Vautrins Visit, Misc. Madeline Pictures

Lola, Dave and Carter Vautrin visited this past weekend. Carter is getting very big and is starting to become talkative (in both English and Spanish). He's still cute!


Lately Maddie seems to like being placed in a sitting position or being held upright. She now has great control of her head and looks back and forth and all over the place. Also, if you hold her with her legs dangling she'll try to push herself up with her legs a bit.


And, of course, she's still cute as ever. :-)

Ready for Moving Day!

We move this weekend. Can't wait a day longer - we're bursting at the seams in our apartment, charming as it is.

House Update - Floors

The floors have just been finished. They were sanded and buffed, then treated with three coats of polyurethane. We had John Wissinger Inc. Hardwood Floors (215-335-4472) do the work on a recommendation. What a good decision! John and his crew did a fantastic job!!

The floors are oak with a walnut inlay border. The stairs are chestnut. It did not appear that they'd ever had this level of attention before. John really brought out the natural beauty of the wood!

House Update - Kitchen

Here are pictures just after the wet bed went it. The floor was very wavy so we decided to put a support beam under the kitchen in the basement. Then we added a wet bed to even the floor out. Eventually a natural cork floor will cover this surface.

Since these pictures were taken, all of the cabinets are in and the countertops as well! We're in the home stretch!

House Update - Office

Work has been progressing well. We sanded, stained and polyurethaned the wood border and shelf running around my new home office (under the windows). Then we taped it all off and painted it a nice shade of blue. The blue looks a little overwhelming right now but it'll improve once the room is filled up and some things go on the walls.

This will be a great office when it's done. We get lots of sun light from the windows and there's a birdfeeder out there that attracts all sorts of birds.

Service To Be Down Soon!

This family blog / web site and our email will be down sporadically between August 2nd and August 5th. Any email you send during that period will NOT be lost so don't worry. It'll be held by the Comcast Business Communication's "Monster Mail Queue" that spools messages when a primary mail server is down. When our server comes back up the mail queue will deliver mail that was sent during that time.

Supporting the Troops

You think it's hot here? Imagine sitting in the deserts of Iraq in full body armor, a helmet and carrying lots of gear. A local mom has started a neat program called "Operation Air Conditioner" which sends A/C units to the troops in Iraq. They send other stuff too. It's a nice cause and you can even PayPal them money. The head of Home Depot called her and donated a bunch of A/C units. You should pitch in... See http://www.operationac.com.

House Progress...

We've been making lots of progress thanks to our own hard work, the work of our families and a few great contractors. Here are some shots of the house. We're just finishing up painting the interior of the house right now. The kitchen cabinets go in this week and the floors get refinished starting on the 21st of July. We're still hoping to be in on August 2nd, though without kitchen appliances (which should arrive on the 4th).

http://www.thelivingoods.com/2003/July/House/

New Windows!

Here are some interesting before-and-after comparisons of our windows, which were replaced recently by the capable team over at Matus Windows in Glenside. There's also a pretty amazing shot of the kitchen mid-way through remodeling.


http://www.thelivingoods.com/2003/July/House/Composite/

All Smiles

Madeline is starting to smile on a regular basis now. First, it was just in the morning. Now you can get her to smile nearly any time (unless she's hungry). She's all smiles. :-)

LBI - July 4th Weekend

We had a fun time over the holiday weekend with the entire Zanger family. The weather was great and it was a lot of fun -- even without air conditioning! ;-)



http://www.thelivingoods.com/2003/July/Shore/

Grazioso Visit

We got to visit with Chris, Colleen, Molly, Mary and Maureen Grazioso recently up in NJ. Mrs. Grazioso has transformed her house - lots of new paint, new windows and an incredible new kitchen and powder room. But best of all we got to show off little Maddie to the Graziosos. Molly was incredibly cute, as usual, and very talkative. Hopefully, Maddie turns out like she has so far!

Test Drive - Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

The legendary Evo comes to the U.S. Jedrzej just got one like this in silver. I had a chance to drive one (Chris' demo car) and was mighty impressed at the performance you get for the dollar. What a GREAT car!

http://www.thelivingoods.com/2003/July/Evo/

Mom Mom Visits

Mom Mom visited recently. Madeline was in an especially happy and playful mood.

Sloane and Alex Visit

We caught up with Sloane and Alex recently. They were kind enough to cook dinner for us at our apartment and provide a much needed social outlet!

Titi Piqui Visits From Puerto Rico

Titi Piqui and Uncle Bob were up from Puerto Rico for a family reunion. They stopped by to see Madeline and had a wonderful time!

1st Anniversary

What a difference a year makes! Wow! New house, new job, new baby, graduate school... What else can we take on!? At least my parents came down to babysit so we could have a nice dinner out.

First Semester Complete

My first semester at Drexel University's Techno MBA program is thankfully over! I got all A's but it wasn't easy. I certainly lost a lot of sleep!