Happy Birthday Steven!

January 29 is Steven's birthday!

Happy birthday Steven!

My Buddy Blago

We were invited to a meeting with our Governor, Rod Blagojevich (blah GOY uh vich for those of you from outside Illinois). The photo above is me, the Governor, and the current president of our organization, Dr. Eddie Pont. The Governor is going to announce big new healthcare initiatives and wanted our input (and ultimately, support). This is the second time I've met him, but the first was at a press conference with lots of people - this was a smaller meeting. He was with us for nearly an hour and really listened to us. And told us about Elvis' last movie, with Mary Tyler Moore.

Quick Trip to Seattle, Vancouver

The American Library Association's midwinter meeting was in Seattle, so I flew out to join Steven and then we went up to Vancouver for a few nights. I love both those cities. We didn't do much except visit different neighborhoods, shop a little, and eat really well, but it was a nice trip.
Mountains peeking out behind the highrises in Vancouver

Me on a Ferry . . . Steven at a beach, many of which ring downtown . . .

. . . the suburb of North Vancouver, under the mountains, as seen from downtown Vancouver

We Get Our Bathroom Back (and Lose the Basement)!

Our 8-week upstairs bathroom remodeling is finally done! We are very pleased with how it came out, and it's especially nice not to have to navigate the stairs in the middle of the night when nature calls (or, to have to use the basement shower as we've been doing during the remodeling). There are some minor problems with the tile that our contractor said she will fix, and we haven't yet decided what artwork to put up or where to put the towel bars, but otherwise it's wonderful. We went from having no storage at all to having lots (in-wall medicine cabinet, large vanity, three deep shelves in a corner that was previously just drywalled closed, and a deep shelf in the shower). And little splurges like the whirlpool tub (which we didn't think would fit) and the toilet lid that lowers itself slowly (no banging) are great.

For all of you home improvement obsessives (like us), you can see many pictures of the bathroom, posted by Steven, on Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/steventhemusical/sets/72157594479803434/.

But as soon as they finished the bathroom, they started on the basement! At least this is out of sight and out of mind (except when we do laundry). No big surprises yet - hopefully it will be a pretty straightforward job. They are removing the tacky wood paneling and doing new drywall on all the walls and ceiling, rebuilding the stairs, putting in a hardwood floor all the way to the back, and making some slight changes (like a new countertop) to the basement kitchen. Since this will ultimately be the "TV room," the only thing we are doing special is putting speaker wires/jacks in the walls. We hope this will be finished mid-February.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Not much going on here . . . spent most of the day on New Year's Eve at work and then sat at home in the evening, eating steak and listening to the neighborhood fireworks go off. Today we are being lazy (and I'm playing with this blog).

2006 had a lot of high points (lots of fun trips, Poplar Tree Bay, work) and low points (the passing of an employee and friend, stressful house remodeling, work). I posted a bunch of photos from this year on my page at Flickr.

Hope everyone has a great 2007! Scott