You can download it here. Thanks for compiling, Meg!
An Update on the Tempe House!
From DD:
Hurray! Listed the Tempe house with a realtor this morning! Paint looks good. Landscaping looks clean. House smells like new paint vs. cat pee. Realtor is holding an open house 2 blocks east of me this afternoon (must have changed from By Owner just this morning, Hep) and will mention my house if people don't like that one. She will measure square footage. Agreed to list it for $310K. Hope I can get that.
Rollashield guy will be out next Fri (earliest) to fix the rollashield on the back door--now it won't go up at all...
She will work with her cleaning lady to do all the windows (inside and out), bathrooms, kitchen (fridge, stove, dishwasher, etc.), vacuum and mop. I asked the painter to fix those things we saw, Hep. I still need to confirm with him, but I think he'll be back out to fix. Told realtor about them. I feel like a big load is off my neck. Hurray!
Got all the hazard waste to the Tempe HzMAT place this morning. Brought the push mower over here and have already mowed the back yard grass :).
Pruned the front honeysuckle and some of the bouganvillea in the back. May go back and do more; maybe not.
Would be nice if it sells before it gets hot and all the plants die...
THANKS so much for all the work help and morale support! New chapter totally!
Woo go deed!!!!!
What's in a name?
Ever wonder what it means to be a cousin? A first, second, eighteenth once removed? Read up and be enlightened (thank u Kim):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin
An Aussie/NZ Story!
From Caroline and Ron on their trip to Australia and New Zealand: (!!!)
The strangest thing this morning. I collected some shells and rocks at an NZ beach, the southern side of the northern-most tip, some rocks and shells and bits and pieces washed up on the sand right at the tide line, picked out of the foaming waves. Found them last night in their baggie, and opened it, expecting stink. No stink, which makes no sense as at least one of the shells had seaweed green edges. Perhaps they needed washing to release the stink? so set them to soak overnight. This morning still no stink but one of the rocks, a silver-gray with a gold stripe, had completely disintegrated. Fine silt and sand, silvery grey with a little gold beach sand. How in the world could this lump of mud feel like a rock in the high tide?
And:
DCD collected a large rock from the Anchorage beach with lots of imbedded seashells and worm holes, interesting bricabrac and contours. He set the rock on the front porch overnight. The next morning it had disintegrated into a small pile of shells and some dirty powdered clay and a little sand. So there you have it: mud can withstand wave action but not drying out. Also interesting is that these lumps of apparently useful clay were found on coastlines of aboriginal peoples that do not have a clay-using culture. My guess about that is neither culture has a food tradition requiring extended periods of low to moderate heat. Australian Aboriginals, the Maori, and the Alaskan folks eat raw seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables in season, raw or gently toasted meat. They neither one stew or boil or bake, all of which require the kinds of continuous heat from a fire that clay also requires to fire into a solid non-porous (not meltable) substance. If they have fires they are small, grass-fed, and short-lived comparatively.
Tempe MLK Work Weekend!
Over the MLK weekend some major changes took place in at the Shannon Drive home which has been housing Warrens for 40 years! Meg moved into her own apartment and the 3407 house was cleaned and prepped for sale! wow! Betsy and Tyler came down with their trailer and their work gloves on! They also brought their considerable experience in rentals for oh so many years.
It was a huge success. The weather was gorgeous! Worked mostly inside so we didn't have to worry about sunscreen. Meg helped with cleaning out her stuff and we trucked it off to her new house an absolutely darling one bedroom duplex in downtown Phoenix. Kim was with us all day on Friday and as the picture attests she worked hard! Rick listed the washer/dryer and all the teak furniture on Craigslist and we sold them allon Sunday morning! Two trips to Goodwill, one to the Library, and one to the Dump!
Painters and landscaping will take place and then on the market to sell!
The Start
Starting the Guptill Family Foundation website - xmas 2013!