Happy Halloween and October round out

A few things happened this month that I should have written about in real time but was busy with the things.  Or being lazy.  

Firstly, the weather finally became more bearable. In fact, early last week, I was able to turn off the AC.  Now it's cold in the mornings and warm in the afternoons and early evenings and chilly overnight.  I did put the heat on low a couple days ago but was able to turn it off again as it is oscillating back to warmer temperatures.

Secondly, a few Mondays back, I alluded to "some other news to share this week."  I am was employed again!  Alas, it didn't last and while I wrote up a draft about the adventure before my contract ended, I'm gonna whittle it done to the essentials.

And lastly, a couple of weeks ago we were in St Louis for Fall Break.  Fall Break down here occurs the week before Columbus/Indigenous Persons Day.  We left on Wednesday around 1 pm and got to the hotel just around 5:30 pm with one bathroom break.  We brought along our pseudo-3rd child, and the kids rotated sleeping on an air mattress.  Actually, Natasha found that it was so comfortable that she ended up sleeping on it most of the trip.

We visited the City Museum on Thursday and spent most of the day there.  City Museum is a great place to burn kids energy but you have to have a system because you will get separated from them.  Oh and the food is high-priced and terrible.  Best to pack a cooler and tailgate in the parking lot.

On Friday we did apple picking along with seeing the Arch, which was closed because of the government shutdown.  On Saturday we did Grant's Farm.  Every night was spent back at the hotel for pool time.  I was also able to met with Jewel on Saturday for dinner.  

Stray observations.  I'm glad I didn't cancel my participation in this trip for what turned out to be 8 days of employment with nothing to do (story to come later).  If I could do this over, I would have met Jewel for dinner earlier in the trip.  We had good food at the restaurant she found and the leftovers would have made good lunches.  Instead, we ended up dumping them because we were leaving and didn't have good options to keep them cold.

I think we did a lot and had fun but we overloaded the kids' batteries.  While kids are resilient, they didn't have enough time to recover from Day One to fully enjoy Day Two and then Day Three.

Grants Farm is a fine place to visit, especially in October when it is decorated for Halloween.  But be warned:  While admission is free, everything there is to do comes at a cost, some outrageously high.  I will say the food at the Bauernhof Courtyard is decent proportions at reasonable post-pandemic prices.  

3rd Child was also starting to get on my nerves.  She is better behaved than my douche nuggets, but her "grandparents" spoil her, and it was bleeding over into our trip.  Case in point, we ordered lunch, which came with a side.  She said she didn't want a side, so I said "Since it comes with one, order something and someone else can eat it".  She was about to order a side no one wanted, but I put an end to that.

All in all, it was a lovely trip but if we do it again we have to do things in a different order and allow more recovery time.  

Chicago Baseball in October: Over and Done

After losing two games against the Brewers, the Chicago Cubs did a rare thing since the playoff format changed some time ago: they forced a Game 5.  I did not expect that to happen and actually had a reasonable belief they might be able to pull it off.

Alas, they did not.  Milwaukee won and moved on.  But I'm grateful that the Cubs gave us fans 8 more games beyond the regular season.   Next Year.

Meanwhile, I was able to watch the Bears on MNF and they similarly beat the Commanders to how the Commanders beat them last year.

I'm beyond annoyed that I cannot watch this week's game against the New Orleans Saints.  New Orleans is closer to Olive Branch/Memphis than either Philadelphia or Minneapolis.  But the networks are forcing us to watch that game.

Bathroom Renovation Project Finished

The long renovation project is completed.  Demolition began on July 28th, and the final touches were completed on September 17th.  There was some idle time in between because it took longer than anticipated to receive the tile, the vanity, the shower door, and other items.  Some of that was supple chain issues.  Some of it was our own, sitting on our butt instead of making a decision.

Nightingale basically let me manage this project though I did consult her for most of the aesthetics.  I wanted a kick ass shower with a pleasing bathroom attached to it and I believe we achieved that.  We scoped two extra items:  first, we moved the toilet to where the old shower was and made it a de facto water closet (no door, but still).  And I had them install some updated lighting in the living room.  All in this project came to about $25K.

The hardest part of this, besides the money, was the decision-making.  Moving the shower to the old tub and the toilet to the old shower was easy.  But where do you want towel racks?  Where do you want new outlets?  Where do you want shower heads?  It can be nerve-racking because some of these decisions are irreversible.  

As far as contractors go, the crew at All Around Renovation were great.  They cleaned up every day (as best one can during demo and construction) and they did their best to keep me apprised of things like when they were turning off the water.  The fact that my frady cat Elsa didn't shy away from them tells you that they are good people.  

That's not to say things were flawless.  my contractor was rather annoyed that we didn't have our tile and everything else picked out when the project began.  Not the worst scenario by far.  You can see the before pictures here.

Chicago Baseball in October: Wild Card Done and Won

The Cubs managed to win the series 2-1.  The latest MLB playoff format had every wild card game occur at the ballpark of the team with the best record.  This meant all 3 games were at Wrigley Field.  And I got to watch all three of them.  

Now they move on to the Divisional Round against the Brewers.  This is a best of five format, with the first two games at Brewers, then the next two at Cubs, and the last, if needed, is back at American Family Field.  

Since the Cubs seem to be doing a good game, bad game pattern, they need to win this first one.