A Few Choice Words

Holding pattern

2009-12-14T20:33:00.003-06:00

The dead dog was picked up today, the landlady found a half-buried cutoff valve that isolates the burst pipe so Bob has cold water at least, and the utility company (or minions thereof) were on the street today apparently moving toward installing the remaining phone lines in the neighborhood. This last makes me glad we already went down to transfer the phone line application to the new house, because if they showed up and installed here, then who knows what would be involved in getting it moved from here to a new location, plus there would be a transfer fee and stuff. The neighbor at the new house said that when she applied for a line (no idea how long ago), they came along and installed it really quickly. We're hoping that remains the case, since we'll be without Internet till the phone is installed, and then another week or so after the phone is in for them to send the DSL tech out. But it sounds promising enough that we're probably not going to transfer the cable over. I think. We sign the contract and actually take possession tomorrow, so we'll find out then if the owner painted at all. If he did, it all happened on Sunday (or today), so probably not.

In which our neighborhood says, "Oh, go on with you. Get out of here."

2009-12-13T20:46:00.003-06:00

Bob walked up to the corner store this afternoon and 10 minutes later came back in calling for me. A black lab-type dog that had been trotting down the street when he walked up the block was now lying in the road having fits.

Another neighbor came out and together we made the gesture of trying to give the dog the universally accepted home remedy for poisoned pets, which is milk and lemon juice, but the poor thing was way beyond actually ingesting anything, and only lasted another minute or two. We pulled it onto the sidewalk, but didn't really know what else to do.

The first thing I did was to go check on my friend's dogs, since I'm house/dog sitting for them this weekend. They were freaked out, having seen everything that had just happened, but they clearly hadn't been fed anything themselves. I checked the yard carefully for any tossed-in food, but didn't find any.

I suspect the classic milk & lemon juice antidote has some basis in reality for some poisons, but I seriously doubt it would have any effect against a substance that can kill a dog in five minutes flat. Nevertheless, in the name of doing something, I went ahead and squeezed a lemon into the dogs' dishes and poured in some milk, just in case whoever it was came along and tossed some more bait over the wall. I also explained to them that they should not eat anything unusual they might find lying around.

Another neighbor came out and asked what had happened, which I explained. She called the police or the municipality or whoever you're meant to call, but today is Sunday and I don't know how responsive they would be even during regular business hours. The dog is still lying there.

And THEN we were back in here, making Moravian stars and watching each other play the Harry Potter game, when Robin said she smelled something. I didn't notice it at first, and then it hit me. A burning insulation/plastic/electrical kind of smell. We checked everything in the house and didn't find anything.

The smell was stronger out in the garage, but fainter outside in the street. Eventually we concluded that the wind must have gusted the smell in, and the garage walls were keeping it from dissipating.

So we all went back to our various occupations for six minutes, until a pipe burst on the hot water tank in the utility space off the garage.

We got the water turned off out at the street, texted the landlady, and filled Bob's water bottle and...well, that's all really.

See, this could never happen at the new place, because it doesn't have hot water.

Update:

9:35 p.m. -- Bob and I are talking about plumbing and insulation and building codes and what kinds of fixing up the new place might require, when we hear a muffled crash from outside.

9:40 p.m. -- I'm on a kitchen stool, pulling down the still-drooping bits of plaster that didn't just fall off the porch ceiling.

Dear Universe:
We get it, we get it. We're going. How about you leave the place in decent enough shape that L. can re-rent it without feeling she needs to withhold part of our deposit, eh?

The continuing stoooooooooooooooooory --or-- It's amazing how much you can say about something when there's actually no news at all

2009-12-12T19:33:00.003-06:00

So, we had a brush with an alternate house today; the landlady said the house two doors down was for rent, and she thought it had three bedrooms. I went and talked to the lady, but it turns out it's only 2BR, is really a bit out of our price range (ie, $100/month more than the place we've taken), and is in fact already promised to someone else. So we'll not mourn that one, except to briefly acknowledge that it would have been exponentially more lovely than where we're going. But for $100/month, we'll get along without the exponential loveliness.

The girls are still campaigning for moving sooner rather than later, and I'm leaning that way myself; it will make for a big push over the next week and weekend, but it means that my week off between Christmas and New Year's can be used for settling in and resting up, rather than doing the actual move and then trying to recover while back at work.

Bob stopped by the place on his way home from work this afternoon and there was no sign of any painting or anything. Frankly I'm a little surprised, since the owner really didn't seem to want us to do it ourselves. But if he doesn't do it by the time we sign the contract on Tuesday, I'll tell him that we plan to. There's no point moving into the place and then bemoaning the smudgy, poorly painted, hospital walls.

In which "cream" is a difficult concept

2009-12-11T21:06:00.003-06:00

The children and their local grandparents have now seen and approved the house, and apparently the landlady got our letter giving notice on the second apartment last night, because there's a For Rent sign on our gate now. My neighbor down the street knows a community group that might want to buy our soon-to-be-spare refrigerator, and the phone company work order has been posted at the new place. I've spoken with the next door neighbor a few times now, and she seems very nice. There are seven houses on the cul-de-sac and at least three of them have very young children. Pamela, next door, is five and an only child. Michael, across the way, didn't want to eat his hot dog the day we were seeing the house for the first time, and was threatened with having his kiddie slide taken apart - apparently for the second time that day. Two children of maybe four and six were at the next house after Pamela's when we stopped by today. No sign yet of older kids.

The owner was ... he seems nice enough, but I think communicating with him is going to be a learned skill. When we first saw the house, I asked if it would be okay with him if we painted, and his response was, "What do you mean?"

...How do you clarify "is it okay if we paint the walls?"

When I went back to pay the deposit, he asked again, "What were you trying to say about painting it?" So I said we meant that we would buy the paint, and we would do the work, and then he wanted to know what color. I said white or cream, and he wanted to know what I meant by "cream". After a while I think he accepted that by "cream," I didn't in fact mean "vermilion with chartreuse tiger stripes" and, as I say, he seemed to indicate that he would do the painting. There was (needless to say) some conversation about which walls we might be talking about (Umm. The ones with all the fingerprints on them from the previous tenants? IOW, all of them?) I can only assume that whatever he does will be this weekend, since we start renting as of the 15th.

So, the question of the hour is, when do we move? We can either do it over next weekend and early Christmas week, and have Christmas there, or we can hold out and have Christmas here (which would mean putting up a tree, like, NOW), and move the week between Christmas and New Year's.

The girls are in complete agreement that WE SHOULD MOVE NOW. TODAY. WHEN CAN WE GO SEE IT AGAIN??? And Bob and I are shuffling through the factors to decide what'll actually happen.

More about the house

2009-12-10T16:29:00.002-06:00

I may yet do the whole SketchUp thing like I did before the last move, but it's complicated this time because my Real Computer is running Linux and, as such, needs an intermediary program set up before I can install SketchUp.

In any case, the house is about 520 square feet, with no light shafts or hallways and not including the laundry room, whereas the apartments are 410, including light shafts, hallways and laundry room. The smaller of the two bedrooms in the new house is about the same size as the larger of the two where we are now.

So all our stuff will fit. And I like that the living room is contiguous with the kitchen, so whoever's cooking doesn't have to go off behind closed doors (or around corners or whatever) while they do it.

It is, as I said the other day, not very attractive, but the owner seemed to indicate that he would be painting it, and once we put our things in it and choose curtains and stuff, hopefully it'll be nice.

We went down today to transfer our existing application for a phone line (which we put in for last July, but there are no lines available in this neighborhood) over to the new place, and while we won't know till it happens, it sounds like that may work out okay. And when it does, we can have DSL instead of cable Internet, and thereby not have to pay for TV we're not watching. So that'll be nice.

Here's what it looks like right now. We believe that if the owner paints it, it'll be off-white as opposed to another coat of the oh-so-popular Industrial Hospital it's currently sporting.

Definitely a step. Hopefully one toward TOTH

2009-12-09T19:26:00.002-06:00

We went ahead and paid the deposit on the house, then stopped over to measure the rooms and take pictures, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for those because for now it's pizza, beer and Torchwood.

Not TOTH, but hopefully a stop on the way to it

2009-12-08T22:20:00.002-06:00

We went to see another house today. I have resoundingly mixed feelings about it. It's on the right end of our budget range, almost as close to the school as our current place, and small but large enough to be workable. In short, it'll do and we're taking it.

I was exceedingly lucky, when I first needed a place to move into, to find the apartment that I did and, when Bob was ready to come here, to have the adjoining one become available. A big part of what I like about this apartment is that it's attractive. It's just pretty, with nice surfaces and interesting colors and attention to detail in the construction and finishing.

This other place is flatly none of that. I'm sure we can make it pleasant enough with time, and it's not like we're committing to years and years there. But I really wish I actually liked it.

As I was saying...

2009-12-07T18:10:00.002-06:00

Pursuant to last night's post, this:

is not a happy monitor.

Well, THAT'S never happened before.

2009-12-06T20:06:00.002-06:00

So we spent most of the day playing the Harry Potter game (it took the three of us most of the day to get Julia's Harry past the Flipendo level) and drawing temporary tattoos on each other. (Well, okay. Mostly it was me drawing them on everyone. Robin got a butterfly and Julia got a parrot and I got a purple gecko.)

And then while I was cooking dinner they started calling from the living room, but I was all cooking eggs and not about to leave them to go look at the computer, and when I finally did, it turned out something had...happened.

The entire display was rotated 90º clockwise. And the children were still playing the game.

I put an end to that, took them in the kitchen and fed them dinner, then came back out to see what there was to see. I posted a jokey little complaint on Facebook, then restarted the computer to fix the problem.

Except.

It didn't fix. Windows came up and said, "Hey, your resolution and color depth are pretty low, how's 'bout I fix that for ya?" And I said sure, and it did. But apparently Windows had no issue with the whole having-to-crane-your-neck-90º-to-the-right-in-order-to-get-your-hand-eye-coordination-to-work-enough-to-put-the-mouse-where-you-want-it thing.

I tried a few things, complained on Facebook again, and eventually went for help. Bob came up and tried a few things, then helped me turn the monitor on its side (which looked weirder than you'd think - I took a picture but I don't feel like downloading it right now) and then he went downstairs to Google it for me.

Then he came back upstairs and fixed it, yay, the end.

Nice day

2009-12-05T21:47:00.003-06:00

The Grinch wouldn't play, so we watched The Gods Must Be Crazy II instead. Julia and I fell asleep, but we'd already seen it. I like the badger part.

I made Robin's cake today; mocha cake with extra dark cocoa powder. Very rich and very yummy. I'm surprised it didn't keep us all awake for the movie, but then we only had small pieces.

Robin got some really nice presents from my family; Lisa faked us out with a Harry Potter computer game that we all started enthusing about, then she opened the box and there was a shirt and some Mad Libs inside. And then under the shirt, there was the game after all. So now we all know what we'll be doing tomorrow.

You know what's an addictive little game?

2009-12-04T19:09:00.002-06:00

Pac-xon is an addictive little game. Way better than traditional Pacman.

It's all the girls' fault, naturally. I said it looked like fun, and they invited me to play, and there's this "Try Again" button that works in a non-standard game restarting way (it restarts the game, but keeps you at whatever level you were on), so they convinced me that I kept getting additional lives.

And the news is...

2009-12-03T18:45:00.003-06:00

...there is no news.

We drove around town for a while this evening and didn't see any For Rent signs. Guess we'll try again in a few days; in the meantime, the Doctor is about to regenerate and I want to see how he comes out, and also how long it takes for him to mention that the new teeth feel weird.

The one with all the reminiscing

2009-12-02T18:43:00.003-06:00

Eleven years ago today, I had lunch with my Mom, and we bought a hairbrush.

We were waiting around to see if I was in labor, you see, and it turns out I was. I'd just had a prenatal appointment and the doctor, knowing I lived an hour and a half away by bus, suggested we not go home just yet.

So we had a (light) lunch at the Hotel Don Carlos, and bought a baby hairbrush at Mas X Menos (I can't recall that we ever once used it, but I'm sure the girls appropriated it for their stuffed animals eventually) and then went back to the clinic and were admitted. Well, I was. And Mom got to stay right up until I went into the delivery room. She brushed my hair for me.

Alex and I picked out the name "Robin" while waiting for the second checkup, if I recall correctly. I was wearing an enormous shirt with a very large paisley pattern. It was nicer than it sounds.

She was born in the late afternoon, and we stayed the night. I remember trying to get her out of the plastic bassinet beside the bed in the middle of the night. I couldn't reach it that well. I'm glad I didn't drop her.

We took her home the next morning, about an hour or so before Dad showed up at the hospital, having moved heaven, earth and office schedules to get an earlier flight.

We scandalized the neighbors (who told my mother in law on me) by taking the baby out of the house when she was just a couple of days old. Broke the quarantine, don't you know. "Quarantine" being derived from the same root as "cuarenta", meaning 40. That's the number of days you're traditionally supposed to be paranoid about the baby and avoid exposing it to...well, pretty much anything if I recall correctly. But I needed nursing bras and wasn't about to leave the baby behind when she didn't have any sort of eating schedule worked out yet.

She turned out okay, though. I don't think we ruined her.

The post on the day she's actually here to celebrate with us will probably be less about me and more about her, but she's with her dad today so I get to reminisce instead.

On the lookout for TOTH

2009-12-01T16:52:00.002-06:00

Today is rent day and, as such, the only opportunity to give notice on one or both of the apartments until next rent day.

We went to see a house that was available on Thursday, and at the time we weren't very impressed with it. I described it as "adequate", and we let the owner know we were going to keep looking around.

Last night we talked over the options and decided that, while it really isn't The One True House, it would in fact do nicely as a transition from two apartments to all living together, en route to all living together in a more pleasant space and hopefully somewhere that the girls can each have their own rooms.

Except, when I called the owner this morning to see if it was still available, it wasn't.

Fortunately, Bob measured the rooms and some of the furniture this morning and we determined that we can fit everything into one of these two apartments. It'll be tight, but we're ready to both A) All live in the same place and B) Spend a lot less on rent each month.

And that way when we do find something, we won't be paying for three places for the first month.

So, that's the update on that.

And now for something completely different:

That awkward in-between stage

2009-11-30T17:33:00.002-06:00

Okay, I really need to either get sick enough to stay home and lie around drinking tea and watching movies all day, or get all the way well already and stay that way.

For tonight, I'm going to spend excessive amounts of time at today's favorite: There, I Fixed It (check it out - it's even better than Awkward Family Photos.) Oh, wait. I've already done that. So now I just need to cuddle on the couch and eat meatloaf and mashed potatoes and watch lots and lots of Dr. Who.

Wish the weekend was only half over

2009-11-29T19:26:00.002-06:00

We put up the short, single strand of lights I got at the grocery store on Friday. They look nice, but really demand a second string in order to reach all the way across the porch.

We made a bunch of white snowflakes this morning, and the girls hung them on the living room wall. They look really good there.

I went to see a second house for rent; this one around the corner from us. I was aware, because of the extremely low price, that it might not be suitable, and indeed it was not. We'd be more comfortable all living in a single one of these apartments than in that tiny little airless place with no parking.

Bob's not all better yet, but he's finally turned the corner, which is good. We've determined he must have picked it up from one of the 30-odd people he dealt with at his various classes last Saturday. He came down with it on Wednesday, which means if any of us are going to get it, it should be right about .... now.

I've got a scratchy throat, but then I almost always do at some point during the week, so hopefully it's not The Cold Of Doom.

I keep forgetting and then remembering that I said I'd bring a cake to work tomorrow, so I guess I'd better go get that underway.

Glad the weekend's only half over

2009-11-28T20:58:00.004-06:00

We had our second Thanksgiving today. Both versions were really enjoyable. The one on Thursday was everybody from the office, plus families [except for Bob :( ], very intimate and relaxed. Then today was larger, with good friends I haven't seen for a while, and some others who I don't yet know that well. There was talking quilts and talking shop and talking Facebook. And a very slightly naughty joke or two. (I told this one. I'd tell you the one that Dan told, but it doesn't lend itself to text.)

Sadly, Bob is still not feeling well and missed them both. We'll need to do other fun stuff because we were all looking forward to the Thanksgivings this year.

And now, I've got cake from the next door neighbors' six year old's birthday party, wine from last night (that liter box isn't going to drink itself, and Bob's in no state to help), and Christmas decorations a-waiting for the morrow.

The hell with Buy Nothing Day

2009-11-27T19:19:00.002-06:00

...And I don't mean that I disagree with the concept, but I got paid today and we had some shopping to do. You know. Fill the gas tank. Get a decent decongestant for Bob. Food for the kitty. Cereal because the leftover corn flakes from the crust of that sweet potato casserole were pretty bad - hopefully we can find another recipe that calls for corn flakes.

Pizza for dinner and wine for me. In fact, Julia just brought me a refill (I *love* that they're old enough for that kind of thing) so I'll just see you all tomorrow.

I hepped.

2009-11-26T21:50:00.001-06:00

I have apparently led quite the sheltered life

2009-11-25T21:23:00.002-06:00

Fiction-wise, at any rate.

I'm reading the comments on a Shakesville Question of the Day that asks, "What's the worst book you've ever read, so bad you couldn't believe it got published?"

There are a lot of books being thrown across rooms and very little love for Dan Brown in that thread, but it was the comment that included the following that really gave me pause:

The minor villain who wants to ban fire. The evil chicken. The statue that converts people to Objectivism. 'Darken Rahl' as a villain name. Slaughter of evil pacifists.

...I have every reason to believe the person who left that comment had actually read a single book that included all of those things.

It's a jungle out there, kiddies. Have a very fruitful day.

2009-11-24T21:29:00.003-06:00

Had to honk & swerve to miss a bus this afternoon. It was at this one stop sign (as opposed to all the other ones, you know) where the people do stop, but they're not happy about it.

Not sure what it is about that particular spot, but they're always nosing out into our (non-stop-signaged) street, and today this bus driver figured he really didn't need to wait for a break in traffic, but would make his own out of things he probably already had around the house.

Except, I was going uphill in the hard rain, and I'm used to seeing the cars nosing out, so I didn't notice at first that the bus was not only sticking out farther than it should, but was also moving out into my path. Until I did notice, and laid on the horn, and made the bus stop. Which I'm glad it did.

Funnily enough, I was, most of the way home, contemplating the body work I need to have done on this car. But which I'd really rather schedule at my own financial convenience, not in response to buses and things.

The bus-y swerve-y thing was three blocks beyond the Street That Always Floods When It Rains, which was axle-deep in water this afternoon; surprising, really, when it wasn't even sprinkling when I left work, but there you have it. Seasons changing and all.

And that, in turn, was about eight miles after the very smiley, besunglassed driver of the car in front of me flicked a butt out his window. A butt that, my own windows still being open at that time, I discovered when I drove over it moments later was really very much not composed of tobacco.

And those are all the anecdotes from today's commute, the end.

Monday thoughts -- or -- In which I fail to respect the true haiku form

2009-11-23T21:58:00.006-06:00

My babiest girl
The family snowflake expert
Is now four foot three

Blame it on Facebook
Bob wants an ocelot now
It's all Lisa's fault

Pie pie pie pie pie
Chocolate pudding cookie crust
Pie pie pie pie pie

I see origami googling in the future

2009-11-22T19:35:00.002-06:00

Actually, I've already done some.

The girls came back this afternoon, and declared that we Must Decorate For Christmas Now. They don't know from Thanksgiving; or rather, they do but not as a prerequisite for Christmas stuff when there's already a lavishly lit house with a Christmas tree on the porch up the street, and the music's playing in the stores and two weeks ago you could already not get birthday wrapping paper at the grocery store, but only Christmas paper.

I have the important things: our stockings, home made by Mom over the years, and the tree skirt she cross stitched for us when the girls were younger. Oh, and a tacky Christmas throw pillow I won at a quilt raffle something or other somewhere along the way. But...well, that seems to be it.

I think I took my ornaments with me when I went to the States for Christmas last year, and I'm pretty sure I left them there. And I don't seem to have brought any of the household decorations when I moved.

Fortunately, we're a crafty bunch and the kids love projects, so we made some snowflakes and paper chains with what was on hand today, and I'll see about acquiring some additional supplies (like, say, some plain white paper to balance out the Phone Book Snowflakes we made today), some non-microwave popcorn for stringing and whatever else we come up with.

Oh, and I do have a few CDs of Christmas music, so that and the activities set the mood to the girls' satisfaction.

Apparently I'm insensitive

2009-11-21T21:06:00.004-06:00

It's getting to where every day now, Bob will turn to me and say, "Did you feel that?", and I'll be all, "No.", and he'll go look it up on the US Geological Whateveritis and show me this map that shows (or that he's managed to convince me that shows) that there was just another four-point-something quake a few dozen miles from here.

Sometimes the t-shirts on the clothesline will be stirring the teensiest bit. I don't know if I'm insensitive, or simply desensitized, but I've only noticed it consciously about twice this season.

This video is seventeen (17) kinds of awesome

2009-11-20T21:37:00.000-06:00

Via Mom's Tinfoil Hat