Trimwork - You'll recall that I mentioned that Michelle had work done on the four major transitions between the first floor rooms. They all have nice trim around them now and I think they made for a nice touch. Later when I saw their stuff still in the garage, I asked, "Oh, did they put a second coat on the trimwork?" "No," Michelle answered, "go look in our bedroom." When I got upstairs I saw what she meant. Our master bedroom has some handsome crown molding along the seam between the walls and the ceiling. "Not bad," I said, "so do they come back tomorrow to put the second coat of paint on the first floor trim?" "Well, not exactly," she replied. "They're also going to redo the screen work on our screened in porch. They'll remove all of the vinyl screen that's falling apart and being chewed by vermin and replace it with new aluminum screens." "So then they'll put the second coat of paint on?" I asked. "Yes, then they'll put the second coat on and things will be done." I certainly hope so… The results look nice, but I know that contracting doesn't come cheap. New Hampshire isn't known for its large base of "cheap illegal immigrant labor".
Cards - You know that when you're a kid you think your parents are lucky because they get mail every day. Your parents grumble because they say that so much of the mail they get is bills. Today I felt like a kid. I got plenty of mail today addressed to me and it wasn't bills! Who-hoo. Start with a nice base of Christmas cards that arrived, as they've been doing for the past several days. This time I saw my college roommate, Christian, and his family. We also saw friends from our time in Nashua. They got a cool chance to spend a few years living on a remote tropical island in the Pacific. That was definitely a unique Christmas card.
Packages - But then I got even more cool stuff! My mom and dad sent me the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Thanks Grandma Donna and Grandpa Peter! Shutterfly sent me prints from the last few albums, including this one of Michelle in a 5x7. Lastly I got the audio CD version of Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Anne Rice had formerly been known as the author of the vampire chronicles including Interview with the Vampire before her conversion from atheism to Roman Catholicism in recent years. A couple of days ago I'd also received a copy of Michael Crichton's recent novel Next on audio CD. Both sets of CDs were purchased via Amazon's "new and used" partners section, so they were much cheaper than buying them via iTunes. Between podcasting and hours of novels to listen to, my commutes will hopefully be more entertaining the next several weeks.
Merry Christmas Scott!
I'd heard that Anne Rice had converted to Christianity. I'm curious to hear what you think of her new book. I haven't read any of her books, though I'd meant to read a couple of the vampire ones. The new one sounds like it could be interesting, giving a personalized view of Jesus, but that's also a fine line to tread without potentially offending people.
Posted by: will at December 21, 2006 11:00 PMMerry Christmas Will S. !!
Yep, it could be a fine line. I think authors always offend *somebody*. My dad used to always assure me that no matter what you do, someone's gonna be upset for *some* reason. For instance, I would hear occasional criticism from Catholic reviewers about certain words left out of The Nativity Story. I, on the other hand, was just happy to see a movie production house do a respectful presentation of the origins of Christmas at Christmastime.
I plan on ripping the set of CDs into a single MP3 CD and playing it in my car during the commutes (along with podcasts, of course). I don't know which I'll play first: Crichton or Rice.
Posted by: Scott at December 22, 2006 06:13 AMScott,
I'd be interested in looking over that Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church when we make our next trip to NH in February. Please remind me as my memory is good but it is short! Enjoy the Christmas Season with Michelle and the kids. Talk to you soon.
Dad
Scott,
Put up some before and after pics of the trimwork if you have them.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Sorry, no 'before' pictures. The work they did snuck up on me. I'll take some 'after' pics and email them to you. They would otherwise make for extremely boring albums, worse than the basement development pics. Your work on our front door was far more photogenic.
Hi Dad,
While it sounds boring, the Compendium is actually much easier to read than the full Catechism. Think of it as "the abridged version." It's done in more of the old style Baltimore Catechism with a brief one paragraph type summary rather than long exegesis type discussions. The answers are much better for the short attention span crowd. It also makes the book a *lot* thinner. The full Catechism is larger than some dictionaries...
Posted by: Scott at December 22, 2006 10:03 AMJust catching up on a few of your recent holiday posts. I had a chance to read my nephews book cover of "Next" and will eventually read it or listen to it. I'd enjoy hearing your personal review; let me know if you would like to do a book exchange with something I might have on CD. (I also drive a lot and switch between podcasts and good books ... and Next sounds good. BTW I have a couple of Michael Crichtons' other books if you are interested.)
Posted by: RichC at January 2, 2007 11:47 AMHi Rich,
I'm enjoying the technical end of it and the plot. I could do without the frequent cursing and the way that Crichton keeps threading sex or sexiness into the discussions. I got the feeling that there was not one faithful couple in the entire book. And the single characters were beyond promiscuous.
It was like that in Crichton's 'State of Fear' and is even more so now in 'Next'. I was wondering if the book was about genetics or pheromones. Geez people!
Posted by: Scott at January 2, 2007 10:44 PM