Tuesday, November 28, 2006

I Am Only a Little Stressed!

Back up to Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. I had to work (thank the stars!) which left Husband, Younger and The Boss at home. When I left both girls were up, awake and raring to go. Husband, not so much.
He had a pretty full day planned with the 2 of them, starting with going to the post office, then to the bank and Home Depot.
So I’m working away at work when my Nextel goes off. Seems Younger left her wallet in my car and needs it. Mind you, I told her the day before when I spotted it on the seat to ‘Put it in you purse’ only to find it STILL on the seat in the morning. I had tucked it into my coat pocket intending on leaving it in the house as The Boss had also left stuff in my car. But out of site means out of mind.
Anyway, I met up with them in the parking lot, handed over the aforementioned wallet and was greeting with tears on The Boss’s face. Why? Because Aunty wouldn’t sit in the back and she was stuck in the middle of the front seat. Oh and they had locked Husband out of the house. In his shorts. And laughed at him through the window.
I didn’t get home till almost 7pm after getting a snippy response about missing dinner and the battery being so low on my Nextel I could only give a short response. And I was heading home in Black Friday/Commuter traffic on major commuter routes as well.
I’ve already written about the start to my Saturday morning. Wait, it gets better! The pump did a great job and with the bulkhead door open the floor was dry in a reasonable time frame. So I started working on Mt. Washmore. I had did my usual of 1 load in the dryer with 1 load being washed, set the timer (so I wouldn’t forget about either) and set off casting on for a few projects while catching up on podcasts.
Timer went off so down to the basement I went to swap loads. The Boss came with and I asked her to empty the dryer while I pulled the load out of the washer. ‘Mema, they’re still wet’. Huh? No, they must be damp. NO, wet as when they went in.
Called Sears and the service tech will be here “Between 8 am and noon on Wednesday”. Great. Another day of leaving work early under the impression that the guy is waiting for me at the house only to get here and wait 3 hours more.
And Husband was on the final leg of completion of my new ‘workroom’ which needed to be cleared out so the carpet could be put down. And The Boss needed her hair washed before her mother showed up. And Younger and The Boss were nit picking each other about helping Husband.
Sunday, I awoke early to get to the laundry mat so I wouldn’t waste half my day waiting for a dryer and managed to get 3 loads done so none of us would be a: naked and/or b: wearing the same underwear for 3 days.
Younger went to take a shower later in the morning and came down to inform ME that she had taken a cold shower. Huh?! Of course, as I thought about it, the last time I had used any hot water was when I washed The Boss’s hair. So I informed Husband about said situation and went to take a nap. He woke me up a couple of hours later to let me know he was on his way to Home Depot to buy and new one, his plumber buddy was coming Monday to install it and should he get the same size or a bigger one?
Monday, again working away at work, Husband calls to let me know that plumber buddy is working close by and might be at the house way early then expected. The new water heater was still in his truck at work, he was on the Cape and I might need to get his truck back to the house and let the guy in. He’ll let me know. No phone call at all until I got home at 3:45 at which point I called him. Well, plans changed. Plumber buddy got called to another job and shouldn’t be here till after 5. Oh, and did I make it to the bank?
Husband gets home and I help pull the box out of the truck, go downstairs to help clear out around the old one and YUCK!
My first computer had been packed up for the move here 12 years ago. It was put on the floor and had stuff stacked up on it over time to the point I couldn’t remember where it was. Needless to say, I found it yesterday, wrapped in an old bathrobe (cushioning for the move). Now I’ve got another project on my To Do List – get that out of the basement and to someplace else without Husband knowing about it. Because you know what he wanted to do? Fire it up! Because it might still work!
I went up stairs to spin while waiting for plumber buddy to install the new water heater. Both came up in less than 15 minutes. Boy this guy is good! Nope, it seems that the level of water was such that the pilot light went out. Ok, so we are not out a good chunk of change but for crying out loud! Husband couldn’t have checked?!
So to recap, dryer went south and was repaired a little over a week ago, sump pump was unplugged causing the basement to flood putting out the pilot light on the hot water heater. Dryer went down again, causing me to haul wet clothes to laundry mat. I’ve discovered 3 old computers in my basement. I didn’t get a new, larger hot water heater. I still have to wait for repair guy to fix my dryer, car in acting up (forgot to mention that one). Christmas is coming and we just received our quarterly taxes ($$), water and sewer bill ($$), Homeowners insurance ($$$) and Flood insurance ($$$$) which are all basically due by January first.
Anyone want to adopt middle aged women? I am housebroken and come with a S.A.B.L.E.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS!

I am so pissed off right now if I tried to speak I’d be spitting. Over a week ago I had a repair person in to fix my dryer. He had a computer and other electric/electronic equipment with him to help diagnose what the problem was.
Anyway, it turned out to be the heating element (electric dryer) and it was replaced. I was glad to pay the $$$ to be able to dry my laundry at home and not have to make time each night to drive to a local laundry mat and spend more $$$ to dry each load.
Having to work yesterday with Husband and Younger home with The Boss needless to say, I’ve got Stuff to accomplish today and tomorrow. First and foremost is laundry. I mean it’s not bad but if I don’t keep on top of it, it’ll become Mt. Washmore in a hurry.
So, after a few errands which included buy a carpet for my new work space, I get home and grab the basket with the dirty clothes in it, head down the basement stairs and
What the *&^%$####!!!!!!!!
I have measurable water on the floor! Everywhere! A couple of my buckets I use to sort were over the other side of the basement. I drop the basket and call Husband (who was just pulling up to the house from his errands) and we grab flashlights to check out the damage.
(Here’s the story about that thing. It’s still the one that was installed when we bought the house 12 years ago and I’m always afraid that it will die when it is the most inconvenient! And because it hasn’t die yet, Husband won’t replace it with the pump I insisted he buy 2 years ago.)
With all the rain we got I was suprised I didn’t hear the pump going but I figured the ground was dry and we didn’t get our usual ground water upheaval. WRONG!
Here’s where I get pissed off. We opened the basement door and shed some light on the pump. I wig out . The *&^^%%$#@#$%^&&*!!!!!!!!!!! repair guy UNPLUGGED the pump! And never plugged it back in. I’ve got insurance that will cover any damage but that’s not the point.
This guy should have REMEMBERED that he unplugged something and made an effort to remember to plug it back in.
And Husband wonders why I get stressed out over “things”.

Monday, November 13, 2006

It's Not My Fault!

Dear limenViolet
The following is all your fault!
I was catching up on your podcast. I love you guy’s. Listening to you reminds me of being at knitting group at Mind’s Eye. A group I try not to miss too often. Talk to Husband about how ‘fun’ the extra week is between visits.
As I was listening and knitting and laughing and snorting WACK! Violet mentioned Mountain Color’s Bearfoot and her reaction to it!
Hello! Welcome to my obsession. This is not my #1 yarn but it is in my top 3 below Lucy’s hand-dyed.
I was headed out to a LYS to drop off the Chuppa I blocked Saturday (that’s a whole nuther story and what is sitting on the floor? Their shipment of BEARFOOT! I was not planning on buying yarn. I don’t need anymore yarn, especially sock yarn. I will be knitting with sock yarn after I’m dead if this keeps up.
Not only do I buy 3 skeins of Bearfoot, I also walked out with a skein of Cherry Tree Hill in greens/yellows that can only be described as “Can’t say they didn’t see you coming” bright.
I actually went SQEEE when I saw it. I couldn’t help it.
After listening to 3 plus hours of Yarn Porn and Bearfoot and having missed group last week (for a good reason) I was helpless.
Please do not mention any more sock yarn in your podcast.
Sincerely,
The Fibergoddess