Visit by the Plutas

We had a very productive weekend which was mostly accomplished through a visit by the Plutas, a family friend from Wisconsin. Matt, Barb and their son Adam came drove down Thursday and stayed through Sunday.

I threw out the idea to them about coming down for a visit...and since Matt likes stuff to do, I put together a list of projects where I needed an extra hand or needed his expertise and equipment.

Since Leandra had to work on Friday and Saturday, Barb and Adam played a big hand in keeping an eye on Aria while Matt and I were taking care of projects. Here is what we finished (for the most part):

- Picked up and installed a new dishwasher. Delivered the old dishwasher to a salvage yard. (The old dishwasher needed $200 in repairs and we opted to spend the extra money for a new one. At least we would have a new appliance in the house if we moved.)
- Addressed a leak in the roof. We had a downpour the day after we patched it up so I'm hoping that everything is fixed.
- Fixed the recoil on a chainsaw (three times!) and cut down part of a birch tree in my front yard that was dead, as well as cut and move the logs and branches.
- Cut and installed trim in the upstairs bathroom and downstairs living room. (We ran out of trim so I am going to have to finish up a small bit later on.
- Did some yardwork, mostly weeding my garden and putting some mulch down where it was getting low.

This may not seem like a lot, but these were pretty time consuming projects. Along with some general errands that needed to be run, our time was maximized for most of the weekend.

I can't say how much I appreciate their help. By myself, I would have been gettign things done through the process of trial and error...with an emphasis on "ERROR." Throwing my daughter into the mix would have had me wokring to get these done in small bits. With Barb and Adam watching over Aria, Matt and I were able to plow through each of these tasks.

We did make sure to have some fun over the weekend. On Saturday night, we drove out to Bosse Field out to watch an Evansville Otters baseball game. While Leandra and I have been to a couple of games over the years, it was the first for the Plutas...and Aria. Luckily for us, they won.