Sunday, June 8, 2008

Andy's visit to the cottage and Memorial Day weekend

The weekend after our Dallas trip, Andy stopped in for a quick weekend at the cottage. He got in on a Thursday afternoon. Phil picked him up at the airport, they came and got me at work, and then we stopped along the way to get Grandma Becker.

As usual, there is lots to do at the cottage. On Friday Phil and Andy had the boat delivered to the boat ramp and drove it back to the cottage. Mom and I went up to a greenhouse called Shutters where they have beautiful fuschia plants. We picked up one for her birthday. Then Norb came over in the afternoon as the guys had to get the pier settled back on the sand. Norb brought over a tool hooked up to the hose that helps get the pier in place. Hmmm, not a lot of water pressure, and more water IN THE HOUSE than in the hose. Yup, we had a frozen pipe that had burst! When the water was turned on the water went into the house behind the dry wall and all over the carpet in the basement. So, the next project was shop vacing the water off the carpet and turning on fans full blast. Poor Andy, he always seems to get work to do when he comes and sees us.

Andy also got chance to clean muck and mire out of our gutters as well as install concrete stepping stones on the side of the driveway. At least he has stories to tell when he gets back home.

Unfortunately the carpet and pad were still soaked on Saturday so we had to peel back the carpet. Not good. Saturday night we went with Norb and Karyl up to Plover for dinner at Chili's and then back to the cottage for Norb's birthday celebration.

We left on Sunday keeping our fingers crossed that this did not turn out to be a huge fiasco. We had to get Andy back to O'Hare for a 5:30p flight and had to drop Grandma off beforehand.

Ask Andy how he did with 20 questions - He will tell you that his Mom cheats - but really she comes up with some pretty good things to make him guess at.

On Monday we called the insurance company to set a claim in motion, and finally got a restoration company out on Thursday. They had to pull the pad and then set up lots and lots of fans to dry this whole thing out.

Based on the activities, we decided not to go up for Memorial Day weekend, as we had more than enough to do here in Illinois. And, with all those fans going, it would not have been a fun relaxing weekend. So, lots of stuff was accomplished here, as well as seeing a movie (Indiana Jones), grilling out, and some R & R time.

Life always seems to be quite exciting at the Becker household!

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