Poof! The electric power in our house was turned off for a few hours to allow gas lines to be run into what will be our new laundry room (formerly the game room). The relocation of the laundry room is the first major step in a plan devised by several enterprising brothers to organize the basement into coherent residential, recreational, and work areas. Next, the former laundry room will be converted into a bedroom. Then, the Catacombs (currently a bedroom) will be converted into a TV room. This frees up the current TV room for game tables such as foosball and billiards. (The pool table is currently disassembled from when it was moved out of the new laundry room; needed repairs will be performed later, before reassembly.) The end result will be a larger contiguous recreational area, and more easily controlled access to basement rooms and work areas during parties. It's a swell idea, progress is good, and I look forward to seeing the completed basement.

Power was restored in time for Stubs and Coach to cook a fine dinner of meaty pasta. It looked less than picturesque, but it tasted plenty fine.

With G-Nate and Hanko, made a quick but much-needed stop to purchase underwear (our laundry machines are temporarily unavailable), then fueled up at BS&G, where tha H-Dog played Crazy Taxi for the new low price of 75 cent. I can dig!

During the 3.5-hour ride to Cincinnati, we listened to some of my favorite tunes— Brahms, Liszt, Bach, Rachmaninov — and I explained some background for the pieces I knew especially well (e.g., from having played them). Henry complained that it was unfair to make him listen to these pieces in a moving car because their intensity of emotion made him want to get out and run around. Will this stored energy result in his running noticeably faster tomorrow? What a find that would be: classical music not only makes you smarter, but also more athletic! The medical journals would be all over that.