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Really, absolutely, finally ready

Finished a last few piddling details on the first floor slab today.
Needed to box in the shower and tub drains so that the concrete
doesn't surround them.  Also used that spray foam to fill in a few
holes in the blue(pink)board.  Snapped a chalk line four inches above
the footers.  We're really, absolutely, finally ready for Dennis
Sharlow to come pour the floor.

In other breaking news today, we prepared the footers for the garage
and entryway.  This involved quite a bit of work with a transit, to
ensure that they're level.  The forms are 2"x10" boards.  They have
stakes to hold them in position, plus spacers to hold them together.
Two reinforcing bars (rebar) get hung from the spacers after they're
bent around the corners and the separate 20' lengths are wired
together.

We could *almost* pour the garage footers tomorrow as well, except
that concrete is more expensive on a weekend.  So we'll wait until
next week.  One little near-mistake: Stan forgot that the garage and
entryway are on separate levels and need their own footers.  It
wouldn't have been the end of life as we know it on this earth, but
it's nice to have all the rebar wired together and do one continuous
pour.  Makes the concrete stronger.

Dave Bray (hi Dave!) came out today and inspected the place.  He
promised to send me a piece of email with the exact (+-300') latitute
and longitude of the house, but I haven't gotten it yet (hint, hint).
He's got a snazzy new GPS receiver.  He solved one puzzle for me: A
GPS receiver can tell you the direction you're heading, right?  But
only when you're moving!  It computes your change in position and
assumes that you're heading that way.

Given that our property is only 1000' wide, about all it would tell us
is "yup, you're on your property".  However, the system is actually
accurate down to +-30', except that the guv'mint purposely introduces
errors unless you've got a military GPS receiver (which presumably is
just like consumer GPS receivers only they cost a lot more).  I guess
this is to ensure that, if someone uses GPS to position a bomb, it
will be up to 300' off position.  It's really gratifying to know that
a bomb might only rend me limb from limb instead of rending the flesh
from my bones.  Phwew!  I would be so much less dead.
-russ