Me too, me too

Needless to say, Katie enjoyed her lunch thoroughly too...

Meat!

Then again, the meat from this Philly Cheesesteak ain't so bad either...

Noodle king

For Cameron, few things beat a bowl of plain noodles.

Art time!

Katie and Cameron enjoy some art time at their grandma's. Katie looks so uncharacteristically studious on this shot...

Mmmm...corn on the cob

The kids are very excited about this season's corn on the cob, as you see from this picture.

Tulum

We took a half-day sightseeing trip to the Mayan ruins at a city called Tulum. Fedora and Felicia (our CEO's wife) enjoy a brief respite from the blazing sun as we prepare to hike back to the nicely air-conditioned bus.

Our kind of vacation

We were blessed to spend a week in Cancun as a reward for the many late nights, early mornings, and weekends Frank's invested in helping his company's sales force close deals. It was our first trip away from the kids since we started having kids lo these many years now. It was the perfect break: sleeping late, taking naps, having food prepared, and just relaxing.

We got the opportunity to take a cooking class in a fabulous kitchen at the hotel. They had a co-marketing thing going with Viking, and it was in this entirely Viking-outfitted kitchen that we made "spa cuisine" (the Mexican class with full). On the menu: a chilled avocado soup, a tropical fruit smoothie, and a grilled mahi-mahi with grapefruit relish on top of a bed of cous cous. Fun and delicious.

Sitting on the dock of the bay

Or something like that...

Yes, we love our new kitchen too!

Though Colin does point out that our old kitchen worked just fine too. Of course, he never had to cook, clean or store stuff, so the old kitchen was probably enough for his needs...

Almost there...

It feels like we've been saying this for a long time, but we really are almost done with the remodeling. Stay tuned for an invitation for a house re-warming party! Since the last update, the lights are in, the cabinet pulls are (nearly) all installed, and we've started moving our stuff back in.

There is dramatically more storage space in Kitchen 2.0, thanks to the higher ceiling, reclaimed dead space, and the bar sink we got rid of. The highlight of my weekend was getting a junk drawer organizer with a space for everything. Yes, I really am OCD about things like that.

Katie in the pit

Fun! Thanks for inviting us, Rachel!

Action Colin

Here's Colin leaping into the pit o' sponge blocks at Rachel's birthday party. All the kids had a fabulous time.

The bathroom is almost done as well. All that's left is the installation of the mirror, the shower door, and the medicine cabinets. The poor painters probably applied 6 coats of the red paint to give it a smooth, even look. That's one of the things we appreciated about our contractor Rano: he was even more of a detail freak than us!

A different vantage point

We flirted with just about every possible flooring material (bamboo, cork, vinyl, laminte, linoleum, synthetic stone, and more!). In the end, though, we elected to extend the wood floor into the back. I'm glad we did, as it gives the kitchen + family room a continous look. It's a little more vulnerable to water and a little more work to maintain compared to vinyl. But we do like the look and feel (warm to the bare foot!).

Almost there...

The work on the house is almost done! All that's missing in the kitchen is a few of the cabinet pulls (we decided on a different size after seeing them up close) and the two pendant lights (you can see the holes waiting for them in the ceiling over the peninsula).

The crew is also painting a bunch of things (the deck, the railing, the back of the house, the eaves underneath the roof), so our windows are covered up to keep them safe from wayward paint.

We've started moving stuff in. So exciting.

Sears is sending a replacement piece for the range which was damaged on the way in. They couldn't do the same for the fridge, mysteriously, so we're going to have to swap fridges. I feel sorry for the delivery guys. Apparently they don't make our model anymore, so we have to go pick an equivalent model. Go figure.

Afternoon snack at IKEA

Swedish meatballs and French fries straight out of the fryer. Mmmmm.....

Festive paper lanterns

Nice collection of festive paper lights at the IKEA cafeteria.

Swedish apple cake

Since Cameron and mommy didn't get to come, we got them a consolation prize: Swedish apple cake. Yum!

Mmmmm....ligonberry juice

Colin and Katie enjoy a shared sip of ligonberry juice during a recent jaunt to IKEA. Boy, was it crowded! But the Swedish meatballs, french fries, and ligonberry juice helped keep the kids from melting down.

They were quite looking forward to playing the ligonberry basket filled with grapefruit-sized plastic ligonberries, but alas, it was way too crowded. We did manage to get a $7 flat-bottom wok for our new stove, though. :-)

A little color

We had been contemplating leaving this side wall white, but Rano our contractor suggested matching the color from the wall behind the TV -- and it was a great idea. We love the colors are coming together.

Oh, by the way: we've posted the latest pics as well as pics of the old kitchen on Picasa Web. Alas, I didn't plan well enough to shoot pictures from the exact same angle. (BTW, Picasa Web raised its disk space limit to 1GB, so we'll post some of our pics there just because it's so easy to publish and manage. The rest of them will still be at Smugmug.)

Appliances at the bottom of the driveway

Here are the hardworking Sears delivery guys unloading the appliances from the truck. The kids demanded we keep the fridge box for fort-making purposes.

The other appliances

So close to having our kitchen back again!

The appliances are here!

The appliances are here. Alas, two of them were scratched on the way in. Hopefully Sears will make it right.

Yes, our fridge sticks out from the cabinets. We just couldn't stomach the idea of paying 25% more to get 20% less usable space just for the look. The wife wants ample storage space. :-)

Home stretch!

Yes, we're pleased the remodeling is almost done. Though it will be mildly disappointing to not say "hi" to the workers every 30 seconds. And play with their stuff. And run around with electrical outlets and such.