Old people should be shot at birth.

If you live in the upper Midwest you may frequent Panera Bread. If you live in the southwest you can go to Paradise Bakery. If you move from one place to the other you'll notice the similarity between the two. Turns out that back in late '06 Panera bought controlling interest in Paradise. We think the latter has a better menu but we like them both. And this morning at Panera was especially nice!

I worked on the Norder estate some today. Old houses present some special challenges when it comes to maintenance, but there's no substitute for the character that comes with a century-old home (or in this case one built in the 1860's).
Yesterday afternoon I drove by our old home (in both senses of that term) on Perry in Hudsonville. We lived there for 5 years and I worked all of that time restoring it inside and out to a measure of the grandeur it had when built in 1914. It really is a piece of architectural art, too beautiful for us to pass up, even if it was a bit of a wreck when we bought it. We sold it in July of '06 for $190,000. To help with comparisons to where you live, the house had three stories plus a basement. Six bedrooms, a parlor, formal dining room, oak and maple floors, 10" wide oak crown moldings made up of six different pieces, etc., etc, for a total of 3,300 square feet.
It's back on the market! And listed for $169,900. I'd love to know the story behind that! They've lived in it for less than two years and are trying to get out. Could be financial, but there was an incident last winter that makes me wonder if the work it takes to maintain a grand old home is more than they can deal with. There's always something to fix and it usually requires a creative solution. For example, today I installed a ceiling light in the girls' bedroom. No electrical box, no ground wire, just two old wires, both black, with braided insulation sticking through the plaster ceiling.
But give me a 100-year old home anytime!

This afternoon I went to watch Savanna's dance class. The teachers who work with little girls learning to dance have an extra patience gene somewhere on their DNA.
But never mind little girls, you MUST check this out!
Chinese pas de deux
Did you watch that without an audible expression of amazement?

If blind people wear dark glasses, why don't deaf people wear ear muffs?