Happy Birthday to My Boys

Dear Boys - I am so proud of both of you! You have been a true joy and have become such wondeful men (although I hesitate to say grown men). You have surpassed my wildest expectations and should be proud of yourselves. You are kind and honest and have grown into adulthood without getting into any major trouble! That says a lot about you. Because you either played by the rules all the time or didn't get caught - and I don't want to know about not getting caught.

I love you
mom

Kitchen Appliances

Ya know, you buy a new appliance, you expect everything to be just peachy. I've replaced my refrigerator and washing machine both. Hooked them up, turned them on, a thing of beauty. I ordered a new dishwasher a few weeks ago. Paid extra for Saturday delivery, and no they didn't need to hook it up, we'd take care of that, just haul the old one out please. Friday night took the old dishwasher out and left it in the middle of the kitchen floor. I keptthe bottom rack thinking that I'd need to do dishes for about a day until we had time to hook the new one up. Planned to be home all morning saturday since they said the window of delivery was between 9:45 am and noon. Not a problem, there's always things to do at home. They arrived at 8:35 a.m. It was starting out to be a fantastic day! I should have known.

Once it was in, we rearranged our day a little, went out and did some work elsewhere and figured we'd hook the new one up that afternoon. Well, it was really Sunday before we got to it, but it was done relatively easily, turned in on to the rinse cycle as directed by the instructions, no leaks under the sink, the water filled up just fine, it is quiet even without all the sound barrier stuff ont the bottom installed yet. . . left it out just in case. No water underneath. High Five.

Then we noticed the cat's feet were wet. Huh? Then I stepped in a puddle of water off the the side and coming from under the cabinet. Not the side where the sink and hoses are. ARGGGGG. Stopped the dishwasher, unscrewed it from the wall, pulled it out, couldn't figure it out, everything underneath was dry! However, the was water dripping out of the grey plastic box on the left side. Huh? Got a long piece of hose, hooked the water line back up, ran the rinse cycle again and immediately water started puring out of the plastic box - the one with wires attached to it. Not good.

Called the store 800 number where we purchased it, on a sunday evening of a holiday weekend. phone was answered, calls routed to India. I have no problem with anyone, but they can't do anything but repeat how sorry they are that I'm having a problem and cut me off. It took 35 minutes and 6 transfers to get someone who could only say (after I'm sorry you're having a problem) that service would be able to come out Tuesday between 8:30 and noon to look at and it probably wasn't hooked up correctly. Please tell me, oh never mind.

So, here I sit, after paying extra to have a new appliance delivered over the weekend, missing work time waiting for a reapirperson. I've left the dishwasher in the middle of the floor so that he/she can run it and see what the problem is and not assume that we're too stupid to hook it up and make sure the connections are tight.

The only thing I'm really wondering about is was this actually a new appliance or did they send me one that was returned? When we opened the door for the first time, it definately had water in it. I assumed that was from testing it before packing, but I dunno.

Lawyers

Location: warm snuggly bed
Time: 5:24 am

Phone rings. Okay. Have a kid out of the country, an elderly mom who lives 8 hours away, and staff who have jobs this morning at various times. So of course answer the phone.

Attorney, oh, why did you answer the phone so early in the morning? Did I wake you up? I'm sorry. Blah blah blah. I need a reporter today at 1. we were in court yesterday and all showed up at 1:30 but the judge had 1 on his schedule so we have to go back today.

WTF????? It didn't occur to him to call yesterday? Well no, of course not. Attorneys are bad about that. Plan ahead? nah. I'll call and if they don't say yes right away, I'll whine until they do.

Well, it is the nature of the business, and it got me up. Now I've got to go get two other people up and tell them their schedule has just changed.

Happy Friday and have a good holiday weekend. Anticipating Rolling Thunder - YEAH!

Chocolate and Coffee Swap

I've joined the C&C swap on ravelry and my partner this time is from Fineland. HOW COOL IS THAT? Okay, maybe for those of you living there, not so cool, but I think it is great! I haven't traveled for years, and it is on my list of things to start doing in the next few years now that everyone is grown up, last kid will be out of college next spring and then my money is more mine. I started stalking her she has a website and I though hey, how cool is that? Popped into visit it. It is all in finnish. harump, don't think I'll be learning that language anytime soon and her english is really good so I'm feeling like that stupid american now, but maybe there is a way for me to get it in english. I'm going to work on that one. Of course if I was more capable on this stupid computer/innernet stuff, it is probably a simple fix. Well, I did figure out how to blog and it didn't take THAT long, just haven't figured it all out yet.

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10 Cities

Okay, I'm totally stealing someone elses idea from yesterday becuase I'm lazy and unorganized. Actually that isn't true, I've got the guest room pretty much cleaned out and ready to turn back into the guest room and just have to get the storage area organized/cleaned so I can empty that money pit of a storage facility we're renting. It was a stupid idea, but I'm getting rid of things I don't love/haven't used for a year, if I think I treasure its memory, I'll take a picture first. Why do we save things thinking we will need/use them at a future date or they may be valuable one day? That is such a total crock. Don't people watch antique road show? 99% of the junk that comes in is just that.

Oh yeah, cities
1. New York
2. Atlanta
3. New Orleans
4. Rome
5. Geneva
6. Omberamuague (okay I can't spell it but it is in Germany)
7. London
8. Seattle
9. Juneau
10. Chicago

Quiet

This morning, except for having to call my children to be sure they got up in time for work. LONG night and further commute now. It was a very peaceful morning. Putzed around the house, ran the dishwasher since I forgot last night, got a load of laundry done, vacuumed upstairs (and changed the bag in machine) and generally played suzie homemaker for a few minutes. DS will be home tonight, but I have high hopes that I'll be able to get a few more things done. If I set a goal for this week I know I won't meet it because for some reason if I have a list and try to get specific things done at a certain time, my inner princess rebels and nothing gets done, but I'll list away anyhoo. I've got to get the stairwell storage cleaned out and ready for more crap that is coming from the storage room so I can close that out. I want to get the guest room reorganized and furnished, the new dishwasher comes saturday sometime and I WANT TO KNIT

wallets

As I was helping my son pack to move I saw him put his id and bank card into his sleeve pocket and I asked where his wallet was. He looked at me blankly and said he hadn't had/used one in a long time. I just stared. by the time he was 4 he NEEDED a wallet. It was important I was informed and needed to have lots of cards in it. So, we made an ID card and covered it in plastic so that it was official, and whenever we had used gift cards and store "bonus" cards (we'll get into those another time) he kept them. Now he doesn't need one. Hm

For some strange reason as I was doing more of his laundry today to reached into a pants pocket. Out came my clean hand (thank god) and $12. Jackpot! That will cover the dry cleaning bill! Ain't gettin that one back baby. Added bonus, I quite sticking my hands into his pockets about the same time he was entralled with the wonders of a wallet. If it was alive it would surely be dead by the time the wash and dry finished, and if it was just plain gross then the washer could go another round with it. One time was more than enough.

Come to think of it, not only haven't I found his wallet while putting things away, I haven't seen his drivers license either . . .

Moving Day

DD moved into her own apartment today. Made three trips to carry stuff from her one room at home to her 1 bedroom apartment. Got rid of a few extra pieces of furniture. Rain held off and hopefully it will be a good day tomorrow to finish.

Kept the pedom. on and logged 15,508 steps!

Call me any time

I said those words to my DS a few days ago. He's overseas, his schedule is erratic and slammed full of things to do before he moves again.

I didn't really mean to call at 3:30 am. Well, I do want to talk to him whenever I can, but really. And when the phone rang I sat straight up. We all know that the phone ringing in the middle of the night is rarely a good thing. So the first words out of my mouth were are you okay and he said yeah. I then said you know it is 3:30 in the morning here don't you? He said yeah, you told me to call whenever I could. So. Had a nice 10 minute ish chat, then I went back to bed, he went to another class.

I'd better start going to bed earlier I guess

Step Count 8201

okay, so if nothing else, I'll write my count down every day.

I managed a 25 minute walk last evening, with my old kathy smith walking cd (not on my ipod) then cooled down with CSN. Missed getting to the rental office for DD so we're going to be there at 9am when they open. We'll both be late to work . . . well, I've got the phones so it should be fine.

Wednesday

Oops! well, missed my goal already. Oh well, we go on. DD got her apartment and will be moving next weekend. That leaves DS at home and stuff. It is going to be a very busy month, re-doing her room and turning it back into a functional guest room, closing out the storage room whose monthly rate has increased twice in less than a year. Then I've got to find a place for all the stuff that is still in it. Well, guess that means I will have to be ruthless with getting rid of the crap in the house that we don't need/haven't used in awhile. I had wanted to paint the laundry room over memorial day weekend but guess I'll be working on the other room instead. that will probably make me happier and then I can get my knitting room back into shape and kint in peace :)

Long Distance

I received a call from far far away this afternoon. Hope to receive many more. My next job is to research webcams and figure out how to install and use it. Technology is not always my friend.

Happy Mothers Day

From my children.

Happy Mothers day to all the moms in the world. May you have a day you want, enjoy and cherish.

Today begins the first day of DS1's reassignment overseas. My goal for the time he is gone is blog every day. HA! that will be a good one, but if he can serve, I can write.