A new life; same as the old life?

Many of my American friends have never heard of, far less pulled a Christmas cracker, and those who have, have usually experienced the non snap version sold in the US, because although guns are OK, heaven forbid we put a little gun powder in a cracker! For those who are interested, and for the UK folks who may or may not know this (I just learned it today from a Christmas cracker!!), here is the history of the cracker. If you would like to see a few pictures from Christmas Day, click here . Tom Smith, a baker of wedding from Clerkenwell, London, invented the Christmas cracker in 1847. The events that led to these wonderful creations were quite a story. In 1940, Smith went to Paris and came across 'Bon bon', an almond sweet wrapped in paper that was twisted. He liked the taste so much that he began selling the 'new' sweets in London and they became very popular. Tom, who was always on a lookout for new promotion opportuniti...

Check out this article on the subject , but all over Chicago we see these signs. They vary in message and I think this particular one is one of the best/worst. The general intent is to avoid being sued, oops sorry I mean to avoid people being hit and injured by falling ice from buildings. Instead of simply warning you to stay away from the edge of the building, apparently 5 feet is about the best distance, this sign advises you to "watch". When I see that, to me, it implies that I should look up to see if ice is falling, upon which of course, I may get an icicle in the eye. The article is worth a look though because it talks about the general thinking around the topic.

So we are into the second week and things are progressing. Last week was of course all demolition, and this week starts off that way, but moving quickly to actual construction as you can see with some new walls getting framed in. There have been no major surprises yet, although some small issues like the bad header on the old door, poor plumbing work and extremely bad duct work. By the end of the week we are hoping for rough inspections, they new pocket door installed and the basic plumbing work done. The best thing here is that the contractor really seems to know what he is doing, unlike previous ones that have worked on this house, that much is obvious! We should be ready for tile in about 3 weeks, cabinets the week after. Check out the pictures to see the choices so far, door fronts, handles, dishwasher, oven, fridge, cooktop hood, under cabinet lights and floor tiles. Oh and don't forget to check out my photo 365 efforts by clicking on the links over to the right with the rota...