The Story Thus Far

One week from tomorrow, my husband and I take custody of our third house in 18 months.

Our first home here we had to abandon lickety-split due to mold that had progressed to the mushroom stage, which tormented me for the six months after we escaped it with the Sinus Infection from Hell.  The house we chose next was an emergency Dear-God-we-don't-want-to-live-with-our-parents decision because of said mold. We would likely have been happier in the long run if we'd swallowed our pride and stayed with family for a month, since right after we moved Sam got a fantastic new job that had, you know, reasonable pay and actual benefits. But we did not want to be Those People. You know, the couple in their mid-to-late-twenties who boomerang back home. Again.

Instead we chose a house that cost more and yet was smaller than the apartment I had in Dallas. In addition, it ended up being completely flea infested. It took us six months to finally beat the terrors back--just in time to move to our current residence. I swore to any and all who would listen that I was not moving again for at least three years. I was tired of moving. Just as importantly, our bank account was tired of moving. This house came with a roommate--a friend we'd both known for years--and thus would be a chance for us to financially recover from grad school/multiple moves.

Then two very important things occurred.

A) We found out that our family will have a new addition this summer. (Translation: baby!)

B) We were informed after the new year that our current landlady would not be renewing our leases come August, and if we wanted to move out earlier that was A-OK with her. (It's not for any bad reason--she has family moving back this direction and wanted to let'em live here. Completely understandable!)

Visions of trying to move while either 9 months pregnant or with a newborn immediately started haunting me. Nuh-uh. Ain't happening. I told this to Sam, and thus we began what I expected to be a 2-3 month endeavor.

We found a new house within the week.

This is definitely not what I'd call an emergency house, either. No, we're talking full-blown "Hey! Grown-ups live here!" type of house, with plenty of room for us and the baby and visitors. Though no roommate. (He has no desire to live with a newborn that isn't his.)

"Holly, that's great and all, but why are you writing this, here, now. You abandoned us. In July. Of 2011."

The truth of the matter is I've wanted to get back into blogging for awhile. I even told Sherri last November that I was planning to start back up, as I felt mentally and emotionally settled for the first time in forever. (Trust me, most of my blogging at the Flea Trap would have been whining. I prefer to whine in private.) Then I found out that I'm pregnant, and pretty much that's all I've been reading about and thinking about and wanting to write about. I am just paranoid enough that I didn't want to say anything in such a public forum though until I was in my second trimester--which just so happened started this past Monday.

"Oh no. Are you saying you're going to be only a Mommy Blogger now? But what about the cats! And cooking! And D&D! And random stuff from the internet! And series that you say you're going to do and then only do a few posts of!"

No worries, my friends. All of those things will happen as well. But, for the most part, this blog was my way of keeping friends and family up to date with my life. And the new baby will definitely feature in what they're interested in. And, honestly, I'm hopeful that there may be some other expecting or new moms who stumble across what I'll be writing about. But my interests have always ranged fairly far afield, and I'm sure they'll all shine through from time to time. (Aren't you glad you missed my sarcasm and insight during the election season?)

So let's see if I can get back into the swing of things, eh?

Just like riding a bike

I promised all of you that I would be back on July 7, and true to my word I have returned.

Yes, I know you have missed me greatly. Rejoice! For the time of parting has passed.

Or something like that.

It was nice to take a break from the blog for awhile and not feel guilty about it. It's probably something I'll do again at some point. For now, I'm excited to be back, and I'm going to try and make it worth your while.

(Notice I've made no promises as to how successful at that I'll be.)

The past month has been filled with good times with friends and family, games, books, movies, and a plethora of happy memories. Hopefully at some point I'll remember to share them with all of you. If not, just know that the past month has been put to good use.

And now, to celebrate my return to the interwebs.... a cat picture!

A Leave of Absence

No, I'm not dead yet.

However in the past couple of weeks Sam and I have been kept pretty busy with friends/family coming to town to visit, and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any for the rest of the month. This weekend is Sam and I's second anniversary, the following week my parents will be down for a day or two, the weekend after that is Hip Gamer's birthday, and then the following week will be my I'm-going-to-be-a-hermit recovery time. That weekend will then be Independence Day, and then Sam's 'weekend' will happen.

With all that in mind, I've decided I'm just going to take the month of June off, since I've already missed a week of blogging goodness due to the (excellent!) problem of a social life.

So, until I come back on July 7th, I'll leave you with this adorable picture:

Operation almost complete

Until tomorrow my friends, here's an awesome video:

Radio Silence

Confirmation of plans has been received.

Materials were delivered this morning.

The Operation is a go.

Good luck, and God speed.

Translation: I have a major project with a quick deadline looming over me. With any luck, it will be swiftly completed and we can return to regular blog posts. Until then, however, talk amongst yourselves.

Project Mode

I'm alive, just busy, busy, busy. With what? Well...

• Writing a story that my Sammy requested
• Paring down ~8,000 pictures to about 400 pictures to help out some old friends
• Editing those roughly 400 pictures
• Reading the five books Literary Cat has loaned/recommended to me
• The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jesimin
• Three Thursday Next novels
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin
• Normal chores and stuff

Really it's the pictures that's soaking up all of my time at the moment. I've almost got them all edited--then I'll begin the process of uploading them, probably to Facebook.

Anyway, that's why I'm scarce at the moment. But I still love you guys!

Have a video:

Smart little girl.

April Fools Day

Means I cannot trust anything I see on the internet.

As such, I will be abstaining from the internet until tomorrow.

Of course, tomorrow we're going to be celebrating Rapier Wit's birthday and going to a Medieval Faire, so it's unlikely you will hear from me before Monday.

Ah well.

In other news, my sink is now in working condition--at least enough so that I can wash dishes. Sometime next week they're coming back and laying new pipe under the house, as there are leaks down there.

Anyway, here's a Tiger!

Leaks

Last January, Sam came home for lunch one day to discover that our front yard had sprung a leak. And though it took a couple of weeks, they finally got it and the DSL which had been cut in the process fixed.

Ever since, though, we've had absolutely no hot water pressure in our kitchen sink. All of our other fixtures had plenty of hot water pressure, however. So, periodically we'd mention to our landlady, "Hey, it's pretty hard to wash dishes without hot water."

So, last weekend she sent her son out to replace the faucet.

Isn't it all bright'n'shiny'n'purdy? I even have a spray nozzle now. Woot!

Of course, since nothing ever goes easily when fixing something in this house, it also resulted in... this.

This, my dear friends, is the pan that's currently under my sink catching water from the leak that was sprung. This is also the pan that I have to empty every 30 minutes or so because it fills up. At least, when we have to water to the house turned on.

I'll explain that in a minute.

Our landlady's son spent all day Sunday trying to epoxy the pipes and stop the leak that way. Unfortunately, that stop-gap measure never succeeded.

Landlady contacted a plumber and told us that he'd be by between 8 and 12 Tuesday morning. By lunch time, however, I still had not seen hide nor hair of the plumber, so Sam contacted the landlady. Long story short, the plumber didn't want to be working out in the cold and rain, so he'll "probably be by sometime on Thursday."

In the mean time, we've been turning our water off at the street save for when it's absolutely needed for bathroom purposes. 'Why don't you just turn it off at the shut-off valve at the sink?' you ask? Because when it was installed they put it too close to the bloody wall to be able to turn it. Nearest thing we can figure is that they installed it before they had all the wall paneling up or something.

I swore up and down when we moved in here that I wasn't going to move again for at least three years, due to the fact that the longest I've lived any place since graduating high school is about 18 months.

However.

I'm becoming sorely tempted to start looking elsewhere. Between leaks and the driveway and the DSL and the cracked windows and periodic AC/heating issues... it's starting to become ridiculous.

Unexpected pleasures

Nala was curled up in my lap, trying to distract me from my goal of editing pictures for a new recipe. I had wrapped up in my green fuzzy blanket--the night before it had dropped into the thirties, and even though we'd kicked the heater on when we got up, it was still cold in the house. After some coaxing (or, more accurately, picking her up and setting her on the floor) Nala was finally out of my lap, and I reached for the mouse to resume my work.

The phone rang.

Wondering if the fates were planning on driving me crazy that day, I fished out my phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Hols, do you have plans this afternoon?" came the voice of Walking Hyperbole.

My eyes flitted from unfinished chore to unfinished chore which I had ignored in my eagerness to get up an 'interesting article' for my father. "No... not really. Why, what's up?" I asked.

"I need to run to the city to pick up [Adorable Nurse's] birthday present, and I really hate making that drive by myself. Would you like to come with?" Walking Hyperbole asked.

For about 0.02 seconds I thought about the recipe I was working on and all the chores awaiting my attention. Screw it. "Sure! What time do you want to go?" After all, I could probably get a few things done.

Walking Hyperbole said, "I'll be there in five minutes."

"Oh, okay," I said, blinking a little in surprise. "Well, I'll see you--" Click. "--soon then."

I stared at the phone for a count of five, and then oh-my-I'm-leaving-in-a-few-minutes-and-am-only-half-dressed panic kicked in.

Flying about the house like a chipmunk on speed, I quickly finished getting dressed, pulling my hair up, putting my jewelry on, making the bed, picking up clutter, throwing dishes into the sink, and saving all of my photos. As I hit enter on the last file, Walking Hyperbole was knocking on the door.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

I nonchalantly picked up my purse and double checked I had my keys.

"Ready when you are."

The afternoon was just like when we were kids at the local university. We talked the entire drive up, while shopping, through lunch, the entire drive back to town, and then well into the afternoon. Mostly it was about D&D, but also about classes and friends and local politics and things we'd seen and heard on TV/radio.

It truly made my day.

Sucked in

Books are dangerous for me.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading books. When I was a child, the punishment my parents used to threaten me with wasn't losing sweets or television, but my books. I would spend hours and hours and hours reading.

The problem, however, is that it's very difficult for me to focus on getting anything else done when I have a book. School work, housework, jobs, friends, family--it all has a tendency to fall by the wayside. If for some reason I can't read right then--like when I was having to take customers' calls, for example--I was still focused on the book. Why had the characters done that? How was the author going to tie these disparate plots together? When will they catch the bad guy?  


This can be a very bad thing.


The very first test I failed was in first grade. Being a rather bright child, I typically completed my classwork ahead of my classmates and was frequently bored in class. This resulted in my constantly talking to the other students and disrupting class, so my teacher moved my desk to the side of the room and made me sit by myself.

On one such occasion where I'd finish my classwork well ahead of the others in the class, I pulled out a book and started reading, since there was no one nearby to talk to. Next thing I knew, the teacher was going around the classroom asking for everybody's spelling tests. When she asked me for mine, I looked at her blankly and wanted to know what spelling test. Apparently, the class had finished working on whatever project I'd completed, and so the teacher moved on to the next thing, the spelling test. I, however, did not do this, because I was busy reading a choose-your-own-adventure book. Since I wasn't paying attention, she just failed me on my test.

Twenty years later it still pisses me off to think about it, to be honest. I've always privately suspected she forgot I was over in my corner, and then blamed me for occupying myself.

But I digress.

Thankfully, as I grew older, I developed a knack for being able to hear my name and pull myself out of the book I was reading and participate in classes. But that all-encompassing hold that books have over me never truly diminished. After I graduated college and had to start working for a living, my consumption of books drastically decreased. I simply couldn't afford to split my attention off from my work, especially since it had a tendency to be rather dangerous for me.

Now-a-days, I rarely pick up books and read them any more. Not because I dislike reading--far from it. But when I pick up a book, that pretty much means that the next 4 to 24 hours are shot, because I'll keep reading until the book is finished, and I rather enjoy being productive around my home and taking pictures and blogging and gardening and spending time with my friends and... well, you get the picture.

Every now and again, however, I allow myself to go off on a binge. Which is why I disappeared last week.

Sooner or later I've got to learn moderation.

Could have been

Why is it I always get a flood of ideas of things to write about just when I'm not going to have the time to devote to them?

I ask, because I woke up this morning with a couple three ideas of things to write about, but I don't have the time to devote towards developing them to their full potential right now, namely because my parents will be arriving in about an hour and a half and I have a few other things I want to get done before they arrive.

(Excuse me while I take a moment to take a breath.

...

 Okay.)

But I promise I have not forgotten about you, even though I did not say anything yesterday and likely will not say anything else today or maybe even tomorrow. Which is sad, because I have ideas for actual content instead of pictures or videos or links. (Frightening, I know.)

Alas, however, my ideas will have to wait a few days. As such, here's yet another random video:

Flotsam and Jetsam

My parents came down to see us this weekend.

(This is why I wasn't posting.)

I'm always glad when my parents come to visit, or when we get to go visit them. I realize that this is not the case for everybody--some people deeply dread seeing their parents--but I always really enjoy it. Somewhere along the way I grew up, and my parents and I realized that we genuinely liked each other, rather than just putting up with each other because we're family and ergo love one another.

Blessings abound in my life.

*    *    *    *    *

The tax return finally came in on Friday!

*le happy dance!*

This means that Wednesday the pieces and parts for Frank's replacement will arrive on my doorstep. This is a happy circumstance.

Viiiiiideoooooos. Muuuuusic. Photoshoooooooop....

This really makes me extremely happy. I've missed being able to clean up pictures and post things for ya'll.

Especially recipes.

*    *    *    *    *

I hate food poisoning.

Sam and I have reached a place that whenever we eat out, nine times out of ten we get something and split it. This helps with both a) costs and b) portion control, since I'm too old for the kids' meals and too young for the senior menu.

The downside is that if we get a hold of some bad food, we both go down for the count.

Unfortunately, this means we also missed Something Catchy's Oscar party, which sucked.

*    *    *    *    *

Words with Friends finally succeeded in invading my life.

I've known about it for well over a year, but for one reason or another I never bothered to put it on my iPhone.

While Mom and Dad were down, I got to talking to my Mom about it, and before too long we both had it downloaded and had started a game.

Needless to say, within 24 hours I also had a couple games going with Adorable Nurse and Literary Cat.

*    *    *    *    *

Fact: I lack will's discipline when it comes to the 356 days of blogging idea.

Though it took some time, I've finally made my peace with that.

Still, I find it amusing and exciting that by the end of February I already have more posts this year than I did for all of 2010.

If for some reason I suddenly stop blogging for months on end now, it will be because I posted this. I don't know why that would happen--I really enjoy doing this--but whatever the external excuse would be, the root cause would be this little segment.

That's way my luck runs.

*    *    *    *    *

Sam and I have decided to try and plant a garden this year.

I have no earthly idea what I'm doing. With our luck, there'll either be an overabundance of produce, or not a single thing will survive. Personally, I'm hoping I take after my Grandpa Jim, who used to grow orchids in his hothouse on the farm.

My husband an I talked about doing a garden last year. (For the record, it still makes me giggle happily inside when I get to call him my husband.) We were poor and living in an apartment, however, and by the time we moved to our little house, it was too late to jump in. This year, though, we decided to make the attempt.

You can blame the movie Food Inc. and the book The Hundred Year Lie for that.

Brain not working today

Tried off and on all day yesterday to post. Tried off and on all day today to post.

It just isn't happening.

Part of it is I feel like lately all I've been doing is dropping links on ya'll, and I'm sure that gets boring after awhile. Part of it is that I'm really wanting to get back to posting some recipes, but until we get our tax return and can build a new computer, I flat don't have the processing power to edit the photos.

And trust me, you want me to edit the photos.

Part of it is that I also keep wanting to type up something similar to these posts here, but apparently nothing interesting enough is popping into my head, despite seeing friends all weekend, going up to the city, celebrating Valentine's Day, etc.

So, basically, this is a "I'm not dead yet!" post. Maybe the brain will start cooperating with me again soon.

Maybe.

Context

For about a decade of my life, I worked in theatre in one capacity or another. Over the course of that decade, I had a 20 foot A-frame ladder dropped on me (three times), I fell off the stage (more times), I fell in holes on the stage (twice), fell down a flight of stairs (once), and fell off a truss (once). Those are just the major injuries--doesn't include burns, cuts, sprained ankles, etc.

I tell you this not to make you feel sorry for me, or to comment on my klutziness, or even to brag in some perverse way. I'm telling you this to make my next few statements make more sense.

(It's not whining, it's context.)

The past two days saw snowfall (on Wednesday) and sub-zero temperatures (on Thursday). This meant that every part of my body that was damaged over the time I spent in theatre flared up with pain and refused to let me get anything done.

Yes, even blogging.

And, unfortunately, I won't be getting much blogging in today, as it's finally warm enough that I can move around the house and accomplish things. This is good because the poor house has been neglected (Sammy has been amazing about trying to get the essentials done, but he is working from home as well), and as such most of today will go to whipping it back into shape.

This evening, Rapier Wit and Literary Cat will be coming into town for the weekend, and we're hoping to spend a good deal of time with them. At the very least, tonight will be D&D and tomorrow will be Zios (mmmmmm... good stuff) and general hanging out.

All this to say, if you don't hear from me until next Monday, I promise I'm not dead, just out enjoying the world. That's not to say it's an impossibility I'll post stuff between now and then, but the chances are significantly reduced.

For that, here's a picture of a cat:

This is Nala when we were living in Dallas. Picture courtesy of Sherri.

To all things there is a season

Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.


Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.

Grey-green eyes met mine, a hint of panic in them.


Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.

My hands clenched around the cup of coffee I held, mouth tightening into a thin line. This was not how I expected my Saturday morning to go.


Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.


It's dead, Jim.

Okay, I didn't really say that, but those were the words that flashed through my brain as that awful sound continued.

Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.


Finally, Sam couldn't take it any more and turned Frank, his beloved computer built from scratch, off.

The silence was almost worse than the beeping.

"Let me go see what I can find out," Sam said, grim lines appearing at the corner of his eyes.

As he went into the other room to do some research, I closed my eyes, breathing in the soothing steam off my coffee.

It's going to be okay, I told myself. We've fixed Frank before, we can fix him again.

I don't know how long I sat that way before Sam finally returned.

"Well, from what I can tell, that particular sequence of beeps means the video is out. Whether that means the card or the motherboard...." Sam shrugged with one shoulder. "Let's hope it's the video card, because if the motherboard is out, well, if we have to replace the motherboard, we'll have to replace everything. Frank is too old..." Sam trailed off.

Taking a deep breath, he continued on, "...Frank's components are just old enough that they're incompatible with the newer motherboards."

Please, please let it be the video card.


*    *    *    *    *


"Just think, honey! You're going to have twice as much video memory. Photoshop'll work like a dream," Sam enthused as he set about switching out the video cards.

"That'll be nice," I agreed, not quite as enthusiastic. I had what felt like a band of Mexican jumping beans doing the Macarena in my stomach.

Sam chattered on as he switched out the cards, occasionally tapping out some upbeat rhythm on the table with his screwdriver.

I kept myself busy taking care of morning chores that'd been neglected in our mad dash to the city to fix Frank.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived.

Sam flipped the switch.

I held my breath.

Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.


What followed was a string of colorful metaphors, the like of which I care not to repeat in this setting.

Beeeeeeep. Be-beep.


Sam quickly turned Frank back off.

With a sigh he plopped down on the couch, head in his hands. I walked over and began absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's okay, darling. We can rebuild him. Faster. Better. You'll see," I said.

It's going to be a long couple of months.

Coffee is my friend...

I swear there have been mornings where my cats are doing this:

Courtesy of icanhascheezeburger.com

This morning may or may not have been one of them.

I know it is no where near morning--in fact, it's nearly 2 in the afternoon. I also know I haven't posted since Friday.

There is an explanation for this, which I will share later this afternoon/maybe tomorrow. It is a sad tale full of misery and woe.

(So you can mentally prepare yourself, you know.)

But, I have a roast in the oven and bread rising on the counter. The snow is melting(!), and Sam and I will finally get to go walking again tonight. So things are good.

And now that I have this awkward randomness out of my system, maybe I'll go back to posting things for ya'll.

....it would be something else.

My Grandma Nena has been in the hospital for over two weeks.  Just before my parents came down to visit during the Water Line Episode, in fact. There'd been a stomach flu going around her town, and so it was assumed that her issues were related to that.

By the time Sam and I went up to visit his sister and family, my grandmother had been transferred out to Wichita, because her local hospital thought they had found a large tumor on her colon when they did their CT scans. So while we were up in KC, my grandmother was getting settled in in Wichita.

It was a blitz trip up to KC and back, and we stayed the night at my parents Saturday with the plan being to come on home on Sunday. However, because of everything going on with Grandma Nena, I opted to stay in Kansas while they did the biopsy on Monday morning.

It's always difficult to visit someone you love when they're sick, especially when they're hospitalized. However, I'm very glad I decided to stick around--I like to think my parents and Grandma Nena were glad to have me around making inappropriate jokes.

It's a living.

Sammy went on home Sunday, which commenced the 48 Hours of No Spouse. My poor husband had no clue what to do without me around.

I was a little lost myself.

Anyway.

Monday morning they went in and did a biopsy on Grandma Nena's colon. To their surprise, there was no cancerous mass like the original CT scan had indicated. Instead, her colon was highly inflamed due to a lack of blood flow to that area, and part of her colon was starting to die off.

Not good news, but better than another go 'round with cancer.

I stayed that night and went up to see her again Tuesday morning. She was in much better spirits than I had seen her, because she knew it wasn't cancer. Then one of the doctors explained what all was going on, and indicated that what they believed had happened was that the main artery that fed blood to the colon was collapsing, so they were planning to go in and put a stint in place in order to increase blood flow.

At the time they did not know for certain when they would do the procedure, so I decided to come back home, with the caveat that if things suddenly got worse, I'd be back north in a heartbeat.

Yesterday was the first day in a week that I hadn't spent a minimum of two and a half hours in a car, so I was lazy and spent most of the day napping. Today's been my catch up day, and my house, clothes, dishes, and cats are thankful that I'm back taking care of things.

Meanwhile, this morning they went in and did the angioplasty on Grandma Nena's artery, and discovered that the artery was completely blocked. They did something else--I'm not completely clear on what--and now they're in a waiting game to see if this fixed the problem. If it worked, then she should heal up fine. If it didn't, then they'll have to go in and actually remove part or all of her colon, which is a bit of a risky surgery.

Obviously we're hoping and praying for the healing up fine.

Grandma Nena will likely be home in the next couple of days, and then begins the waiting game. They'll know one way or the other after three weeks. If she can go that long without any bleeding, she'll be free and clear. If not... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I'm telling you all of this so that if for some reason I go MIA again, you'll have a rough idea as to why.

Down the Yellow Brick Road

Last Christmas, Sam and I had originally planned to drive up to Kansas City on Christmas Day and visit his sister and family. However, due to the bad cold I'd caught, we decided to postpone our trip until some later point in time in January or February.

Well, this past weekend was that later point in time.

Our plan was to leave leave town Thursday after Sam got off work and go up to my parents. We'd stay the night Thursday, then get up Friday morning to go on up to KC, spending Friday night in KC. Saturday we'd spend the day with the family, and then that afternoon/evening go back to my parents, so Sunday we could go on home.

Of course, like all plans, things didn't happen quite like that.

Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, we got a bit of snow in our part of the country. While it wasn't bad in our town, the parts of the state we had to drive through to get up to Kansas had been harder hit. As the day progressed, everything started melting, but it wasn't melting fast enough for our tastes, and we knew that, with our luck, it'd all refreeze and we'd have icy roads to drive on if we left that night.

So we decided to leave town midday on Thursday, with Sam taking some extra time off work.

This allowed for more detox time when we got up to my parents, which was good because A) we weren't as tired the next day and B) my parents were needing some relaxation time as well what with everything going on with Grandma Nena.

The following morning we had breakfast with my parents and their friends, and then we made our way on north to KC.

(Side note: There was a time in my life when I could drive for hours on end and only stop whenever I needed gas for the car.

That time is now behind me.

After about an hour, hour and a half, my hips and back start vigorously demanding a chance to get out and stretch. Thankfully, my husband is of a similar inclination, so we travel well together.)

By late afternoon, we'd checked into our hotel room with the incredibly floppy bed, and then we went over to Sam's sister's house.

It's a cute little house, filled with books, movies, and music paraphernalia. And, since there is now a three year old and a three month old living under the roof, there's also tons and tons of toys everywhere.

I love kids.

There were belated Christmas presents for the Pretty Pink Niece and the Nom Nom Nephew. (Seriously, the cute little guy is three months old and has already outgrown six month old clothing. He likes him some noms, I'm telling ya.) We also had a couple of presents for my brother- and sister-in-law, which Pretty Pink Niece had to help unwrap.


It's one of the special benefits of being three, don't you know.

Pretty Pink Niece is crazy about her Uncle Sammy, and insisted that he play with her pretty much nonstop. This was cute and awesome, especially because it meant that I got in more baby snuggles with Nom Nom Nephew.

And that right there was the highlight of the whole trip for me. I got in numerous snuggles with my three-month-old nephew while we were visiting. In fact I got to hold him almost throughout dinner at the Steak'n'Shake, (except when Uncle Sammy had to hold him so that I could eat my chicken fingers).

That's not to say I never let him go--I was more than willing to give him back to Mama when necessary. But I did get a substantial amount of cuddling.

Of course, the flip side of all of this is that I now have a bad case of baby fever. Okay, a worse case of baby fever.

By the time Sam and I left Saturday (after being introduced to both Jelly Telly and Chicken Little, the latter of which Sam hadn't seen), Nom Nom Nephew seemed quite content to sit in my lap and watch everything going on around him. Which was good, because Pretty Pink Princess was doing a pretty good job of snuggling with the napping Sammy.

Water works

"Um, honey? I think we may have a leak in our front yard."

At Sam's declaration, I looked up from where I was reheating some potato soup for the two of us.

"What do you mean our front yard has a leak?" I asked, humorous visions of old Daffy Duck cartoons popping into my head.

Or maybe it was Donald Duck.

"Well, come take a look."

With a sigh I set the two bowls of steaming soup aside, already knowing that my day was about to become substantially more hectic.

Looking out of my front door, I could already see that there was a river of water flowing down our driveway. While not unheard of, in the past it was always proceeded by a goodly amount of rain, and we'd been dry (except for the non-stick snow storm earlier in the week).

"At first I thought maybe the car had sprung some kind of a leak this morning, because when I left there was a huge ice patch under the jeep. But that's obviously not the case," Sam said.

"Why didn't you mention it earlier?" I asked, watching my foot slowly sink in a particularly muddy patch next to the rock garden.

"To be honest it slipped my mind until I pulled back into the drive. I need to give our landlady a call," and suiting words to actions, Sam pulled out his cell phone.

I had to reheat the soup again before we had a chance to eat it.

*   *   *   *   *

"You've sprung a major leak--you can see the indicator on the meter spinning out of control. I can leave the water on if you'd like, but that'll result in an astronomical bill."

Unthinkingly I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to stave off the impending headache. Our landlady and the gentleman from the water department stared at me, waiting for my reply.

"Go ahead and turn it off. We can find somewhere else to stay if necessary," I decided. After all, one of the major reasons we'd moved back here was to be closer to friends and family. If this had happened when we'd been in the city... well, some things are better not contemplated.

While the water worker went to shut off the water, the landlady said, "I'll send my son and my carpenter out to track down the leak. We'll get this fixed for you as soon as possible."

"It's alright," I reassured her. "It's just one of those things that happen."

*   *   *   *   *

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how much we rely on indoor plumbing. Still, we'd managed to make it through one night without it, and my parents had come on down to keep us out of trouble for the weekend.

As my parents and I pulled back up to the house after lunch, we saw the landlady's son digging up a portion of the yard.

"Well, I found the leak," he told me as I walked up. "First spot I decided to check and there it was. Unfortunately, I cut your cable line."

"It's okay, we don't watch TV," I explained to him, looking down at the split cable sticking up out of yard.

"We'll be back out tomorrow to lay a new line for you. This old galvanized pipe... well, it's amazing it lasted as long as it did. We'll just go ahead and lay whole new PVC for you. You should have water back by tomorrow evening," he said.

"That'd be fantastic!" I told him, then left him and my father discussing how to lay the new pipe. It was pretty cold outside, and I was eager to go inside with my mother.

Mom asked me something about the weather, so I went to the computer to pull up the weather report.

Nothing. No response. Just 404.

With a look of dread I turned to the modem. Sure enough, looking back at me was a flashing red light.

He'd accidentally cut our DSL.

*   *   *   *   *

Mom and Dad had gone on home a couple of days earlier, and, indeed, they'd managed to get the water back on to the house by the end of the weekend. Sam had gotten up to go back to work, and I was trying to persuade myself that, yes, it was time to drag my lazy bones out of bed.

Sam sat down on the edge of the bed, lightly poking me until I rolled over and looked up at him with one cranky eye. "Yes?" I asked.

"Um, honey? You need to get up. We've sprung another leak in the front yard," Sam explained.

Suppressing the desire to start cursing, I proceeded to get up and dressed before heading outside to see the latest carnage.

This time the driveway was dry. However, the rock garden all along the side of the house had standing water, and right next to the hatch to underneath the house, we could see the water pouring out.

Sam called the landlady and explained what had happened before going and turning the water off himself.

*   *   *   *   *

Later we found out that when they hooked up the new line, apparently they'd left one of the pipes running back to the garage uncapped, which was what caused all of the leaking. By lunch that day they had everything fixed, water wise anyway.

The DSL... well, that took another week.

If it wasn't for this...

I mentioned yesterday that my front yard had sprung a leak.

I know, it sounds as humorous to me as it does to you.

The land lady finally got the city out to look a the main sometime around four. They could definitely tell that there was some type of leak, as the dial on the meter was spinning like crazy but I had no water running in the house. Because the leak appeared to be more than three feet away from the street, it was not the city's responsibility.

So we told him to go ahead and turn water off to the house, otherwise there'd be an astronomical water bill to take care of.

Our landlady called a few people to come and take a look at things, and they quickly determined the leak was somewhere in the vicinity of the sidewalk leading up to the house. They were able to push a post down three feet with relative ease in that area. They also discovered that it was old galvanized pipe in the ground, instead of PVC.

Sometime this evening a couple of guys are going to be over to start digging up the line, and hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we can have the water turned back on.

Needless to say, I'll probably be out of communication the next couple of days, especially since my parents are visiting.

See you on the flip side!