Cheapest (A Gloss-over Term: Most Economical) Hotel, Medford, OR

Today, we left Washougal, WA for San Francisco & LA.  Our first stop is at Medford, OR.  From the traveling discount booklet obtained at McDonald’s, we found this hotel which we thought it was the cheapest ( a gloss-over term: most economical).  One night stay with a king size bed as well as breakfast plus taxes is below $40.00. not too bad.  It is situated at old Medford downtown (we think).  This neighborhood has a lot of empty Mom & Pop shops and very quiet & clean.  The hotel as usual is run by Indians, we think.  After having dinner in one of the nearby Chinese restaurant, we took a walk and we really enjoyed its surrounding.  So, not all those fancy hotels have attraction only 🙂

Well once again, Happy Anniversary to Jeremy & Doris.

Last night I stayed up a little later than usual to finish a book called A Fine Balance.  It was an Oprah book many years ago – usually I go running from Oprah books (the choices sometimes seemed a little too new-agey for me), but somehow I found recommendations of this book from other sources and I found out it had 4.5 stars on Amazon so I went ahead and ordered it from this paperback trading website that I use.  It’s a long book and all the protagonists end up in dire situations at the end, but it is so beautifully written and the characters are so interesting and all the complicated plot lines are intertwined that after I finished the book, I just sighed this big sigh of sadness and melancholy.

On a happier note, today is our 15th anniversary!  Happy day to us 🙂  We had takeout pizza from our favorite pizza place and reminisced.  I hope to walk down the path of life with you for a long, long time sweetie!

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Work Continues On Addition & Garage Sales Tools

Work Continues on addition.  There are two drain pipes installed and tested.  Mom went down to the crawling space several times with me to provide additional expertise on those drain pipes.  The blue line is the would-be floor height.  The big drain pipe in front will take sewage from the master bedroom’s bath.  The smaller one in the back will take the water from the mud room and clothes washer.  The only preparation work needs to be completed is the extension of fire sprinkler system.
Besides, we have contacted the dirt & foundation people for quote.  The dirt excavation shall have the depth at least reaching the virgin soil of the lowest point.  Then the concrete people will put the forms first, after inspection, fill the forms with concrete.  This part will be sub-contracted out.  The framing part also will be sub-contracted out too.
Last weekend, I bought lot of tools from our next door neighbor.  She probably has the most tools for garage sales than any one I have encountered.  The new big red tool is about $63.00 in Home Depot.  So, I guess I have a good deal from her.

Sick.

Everyone is sick today.  Well not everyone, just Vince and Edda.  I knew that on Sunday during the day when both children were sound asleep on the couch in the living room that there was going to be no real first day of school.

Here’s Edda in slightly healthier times:

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Such a great summer…

Tomorrow is the first day of school – first day of middle school for Vince, but neither child is going to make it to school tomorrow. They both are running fevers and spent the whole day asleep under covers and moaning at the closest adult around. I’m thankful that Vince has learned to swallow pills and Edda can manage the chewable pills so now there is no sticky children liquid medicine in the house. It’s been such a wonderful summer that maybe the kids are protesting that it shouldn’t really end, that school shouldn’t really start. I’m not that worried about Edda’s schedule, she has the same teacher and the same paraeducators – but Vince! He missed orientation last week when he was in NY with Jeremy’s parents (and the kids all got their schedules then) and now he’s going to miss the first day of class – he’s going to be totally clueless when he shows up on the 2nd or 3rd day of class. I hope he’s not too lost when he shows up.

It has been a beautiful weekend, we got to spend part of it in the Catoctin Mountains with our pal, Carla.  Edda hiked about 0.4 miles with us on her own two feet, but then she got tired and we put her in her stroller and went on a wheelchair accessible trail – you can see it in the 2nd photo below.  They made a path with rubberized wood chips in a brown color so you can’t really tell that it’s made with space age polymer technology.

We were originally not going to take any dogs on this trip as they can be trouble, but Ruby somehow sensed we were going someplace fun and hopped into the minivan and pretty much refused to get out.  And she was right, it was a lot of fun – streams and mud galore.

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The Additional Fire Sprinkler System Tapping Point

Here is the additional fire sprinkler system tapping point.  From here, a new line going to the roof of the new addition will be installed.  It uses the heat resistance PVC pipe.  
Today, Mom and I went  down to our crawling space beneath the floor to look for the water and sewage drain tapping points.  It is doable by ourselves, I think.  See what will happen.

Work Continues on Room Addition

Work continues on our additional master bedroom.  Picture 1 shows two water lead lines for hot (red) and cold (white) water.  These lines will feed all water needs to the entire new master bedroom.  Picture 2 depicts the two lines bypass the house corner beams because of uncertainly about the original weight loading distributions.  To be on the safe side, it is better not drilling holes on those corner beams.  Those two lines will eventually cover up by fixtures yet to be determined.  Picture 3 shows the tapping off arrangement from the existing lines.  Each line consists of a tee and a shut-off valve.
After this one, the fire sprinkle line needs to be tapped and extended to the outside also but at a higher elevation.  It should be fairly straight forward once the tapping point is determined.
The last and most difficult preparation work is those drain lines with vents.  It needs to be investigated and tested thoroughly because it works only by gravity, nothing else.  Elevation and slope are very important, especially the elevation is not high enough.

Wedding Anniversary

Today, the 22nd, is our 43rd wedding anniversary.  Rena and I got married at a cafeteria of the John Hopkins University in Baltimore.  Volunteers, most of them were our classmates, played piano, prepared reception food, baked cakes, helped us to dressed up, drove us to cafeteria, etc. The total out-of-pocket wedding expense was ~ $300.00.  Our honor moon, very exciting, enjoyable & memorable, consisted of several half-day drives to the nearby places in our used (pre-owned) yellow car (an impala).

Before Rena got her PhD in Fluid Mechanics (on Air Turbulence Flow), she was pregnant with Doris.  At that time & after, three of us all depended on Rena’s meager scholarship income.  At that time, almost no job prospect for all aerospace graduates including me – aerospace industries were in very bad shape.

Today, while celebrating our anniversary, Rena and I are very grateful to what our family consists of, especially on the human side.

Pictures below show our anniversary celebration – Rena & me with my super omelette (3 eggs) with all home-grown ingredients (tomatoes, egg plants, green peppers, spring onions, potatoes, etc) except eggs and 100% and hand-picked home-grown assorted flowers from our garden.