progress....

 so my handyman was able to put in a full day the other day.  i helped out, mostly with tearing down cardboard for recycling, holding cabinets in place and hauling them.  today i did painting. i really do like the grey blue.  i think it will all look nice. so several upper cabinets are in, which is fabulous.  he headed back to the Kenai but hopefully he is back soon for another round of cabinets.  plans to get the uppers then the lowers.  once the lowers are set i can go schedule them to come measure my counters and purchase those and the sink...:-)  so awesome to see cabinets going in. 

 these huge pantry cabinets are in!!  the skinny one fit through the hall out of the garage, that big one we had to haul out the garage and through the back yard.  nice ice coverage back there.  drugs were required and i went to bed early but the ol' back felt much better by morning. these are super nice. hadn't realized they had the fancy drawers, so he put those in.  i already put the candy on one of the skinny shelves....a girl likes to have chocolate and salt nearby at all times. 

 these were the first cabinets going up. there are still 4.5 uppers to get in.  fingers crossed.  it is kind of a bummer to not be baking on chilly nights.  it will happen though.  he is really great and I'm hoping to put him to work on a few other projects as well.

 so this was the progress as of the other day.

 today i got most of that back wall painted and around the kitchen.  so it is now coated with the color for behind the appliances and over the kitchen.  the tile will eventually cover that up but seemed better to just paint.  it looks great with the beam.  i also painted the door a pale grey color as well as the ugly 80's floor board...figure i can make those last a bit longer.

 hoping to stain the old 80's mantel the same color as the beam to give it a slight update.

 bit of a heart in the ice today at the dog park.  dogs missed a few days of walking this week with stuff happening in the kitchen.  they got loads of tennis ball time in though.

 above you may note something on the top of the cabinet on the floor...it's the note that i had found tucked into the cabinets i had removed.  i put it back up where it belongs, i added a little note just saying that the enclosed note had been found in the demo and that the remodel had taken place in 2018...seemed like the best thing to do..

 the grey is pretty subtle. the other night i ran to my mailbox to check my mail...i did notice the fence was down a bit, though it odd.  i failed to notice that there was a car crash and a pole down as well as a bumper sitting right by the post.  my observation skills clearly failed me.

 there is a little early family Thanksgiving gathering that my sister is having with my niece and her family who lost their home to this awful fire in Paradise, CA.  wish i could be there....should be lots of fun.  another brother is driving up with his family to join them as well.  she seems to have been very comforted by the outpouring of support and love, rough days ahead but i am impressed at how she has coped so well with all of this really.  I'm sure it is not easy but she seems to have managed this awful situation with grace and strength. 

 i just put a little package in the mail for her myself...nothing big, but when you are so far away you just want to do something.  her brother did set up a gofundme for them and that seems to be doing well, should get them into a rental and help get some basics to set up again.  the death toll on this fire keeps rising.  they are now saying there are over 1000 missing....which makes you even more grateful that they are not among the missing and lost.  sounds like her husband came a bit too close to being on that list.  much to be grateful for despite all the loss. 

 the entire community seems to have just been decimated.  i would think as terrible as a house fire is with it's total loss, at least those survivors have work to go to and school to go to and church to attend...in this case every place of comfort was decimated as well.  just can't imagine the heart break of it all to those who were impacted. 

 these are photo's from the bog, i went there the other day between shifts.  my last two nights were in the ER.  actually got put on call last night...i was called back in by 7:15 so pretty much the entire night was overtime so that worked out great.  i used that time to paint the door.

 it looked cool how the ice appeared to be moving in the one below.

 we went in reverse this day. 

 someone had made lots of these big snow balls, no snowmen though.  they walk the kids from the local grade school through here some days.  they did this day as well.  i pulled the pups to the side and they were great. 

 not like when Ivy got excited on the last Monday walk and knocked over a kid...kid was fine but i could see the parent was ticked.  i generally leash them before we hit the trailheads so that was my bad. 

 then we headed to the little bog...loved all these cool ice formations out there.

 obvious as i took so many photo's of them

 as you can see.

 the Washington Post reports that the CIA is reporting that the Saudi Prince ordered the murder of the journalist Kashoggi.  he was killed almost immediately after entering and dismembered.  his body has not been found.  of course, our iitoo and crew are speaking with Turkey as Turkey has a dissident here that they would like brought back...there are those who would like to use him as a bargaining chip to get Turkey to  chill a bit on the Saudi's.  Turkey has tried for years, unsuccessfully to get this guy back...our nation has not done this yet and hopefully this will not change.  the iitoo loves the Saudi's and no doubt owes them some money or wants to do business deals with them

 his re-election campaign has already collected some 300 million dollars, some say he'll just take the money and not run. 

 he was also quoted saying these fires in CA wouldn't have happened if the firefighters had just raked more?? a bit confusing as he's so clueless about how the world works.  he's supposed to head to the fire areas tomorrow and make a fool of himself again no doubt

 he seems incapable of true empathy and is awkward around all the other humans.  he's an ass basically

 here is my sweet girl though.  she makes me happy.  :-) 

 these little alien looking ice formations were all over the bog. 

 iitoo couldn't be bothered to show up to any veterans day events, skipped out on events in Europe...and yet he still likes to claim that he is the best for veterans...oddly, he is the best at all things.  such a huge ego. 

 so it was a pretty productive week i must say.

 pups always love their play time.  more tennis balls lost of course...that is life.

 tried to get scenery with the ice formations.  tough light i think...or bad photographer.

 the formations were just super cool i thought though. doesn't take much. 

 i did tick off one ER RN.  he can be moody.  i was orienting a girl to holds and teaching her to work with the charge and he just came back to give report on a patient we weren't aware was coming back...we already had another patient coming so i said i hadn't heard of this transfer from the charge and he got all pissed and says, "well I'm telling you now!!" so i didn't take report from him and he left.  he literally only had that one patient for 2-3 hours...i was teaching her to watch how things are going in the main ER...if they have plenty of rooms and aren't busting then you can take more time to get the patients settled in and catch up a bit between patients...if they are slammed then you may have to take the patients all at once and just deal with it. everyone seemed to shuffle through the back and mention that this RN was bitching about me not taking report to everyone. 

 according to his co-workers bitching is not new to this particular RN...he is the same one that informed me that he was armed and ready for civil war...clearly lacks coping skills and/or the ability to compromise on anything.  he watches a lot of fox, just saying. 

 okay this one above really does look like an alien...it's got eyes and everything!!

 want to do more painting tomorrow night i guess.  will just do the back wall.  still sorting out color plans in my head.  the lighting is bad right now in kitchen. it looked like it was a totally different blue when i first started putting it up...when i got to a side wall it started to look like the right blue. strange...it was the right blue.  no lights up yet, just the spot light.

 off to bed...a bit sad to not be with family.  only so much you can do from this far away...so happy they are there and that they have been able to be such a support for my niece and her family...have fun everyone, eat well!  I did stop by Great Harvest bread the other day...really wanted something baked!!  :-) 

thankful for: a.  my sister and her son who have been a blessing to SH.  b.  my brother and his family for making the drive north for added support.  c. a few days off to recover and paint...also thankful for progress in the kitchen...it's so exciting!!