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Now we wait.\u00a0 We are in the curing stage with the slab of concrete.\u00a0 It looks like it made it through the day without the neighbor kids messing it up or rollerblading on it.\u00a0 By Day 4, it was beginning to look drier in texture, even though it did rain a bit on it.\u00a0 We felt safer walking on it and Rick took a stroll out across the surface.As the concrete cures, the top coat is coming out a big more.\u00a0 I guess they buffed it up since it is a garage floor.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have the rough texture that the porch apron has, which will be outside.\u00a0 You want that so it won\u2019t be as slippery.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t want Rich to fall down while he is BBQing anything.<\/p>\n
We are now in wait mode.\u00a0 The framers are scheduled to show up on Nov 19 to start putting up the walls.\u00a0 I\u2019m taking a daily picture of the slab and subsequent work.\u00a0 I thought I\u2019d do one of those time-lapsed progressions to the eventual completion of the garage.\u00a0 I thought it might be fun to watch.<\/p>\n
I was so excited on Friday.\u00a0 My new favorite band was in town to play a show at the House of Blues.\u00a0 Trampled Under Foot is their name.\u00a0 Three siblings have put together this band and they have a really rocking sound.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been winning competitions and making quite a name for themselves as well as developing a following.\u00a0 They started out as a Led Zeppelin tribute band as they were building their blues repertoire.\u00a0 Trampled Under Foot is a Zeppelin song they took their name from.<\/p>\n
We heard them when we attended the Cincy Blues Fest in August.\u00a0 They are awesome.\u00a0 At the end of their set in Cincy, they performed the song, \u201cTrampled Under Foot.\u201d\u00a0 Danielle has a voice and power that outdid even Robert Plant.<\/p>\n
We had never been to the House of Blues.\u00a0 We talked about going, but never went.\u00a0 The TUF show was a good chance for us to finally do it.\u00a0 Rich had bowling on Friday and doing a roll off to see who is in the finals.\u00a0 They won!\u00a0 We packed it up and drove out to the Blue Line for the L train.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve taken the L.\u00a0 The train was packed and standing room only.\u00a0 That was a little difficult for me to stand and ride, but I didn\u2019t have much choice.\u00a0 Trains are a good source of people watching.\u00a0 We had the freshman college girls behind us talking in their very high falsetto voices about the upcoming weekend.\u00a0 There were the three French couples in town to sightsee.\u00a0 There were business people headed home or into town.<\/p>\n
We arrived at the Clark St. station downtown and made our way topside.\u00a0 Turning left, we walked one block to the river and could see the Marina Towers where House of Blues is located.\u00a0 The night was mild and the walk was good.\u00a0 Arriving inside, we found TUF already on stage in the Back Porch.\u00a0 They were just playing a song to test the sound.\u00a0 Getting inside, we found any possible seat already taken so we were in for a couple of hours on feet.\u00a0 We found a place along the railing where we could leave and hang our jackets.<\/p>\n
The show started and people started pouring onto the dance floor\/viewing area.\u00a0 It got packed pretty quickly.\u00a0 With that came the usual cast of drunks.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been in a bar like this for a while.\u00a0 Is this what it used to be like back then?\u00a0 I remembered too that white people don\u2019t dance well.\u00a0 More people watching opportunities were occurring around me.<\/p>\n
During the second set, a couple white guys in fancy business suits brought a couple of girls onto the floor in front of us.\u00a0 They look like they had already had a few drinks.\u00a0 By this time, the floor had cleared out quite a bit.\u00a0 There was plenty of room between everyone.\u00a0 These four came and stood so close in front of us that I kept hitting the blond chick in front of whenever I applauded.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t seem to mind so I didn\u2019t apologize or stop.<\/p>\n
Anyway, it appeared that the older, bald guy was trying to hit on the blond so I assumed that the two guys had asked these girls out from the office where they all work.\u00a0 The girls probably came out to get a free dinner and night on the town. The blond was being nice to the bald guy, but she obviously wasn\u2019t interested.\u00a0 The other girl was there to support her friend, but she made to bones about showing any interest in the other guy.\u00a0 Poor guy was just standing around.\u00a0 Oh, the machinations of dating.\u00a0 Don\u2019t miss that at all.<\/p>\n
So the show ended and we headed back to the train.\u00a0 There were less people so we could actually sit down from the ride back to the Cumberland Ave station.\u00a0 Rich was telling me a story about his grandfather getting the kids of the apartment to ride the L out to O\u2019Hare, returning to ride to downtown and then back to the California St station by their grandparents\u2019 apartment.\u00a0 I could see that happening.\u00a0 There were kids all over the stations up and down the track.\u00a0 I would say it looked like the Friday night thing to do.\u00a0 Get on the train and ride around for a while with your friends.<\/p>\n
It was 2:00 AM when we finally rolled into the driveway.\u00a0 Sascha met us at the door, but she didn\u2019t appear happy.\u00a0 She wouldn\u2019t let either of us pet her.\u00a0 She went out, hung out with Rich for a while, and then scrambled to bed as he gave up for the night.\u00a0 I think she was still a little mad the next morning.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Rich started working on putting up the oak beam.\u00a0 I had wanted to add something to the big blank area between the living room and dining room.\u00a0 My idea was an beam of sort.\u00a0 My friend, Dave, had a couple of trees that he took down in his yard and had lumbering into boards so he could make create a bar in his basement.\u00a0 He had some leftover and offered me one of them.\u00a0 We picked a nice red oak.\u00a0 Rich cut it into two pieces and sanded it a little to take down some of the roughness.\u00a0 We then rubbed it down with linseed oil.\u00a0 The character and color really came out.<\/p>\n
Next step was to actually attach the pieces to the ceiling.\u00a0 I chose to expose the rougher sides.\u00a0 I wanted that older, rougher character to be seen.\u00a0 It took all three of us to hold things in place, but we got it mounted.\u00a0 It looks better than I had imaged.\u00a0 The wood is still drying out.\u00a0 Once Rich gets the handmade plugs into over the screws, I’ll need to rub it down again with linseed oil.\u00a0 At least this Thanksgiving, I’ll finally have the beam in!<\/p>\n
On Saturday night, we went to Mike and Barb\u2019s for a Fall Night Out.\u00a0 The plan was cookout, sit by a fire, and talk.\u00a0 That we did.\u00a0 There was the usual cast of characters.\u00a0 Barb and Mike have some interesting friends, besides us.\u00a0 We were looking forward to seeing people that we only see here.\u00a0 By 10:00, I was toast.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t do too many late nights in a row anymore.\u00a0 We said good night and Rick drove us home.<\/p>\n
On Sunday morning, it was an early turnout to attend the Northern Illinois Streeters car club breakfast.\u00a0 Another excuse to see people we don\u2019t see all the time.\u00a0 During the summer, we go to car shows and during the winter, they hold monthly breakfast meetings.\u00a0 This was the first of the winter meetings.\u00a0 Looking forward to the Christmas party with the club in December.\u00a0 More on that to come after December 15.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n
Storms are moving in.\u00a0 The wind is kicking up to 30 miles per hour at times.\u00a0 We\u2019ve just been hanging inside.\u00a0 Rich was watching the dismal Lions\u2019 game against the Vikings.\u00a0 Oh well, there\u2019s always next week.\u00a0 I\u2019m listening to TUF playing blues and writing this blog.\u00a0 Good Sunday for reading the paper and watching movies.<\/p>\n
Now, if I can only get control of the TV.\u00a0 (Evil laugh heard here.)\u00a0 Then there is the Browncoats Unite special tonight!\u00a0 Yes, I\u2019m a Firefly fan and I\u2019m not ashamed to say it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>