I don’t think he’s actually 39, since both of his daughters are older than that, but when I asked how old he was today, that’s what Amanda’s grandfather told me.  He spent his entire day, at least from 11:00 to about 7:45, working on my counter tops.  On his birthday!  I felt bad about that, but I’m so grateful to have family that cares that much.

I wasn’t able to help out for most of the day as I was working, but Amanda did help take the counter tops off after she got home from work and I did lend a hand here and there, especially after I finished working.

It was quite a job, and since you know I like to be detailed (read: bore you to death), I’ll try to explain it all.

As you may have already read, Peggy and Earl bought us a new stove, but it was an inch too wide for the space in our counter.  The width of the counter was connected by a backsplash and there were “walls” of the cabinets enclosing the area with something similar to particle board.  What Earl ended up doing was taking out the cabinet walls and disconnecting the counter tops.  He then cut about half an inch off either side of the front of the cabinets then cut the backsplash to create two separate sections of the counter and trimmed about half an inch off of those as well.

Writing it out, it doesn’t sound nearly as complex as it was.

So what else happened today?  Well, it rained incessantly from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.  I think it was a hurricane anyway.  There was flooding in some areas, but we were fine here.

A few Milly notes on the day.  First off, she had a poopy diaper upon waking up, which is a rarity.  She usually has a morning poo, but it’s almost always shortly after eating.  Today though, she had a second poo while she was eating.  So that was fun.

At one point I was doing some work and looked over to where I’d set her down in her swing.  I glanced over at her and saw that she was looking at me through the supports of the swing with a huge grin on her face.  I can’t tell you how sweet it was.

I’m in the process of installing Windows 7 right now on the laptop.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, so I’m looking forward to checking it out.  If I like it enough I’ll probably go ahead and hook the desktop up with it too.

Amanda, despite the vigor she displayed in assisting her grandfather earlier in the day, wasn’t feeling well this evening.  She even took a nap with Milly for a little bit, and Amanda’s not a napper.  She headed off to bed before Milly’s dinner was prepared at 7:30.  I hope she feels better in the morning.

A great white shark was seen about a mile off the coast of Wrightsville Beach.

Zach Dotsey