June 29, 1999 - They let *anyone* into El Toro

Today was the last day of finals week.  Actually, the last final I gave was on Tuesday and I managed to evade the worst of grading the departmental final by not showing up for grading until Thursday.  So today, with only a little bit of grading left to do and grades not due until Monday at noon, Joe and I decided to run out to the house and then go out to lunch.  So, I snapped a few shots (as usual) and then we went to El Toro for lunch.  As it happens, Marji & Bill H. decided to go there for lunch as well, and the four of us had a nice subdued (yeah right!) dining experience.
 

	They started to put up the siding.  We've chosen hardy-plank.  But it's the WRONG COLOR!!!  Heh heh - that's cause it needs to be painted. And check out those columns.  That is going to be one beefy front porch.
	The front-right side of the house (with siding).
	The front-left side of the house (aka, "the garage").
	That's Joe's new best friend working on the front porch.  His name is Tim and he's the framing foreman.  (You really can't tell from this picture, but I think he looks like the guy in leather from the Village People.  Or Freddie Mercury.) So why is he Joe's new best friend.  Well Tim, unlike his namesake from Home Improvement is the "guy who knows everything".  Our builder just hasn't quite gotten Joe's idea for the entertainment center, but Tim picked it up in about 5 minutes...and wanted the diagrams Joe made.  They're pinned up right next to the rought opening. Tim was also happy that we brought him the dog door for the back porch.

And some more good news.  Through a co-worker, Joe found another best friend.  (Hey, you can have more than one - Sarah does!)  This guy does home theatre set-ups.  Joe went to talk to him about the satellite system and was so impressed, he got an estimate for this guy to do all the non-electrical wiring.  That includes my computer network.  I think the price, including hardware, is rather reasonable.