Paint Job

Let's leave NYC for a minute or two! Trust me, I'll return.

The 2 main reasons I didn't join Donica in Europe these last two weeks are because this week I'm babysitting Nicholas while Amy is on a business trip and last week our exterior house was being painted.

Talk about an operation!

Four guys started out that first day, each with his own job to do, getting the house prepped.

One guy did all the pressure washing, making sure every nook and cranny was blasted away with a bleach solution to clean out the mildew and cobwebs.

I enjoyed watching him inside and out!

The other 3 guys started caulking the cracks and crevices. On the sides and back of the house we're talking about 3 stories because of the walk-out basement! Each guy swung around his own extension ladder with the greatest of ease.

This particular company does only brush and/or roller painting--no spray painting. As you see below, the 3 guys basically painted together in a pack. Like clock work!

Once everything was done by Thursday ( a 3-day operation), only the front porch floor was left to water-seal, which happened this past Tuesday. Yesterday the owner came by and I paid. I was a totally satisfied customer and couldn't believe how quickly and efficiently everything was done. And so thankful I wasn't the one who had to do it!

It feels so good to watch a successful operation with smooth operators. Know what I mean? Now I can hardly wait for Donica to see it.

Speaking of Donica, she arrives home from Amsterdam tomorrow. Amy arrives home from her business trip. And Nicholas (6-1/2) and I are gonna go see Spider-Man 3 after school. (I've already seen it and HIGHLY recommend it, BTW. A great moral about Choices!)

All that before Mother's Day! But that's another post.

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Addendum, for Rachel (my niece), who asked. These pics were taken in the autumn of 2005:

The front, as taken from the long driveway that curves!

The back of the house from the sloping backyard! You can barely see them but there are some windows under that deck that go to the basement, where our office is. To the left of that screen door is the window in front of my desk, where I am typing as we speak. :)

NYC's Two Famous Bridges

As we flew into NYC on that Saturday, April 21st, I had this fabulous view of Manhattan out of my airplane window. If you visit my photoblog, you've already seen it, but this is for the rest of you.

It wasn't until after I took the pic, and had Lesley look the day we arrived, that I found out the bridge on the left is the Brooklyn Bridge and the one on the right is the Manhattan Bridge. They both take you back-n-forth to/from Manhattan and Brooklyn, two of NYC's 5 burroughs. Now, of course, after a week in NYC, I know exactly which bridge is which!
Manhattan is in the center of the pic. The Hudson River is behind it at the top of the pic. The river between Manhattan and Brooklyn in the forground is the East River.

We had three days of double-decker bus tours around the city but were never able to cross this Brooklyn Bridge because the tour buses are over the weight limit. But here I have captured the bridge from Pier 17 in the Seaport area of Manhattan, looking across to Brooklyn. As I said on my photoblog, I converted this to sepia because of the memory this bridge holds for all the people who walked back-n-forth across it after the 9/11 Twin Towers' attacks.

We WERE able to ride over the Manhattan Bridge, however, several times. On our night tour, sitting atop the double-decker bus, I was able to capture the top of one of its arches. Thank God for image stabilization in the camera!

Actually, on that same night tour, I was able to catch some night views of Manhattan while we were in Brooklyn, after crossing the bridge. The building above is the Woolworth Building, one of the oldest and most famous skyscrapers in NYC at 55 stories.

Ironically, this week I will be taking care of Nicholas while Amy is in NY (the state, not the city) for business (and Donica is in Amsterdam and Rome!). I'll pick him up from school/day care each day, spend the night at his house, and then take him to day care/school each morning. In between, I'll come home for a few hours. Either here or there, I'll stay in touch with you on the computer, of course.