Brent Pirolli's

On Monday the 16th the basement was shored and backfilled with stone. You can see the boards all still in place which reinforced the basement walls during the backfill process. They remain there for a day or so until the concrete has had time to harden a bit more. In the meantime, stone was poured for a temporary driveway as well as where the porches and garage floor will be poured later. The steel beams and support poles were delivered today and the first floor lumber is supposed to arrive tonight as well. Tomorrow they will start the framing process and it will be completed very quickly!

The wall moulds were removed and the exteriors of all basement walls have been waterproofed and those that needed to be have been insulated with a fiberglass insulation.  We also have stone on the basement floor and OUR FIRST WINDOW!!!  It will sit like this now until Monday the 16th when it will be shored and backfilled with stone and then framing will start two days later.

January 10, 2006 – Basement walls were poured today and now they must sit for a week before any framing can take place on top of them.  In the meantime, the moulds will be removed on the 12th and a water-proofing spray and fiberglass will be put on the walls to avoid moisture from being able to come through the cement.  On Monday the 16th they will shore up the basement (re-inforce the walls from the inside) and backfill with stone on the outside of the walls, covering with dirt at the top… then on Wednesday the 18th, they will start framing out the house and hope to have the framing done in 10 days.  As Kraig said, “No one gets paid for down-time!”

Things are moving pretty quick… Thanks to our host with the most… Kraig Mackett.  He’s an old friend of mine who is building this house for us.  He’s a stud. So much so, that I have to pronounce it STUH-UHD… so as not to hurt my tongue.

Today they set up the wall moulds for the basement walls to be poured.  They should be pouring those tomorrow if all goes well.  Here are some pictures of the process.  In these you can see that they had them all set up around the main basement area but hadn’t started the framing around the garage or front porch yet.  Once they pour tomorrow it will have to set for about 5 days before they backfill in the dirt/stones around the walls and then they can start framing out the house!

They framed and poured the concrete footers today.  This has to cure for a couple days and has to be inspected by the city before the basement wall moulds can go up and be poured.  That is slated for Monday the 9th at the earliest.  In the meantime they will probably put stone down on the ground around the footers.

So I went out to the lot on Tuesday to take pictures of the land prior to the digging which was scheduled for Wednesday… and what do I see when I arrive?

So I guess them getting a head start isn’t a bad thing! WOOT!

Phantom was pretty insane… The 2,700 seat theater was sold out and what we thought were 4th row tickets turned out to be front row… Apparently the first three rows were removed for the orchestra pit.  We sat completely front row center.  If I were to extend my right arm I would have been punching the conductor in the back of the head… and man I thought about it…  It was SWEET.

Proctor and Gamble Hall
at the Aronoff Center

The cast was rather star studded as it had Marie Danvers and Gary Mauer playing the roles of Christine and The Phantom… both of which starred in the Broadway version of the Phantom… in fact… 8 out of the 9 main characters were all with the Broadway company of this show at one point or another, and are now on the U.S. tour.

The chandelier dropped within about two feet of my head before it swung forward to the stage.  The pyrotechnics were rather hot…. literally…   The one scene where they are trying to trap the phantom by placing guards all around the theater landed a guard directly in front of Sarah.  She could have smacked him on the face…  He fired a gun (which was NOT expected) and it was rather loud being about 3 feet from our faces.

The only downsides to being that close were as follows:

1)  It was sometimes difficult to see things happening upstage as the stage was about a foot higher than our heads when seated.  This wasn’t much so it wasn’t a huge deal.

2)  The phantom sometimes had scenes in the rafters which were directly above us.  I could look up and see a light on the rafters with the occassional outstretched hand or a cape go whooshing by… but we missed some of that.  This too was pretty scarce so it wasn’t a big deal, though we feared to look up for the danger of actor spit in the eye.

3)  The conductor made this really annoying grunt noise and sniff each beat he detected…. While this was only audible in the quiet moments, it really took away from the mood and made us laugh a bit.   Still, what a story to remember…. the Meistro with his own techno show going on in his head at all times.

Overall it was a GREAT experience and we had a blast.  We’re going back in a few months to see Les Miserables.  That should be a riot too… at least that show our seats are in the front row of the first balcony.

Mom:

Thanks for all the prayers and phone calls I’ve gotten the past week.  My mother was released from the hospital on Friday night.  She has to give herself injections for the next week and will be on blood thinner pills for years… possibly the rest of her life…  The blood thinners are to prevent future clots.  Her current situation hasn’t improved much though.  The clots are all still there and the doctors sent her home for the holidays and are pretty sure the clots won’t move since they are getting so old now.  They think they’ve attached themselves to the walls of her veins and will remain there until they eventually dissolve.

I can’t say I’m super excited about that judgement on their part, but they’re the doctors!  She’s still at risk of one breaking loose and travelling to her lungs or heart… so that’s not good.  But they think she’ll be ok if she takes it easy.  She’s off of work for a month and is supposed to relax.  I guess we’ll see what happens.  I’m kind of annoyed that there is a surgery they COULD have done to put a filter in her vein so tht IF they moved, they’d be trapped and couldn’t cause any damage.  The procedure is a quick 15 minute outpatient surgery… but they decided to not do it.  If it were up to us, it would have been done.  Let’s hope they’re right about it not moving… or else I’ll be REALLY mad at the doctors if something bad happens that they could have prevented.

Church:

We had our 6 Christmas Eve services last night… had 10,403 people there throughout the day… along with a news crew.   All went well with no MAJOR blowups of equipment.  We had 4 overflow seating areas in various places…. chapel, classrooms, atrium… all with video projections of the service and audio being piped in live.  Though we had those all in use at one point or another, it couldn’t compare to being in the auditorium.  The band and lights… the video and sound… all rocked.  Major props to those who were involved in planning, practicing, and giving up of their time to volunteer to make that all a success.  Hundreds of folks prayed to recieve Christ as their personal Lord and Savior that day.  One of whom is the mother of the guy playing drums that night.   It’s so awesome to see that happen and know that God used you to play a role in the experience that led them to Him.

Phantom of the Opera:

We’re going to the in-laws’ today through this week… and are seeing Phantom of the Opera on Wednesday night.  That should be cool… I’ve only seen it once and I was a little kid, so I remember very little about it.  Let’s hope I don’t get a chandelier dropped on my head.

My mother is in the hospital… blood clot in her deep vein of her leg. 

If it moves it could cause a heart attack or stroke, so please be praying for her and the doctors that are treating her.

So I was hauling laundry back from across the parking lot today… 3 loads… all in one trip (that’s the only way a REAL man can do it) and it was snowing pretty good with about an inch of slush and ice on the ground already.

When I get back into the apartment, Sarah asks, “Did you bring it all back in one trip?!?!”

To which I responded…. “It was beautiful.”  I set everything down and removed my shoes and jacket…. and continued talking with a very delayed and heroic tone that you’d only hear from Bill Cosby as Cliff on the Cosby Show.  I retold the tale and motioned with my hands…. “It was beautiful,” I repeated, “Children were in awe….. Women… dropped to their knees… and burned with desire and envy of such a man… and Men… everywhere… looked…. and hid their faces in shame…  For they knew they couldn’t have lived up to such a manly feat.”

Sarah stared at me with the “you’re a dork” look on her face.