Parents Visit

It's been cloudy and cool aroud Colorado because of a couple of storm systems that swept through the eastern plains. Kate and I haven't been complaining though! These 70 degree days and 50 degree nights have been a real treat after the sweltering 100+ days we had a couple weeks back.

Side note - just got the results for my first exam for my Data Structures & Algorithms class that I took this morning. Aced it! W00t! :-)

Anyway, I mentioned that I would talk about my folks visiting last week. Well, they were passing through anyway following their nice three week vacation to the northeast (Vancouver, Seattle, etc). You can check out their website for more details and pictures. They decided to stop by and see us - and in graditude, I put them to work. ;-)

As posted in a previous blog entry, one of our stairs gave way, forcing us to shore it up with metal braces. Well, my folks offered to help us do some repair work - maybe even replace the whole thing. My Dad's quite the carpenter - I think he was even looking forward to such a project. When they arrived, though, we all agreed that the work involved would take more time than they had to spare. So instead, my Dad figured out a way to secure the steps for a little while.



Dad drove in four to six long screws at an angle into the bottom of each stair and into the wood of the frame. When he was done, I walked up and down each of the steps, trying to get them to move - they don't.



This should keep me and Kate safe and secure for some months. My parents and I talked about it and since they were planning on visiting for Thanksgiving anyway, they might turn that into a long week trip and re-do the stairwell at that time. My Dad described his idea for rebuilding the stairs and Kate and I amended it slightly to suit our preferences. So, now the plan is to hold tight and re-do the whole staircase on Novemeber.

While they were here, I talked my Dad into helping me replace the broken door on one of the kitchen cabinets.





I mean, you know, while he was here... ;-)

In the meantime, I took my parents to see some places around Fort Collins. The night they arrived, we (including Kate) went out to Johnny Carino's for dinner. Yum! I couldn't finish my Johnny's Combo so I was able to have leftover lasagna that weekend. :-)

The next day, we went to El Burrito for lunch, which was great because that's my hands-down favorite Mexican restaurant in Fort Collins.



I gave them a brief tour of CSU campus (through the Engineering Building, across the quad and into the Lory Student Center).






After that, we did a little shopping at Wal-Mart then had dinner at Hunan's, Kate and my favorite Chinese spot in Fort Collins. We even remembered to bring back some beef & broccoli for Kate (who had to work all day). Kate and I had enough leftovers to eat twice more over the weekend. :-)



Since they were so close to home after being away for so long, my folks decided they were antsy to get back to Colorado Springs and thus headed out the next morning. It was probably just as well, since Kate and I were working the entire weekend - we wouldn't have been able to see much of each other anyway.

BUT Kate and I decided to visit them in the Springs in a couple of weeks. It'll probably be a whirlwind visit, as usual, but it should still be cool. :-)

So that's all the news about my parents' visit! It sure was great having them here!



Thanks for reading! Have yourself a fabulous day!