a POD when we're ready to vacate the house.

H. was able to get a note on Sunday - we found a clinic that accepted Medicaid.  H. said he explained to the doctor what happened; that he was completely fine but needed a note or he wasn't going to be allowed to return to work - the doctor said 'that's ridiculous' and H. said "I am very sorry to take up your time".  But the doctor said 'I'm paid by the hour so no issue' - and wrote him a note.  Nothing out of pocket - Medicaid covered the office visit.  In some ways, we're doubly relieved because we weren't sure where H. could go in the event he was sick or injured - and now we know.  The staff at the clinic was super nice, H. liked the doctor and now we have options.  One worry off the list. 

Now the only 'risk' is that he'll take the note in tomorrow afternoon and the boss will question why he didn't bring it in on Monday.  And H. will reply 'I wasn't on the schedule for the week - so I helped my parents with getting a load of stuff up to their new town'.  Should be OK but....his boss is mercurial to say the least.

The house is super quiet and I'm super tired.  Set my alarm for 5:20AM this morning and when 8PM gets here, I am heading up for the night.  Chloe is worried about 'where's Dad?'.  But she's doing OK.  I'll get her settled for the night and plan to be up early tomorrow as well - though not quite that early. 

B. didn't work on his room as much as we'd hoped, leaving a ton of stuff for us to do.  The cleaning crew comes tomorrow and B.'s room is just closed off - they can skip it -

I see a couple things we sort of forgot to include but then the truck was also very full so it wouldn't have held more anyway.  We will probably rent it again - the lift gate made it so easy to get heavy things loaded - still a lot of brute strength required but not nearly as much as sans gate. 

Upon arrival to the casino, the guys will be surprised they are in a Concierge Tower room.  J. knows but we kept it a surprise.  It's a much bigger room - lots of amenities.  They'll have a great buffet dinner, enjoy some entertainment and get a great night's sleep - and head back down the hill tomorrow bright and early.

We can truly never thank our friend R. enough - he is such a kind-hearted, giving person and is always so willing to help - he's a gem. 

Jumping Through A Million Hoops

Friday evening, H. went to his work to pick up his check.  Getting out of the car, he lightly 'tweaked' his knee - nothing serious.  But he was favoring (limping) a bit when he went into the store.  Another worker said 'H. hurt his knee'.  Upon hearing that, the boss said 'you can't work again until you have a doctor's note stating you are fine to work.  I don't want any issues with liability'. 

I get it.  I was a risk manager for a school district for a long time so I understand the concept.  But really.  He's fine.  The very next day, he did 8 hours of community service pulling weeds at a park in San Mateo and was (and is) completely fine. 

But he's off the schedule entirely for this coming week - and we're doing everything we can to get a note for him. 

His insurance is Medicaid.  His former doctor's group doesn't accept Medicaid - and not only do they not accept his coverage, they won't let him pay cash for an office visit.  We tried. 

We think we've found an urgent care clinic that he can go to today - $129 for an office visit which is very reasonable - so fingers crossed.  He just needs a note confirming he is 'fit for duty' and can perform his job -

If he gets the note, we hope he can get a couple of days of hours this week.  If not, he'll work for us helping with packing, etc. - painters are arriving a week from tomorrow and we have a gazillion things to do to ready the homestead for their arrival.

On another note, B. talked to J. last night (I was already in bed) upon realizing that last night was the last night he will ever be in this house.  J. said there was a lot of reminiscing. 

I feel it too - it feels sad to think of leaving - every morning when the light is just so perfect in every room - my heart hurts a bit. 

We know our new house is going to be beautiful inside and out (like this house) and we can't wait for B. to see it and visit - hopefully Christmas but we never know.  B. commented 'Mom, getting here is very expensive - you don't seem to realize that it's a lot of money to visit.  I'm not made of money'.  I replied 'it is expensive - but luckily, you don't pay for your room or your meals so you should be good to go'.  I resisted the urge to say 'and Dad and I would be paying that amount times two plus rental car and hotel to visit you - so - just come visit us as often as you can'.  Nashville will be fun someday but not until we're in the house and settled and have managed a few months of the 'new' budget.  I told B. that we were writing a check monthly for healthcare that is just slightly less than our current mortgage and he was shocked that we didn't have coverage.  I explained that neither of our employer's offered retirement health care as a benefit so no, we don't have coverage unless we pay for it ourselves.  Which we will. 

Tomorrow morning bright and early, a 16 foot rental truck with a lift gate will be pulled into our driveway and we will load up as much as we can get into it for a trip to Carson City.  J. is primed to rent another unit if necessary because we plan to keep taking stuff up as much as we can.  That quote from the mover for $4700+ to make one trip up sort of created a very real moment of 'we need to do as much as we can ourselves'.  So we are. 

This morning, I went out back and was brutal about tossing stuff.  The recycle bin and trash bins are filled to the rims every week and that will keep happening.  Lots of patio planters that are empty ended up in the trash. 

OH - did I mention that we put down grass 'patch' and some new top soil in the back and WE HAVE NEW GRASS EVERYWHERE!  Way less expensive than doing new sod and while it doesn't look perfect, it looks way better than it did!!  Yay!

We're out of tape so I'll be trekking to Home Depot to get some - I wanted to get a few extra rolls when we were there last week but J. said 'wait'.  So I did.  And now we're out (I knew we would be) so packing is at a complete standstill because we have no tape to use to make and seal boxes.  Grrr.

One of us will be driving B. to the airport around noon and the other of us will be schlepping H. to the clinic to hopefully get a note.  In between all that, we'll continue to ready stuff to be loaded onto the truck tomorrow.  The entry closet and study closet are approaching more empty than not status!  And the kitchen has a lot more space in cupboards - though still miles to go but we're getting there. 

Painters the week of the 15th and then hopefully the house will be listed a week or two after that.  Fingers crossed it sells relatively quickly and things go smoothly.  Positive mojo and/or prayers towards those events greatly appreciated.  We'll feel better once we know we have a sold house. 

Rebuilding a Life

H. moved up five slots on the seniority list of the Arco where he works.  Seems people just stop showing up pretty often - and they lost a lot of people recently.  H. has been getting tons of hours which is great - even had a 12 hour day this week and appreciated the over time. 

Today, he works 1PM to 10PM and yesterday he worked 5PM to 2AM.  The store is staffed with 3 people 24/7.  I worry about him walking home on the late shifts but thankfully, the street now has sidewalks all the way from Arco to home so he should be OK.  Not that long ago, he would be walking on a dark two lane street - but there's been some improvements in the neighborhood which is great.  It's a well-traveled road and is much safer with sidewalks. 

His one day off this week is Saturday - and he will be leaving the house (with J.) at 5AM to get to San Mateo - he will serve a community service day on Saturday - his one and only, we think.  He received credit for one for showing up on time last week to sign up for the service day.  J. will play golf at a nearby course and pick up H. when he's done.  It's an 8 hour day - but they are working in a park so it's likely that they will finish before 8 hours - hopefully.

In addition to the community service, he's attending a class and when the class is finished, he'll do counseling.  He's on track to have all the requirements of his 'sentence' completed by late September. 

While I still have days when I ponder all the things that happened and worry that he's not being truthful, for the most part, I can see that he's sticking to the plans.  He's as helpful as he can possibly be - is happy to do anything we ask and doesn't give a bit of attitude about any requests we make.  Sure, he's still inept and negligent at times about dishes and stuff like that - and those things irritate me.  But it's clear it's just him not thinking vs. him being too stoned to give a crap.  He's busy and when he's working so many hours, he comes home tired and ready to veg.  He's like his mama so I get that. 

He's eating regularly, looks a zillion times healthier than he did this time last year and is in good spirits most of the time. 

He's spending very little money - doesn't go out much with friends spending money.  If he goes to a meeting in Modesto, the group goes out for tacos after - but mostly, he doesn't spend much.  He's saving for the trip to Houston. 

For now, we're moving all the items he had when he lived in the apartment here in town.  When he's ready for them, we'll ship them to him in Houston - but he's months away from affording his own place.  He has to get there, get settled and find work before he can even consider getting a place on his own.  The friends he will be living with have assured him - plenty of room and no timeline pressure - so he should be able to find work and start saving. 

I have moments when I think 'he could come with us to Carson City'....but I don't honestly think that's a good thing for any of us.  He needs to be on his own which will force him to get by on his own.  And we need to be officially done with raising kids.  Even kids in their late 20's take a lot of work and we're ready to STOP. 

Great Weekend

Can't believe it's already July 4th!  My Retirement Lalapalooza weekend was loads of fun.  On Sunday, the winnings dropped off a bit and by the end of the day, I was thinking 'why do I do this'?  And then I headed to some fave machines and saw a guy I've played with before (Don) and we proceeded to have an absolute blast.  He's a really fun person and we cheered each others wins and bemoaned our losses.  It was a fun filled evening and I remembered that it's the fun of meeting people that adds a lot to sitting at machines for hours.

There were some snafus on Monday morning with the new player club - I had to go to the VIP office to get our new cards and they don't open until 8AM.  I was there standing outside the door the minute they opened - only to find out that they weren't ready to issue cards yet so I'd have to come back - around 10, they said.

I was mildly irritated because this change has been known for months - so I didn't understand why they weren't prepared?  And irritated because the Players Club wouldn't issue me a card because even though the new system showed the level we should be at (I had logged on to our account that morning), he couldn't issue the card since we 'didn't meet the tier points required'.   Right.  We never do because we aren't local and it would be impossible for non-locals to play enough since the tier levels are based on time at machines.  He said he couldn't issue the card and I'd have to see my casino host.  (Her office is in the VIP office but she was actually off for two days.  I knew that because she found me a couple times over the weekend to check in and had mentioned she was off.  She's the best casino host I've ever had - always makes a point of finding me.).

SO....I considered just heading home - but J. and our friend R. are heading up this Monday in a 15 foot box truck to take a huge load of stuff up to storage and I wanted to get all the cards and parking permits picked up and squared away so J. wouldn't have to deal with that - they will get to the hotel super tired and ready to just have dinner, enjoy a little play and get some sleep.  I managed to get them a Concierge Tower room which is super cool - and the reservation person also booked us three nights later in July, also in the Concierge Towers so double super cool.  Those rooms are nice with refrigerators and there's a 'restaurant' with complimentary breakfast and happy hour nightly.

Instead of packing up, I headed over to the Loteria slot machines - the Major Jackpot was super high and I'd been chasing it for days.  I truly didn't have a lot of money left and I don't like to go home broke so I was bemoaning that I probably should just not play.   I put in $60 and nothing happened.  I started to put in every penny I had left but put in another $40 - something told me to not spend the time to do more $20's in - just get to playing - and on spin # 2, this happened:

I'd hit the major!!  When the middle Major and the 2nd Mini crowns dropped, I yelled "Please let there be another crown" and BOOM - it happened.  (Three crowns on same row trigger a win of the amounts on the crowns plus the bonus round where more crowns drop).

I stayed and played a bit - also picked up our cards and parking permits at 10 as planned - put some back but hit another $900 on the machines I played with Don the night before so all in all I did great.  Now have a fun money cushion for upcoming trips which is great.

My drive home was uneventful and not too long and I was glad to be home close to 5.

It's 9:25PM here and the fireworks have started - it sounds like a war zone and it will until midnight.  Thankfully, the dog is sound asleep - they don't phase her.  And the cats are equally oblivious.  I'm going to head to the kitchen to do some packing - I'm trying to pack things that we rarely use to take to storage.  I started to type 'never use' but if that were true, we'd probably donate them.  Still, I find myself keeping things because we might use them - the new house with it's ample storage should make it easier to keep things reachable and more usable than here.  So I hope, anyway.

We also looked online for ceiling fans - we love the ones we purchased for this house 19 years ago - and they are still available.  They've doubled in price but oh well.  We didn't order them yet but we will.  Waiting to see that we have room in storage.  And we will also ask at the lighting appointment if they can order them for us.  That would be easiest.

B. heads home on Sunday - the time with him has flown by.  Last night, we did a family dinner at Sizzler - it was a good time.  He's not sure if he'll make it home (to the new house) for Christmas so we'll just have to wait and see.  Hope he can.