Renovations - Part I

sorry for the lack of photos this week. The camera is buried below all the plastic used to tape off areas of the house during repairs. So use your imagination as I try to explain what improvements are in store for this week at the Gacnik household. (please contain your excitement)

Last week the workers showed up to repair our hole in the wall with insulation/drywall/etc. It almost looks normal. At that time they also installed the french doors in the office.

Over the weekend we had a nice rain shower and were pleasantly surprised when our roof didn't leak. Jeremy still plans to "caulk the heck out of it" as he says. I'm guessing it will have a nice layer on by the time he's done; which I'm not complaining about at all. The roofers claimed to fix it a second time but a little extra protection can't hurt, right?

At 7:00 AM today the workers showed up to begin taping off the house and start the paint job. They envision this to be a 3 day process. I'm sure it will smell great when we get home! Next week I'll be out of the house for a few days living in a hotel, the dogs will be at the vet and Jeremy will be in Panama on work. You're probably wondering why a hotel for me....well, that's when they're fixing the damage to the floors and we can't be there then.

In about 6 weeks we should have the new front entry. That will be a site to watch while they install it in 1 piece. Hopefully I find the camera before that so I can really update you with all the photos during what I will call "Renovation II"

Aside from that, all is calm on the homefront. I was in DC last week and found it educational. I don't think I would make a good politician, it's all networking and kissing other's rears. I think it would get annoying. Awhile back I thought I could be the next Sarah Palin in 12 years (same age then) but realized I wouldn't get to live in the White House, so that options out. It was a productive and tiring trip though. I think I saw a few important figures, but since I'm not political I can't tell you who they were exactly. .....but I've seen them on television.

You're probably wondering how my better half is doing.....he's doing well. Maybe I'll get him to type the update next week and then you'll really hear what's going on versus my random stories.

South Dakota

Well yet again, a delayed blog posting. Sorry about that. It's been busy though.

We traveled last weekend to South Dakota....they say it's the "hot" spot to be, so we ventured on a not-so-scenic drive to see the lovely state. I should also mention we were visiting my Cousin Rita, Jeremy's Parents and an Aunt and Uncle. So, I guess there was more to the trip than just to see some faces carved in a mountain. (ha ha)

We departed on Thursday to allow us a day with Rita and a day with Jeremy's family before driving back on Sunday. Again, it was a fast trip for us but really it turned out quite nice!

Friday we toured the Wild Horse Sanctuary outside Hot Springs, SD. Since Rita volunteers there we had a great tour guide and really learned the in/outs of the Sanctuary. I'm attaching a few photos from the Sanctuary. Also we went to the Mammoth Site; it was discovered in 1974 by a housing developer and was then turned over to the state. It's quite interesting to see the true remains from 27,0000 years ago. If you tour in July you can actually watch the digging take place live. Pretty cool. There's a photo attached of that as well.

To Rita's request we left the 3 dogs with her for 2 nights while we went to Mt. Rushmore to visit Jeremy's parents, Aunt Jan and Uncle John. I still am shocked Rita dared to watch 3 crazy dogs with 4 horses on her land. However, Sadie found that 5 acres was plenty to run on and she managed to sniff a little to close a Cactus (that was fun). Elvis, he loved chasing the Rabbits and hunting on the land. Dibs......well Dibs isn't the sharpest tool on the block so he went up to the horses and barked....dumb dog. I'm shocked he didn't get stepped on for going too close.

Continuing on, so we headed to Keystone, SD which is close to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. we met Jeremy's parents there as well as John and Jan. Within 5 minutes of their arrival we had a bottle of wine open because we were all "thirsty?" After visiting and breaking our FIRST wine glass we hit dinner and then called it a night. Saturday we visited all the monuments and then headed to Deadwood thinking a "great deserted ghost town." Little did we know the town has no problem with their population......they are officially a gambling town. So we visited a casino for a bit and then headed back to our hotel. As you can imagine we were quite "thirsty" after another day of traveling so we opened another bottle of wine. After the SECOND wine glass of the trip broke we headed to dinner. (Thank heavens the wine glasses were the hotels) Anyway, we had a great time and it was a complete fluke the wine glasses broke; it was completely unrelated to the amount of consumption, but it was rather hilarious the second time around.

Sunday we headed back to Rita's to get the dogs who were exhausted. You'd never know they were running 5 acres the entire time.

Aside from that, I started my new job with University of Denver this past week and it's going well thus far. It will definitely be challenging but that's a good thing. I'm headed to DC this week so I'll update you after that.

We are in the process of our home "renovation" due to water damage. Although the roof was "fixed" a week ago we had water inside again on Thursday night........that was fun. So, Friday the contractors were back to try again. Sounds like Tuesday the interior work will begin. We'll update you with photos here.

Today we went to a Denver Broncos Football game. It was fun and also exhausting knowing tomorrows a work day.

Until next time.....think dry thoughts for us...we've had enough water damage this year. ha ha