Mostly what I know about deep frying turkey involves horrible YouTube videos of the process being done incorrectly. And usually there’s a bonfire near the end of these videos. So this was pretty exciting to watch.
On Sunday, Liz and I met up with Meg, Josh, Michelle, and Mike for an early Dim Sum meal at Ming Hin.
Sunday had the family over at Kirt and Anne’s house. It was a fairly laid back day, as we just had a nice breakfast… drank coffee and mimosas, and just visited.
A large part of our early visit to Atlanta (in addition to the fact that we can’t make it there this December), is that we were in town to celebrate Kirt’s 60th birthday party. Anne had set up a surprise party, and Kirt was none the wiser.
Liz and I travelled to Atlanta this weekend, as an early holiday visit. We took an earlier flight than we normally do, which was nice as it allowed us time to have dinner with everyone, and to hang out a bit afterwards.
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With a full week ahead of us, Liz and I decided to dig in and spend a bit of time today working on the basement again. With Bob’s guidance and a practice run under our belt, we felt confident we could tackle a round ourselves.
On Friday, Bob and Julie headed in to Chicago to help us work on the basement. With the powerwashing complete, our next step was to skim sections of the basement walls that needed some concrete/repair. Here, Liz and Bob are checking out the requirements for each bag (1.25 gallons of water per bag).
Liz and I wasted the day today. Totally. Utterly. I mean… we literally spent the day in bed, watching TV. The few times we took breaks were to go to the bathroom, and maybe to get some snacks. But I’d estimate we spent about 90% of the day in the same spot. Conserving calories and killing brain cells.
The apple pie was delicious, as always. Final count: 22 (which interestingly enough was the same count from 2014).
New day, new power washer. Bob was kind enough to pick this guy up on his way over today.
We spent a good deal of the day getting prepped for work. But unfortunately, when all was said and done… the powerwasher had some issues. There was water coming through, but there was a leak somewhere that Bob couldn’t fix without taking the engine apart.
Today, Julie and Bob stopped over to help us with the house. Outside, Julie and Liz were at work on the parkway. Inside, Bob was taking measurements and making plans while I was in the basement, continuing to work on removing bricks from the chimney.
It’s hard to see – but just inside each of the cut lines, there’s a small chisel mark. I added these per Bob’s instructions, on bricks that overlapped the cut line. As I understand it, these cuts help introduce a point of weakness prior to the cut line, to lessen the chance of the bricks breaking at a point past the cut line. Not a guarantee, but something to help minimize the chance of that happening.
While I used my phone to take photos while overseas, Michelle and Mike had their camera with them. We all traded photos just a day or so ago, and here are a few from their bunch.