Late October

We invited some friends over to see what the cake was going to be like.  So,

I ended up having two birthday parties!

The Stillmunkes family and the Resch family--who used to live in Cedar Falls.

It's fun having people here that we already knew. 

The inside of the cake.  The cream layer tasted fine, but had gelatinous fruit pieces--

we weren't expecting that!  (I didn't eat any of the pink stuff either). And just a day later,

the left-over cake started smelling fermented.

Makes you wonder, what is REALLY in that cake?

 Two weeks ago, there began to be a big flurry of activity on the building

that faces our entrance.  Each day we walked past ugly corrugated steel fencing

out to meet the car or the school bus. 

Sunday afternoon they were laying bricks, and still had quite a section to fill.
They were still putting on the marble facings around the pillars on Saturday.

Then Monday morning, suddenly! the fencing is gone. The brick is still wet.
But there's obviously an open house going on.  Beautiful girls in gold dresses.
New plants.  Red carpet.  Nice signage.  

My big question is, how good is the quality of work that is done that fast?  

Sure it looks good right now,

but in a year, the paint will be peeling and the bricks heaving out of their spots.  

At least, that's the case with all the rest of Warner Gardens development.

Ah, China!  If only you understood quality workmanship!

The make-it-right guys on HG-TV would have fits over what gets done here.

Concrete blocks are not sealed before mudding over them

and then painting.  So we get water stains at the base of interior walls

(which shouldn't have any moisture in them, but somehow do), and the paint

bulges and then pulls away from the wall.

The British couple in the apartment downstairs said that whenever it rains,

water comes off our patio, and runs through their ceiling.  A couple of light

fixtures started shorting and sparking from water dripping OUT of them.  

(How nice to think that there are electrical sparks happening under our floor.)

I've started saying that China might take over the world,

but it will all fall apart shortly thereafter.

Our new car already has some rattles in it.  But at least the DVD player is fixed.

Of course, why it was broken, when the car came to us 

directly from the factory, is a mystery to me.

Some things aren't meant to be understood, I guess!