Appliance Breakdown

It has been an interesting couple of days... Friday we had snow, and early in the day there was a power outage. The new wall oven/microwave reacted badly to it and displayed a lost communications error message. It had done this before, and cycling the breaker at the house power panel seemed to fix it. (a Windows design?) Not this time. So we had to call the factory for service. It turned out to be a board that failed, so we have to wait for the part to come in and then schedule another service call to install it.

So yesterday, while waiting for the serviceman to get here, we decided to do a little laundry. At the end of the first load, I noticed a burning smell. At first I thought it might be the ceiling fan, but no, it was the drive belts of the washing machine, being gently toasted by the motor drive pulley. It seems the washer's transmission jammed and froze. The washer is quite old, so the failure was not a total surprise, just the timing of it.

Getting back to the ceiling fan, though, the wife had commented that several of the fans were getting a bit fuzzy with dust, so I got out the ladder and started to vacuum the blades ad the housings. The one in the laundry room was apparently inspired by the washing machine, and while I was vacuuming one of the blades, it broke off from the motor.

Since one of us had to stay home and wait for the repairman, the wife went to the big box store and bought a new washer/dryer and a cheap ceiling fan. Next day delivery this time of year is just an advertising ploy, so we have to wait almost a week for the units to get here. At least the ceiling fan went in quickly.

Winter weather in Houston

It is snowing outside. Not sticking to the roads yet, but it may get cold enough to do that before the day is over. If so, Houston will be paralyzed by traffic accidents. It will all melt by tomorrow though.

A few days of vacation

I just got back from a business trip to central Georgia, just south of Macon. The conference I attended was the Warner-Robins Requirements Symposium, an event designed to encourage businesses to learn about the US Air Force's upcoming business opportunities and to then submit proposals or quotes in response to published requirements. The event was much better than it was last year. The various categorical sessions I attended contained usable information, such as what the government is planning to do, what kind of contracts, what kind of work, in the near and not so near term. My business-related travel seemed to ramp up a bit in the fall after a nice lull in the summer. I think I have one more trip this year, a week in northeastern Michigan, helping to prove a device to measure thrust works reliably and accurately.

But this next week I have three days of vacation and a couple days of holiday to enjoy. So my lovely wife and I will get at a task we have purposely left undone since moving to Texas, which is to go through some boxes of holiday-related stuff we have been taking with us through several moves. It will be interesting to uncover things we haven't seen for years, and recall the memories associated with holidays past. Some of it, I'm sure, will be worse for wear, but I'm looking forward to the few gems that will be proudly displayed once again.

I think we may also make a day trip or two, and visit some friends who live a few hours away. I'll post again next week, and let you know how it went.

What's been happening...

Since my last post, we have stayed pretty busy. My mother-in-law came to spend a week with us from Milwaukee along with her sister and niece from Italy. We had a great time showing them around the Houston area, and even took an overnight to San Antonio. The Italians were actually familiar with the Alamo, and Davy Crockett, probably from earl '60's TV.

Shortly after they went back to Milwaukee, I had a business trip to Orlando, for the NBAA convention. (National Business Aviation Ass'n) And within a few days of that, I had a week long trip to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. It was my first visit to Malaysia, and I was very pleasantly surprised with how cosmopolitan the city was. The Petronas Towers at night are very dramatic, rivaling the spectacle of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I had been to Singapore before, but it too is a very cosmopolitan city. Lots of shopping, traffic, and many peoples from all over the world living and working together in apparent harmony. I am not saying it is perfect, but rather, that people can actually get along with each other, enjoy each other, in close quarters.

Since then, it has been back to the ordinary grind of daily work, highlighted by the fact that our house in TN looks like it has been leased by someone for year. Not as great as selling it, but after a year on the market, we are happy with this.

Today I had to change one of the rules for posting, because some jerk decided it was a good place to post Viagra ads. I edited it out, but now you will have to sign in to comment. Sorry.

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

The popular show on the food network hosted by Guy Fieri showcases cool little joints around the country. Guy Fieri's enthusiasm is infectious too. A couple weeks back, the show featured Kenny & Ziggy's New York Deli here in Houston. Yesterday, we went there for lunch. It was around 1:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon, and we had a 25 minute wait to get in. It was definitely worth the wait.

Bonnie, our waitress, was charming. We each chose a classic deli-style sandwich, me a Reuben, and my wife a corned beef on rye. We each had a Dr. Brown Cream Soda for a beverage. The sandwiches were more than we could handle at a sitting, so to-go boxes were necessary afterwards. The restaurant transported us to New York in its atmosphere and ambient noise. We will definitely go back. The food & service were great!!

Stainless Steel in the kitchen

As previously promised, here are some pictures of my handiwork of installation.

Kitchen Refresh

Since we bought the new house in Sugar Land, both of us have had some niggling issues with the kitchen. I was unhappy with the shallow double sink and low faucet. It made cleaning up after meals (my normal duties) an aggravating task. And my lovely bride was unhappy with the performance, or lack thereof, from the Jenn-Air downdraft cook top and Kenmore wall oven.

So we embarked on our own little campaign to stimulate the national economy. We bought new appliances at Sears and a new deep-bowled single sink with high neck faucet at Lowe's. Did I buy installation as well? Of course not. After all, I am an engineer. I can do anything!!

Last weekend, I installed the sink. We have granite counter tops, and I was very careful to buy the replacement top-mount sink in the exact same (standard) size of 22x33. Taking out the old one went quickly and easily. ("This is going to be a snap!", I thought.) I unpacked the new sink and tried to set it in. You guessed it: the opening in the (rock-hard) granite was too small. I trundled off to the Home Depot (Lowe's is about the same distance but in a higher traffic area, and besides, its important to spread the wealth in a campaign to stimulate the economy.) to buy a tool to enlarge the granite opening. I was unable to find a tool which could both cut through granite and not produce any dust or suck it up in the process, so I settled for a 7" blade for my circular saw. When I started to cut the granite, I noticed that the amount of stone dust created by the whirling, diamond-coated blade was prodigious. So I got the vacuum cleaner out and held the hose near the blade while cutting. It didn't work so well. Ultimately, I got the sink installed. Then I spent the next several hours cleaning up stone dust.

My wife came home, it was dark, we were tired, we went to bed. The next morning, I took off on a business trip. I called when I got there, and she was somewhat less than thrilled by the presence of stone dust throughout the house. I apologized and promised to help clean when I returned.

By this weekend, she had cleaned up most of the mess I had created the previous weekend. She went off to class and I started in on the next installations. The LG stainless steel dishwasher went fairly well. It took a bit longer than planned, but no serious problems, and only one trip to Home Depot for some pieces of hardware. Next, I removed the wall oven and microwave. Easy. I took careful measurements of the new stainless steel Kitchen Aid wall oven with upper mounted microwave/convection oven. I had to make some modifications to the cabinet to get the mount shelf at the right height and the opening wide enough. But no serious problems. I had to help from the lawn guy to lift the oven up and into the opening. It is about 200 lbs.

Finally, it was time for the cook top. The old Jenn-Air came right out. Of the granite-topped island. You guessed it. The new glass-top downdraft Kitchen Aid cook top (black with SS Trim) is the same overall size, but the under mount part is 1/2" wider. But this time, I was smarter than the first. I emptied the cabinets of the island, masked off the areas outside the well below the cook top opening, and then built a tent out of the plastic sheeting that surrounded the wall oven. I put on a dust mask, and climbed into the tent with my trusty circular saw, and cut the opening a bit wider. Clean-up was so much easier, just me and the island area inside the tent. And the cook top slid right in. One more trip to the Home Depot for some 6" ducting to get the exhaust vent connected, and it all worked the first time. I was quite relieved, and proud of myself too.

I'll post some pictures this week some time after my muscles stop aching.

Inevitable that I should comment on Bret Favre

I suppose since I spent so much time on Michael Vick, I should at least mention old #4. He actually looked pretty good during the first half of last season with the Jets. The torn bicep, or whatever it was, made the end of the season pretty tough for all of us who loved watching him play so much during his career.

But there is no arguing that we all grow older, and part of that means we are not as resilient as we used to be. Even Lance Armstrong discussed it very frankly this year. He is still very very good, world class even, in that he certainly competes with the majority of the riders out there. But he admits that he is probably not the "best" anymore. Younger guys (and gals) have prepared themselves to compete at the highest levels, and they are more resilient, able to reach deeper for that last ounce of energy necessary to win.

I think the same parallel can be drawn with Bret Favre. He is still very very good. But he will not recover from a hit as quickly as he used to. He is more susceptible to a break or tear. He is less resilient, less able to reach deeper for something that isn't there anymore: the energy of youth. He must rely on cunning, knowledge, and trickery, just like the rest of us old codgers. He may have a season or two left in him, maybe even more if his linemen can protect him. But a middlelinebacker is going to break through on a blitz one day soon, make a clean hit, and ring Bret's chimes. Perhaps he will then understand that he is no longer invulnerable. I just hope he does not suffer a serious or permanent injury to learn this lesson.

Michael Vick revisited

I wrote a post a couple months back, advocating Michael Vick being given another chance. I read in this morning's news that the Philadelphia Eagles have signed him for a two year contract. I am glad he is being given this opportunity. I was somewhat dismayed that the local animal rights activists are being so negative about it, though. I do not think any of them have read or heard about what Mr. Vick has been doing to demonstrate the changes in his attitude about animal cruelty.

Obviously, time will tell, but for now, Michael Vick is saying and doing the right things. I hope he can prove that people can change for the better. Good luck, Michael, continue to listen to and heed the advice of people like Tony Dungy, and you will prove the naysayers wrong.

A Week's Respite from the Heat

We spent last week in Colorado. A new destination for us. We had been thru the Denver Airport before, but never got out to explore. I had a show to work at the Colorado Convention Center, the AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference. Lots of engineers and scientists who specialize in rocket propulsion and spacecraft attended the conference and a few actually came into the exhibit hall to look at the various booths from vendors like Lockheed, ULA, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Some even stopped by our booth to look at the engine testing equipment and high precision rocket parts we make. My lovely wife accompanied me on this trip, and we took a few days of vacation after the conference concluded.

We drove up to Breckenridge, and had a nice lunch in the cool mountain air. There was a small street festival going on that seemed to focus on the gold prospecting history of the area. The ride back to Denver was brutal though, as I-70 was packed with people heading back east, out of the mountains.

We also had a chance to have dinner with some old friends we hadn't seen in a long time, Tom & Julie retired in Littleton a few years ago. It was great to see them again. We had a great time dragging up old memories of our days as young test engineers, and comparing notes on how our families have grown up.

We drove up to Ft. Collins, and spent a few days with our friends Larry & Amy, whom we haven't spent much time with since we both retired from the big aerospace firm in November of '06. They are doing just fine, and gave us the grand tour of Ft. Collins, the New Belgium Brewery, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, the Big Thompson Canyon, and even a herd of buffalo. We got to see their new grandson and their son & daughter-in-law, as well as Larry's brother and sister. All-in-all, a really fine time was had by all.

Our flight home was uneventful, and even though we had a great time, it was good to get home and see the doggies and sleep in our own bed again.

Interesting Headline

"Gay penguins break up after 1 goes straight"

It should have been on National Inquirer instead of CNN.com, or perhaps the anti-gay movement will seize on it as their latest argument in favor of banning gay marriage. Oh well, at least it shows that MJ's death is starting to take some perspective in the stage of world news.

A Weekend in the Big Easy

To celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary, which was a few weeks ago in June, we drove over to New Orleans last Friday. The trip took a bit longer than I thought it would, maybe 6 hours. We stopped at a little roadside restaurant just before we got out of Texas, called the Spindletop Diner. Excellent food, very well prepared, and reasonably priced. The staff were also very friendly.We stayed at the Maison Dupuy, a nice hotel right in the French Quarter. We stayed there many years ago, when driving across the country from Florida to California, and had good memories of our stay. We were happy to discover they are doing well after the hurricane. As is most of the area. As we walked from the hotel to see the sights on Saturday morning, we noticed freshly washed sidewalks. How nice! Then as we approached Bourbon St, it became apparent that washing the sidewalks is a necessity. After most every evening, the sidewalks are a bit messed up with the results of folks over-enjoying the many bars on Bourbon St. and throughout the Quarter.

A carriage ride from Jackson Square gave us a broader perspective of the French Quarter, with some historical background filled in by the carriage driver. We tried to take a river cruise, but it was lunch time, and we were more inclined to fend for ourselves to eat. We went back to the hotel and got the car, so we could cruise the Garden District and the University area just west of that, all along St. Charles Avenue. Very pretty, lovely old buildings, mostly well kept or restored. We spent some time at Harrah's Casino after that, and I actually made a slight profit at the Blackjack Table. Cool!

That evening, we dressed up a little bit from shorts & sandals in order to "dine" at the Court of Two Sisters, a famous restaurant. The food and service and ambiance were every bit as wonderful as we hoped it would be. On the way back to the hotel, we had intended to stop and listen to some Zydeco music, but Bourbon Street was in full swing, and things were more than a little rough around the edges. We had a few nightcaps at the hotel instead.

Sunday, we drove towards home, leaving New Orleans by US 90 instead of the Interstate, in order to see a little of the countryside, Cajun Country. It was okay, not nearly the hustle and anonymity of the Interstate. But we had to join up to I-10 again at Lafayette, and made it home just fine.

Some relief

After several weeks without A/C upstairs, we finally enjoyed a cooler more comfortable evening at home last night. The new upstairs unit was installed and the house feels cooler. The downstairs unit is getting cooler air into the air handler from the air return upstairs, so it takes less work to get cool. Now let's hope the downstairs unit can keep up the good work.

Summertime in Sugar Land

We have been experiencing some rather sultry weather. That's southern for "Wow! It's HOT!!!" It has been right around 100 every day for the last 5 weeks or so, and very little rain. And to make it interesting, our upstairs air conditioning unit has given up and died. Fortunately, we have a home warranty that came with the house, so its going to cost us just over 10% of the $3,000 or so that the new unit will cost. It is just the wait for all the paperwork to be right for the warranty company and the a/c contractor.

As a result of the upstairs unit being inoperative, the downstairs unit has run nonstop and at max during this time. Our electric bill was just over $600 last month and may be more this time. Both units are about 20 years old, with a SEER of only 8 or 9. Modern units are much more efficient with a SEER of 17 or more, but very costly. So we will live with this for the time being.

Another thing that we noticed is that the swimming pool temperature is higher than refreshing at 92 or so in the afternoons. In the morning it is a chilly 88 and feels better. But it still feels good when you are in it. Even if the water is warm.

The heat has affected other things too. I don't walk the dogs until 8 or later in the evening as the sidewalks are too warm for their paws. And it is better for me to wait until the sun has set a bit too. I have been told it will cool off a bit in September.

A week on the road

A couple months ago, I proposed a new device to a customer, and they agreed. This week I helped to install and test it. It is a system to measure the thrust of an installed engine. That task is normally reserved for a test cell. This particular customer has no traditional test cell, but is doing heavy enough maintenance on his engines that a more in-depth test of the engine's performance may be warranted, at least according to some folks in the government. Anyway, the theory behind the system is based on using a strain gage instead of a load cell. There is a slight decrease in accuracy compared to a load cell, but it is still within reasonable limits of a half percent or less. There is a tremendous difference in cost between the system I designed versus a traditional brick & mortar test cell, which can run as high as $30M.

Anyway, we installed the system and did several tests with an engine that was run in a calibrated test cell. So we know that engine's performance characteristics. Now I am trying to make sure what we measured with the new system is accurately reflecting how the engine is running. It was pretty neat being in the cockpit of that aircraft, a B747, and watching the thrust readout change as the throttles were moved around. Sometimes its fun to be an engineer!

Michael Vick

I read that Michael Vick has been released from federal prison today. And he expects to start playing professional football again if the NFL will have him back. And I heard some talking head on the radio trying to get people to express their opinions on whether that should be allowed.

I for one, think he should be allowed to return to playing football in the NFL. What he did was indeed serious, but he was tried, convicted, and served his sentence. He is also working with the SPCA and Humane Society to help curb interest in dog fighting, especially among the youth.

His criminal activities were not directly related to the game, as were the sins of Pete Rose, for example. And I suspect that becoming broke and bankrupt has forced him to accept the fact that there are consequences to bad behavior, poor judgement, and hanging out with criminals. Let him have a chance to demonstrate that he has learned his lesson. He may go down in flames like Mike Tyson, but he deserves the chance.

Road Trip

This next week will be occupied with a trip to Oklahoma City, as several of us from work will drive to a conference there. On one hand it will be interesting to see a lot of folks I know from my prior career, both civilian and military friends. And I hope to see a couple of my wife's cousins who live there. But on the other hand, it is a long drive in a big old rented truck, as we are carrying some examples of our products. And I will miss the company of my wife and our comfortable home.

Why did GM decide to kill Pontiac instead of Buick?

The Pontiac brand seems to have lost its way and its identity these past few years. We all remember the exciting years of Pontiac’s history, starting in the late 50’s with Pontiac’s participation in auto racing and the introduction of the Bonneville in 1957. Their reputation as the “excitement” brand of GM was never more justified than during the introduction of the GTO in 1964. Amazing innovation that catalyzed the baby boomer generation to want this new type of automobile, a “Muscle Car!” It was too cool for words, only the music of the times could capture its spirit. Every other carmaker tried to copy it.

Only a few short years later in 1967, Pontiac offered the Firebird. But it was an “also ran”, eclipsed by its Chevrolet counterpart, the Camaro. Pontiac’s other models began to suffer from lack of individuality as well. To be fair, GM was doing it (and continues to do it) across the whole lineup, trying to sell the same car, SUV or truck as a Chevrolet, a Buick, an Oldsmobile, Pontiac or Cadillac. Rebadging the same car or truck with different trim levels. As the muscle car era reached its zenith, Pontiac had already given up the edge of being the innovator. Even Buick produced a better muscle car in the GNX.

A big part of GM’s problems has been their reluctance to develop new things. Perhaps the best example of that is their approach to engines. The rest of the world long ago recognized that dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder were necessary to compete. Performance improvement in terms of horsepower, torque and fuel efficiency were very quickly realized with these modifications. GM can’t seem to get there. They are still making the 3.8 liter V6 pushrod engine more than 30 years after it was introduced. Their flagship V8, the 350, is not significantly different than its original ancestor, the 265 V8 introduced in 1955. And their sales continue to suffer as a result of these and other failures to keep up. They can’t seem to make a cheaper, less expensive car that doesn’t look and feel cheap.

Recently, Pontiac tried to reintroduce the GTO. That is actually a bit of an overstatement. Pontiac did the worst marketing job I have ever witnessed for introducing a new car. The car itself is quite a performer, even with the latest version of the 1967 era 350 cubic inch V8 engine. It is quick, powerful, and nimble. But it is almost invisible. There is nothing about it that is visually or viscerally exciting. GTO’s of the past had a street presence, even the Firebird TransAm finally became distinctive, almost gaudy. Other than the most subtle of hood scoops, it is hard to distinguish a new GTO from any other anonymous honda-esque coupe out there. When they were introduced, I tried to find one at my local dealer. He told me the only way to see one was to special order it. It seemed to me that Pontiac dealers actually were trying to not sell GTO’s or any other sport vehicles. They were instead marketing sport-y vehicles: boxes on wheels with plastic cladding panels and styling features reminiscent of pre-teenaged boys’ crayon drawings. Witness the Pontiac Aztec. Now to be fair, Pontiac was actually selling quite a few of these vehicles. They actually outsold Buick (and Oldsmobile). But Buick never stopped seeking and developing its identity. They have developed a loyal following of the over-60 crowd in this country and a prestige market in the Orient. Buick might sell half the cars of Pontiac, but they make twice the profit. And that was the deciding factor: profitability. The only way Pontiac (and Chevrolet) can sell cars is to underprice them almost to nonprofitability. Chevy’s truck and SUV sales are the only reason (in my opinion) that the brand will survive.

So good bye Pontiac. We have been missing you for way longer than you have been dying.

Scientific Experiments!!

On a recent business trip, I happened to have an unusual cocktail, a Tangerine Margarita. It was in a bar named "The Tangerine Bar" located just across the street from Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. (Thank you very much to the staff at the Tangerine Bar. They were all quite nice, attentive, and made our evening there quite pleasant.) The drink was quite tasty, almost dangerous in that it tasted like more... a lot more! After I got home, I searched for some recipes, but when I tried some of the ones on the Internet, I was less than impressed. So I ordered a bottle of Tangerine-flavored tequila from our local purveyor of spirits. The brand name was Margaritaville, so how could I go wrong? Parrot-heads unite!

Well, the quality of the tequila will always be evident, and so it was here. The drink I prepared with this stuff was quite metallic-tasting. I remixed it with Cuervo Gold and Cointreau, and the results were much better, but still lacked that special tart tangerine flavor I remembered. So we took a trip to Whole Foods and bought a half-gallon of Tangerine Juice.

The results were very good indeed. The taste of the drink was quite nice, and very close to what I remembered from my trip. Here's the recipe:

2 oz Cuervo Gold Tequila

1 oz Cointreau Orange Liqueur

3 oz Tangerine Juice

1/2 oz Lime Juice

Mix well with ice, or blend with ice for a slushy drink.

Serve in a glass with lightly salted rim and lots of cracked ice.

Be careful, though. They taste like you might want another fairly quickly.

Some pictures of the new house in TX

Here are a couple shots representative of the new house. The view in the back yard, the kitchen, and a shot from the street. Come on over to visit, it's a comfortable home!

Lincoln's Legacy

Our new president has extolled the virtues of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, pointing out that without Lincoln, he, Barack Obama, could never have become president. That may be true in part, but he leaves out a most critical piece of the story. Lincoln was assassinated during a time when the congress and senate were still arguing about what to do after the Civil War ended. There were some in power at the time who wanted to punish the South and not allow them full statehood along with the autonomy that implies, and even some who didn’t think slavery should have been abolished.

It was Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, who worked to insure that Lincoln’s legacy wasn’t lost in the transition. The congress tired to impeach him over the disagreement about what would happen, but failed to convict by one vote. I think Andrew Johnson is the most undervalued president in our history. It was his effort that kept our country headed in the right directions of unification and freedom for all.

We are settling in to our new home

We continue to get settled in to the new house in Sugar Land, TX. And it is not without adventure and excitement.

Starting with the swimming pool. We spoke with three different pool maintenance companies, and settled on one who spoke with knowledge and experience. Before he started showing up though, I was experimenting with the valves on the pool pump, filter, and heater system. I was interested in learning how they work, and whether the pool-cleaning device (a Polaris 360, if you are interested) was working right. I managed not to get the valves put back just they way they were, and noticed the next day that the Polaris device was moving quite a bit more rapidly than before, and was generating a lot more thrust from its jets. I noticed this because the sweeper was regularly tying its hose in knots, which I had to untangle and set the cleaner free again. And the hose was starting to fail in several places due to the higher than desired pressure. The pool maintenance company has it adjusted more properly now.

Our master bath was carpeted when we bought the home. We both agreed a tile floor was more desirable, so we shopped, found a store and agreed on an installed price. That evening after we returned to the house, I wondered what was under the carpet. Tile, of course, but not at all what we wanted, so I advised the tile store that in addition to removing carpeting, a layer of tile would have to come up also. After a couple false alarms, the installers showed up and worked in earnest, generating copious quantities of dust and debris as they chiseled up the old tile. They cut the new tile with a hand held die grinder near the front door, generating more dust, and proceeded to get everything done but the grout in one day. When they pulled up the toilet in the master bath, another problem surfaced. The toilet base was cracked, but that was not the worst, the toilet had been glued to the carpet, and cemented into the floor. There was no mount flange either. So I had to buy a new toilet and call a plumber to make it right. The plumber came that evening, and worked 3 ½ hours to get everything done. The new toilet sits a bit higher, more comfortable for us older folk. The next morning, the installers finished the grout, and the master bath looks quite good. Our master bath was just like the US economy; all it needed was a financial stimulus package 50% larger than what we thought was needed.

The next project will be the kitchen sink. The current one is too shallow, and the faucet set leaks a bit. We will replace them with a stainless, single bowl that is at least 8” deep and a faucet set with a high rise spigot for ease of pot-filling. We’ll see how this project works out.

Progress on the move

Our furniture arrived at the new house yesterday. My lovely wife supervised the movers as they unloaded and put things throughout the house. There are a lot of boxes to unpack, and furniture locations are close, but not final. The movers set up the beds, and it was good to sleep in our own bed last night. The next few days will be occupied with unpacking, putting away, and hauling the empty containers and packing material to the garage for pick up later. We will keep the wooden crates made for the TV, our antique clock, and our framed papyrus art work. The cable company will be here Friday to get us hooked up for TV, phone and internet. The dogs seem to be taking it all in stride.