We replaced the carpet in our front room. There was a strange smell that never quite went away after cleaning (well others didn't notice it, but I guess I'm sensitive to stuff like that). After the old carpet was up, we discovered a large spill-like area under the carpet near the windows. We were able to clean it up, and spread baking soda over the floor before the new carpet went down, and it is much much better now.

We've had a ton of rain this year. Our basement flooded twice. The first time the sump-pump died, the second time power was out long enough that the backup battery drained too. Now I have the primary pump, backup pump with battery, and a tertiary pump that is water-powered. If I get water in my basement after all that, I'll have to give up.

We had a broken basement window. We discovered that there was a leak in one of the gutter runs, directly over the basement window well. When the window well filled up with water, we found the crack by following the resulting stream of water. We patched the gutter, and replaced the window glass.

In our family room off the kitchen, we noticed dried trails of discoloration on one of the walls. We were concerned there was a leak so we had roofing companies come look at the roof. They told us the attic was dry, however, behind that wall there was no insulation (it is above a stairway). The theory is that during the winter, we had condensation forming on the walls. So we had insulation blown in above the stairs, hopefully that is fixed now.

The roofing companies noticed we had some storm damage on the roof. State Farm came out to take a look and are taking care of it. We have a contract signed with a contractor and they should be out to re-roof the place by end of August.

Still really busy lately. Jax Hat '08 is this weekend -- Saturday, July 26. We're hoping for no lightning. Shirts are ordered. There are a bunch of things to do this week.

A Web site I've been working on is taking shape.

This is Heather's last week at work, after which we'll likely be even busier than we already are. She's going back to school down in St. Louis.

I did get the chance to go to a little poker night with Wes, Rob, Julie, Josh and Stephanie last night. I didn't seem to get many good hands, but it was fun.

I worked on two three Jax Hat IV shirt designs last night. One is a design I started two years ago, meant for the back of that year's shirt, but was abandoned. The second design I dreamed up at dinner last night.

Update: I added another design on July 20 (shown here on pink). And the new green one has added figure.




Jage came up with this one:




Mel came up with this one:



Update 7/22: I turned in the shirt order Monday and we went with the design on the pink shirt above.

I'm back in Minneapolis, I drove home last night, got home about 10 p.m. We had a great visit in Lincoln, this is some of the fun stuff we were able to do:

Went water skiing / boating in Clinton with Dad, Emilie, Kallie, and Janel. I was able to "get up" on my first attempt, but subsequent trials were not as successful.

Spent the Fourth of July with family, barbecued, played capture the flag and bocce during the day, board games that night. Travis, Grace and cupcake came to town; it was great to see them!

Played "Supreme Commander" with Travis, David and Darin on the unofficial, yet traditional, Video Game Day (July 5). Also played some oldies -- "Phantasy Star Online" and "Kung Fu Chaos" -- with Emilie.

Jantina and I played games (Dicecapades, Ticket to Ride, and Zigity) with Julie, Guido and Guido's parents in Lincoln one night, and had a great time.

Thinking over the time, I'm realizing we played a lot of games! Mostly Puerto Rico, San Juan, and Catan with various crowds over different weekends (Dad, Ethan, Travis, Grace, David, Emilie, Mom).

On July 7, Bungie Day, I celebrated by playing the new "Halo 3" map called Cold Storage.

Attempted to assist Ethan in acquiring his new iPhone (though they were sold out and Travis and Ethan ended up getting it in St. Louis late on the 11th). I didn't pick up a new iPhone for myself because the monthly fee would have been $15 more than my current deal, though I did upgrade the firmware to get the new applications. I like the potential for the Yelp! application, though I've not used it for real yet.

Hung at Noir with Guido, Julie, Jantina, Emilie and Janel, and ate a horseshoe at Muggsy's after "The Hop."

Priced out various home improvement / repairs; carpeting for the front room, flooring and drainage for the back porch, water-powered backup sump-pump, basement window replacement, roof repair, etc., etc.

All-the-while working remotely during the day, we were still able to pack in a lot of time with friends and family after-hours and over the weekends. Caught quite a few lunch breaks with David too. It was good.

Small site update: I added My and Guido's tweets on the left under each of our "links" drop down lists.