Handy Men

2010 has started off a bit rough as far as the functionality of our house is concerned. A few weeks ago, the kitchen sink disposal quit working. Thinking that we had accidentally broken the on/off switch somehow, Matt decided to replace it this weekend. What an ordeal that was! After a couple trips to home depot to get the right switch, and finally locating our breaker box (which is on the outside of our house?!?), we were ready to get to work. We discovered that our breaker box is not properly labeled when Matt got his first taste of electric shock while unscrewing the old switch. So we turned off almost every circuit in the house just to be safe! Unfortunately, after all was said and done, the disposal still doesn't work.
In the same day, we found out that our hot water heater went out! The first two showers of my new year were icy cold. Let me tell you, there are not many things on this earth that I despise more than cold showers. After some investigating in the basement, we found out that our water heater was leaking water. We decided to call the emergency maintenance number "just in case the leak got worse." (Hello: After two cold showers, I would consider just about anything an emergency to get my hot water back! :) )
The maintenance man came Sunday morning and finished fixing the heater just in time for us to head off to the Chiefs-Broncos game. (more about that later) I honestly didn't intend to blog about our household woes today, but it provides a perfect transition to another "Rewind" blog: Matt's dad's visit back in early December.
Having a little spare time after his recent retirement, Matt's dad came out to visit us for a few days. He and Matt spent a lot of time doing "handy" things around the house like repairing electrical cords that Perdi severed off during her puppyhood (including my favorite lamp, which I am thrilled to have working again!) and building a little TV stand for our bedroom so that we could see our TV over our huge tall bed. It was so nice to have all of those little things taken care of so that I wouldn't have to think about them anymore!
Perhaps the thing that I personally am most thankful for, is the help and research Bill provided in getting new tires for the Civic. We got some great new tires for a super price. Even the service people at Sears were impressed at the deal we got! And it was perfect timing too...we got a pretty big snow storm the following week and the Civic drove like a whole different car! I felt so safe, and I wasn't the slowest person on the road for once! :)
Well, we didn't make him work the WHOLE time! On Saturday, we went up to Fort Collins to do some brewery touring. The first place we hit up was the Anheuser-Busch brewery. I thought this operation only existed in St. Louis, but I was wrong! It was quite a fascinating facility.


It was a great day for a tour, even if it was a little chilly.


This sign records the total number of bottles and cans brewed by Budweiser to date. Pretty impressive!

The barrells of beer seemed endless! Down in the lager cellar, we learned about that addition of beechwood bark is what gives Budweiser its distinctive taste. We even got to take a piece of the bark as a souvenier! Perdi enjoyed destroying mine when we got home, which is primarily what took it for in the first place.

We were fortunate that on the day of our visit, we could go visit the Clydesdales in the stables and even get pictures with them. They are a lot bigger than I imagined, and very beautiful creatures.

The stables were very clean and I was glad to see that the horses were taken care of well. Of course, when the stable is part of the tour, I wouldn't expect to see the horses living in squalor...

We all got a picture with Wheeler, one of the "retired" Clydesdales. He still gets to pose for pictures, but he doesn't have to pull the Budweiser carriage anymore.

Wheeler's feet were almost as large as this little girl standing next to him!

Enjoying the view outside the Bud brewery...

Next, we headed over to the O'Dell Brewery, which was quite a bit smaller. I suppose it's considered to be a microbrewery, although they distribute to quite a few states.

We started off with a sampler of a few of their beers. (I don't like the dark ones, but the rest are really good!)

Stacks and stacks of BEER!

The O'Dell tour was pretty informal...our tour guide had a beer in his hand the whole time and was really low key and invited questions at any time. I liked this tour better than the Budweiser tour, where a hired college-age gal didn't really have much enthusiasm for her job. The O'Dell guy was enthusiastic and engaging and entertaining.

Matt and Bill posed outside the O'Dell brewery. Awww.... :)

I couldn't end this post without a couple pictures of our pups. We must have done something to wear them out...these kinds of moments are pretty rare!

The beagles enjoyed some quality snuggle time on the couch...

They were sad to see him go!

I think we got Bill to the airport just in time. That snow storm I mentioned earlier was heading in, and it delayed his flight a little, but he got back to KC before the worst of it hit. It was great to have such a handy guy come visit...we had a fun and productive weekend all in one!