DUFF STUFF: October 2007

The Duffs meet the Jetsons

Welcome the newest member of the family: Rosie the robot . Yep, that would be Rosie as in the Jetson's Rosie.

Here is Rosie, in her docking station recharging so she is ready to clean those floors late at night when the kids are sleeping tight. After she finishes cleaning she should return to the base for recharging. Since the entire downstairs is hardwood floors with sparse furniture the iRobot Roomba seemed like an actual useful bit of indulgence with the new home. This is an older model and so we got a good price on eBay. It has ways of not falling down the stairs and so far seems to be able to get out of any corner or tight spot that it has gotten into. It can just fit under the couches so it really gets around everywhere.

Here she is ready to vacuum up Andrew. The kids are definitely going to be careful not to leave their tiny Lego pieces out now!

Sunsets and Fall Color

This picture was taken from the kitchen sliding glass door looking west just before sunset.

This is a picture from the same location the next evening just a bit earlier.

The shagbark hickory in the front yard is a beautiful golden yellow right now. This picture was taken sitting on the futon in the master bedroom looking out of the window over the garage.

Sort of getting settled in to the new home finally

Here are some pictures of the new home a few weeks after moving. We still have many things to do but the house is starting to feel like home.

The living room is the closest to being done. All the walls need to be wiped down because there is a sooty layer probably caused by the gas fireplace.

The entryway and dining room are a bit sparse still. We are not sure what we are going to do with the area in the foreground.

It shouldn't be more than a week or two before we finally have the top kitchen cabinets installed. Right now many things are just stacked on the counter top.

The master bedroom: this room is a bit like the upstairs living room. Elijah likes to play with toys on the floor and one of the boys has "rest time" in here each day. Dawn does her exercising in this area with the ceiling fan on to cool her down.

Here is dawn steam vacuuming the boys room.

The guest room: we don't have bed frame or headboard for the mattresses yet.

The upstairs laundry.

Annas room in a rather clean state, or at least this means clean to her.

The Einstein's Toolbox warehouse and packing center in one of the three rooms downstairs.

New Duds for Sunday

We made our biannual trip to the outlet mall in Lodi to shop for clothes for the kids. We can usually get everything we need for the kids for at least six months and often buy for the following season since the out of season stuff is a fantastic deal.

For Anna, the big prize of the trip were the boots!

Rope swing in the front yard

I threw a rope over a branch on the large hickory tree in the front yard. Then I attacked an extra swing that I had for the swing set to make this tree swing.

Andrew looking a bit odd in the background. I think he is trying to keep warm. It was quite chilly on Thursday when I put the swing up.

Elijah's Birthday

Elijah turned 2 years old last Thursday. He had a sense that something exciting was happening as we put up a few balloons and the usual birthday banner. When I got home he was just running around pointing out the banner and saying "birday, birday birday"