B-Day Weekend

6-7 march ... took the 12.12 train on saturday, was running late & had to literally RUN to catch the train. ran through the underground pedway from the state street subway to randolph station, had just one minute to spare before the train departed.

the vet was meeting me today to help get some supplies from lowes/menards. glad he was able to assist, especially since he had just returned from vacation & had plenty to catch up with at home anyway. i spent the prior weekend in chicago after friend wasn't able to drive w/me to help for day, so i hadn't done anything for a couple weeks at the house.

mike arrived around 3pm & we proceeded to lowes to look for vinyl eaves troughs, they had several systems, but the one i was most interested in, they didn't have enough of to finish a project (they said they were discontinuing carrying it). went next door to menard's & found their gutter systems fully stocked & on sale! i bought all the ten-foot lengths i needed to fully encircle the house with new eaves troughs, i also bought most of the attachents that i needed as well, though they didn't have enough of those (corners, downspouts, etc) for entire house. but i have enough to complete 1/2 the project so far (which will help remedy the water/wall problem in the basement foundation wall). i will go back later for more of the smaller stuff. also got 2x4s & 2x8s to create a temporary load bearing wall in basement along the bad foundation wall to help in case the foundation does collapse before i get it replaced. lastly, got a 16 foot aluminium ladder!

using mike's auto insurance, we rented the menard's delivery truck & brought all the things above back to the house. only took about 30 minutes.

after we dropped the rental truck back to menard's, we stopped into big lot's down the street & i bought a futon. it will be the guest room seating/sleeping, but for right now it's mine (and an improvement over the little camping cot i've been sleeping on since i bought the house mid-jan).

mike helped me assemble the futon & then he headed back to south bend for the night. no running water for showers yet, so the house isn't really too inviting to overnight guests yet.

on sunday i dragged the ladder outside & finished removing the furring strips on the front of the house (those that were out of reach from ground that i hadn't already removed). it only took about 30 minutes total (mostly spent moving the ladder) & what an improvement! the house looks 10 times better just with that minor change. i can't wait to get it primed & painted later this year. still 3 other sides to finish removing the furring strips from, but it will not take too long.

took the 15.40 train back to chicago on sunday, dropped my bags off at tom/troy's place (the metropolitan on sheridan) & then walked with troy & mitch down to big chick's to meet tom (bartending) behind the bar. had a couple birthday beers w/them, then we all headed back to tom/troy's for some pizza/drinks & watched the oscar's.