Cleaning out the basement

Well, we survived Sunday without taking on any more water. Today is clean out the basement day in our neighborhood. The piles of stuff at the curb are growing and growing. It is kinda funny and kinda sad to see everyone dragging all sorts of things to the curb. Sad because, well obviously people lost a bunch of stuff. But funny because it is just wild to see what people had stashed away in their basements. Ed has banned me from leaving the house because each time we've gone out this morning I've said "oooh, I could use that in our house" or "I could clean that up a little and make it work". I guess I have a little too much of my dumpster-divin' dad in me. Our friend Charlie came over this morning and helped Ed tear up the carpet and pad and pull it out to the curb. Ed mopped everything up and is drying it out with fans. I think Charlie is going to cut the paneling in the basement and replace some of it where there was some water damage. I wanted to rip it all out and put up studs and drywall, but ol' tight-fisted Ed said no way. :) So we are going to do the best we can with mis-matched wall paneling and a chair rail.

In other news, I took this hilarious video of Joel working out on the countertop the other night. Richard Simmons look out!