Tile

Here's a couple photos of our finished tile - it turned out great!

Little Boy Names

Katie and I are struggling with what to name our son.  Family names are very important to us, and we're close to making a decision.  However, thus far we have decided not to name him any of the following:

My Liege - Katie couldn't imagine yelling at him when he was naughty "get your butt in here, My Liege"...

Riddick  or Blade - I think one of his grandmas has a crush on the main characters of these movies...

Buck Morris - Chuck Norris is copyrighted...

B. A. Baracus - This was actually his Dad's nickname briefly in elementary school...

Surely anyone who has kids can understand the challenge - I just thought I'd share part of our journey with all of you.

Dueling Banjos

I'm finally getting back to work on the house.  I picked up all the finish trim I'll need for upstairs.  The plan is to install the baseboard behind the vanity, get the vanity in place (and out of my way), install the wood floor, and then complete the finish carpentry and finish plumbing.  I debated about the best way to transport 16' to 17' pieces of MDF, and finally decided I should build a rack which allowed me to carry them over the top of the cab...  For some reason "Dueling Banjos" was playing through my head the entire ride home tonight.

It seemed to work really well, which is good because I noticed they gave me 3 pieces that were similar to what I purchased, but not quite right...  I'll have to truck them all the way back to Salt Lake this weekend and trade them for the right ones.  Yippee!

Kobe Beef Short Ribs and Little Boys

Katie and I found out that we're having a son!  Katie is in absolute shock as she was certain we were having a little girl.  I however don't have a clue what's coming, and am therefore feeling just fine.  I was so excited that I emailed all our immediate family from the exam room as soon as I knew.  Apparently emailing is not an acceptable method of informing family about this kind of news...  It made sense to me though - I wanted to tell everyone right away, but had to return to work immediately following our appointment, and basically worked 7am to 11pm daily, until this morning.  There will now be 3 little boys in our Utah family with Wiz & Brandon's new baby and of course my buddy Patrick.

I've continued to be way very busy with work.  We had a fam-trip at the hotel last Thursday through Sunday morning.  This is where we invite qualified meeting and event planners from our markets to come visit our hotel.  We fly them and a guest out, wine & dine them, take them skiing, give them tours of our hotels, tour them around the city, party at the Sundance Film Festival, etc.  It sounds like fun (and elements really are), but it's certainly work being "on" all the time.  I think the best part of this last weekend were the 10-hour braised Kobe beef shortribs prepared at the Grand America Hotel.  They were paired with a Turnbull cabernet from Napa, which is a terrific bottle of wine.

We elected a new pastor last week, and this morning he preached at Grace Baptist.  Apparently I screwed up the link on our church website so you can't listen to his sermon just yet, but it was a good, solid, biblically-based sermon on unity, that our church body really needed.  He's going to be great, and seems to be just what our church needed.  He, and the congregation have much work to do - please be praying for God's Kingdom and mission here in Bountiful, Utah.

Update

I haven't posted in a while because I've been so busy.  I've recently changed markets from the Midwest to the local Utah market and surrounding states.  I won't have to travel as much, and will be much, much busier.  I've been visiting most of our top clients with my colleague, who is leaving the local market and heading home to MN.  It's been nuts!  We've been spending about 3 hours per day visiting clients in and outside of the hotel, and trying to keep up with the pace of incoming requests for proposal in the office.

Brent finally finished our tile - it's gorgeous.  I've been working on lots of boring jobs on the house like sanding, priming, and painting.  I'll have to post a few photos this weekend.

Katie and I find out on Thursday whether we're having a boy or girl!

This weekend we have about 15 clients coming in from around the US to visit the hotels and Salt Lake, and hopefully book their huge programs.  I'll be working my old F&B hours Thursday through Sunday...

We hired a new Pastor, and I was voted in as a new Deacon for our church this weekend.  Please be praying for our little church - our new Pastor has a big job ahead of him, and so do we.

2nd Amendment!

Tonight my nephew Patrick received a lesson on his 2nd Amendment rights.  I was reminded recently that his Grandmother tried to trample his Constitutional rights, and felt we needed to correct the situation.  Here's Patrick posing with his quarry.

D - Luxe!

Our tile setter Brent Barney continues to exceed our expectations of quality.  A speed-demon he's not (nor is he exactly cheap), but he makes sure all the prep-work and planning is perfect before he sets one tile.

2nd bathroom - still needs to be grouted.  Unlike our first bathroom remodel with vintage hexagonal tile, these tiles are layed flawlessly.  The grout lines between tile mats are perfectly even wall to wall.  I should email this photo to our first contractor (on our Harvard house) so he can see what it SHOULD look like.

My new shower - also before grout.  They're hard to see, but the window sill, soap shelf, and shampoo cubby are finished with carrera marble.

Marble floor in the master.  The shower curb will be capped with 3 solid marble pieces.

Mario is very happy with his new bathroom floor too, but is apprehensive that he might be bathed in that new shower.  Surely I'll feel like I'm living in the Grand America Hotel - 5 Di - a - mond!