Homeownership adventure number 1!

It was one of those conversations...

Her: "I think this is blowing hot air"

me: *dubious* "I don't think it's turned on... It's probably just the fan blowing through it from the other room and picking up hot air from under the house..."

Her: "I dunno, it's really warm"

me: "okay" *shrugs* "but I'm not really sure what to do about it" :/

*muttering to self* Well, just because you don't think something is on, doesn't mean it isn't... and your off the cuff response doesn't entirely make sense, why would there be hot air under the house? The sun doesn't even shine down there, so it should actually be cooler air... *sigh* I should take a look at it... it's not like she's saying this just to be difficult... she's just as hot and cranky as you are.

She left for rehearsal and I started taking the cover off of the 50's era heating vent. 

I discovered to my alarm that the thing under the vent actually was quite warm!  

Deeper and deeper into it I went...

...undoing things and taking them apart until I found what looked to be an excessively large pilot light... and damn was it ever throwing off a whole lotta heat!!!

Further investigation revealed a munched label above two square poles that looked like once upon a time were valves but they seemed to be missing handles...

*panic*

*run to shop for vice grips*

*continue staring at it, as if it will come to me and I will somehow know what to do to turn it off*

I took a deep breath and decided that since it hadn't lit anything on fire yet it was probably okay for now, and dialed my emergency on-call Civil Engineer...

me: "Hi Mom? Is Dad there?" ...

Mom: "Hi sweetie, your father is driving, what's up?"

me: "Well there's this heater thing that looks like it's from Granny's era, and I want to turn it off... I mean I guess it hasn't blown up or anything yet so it's okay for now, but I was hoping Dad could take a look at it"

Mom: "We're just coming through the S-bend now, so we'll be home in about 5 minutes, can you call us on the land-line?"

me: *relieved* "Sure no problem, I'll take some pictures and email them to you so you can see what I'm talking about"

Six or so odd pictures with the dog thrown in for scale and about 10 minutes later I was talking to my Dad.  With him on the phone I tried gripping the handle poles with a pair of vice grips but all that did was cause the pilot light to flicker and an alarming bit of orange to jump into it.

Dad: Alright, well your next option is that there *should* be an emergency shut off valve near the appliance.

me: Sooooo since I can't see anything like that from up here, that means it's under the house right? *scrunched up look*

Dad: Yep, most likely, it should be on the gas line leading to the heater.

me: *groans* alright, I'm going in...

If I don't call you back in 20 minutes something under the house got me... I'll take my phone with me, whatever good that'll do from under the house :/

Dad: *chuckles* Alright, be careful

It's 84 degrees in the house at this point, but I have no idea what I'm going to find underneath it... so I suit up.  Shirt w/sleeves and thick jeans which I taped to my runners.  I jammed my phone in my pocket, grabbed a can of Raid, the vice-grips and a flashlight and descended into the crawl space.

*cautious breath*

It took a handful of seconds for me to equalize my nerves and calm my imagination enough not to just jump right back out again, but once I did I realized it didn't smell as bad as I had feared, and there weren't hoards of creepy crawlies all over the place like an Indiana Jones movie.  I saw one or two desiccated insect corpses, but that was about it...  I calmed down, spotted the heater line and dragged myself over to it... literally.

Sure enough, just like Dad said there was a shut-off valve on the gas line. It turned like a charm and within seconds the pilot light was blissfully silent.

I scrambled out, and called my parents to let them know I was still alive 

...while simultaneously stripping down and promised to call them back after a quick shower.

Dad: So it worked did it?

me: Yes! *grins*

Dad: You sound pretty pleased with yourself ;)

me: Yeeeessssss *grins even bigger*

Dad: And so you should!  Now you need to book someone to come out and service it and tell you how it works, preferably in the off season before you need it.

me: It's so hot right now, I can't even *think* of turning it back on, but yeah I will thanks!

Carpet puker

I don't know what it is, but I'm glad that the carpet guys left us some extra, because this one only likes to puke on the carpet.

I think this will be her new I'm not feeling well rug.

Silly walk!

This might be my new favorite video

https://youtu.be/gn4nRCC9TwQ

Box of safety

While it isn't fourth of July until tomorrow, the hooligan neighbors have been testing out their fireworks in increasing frequency for the last three days or so, and the dog has been getting more and more nervous because she knows that THE WORLD IS GOING TO END beginning with a series of small explosions.

We've been scouring the internet and nothing was really all that helpful, there are doggy earmuffs that look like a couple of jock straps but the reviews weren't all that good and don't warrant the price tag... there's the thunder jacket, but we tried swaddling her and she ended up just hot panting on top of stressed panting, and for the price tag we could just stuff her into one of her old shirts she's too fat for to achieve the same effect... although it would be funnier to wrap her in ace tensor bandages and pretend she's a mummy like one of the blogs suggested :p

But as usual out of the chaos came a couple helpful hints, tucker her out, distract her, and then maybe some white noise... She has some cat like tendencies, so the Ninja put her in a box, and threw a fan on top, we've got some tunes on in the background and the bathroom fan which sounds kind of industrial, but surprisingly enough it seems to be working. 

She isn't entirely relaxed, but she's not freaking out either which is a big improvement over yesterday. So to the handful of people who seemed to think you shouldn't have any extra noise because "fireworks are loud enough" I say poo-poo!!

Heh

Yesterday I was being a hooligan and throwing some eggs of questionable freshness over the wall and into the abandoned empty lot next door, when I heard an indignant voice shout

"Hey, what are you doing!"

I gasped and froze, and then scurried to close the garage door like a little kid who's about to get busted.

Then as a cover I came in and started doing dishes, only to have the Ninja come downstairs and ask how it went...

I confessed that I'd been scared off by a disembodied voice, when she smiled and admitted that she had been watching the eggs explode next door, and unable to contain her bubbling giggles any longer that she'd been the one to yell at me, and had been laughing since the eggs stopped exploding :p

No dog bed in this room now

This is the dog making sure I don't forget to take her when we move. So sweet :)

As if we would forget her, she's so awesome.

H.E. double hockey sticks NO!!

We've looked at numerous houses, but my favorite "Nope!" was the one where they'd put in extra padding under the carpet in the Master bedroom to try to make up for how uneven it was... It started with Kevin going "Girls, watch this" as he let go of the door and it closed itself...

Then on the way down the stairs I realized that the ceiling was sagging away from a wall that they'd removed most of in order to open things up a little... and someone had attempted a patch under the bathroom.... "Definitely, don't even maybe want to touch this place with a thirty nine and a half foot pole!!!"

My favorite though, was him pointing out the porch on the place across the street with the same sagging symptoms, since its a community I suspect they all have the same problem. It may be a fantastic neighborhood, but no bueno!!!

Time!

I'm calling it... 11:28 pm the night before our open house, I've done the best I can with the time we had left. 

I'm so sticky and gross but also so exhausted I don't even know if I have enough energy left to take a shower.

Cheaper, but it'll take twice as long ;)

Dad was lamenting that while doing something yourself can be a whole lot cheaper, sometimes it ends up taking longer because you end up having to do it twice, and I'm definitely starting to feel that way...

So far we've put in two shower cartridges, I don't know what was wrong with the first one, but the second one worked like a charm...

We've done the caulking in Faith's shower twice because I didn't read it carefully enough and bought clear caulk... now I know better :/

I've done the touch up paint twice because apparently the sun has bleached my room more than the hallway where the paint match chip came from *sigh* it still isn't *quite* right but at this point it's "good enough"

I had to patch the holes our sweet shelf left in the bathroom wall twice because they were just big enough that it fell in a bit as it dried and wasn't flush like it should have been.

Needless to say, I've fixed the things I wasn't happy with, and corrected some of the other patch jobs that weren't up to snuff lest they think *I* did it like that ;)

At very least I can honestly say I've stayed true to one of the life lessons I learned so very long ago in Girl Guides, and that's that I've left things better than I found them.

That dawning moment of realization

So this text got sent from our house this evening and pretty much sums up how things are going:

"Yay! We're still doing house stuff, but we're almost done! Just need to do baseboards in my bathroom, clean Sam's bathroom, caulk both bathrooms, deep clean the kitchen, touch up paint...shit..."

Staying out of the way

Ah the sound of someone else working, it's comforting and strangely enough has brought back memories of when I was three and my parents were able to afford to put carpet in the house.  I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember running around on the really fine particle board that's now under the carpet... running into the living room and stepping on the thin strip of carpet tack they'd just laid and then sitting in the rocking chair my Grandfather made me nursing my foot... and feeling indignantly angry at that carpet tack, because it hurt!

Celine Dion, enough said... and yet there's more.

She's funny and classy, and sassy and thoughtful and raw and just down to earth really for real... and amazing, and incredible and wonderful and I would go see her again in a heartbeat!

She said the coliseum was intimate, *raises eyebrow* it has two mezzanine balconies and seats ~4,296... and yet somehow she has made it her home away from home, and it really was kind of intimate *smiles*.

She knocked it out out of the park finishing a couple of her songs in classic Celine fashion, but even knowing that she was going to do it didn't lessen the impact. In fact seeing it in person was even more phenomenal than I could have possibly imagined... until I realized she was singing the guitar solo.

*jaw dropping* whaaaa?!? 

My mind *exploded* and she shattered my perception of an amazing singer into a bzillion sparkling crystalline pieces. 

Yep, that pretty much put her light years above and beyond anyone I've ever heard. In. My. Life.

I ran the full gamut of emotions that evening, she shared pieces of herself in the way that only people who are fully comfortable on stage can, including a little leg from her cocktail dress "for Renee" she confided, and then again a little later "for anyone who wants to look", and she looks amazing! 

We laughed and cried, and I earned even more respect for another artist I admire deeply.  This artist can turn feelings into lyrics, and when Celine needed it most she wrote a song for her. It's called Recovering, and the artist is Pink! If you haven't heard it I recommend taking a listen, but it's worth having some kleenex on standby.  One of the friends we went with kindly shared her make-up wipes and we sniffled together :p

No matter what you think you know about her, if you're the least bit interested and you have the opportunity definitely go see her show live, it's an amazing experience.  She's a very special one of a lifetime kind of person, and I'm so thankful I was able to see her, it's a memory I wont soon forget!

We'll get new carpet we said...

They'll install it, it'll be easier than doing it ourselves we said... and that is probably still true.

But.

But I don't think we had any idea how much you have to do to get *ready* for new carpet. I can see why this is something you should do before you move in... or after you move out.  We've basically moved out into the garage, and while they do move furniture it's supposed to be mostly empty... so you might as well be moved out anyways.

It's quarter after 8 in the morning, apparently we're close to the carpet place so we got the call at a little after 7 and they were here by 7:30... luckily we were *mostly* ready and literally only had a few things to gather and move out of the way, as opposed to yesterday and the day before when I kept thinking "Okay! This room is almost done, I think I just need one more box"... 

Meanwhile in California...

It's so hot even the stuff that's been hung up on the line feels like it's hot out of the dryer!

And so it begins

We're about at the point between cleaning and life, where we're still living in the house, but trying to make it look like we don't.

I'm seriously considering seran wrapping things like an Italian Grandmother once they've had a good deep cleaning so we don't have to clean them again :p

Great stuff...

I had an idea, but it wasn't until I saw it referenced on the Internet when I stumbled across something else that I really wanted to try it :p

Basically you put something in a container drape cloth over it and fill the container part way with foaming crack filler and then put something to contain the foam and walk away and let it sit overnight.

I don't know why, but despite having two people tell me it was overkill I still wanted to try it because I thought it was a great idea.

So I did a test run, and it didn't work quite right... but I figured I'd learned enough to do it, namely that you can't use a plastic bag because it needs to breath in order to dry.

Writing this out I realize how ridiculous it sounds that I'm still writing about trying it.

Well, you've probably figured this out already, but it was a bit of a disaster.

I ran out of foam, then I put too much in... and the container I was filling was plastic. I left it longer to compensate which seemed to help (or so I thought) until the third day when I opened it up, took the item needing protection out and an hour later it didn't fit... and still the foam kept expanding.

I let it run its course, and then set about the task of removing the evidence of my failed experiment.  I heard a bread knife works well, and boy did it ever! I started tearing out huge chunks until I discovered there was still a large pocket of gooey mess... by this point it was all over my right hand, and I was past the point of no return.

I didn't think it was going to be an ordeal getting it off, until I exhausted my go-to hand cleaners and started to panick a little. Luckily only one hand was sticky and I could still Google with my left hand :p

Thank you to the guy who said ten minutes of rubbing with peanut butter, and a couple cold beers worth of picking it off while sitting on the front porch. I'd tried butter, but not nearly long enough. Between the peanut butter and some serious scraping with a knife edge I was able to get to the point that it didn't look entirely awful.

Once I got past that the rest of it came out of the container pretty easily with some help from a putty knife and a screw driver. A quick trip to the fabric store, three pillow cases and less than 20mins later we'd effectively acheived what I'd been working on intermittently for the better part of a week *sigh*

Thank you for letting me try it and fail. After a conversation with my Mom I realized something, some people try, fail and move on. Whereas I see the potential for something and I keep trying to get it to work... I like to think it's kind of an Edison-esque "I've found 99 ways that don't work"

*indignantly* For the record I still think it's a good idea.

Adventures in house repairs

We're prepping the house to move, and I think I'm just about at the point of breaking even between things I wanted to fix, things I have actually fixed, and things that I had to fix even though they weren't on the list because I accidentally broke them...

So far I've learned that you shouldn't leave the open paint can lid I on the floor where the dog might step on it, she didn't mind you, and she sat down immediately if quizzically when she heard the panic in my voice, but it was an eternity of a minor heart attack when I thought she had.

I've learned that there's no incentive for getting the water turned back on when you're doing a plumbing job like having to poop.

I've also learned that I have no idea how the bathtub cartridge works, and that no matter how simple it looks, its probably worth my time to pay someone who knows what they're doing. I can admit that now right? Even though I just spent two days, more than a fair amount of time,  and two cartridges from home depot... I was successful which is the important part, and now looking back on the fun times we had. No? Okay no. But it is pretty satisfying that it works now.

I've learned that reading the directions, and realizing you might have done something wrong, can be enough to make something that appeared to be working, not work.

I've learned that adventures in plumbing will wait until you're naked and in the shower to start leaking into the kitchen through the light downstairs.

I already knew I hated vinyl flourescent light covers, but I've just learned that they hate me too.

Hold still!

me: No, hold still!!!

her: I didn't know you were talking to me.

me: Stop moving, just hold still a second!!!

Lookit what I found on Aryanne :)

And then we realized there are probably a few hundred more of these little guys in the vicinity :p

Feeling satisfied

I recently caught wind of a bombshell that was dropped at a homeowners meeting by the board... they want to levy a "special assessment" which equates to $9000 per home-owner due by August, and if you didn't pay "they'd just take out a lien on your place". They assured everyone quite indignantly from what I heard, that what they were doing was perfectly legal in our CC&R's (the community's local governance documents).  The fact that most of the people who live here can't afford $9000 in 5 months seems to have escaped them, and the fact that if they *did* have that lying around... they wouldn't be living here.

It didn't sound right to me, in fact it sounded like a giant steaming load of BS.


So I took to the internet and did some exploratory Googling and happened upon the California Civil Code section 1366 which confirmed my suspicions.  There is a housing code for the state which supersedes each local CC&R your local laws can be more specific but they cannot disregard the state law. It very clearly states that you can do this *BUT* there are dollar amount limits, very specific situations in which it can/must be done, AND you have to have a quorum of half of the home owners on board.

This recent declaration violates the California Civil Code on *almost* every count.

I have a feeling someone was banking on nobody doing their homework... and that everyone would grumble, carry on in their ignorance and just take their word for it.  In which regard, I'm quite pleased that the bug I placed in a few ears seems to have wiggled past the unfocused anger and manifested itself in others looking up the Civil Code as well. *satisfied grin*

My work here is not done, I don't know what is going to come of this hot mess yet, but I'm still pleased with myself for stirring the pot that needed stirring. 

How does one become the people of Wal-Mart you ask?

Well first you spend the evening putzing around subconsciously muttering to yourself that there's something else you should be doing...

Then you play video games until it's past your bedtime, and finally decide to wrap it up only to realize that you have company coming over tomorrow  and that you were supposed to go grocery shopping this evening, and that most normal grocery stores are going to be closed in 15 mins...

That's how you become the people of the 24hr Wal-Mart.

Om nom nom

I guess he really is hungry enough to eat his own arm...

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Holy you would have thought I'd asked them to turn the electricity off for a whole day rather than an hour, but we made it! We had a romantic candle lit dinner, and discussed how Earth Day isn't just something we celebrate in Canada, that in fact it's celebrated all over the world, apparently just not the US ;)

It was cool though, for the most part we  refrained from using our phones, and we only fell into the "how much longer till we can turn the lights on" thereby making it that much longer, a couple times... so we had to be social the old fashioned way, which led to the deep contemplative conversation of 

"What would it be if you crossed a Shitzhu with a Cock-a-poo?... a Shit-poo!!!"

Meanwhile in California

I'm having trouble reconciling this beautiful weather with my Canadian bones that are whispering "winter is coming" I keep putting on a sweatshirt before I go outside, and then immediately having to take it off!

I'm not sure how clever that it's...

On the way home recently I saw a lady who looked like she was working on her lawn, she had on gardening gloves, a freshly pulled weed in one hand and a medium Chinese style meat cleaver in the other...

I did one of those mental double takes,  but we drove by too fast to tell what she was actually using it for.  Since then my brain has been working overtime trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

A few days later, and I still gots nothin'

When three syllables isn't enough

Her: "I was teaching a kid about sixteenth notes today, and I told her it's like: Mo-tor-cy-cle, mo-tor-cy-cle"

Kid: "El-e-phan-tay, el-e-phan-tay"

Her: "El-e-phan-tay?"

Kid: "Well, I know Elephant is three sylables... so I needed to make it Elephantay."

Consequences unforseen there may be

I don't think this is what they meant when they said you will have to battle your inner demons...

burlap sack moment

Fellow airport traveler, you weren't stinky until you sprayed yourself.

Revelations during the ride

There's no garbage in the future, and it smells like crayons!
~Faith on Spaceship Earth

Doing Disney World right

I think we got lucky... and we were foolish, but overall it worked out ;)

We booked an early breakfast at Be our guest, which turned out to be awesome because they let us in to the park early for reservations, which meant we were able to jump in line ahead of the horde for the Seven Dwarfs ride we couldn't fast pass...

And in staying at a Disney resort we got extra magic hours, which were two at the end of the night... So we pretty much went on EVERYTHING we wanted to, and then some :D

Are you ready?

It's barely 6 and a half hours since I went to bed last night...and probably more like 4 since I fell asleep barely able to contain my excitement in anticipation of Disney World! My eyeballs hate me and I briefly wonder if the juice had enough time to neutralize... no matter, ready or not... here we go!

Priorities kids

Overheard on the dash into the park:
"Silly Daddy, see he's the first in line in there, he had to go to Starbucks"

Look at the moon!

Looking out the window as we descend, there is a whisper of a reflection of the moon if you know where to look, jumping from puddle to lake and reflecting off of the edges of the strangest things just beyond reach it easily keeps pace with us until at last it is revealed in a golden splash, looking even more magnificent than the cold bright white coming off it directly.

A safe place

*slightly-panicked dog* lemmeuplemmeuplemmeup!

Dog: "The other one is playing with those squeaky balloons again that scare the crap out of me!  This one is safe, I will sit here and supervise..."

Do, or do not... there is no try

Done!

Doh! 

I had to look back through the instructions twice, and apparently I missed the fourth step... (I'm not even kidding!) So I did this whole thing without the fourth... but I knew it could never be complete without the fourth...

S'tho I fixed it... ;)

May the fourth *ahem* force be with you!

Definitely not writers block

I've been struggling with "getting everything out"... it isn't writers' block, it's something I think that is more akin to trying to drink from a firehose.

I've had so many incredible days, and trips, and things that I'm really excited about and awesome pictures that I want to share, and the fact that I just can't seem to get it all in the right place at the right time is... it's frustrating, and it's messing up my flow, and I'm ready to be done with all the excuses for why I haven't written anything.

The other day I started thinking that something really important to my writing is *moments* and that maybe the reason I'm having so much trouble is that I'm trying to save time and write about a day... but maybe it doesn't work like that, and so it comes out chunky and awkward like mac 'n cheese before the cheese is properly melted.

I don't want to share some diatribe of how my day went, inundating you with all the boring minutia of things that don't really matter.  Although, I do realize that this is a matter of perspective, and some of the things I share may not matter to you at all, but please know that for one reason or another they matter to me.

"If it mattered before the election, it matters now" I can't find the original article but thank you fellow artist, this has been resonating with something inside my brain and I think it may have jiggled my wordjam loose! *grins*

 

What you know vs what you do

At one point in my career I was feeling overpaid for what I was actually doing... like any monkey could do what I do, when a friend said to me "They don't pay you for what you do, they pay you for what you know".

I've thinking about it... I know a lot of things now, but it isn't like I'm some great repository of knowledge, I don't *do* anything that anyone else couldn't do... but I know what makes me different, is the experiences I've had and learned from.

The other night I had the pleasure of helping an old friend with something that I had previously worked on.

Something that I had spent hours, nay possibly a few days bashing my head against, tearing my hair out, and attempting to manhandle into place.  The golden nugget at the end of it all, was learning that you didn't just have to make the right changes... but that in order to actually see the changes, you had to completely clear your browser cache.

So yes, what I *do* may only take seconds, and may seem trivial once you know it... but knowing that you need to do those things, especially those small important details is what makes you worth your weight in gold.

Where poopy mornings come from.

Some mornings are a pry-yourself-out-of-bed with the incentive of a warm cup of coffee... and some mornings are a rude awakening to the realization that the dog pooped by the door and you have to clean it before you can let her out again, later followed by more pooping by the door when you don't let her out because you thought she was done pooping already.

Poop.

Mad ninja glue skills

I read once that when you make a mistake you should take immediate steps to correct it...

Last year my friend's Auntie Mayweather lent us her parole (it's a traditional Philipino Christmas decoration, some are more elaborate than others but as far as I have seen they are all beautiful).  It came to us in a large black plastic garbage bag, the string of blue lights were burnt out and the cord was wrapped in masking tape where it had be twisted together with the plug end... but it looked wonderful blinking in the window - after I immediately replaced the masking tape with electricians tape of course.

Some months later while innocuously playing scrabble we heard a large crash outside and then nothing... probably cats, thinking nothing of it until the next morning when I discovered the wreath box I thought I'd so cleverly entombed the parole in on the floor... with a slightly bent and broken parole inside.

My heart sank.

On a number of levels I felt responsible. I shouldn't have put it in the wreath box without modifying (dremeling) it so it fit better, and I should have put some kind of padding in there with it... at very least a towel. *exhales*

 Of course this happened not long before Christmas, when people *cough* Auntie Mayweather *cough cough* would notice it was missing.  The initial look is always the worst, your worst fears manifest themselves and it's broken broken.  The second look, where I took a deep breath and actually looked was much better. I realized that none of the shells were broken, and for the most part things had just popped out of place.

It took a few days of mentally preparing myself to hunker down and start the project of "fixing" it.

The girls joked that we should take a picture and say that I was "making a parole" Martha Stewart style because I'm crafty like that, but I was still too nervous that I wouldn't be able to pull it off and that pre-emptively taking a picture would somehow jinx my chances of completion.

Also, I say "fixing" because it turned into six hours of hunched over tongue biting concentration, composed of vary degrees of holding my breath, sweating, swearing, crossing my fingers, praying and crazy-gluing my fingers together countless times before I had the outer half edge of the parole back into more or less the right shape. Save two points which were under slightly too much strain to crazy glue.

*exhales* This was when I started to feel like it really might be possible to fix it fix it. I took a drink of water, and then began "phase 2".  The purpose of phase 2 was to reinforce everything, and make it fixed forever.  I gathered some tiny clamps and a disposable paint brush and mixed up the small choose your own adventure travel size epoxy.

One of my favorite quotes of my Dad's is that:

"Epoxy is forever"

Another hour or so, a stiff paint brush and four quickly solidifying piles of epoxy later and I had dabbed each of the joints of the outer ring and clamped the two remaining points that the crazy glue couldn't hold.

*exhales*

Now we can talk about me building a parole *weak smile* at this point I was tired and relieved... there was still work to be done, but we had reached the tipping point where I knew it was doable and I was fully confident in my emergency arts and crafts abilities.  With the Ninja's help and her extra set of very patient hands, we hot glued all the lights that had popped off back in place, and found that with a little luck the first blue bulb she touched just needed a little jiggle to settle back in place and the whole string lit up again!

*grins* Now we're golden, not only is it fixed, but it's better than when we got it.

As a final touch I clipped and soldered the power cable with appropriate amounts of shrink tubing in all the right places, and called it a day.  The parole looks awesome in the window, feeling is slowly returning to my fingertips as the crazy glue peels off, and there are only two panels where we got the lights slightly out of order... but you probably wouldn't notice unless I told you muahahahaaa ;)


It is still a mystery why it jumped off the filing cabinets after all that time up there undisturbed, one theory is that it was the ghost of Houdini the bird that escaped his cage (Auntie Mayweather's bird to be precise) - but that's a story for another day... In any case, I feel as though I were able to live true to an old Girl Guide saying of "leave things better than when you found them." 

Work in progress

Remember that the objective of working is the value of what you do -- not the hours put in.  ~Dad

Pondering

I read a book once where angels in a war of cosmic proportions had been knocked into another dimension... each one of them acquired varying degrees of magic in this new place and one that I found particularly fascinating was a master musician, that when he played golden notes materialized out of thin air, floated while the note rang true and then simply faded away.

I think if I had this ability my trumpet notes would come out bronze, some of them would be shiny and some of them would be dull... some of them would have a little too much aluminum, and some a little too much tin, and occasionally they would be something else like iron :p

Overthinking everything

It occurs to me as I sit here looking at my recovering sleeplessly sunken visage at the hairdressers that if I worry any more deeply, people will start to wonder about my shadow of a lobotomy scar that won't turn into Granny's adorable furrow for at lease another 30 years... *sigh* :/

Nail gunned it!

Ahh the relaxing sound of burbling water right?

Except when it isn't...

...because it's actually pouring out from where the shut-off valve is supposed to be, as well as squirting out of the wall where the guys doing the siding clipped the pipe "that they couldn't see and weren't expecting" with a nail...

To their credit they let me know right away what had happened, and that they were going to turn the water off, run pick up some parts from Home Despot and fix it...

Awesome, no problem! Literally *moments* after I shut the door I had to go to the washroom...

I stuck my head out a few times every hour or so to see how things were going. By late afternoon it sounded like they had shut off the water to practically everything they could find a valve for, just shy of the whole neighborhood... 

There were 4 guys making suggestions, with one of them trying to get a wet/dry vac with a 1.5" diameter hose to suck the water out of 1/4" pipe, clustered around the fifth guy...

I left him to carry on muttering good naturedly about not needing 5 guys and a tenant to help, while trying to solder pipe with cold water slowly burbling out of it...

The silver lining to all of this is that we just might end up with a new shut off valve which I've been wanting to replace anyways... funny how that works!

Booyah! *fist pump*

I'm officially allowed to drive again, without someone who has a full license in the car with me... Yep that's right I passed my California drivers test *proud grin*, look out California!!!

There was only one minor burlap sack moment when the receptionist asked for my 84 digit appointment confirmation number and said that she could not look it up... and that they did not have a list of appointments for the day... and that I couldn't do my driven test without it. Wait, what?!?!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Luckily the automated system sent me an automated confirmation along with the number, it isn't actually 84 digits, but it's all numbers and pretty long, and is hard to write down when you book it over the phone. I know from experience. 

In retrospect it was probably because most of their computer systems were down, and have been for the last day and a half... but just *say* that, and in that case you might as well just take people that say they have an appointment and sort it out later *sigh*

So how did I do?

I got three points off (out of a max of 15)

1 for not over-exaggerating looking behind me when I backed up while he was writing stuff down...

1 for stopping too close to/over the stop line, I don't think I was too far over but he suggested stopping back a little bit.  I disparage this one a little because it seems to be a habit of people around here to stop with more than a car length of space while they check their phones, which doesn't trip the traffic light sensors properly *sigh*

The last one was something to do with driving in my own lane... which I'm pretty sure I know exactly when that happened as we were driving through a small windy back road and I gave the car on the corner a wide berth because I couldn't see if there was someone getting out of it and not paying attention or not... and because that's how we drive in a small town... and because we're just polite like that in Canada ;)

You can take the girl out of the small town, but there are some small town things you can't take outta the girl ;)

Having waited on edge in anticipation for over half an hour despite having an appointment, and experiencing the full gamut of emotions this morning on not quite enough sleep I. am. exhausted. and thankful this is over, and relieved, and a little proud that it wasn't anywhere near as awful as I had feared it might be... almost anti-climactic even, which I am totally okay with *deep exhale*

Also, I'm pretty sure my lucky Superman underpants helped ;)

Day 9 third time lucky?

"Dumbass" may or may not make it, in the process of being transferred to a fresh leaf he freaked out and pooped silk like a squid and tried to swim away. Writhing like he was on fire he managed to get tangled in his own filaments, and needless to say he *might* have fallen and been dropped on his head... a couple times :/ The two that were moved before him were just fine though.

The one that stopped eating is dead :/

We found more eggessess!!! We found 8 on the calmansi, no wait 9 on the calmansi, oh, hold on 10?... nope 12, 12 eggs on the calmansi, which we collected by snipping and putting them in vials of water to keep the leaves alive. And we also found 3 on the Rue, so maybe they really do like Rue!

We are thinking that part of the reason the first batch didn't make it was because the leaves they hatched on were already drying out and dying?

Caterpillar count:

Batch #1 - forget about it.

Batch #2 - Four out of six, for now...

Batch #3a - 12 eggesess!
Batch #3b - 3 eggs on the Rue

Day 8 progress!

12:00 pm

The one we recovered from batch #1 is definitely dead :/

One from the second batch may also be dead... he just seems to have stopped eating and is now quite small compared to the others.

The baby caterpillars have grown to ~2/8 of an inch. Here are their leaf nibbles from yesterday and then their progress to today!

And this... this is "Dumbass"

Caterpillar count:

Batch #1 - We've given up on any remaining survivors from the first batch, by this ppint they should be big enough to spot in the Rue and we've found nothing... they're "missing and presumed dead"

Batch #2 - Four out of six from the second batch with one unhatched.

Day 7 nibbles... and bits

1:00 am

I found one of the first batch still moving!!!!

We then recovered two bodies from the base of the Rue plant... and found 2 possible body parts?

*gasp* they're canniballistic caterpillars!

I couldn't help but be reminded of the life lesson I learned from the time I tried to grow tadpoles in our aquarium in the house. I think I was in grade 4... It was really cool, I was keeping a journal of all the changes and checking them daily, and then the first one finally hatched!!!!

*gasp of awe and wonder*

... and then he ate all the other ones :/

Life lesson? Nature sucks sometimes.

The caterpillars in batch #2 have grown significantly but haven't quite doubled in size yet. We moved them onto their "calmansi condos" so their leaves will last longer.

11:00 am

The one that was moving appears dead dead and doesn't seem to have eaten anything :/

The second batch however are doing nicely and have made sizeable bite marks in their respective leaves.

Caterpillar count:

Batch #1: 0 out of 11 :(

Batch #2: Five out of six still!

Day 6, less... and then more

~11:00 am I heard this disembodied voice float up the stairs...

The Ninja: "Sam?... I think the caterpillars... are all... dead."

me: *eternally optimistic* "maybe they're just sleeping...?" I hollered back down... as I pushed myself away from my desk to teundle down and investigate.

The Ninja: "No... I'm pretty sure they're dead. They're not moving"

We looked and looked and looked, and the ones we could see seemed to be even smaller than they were yesterday, the others well they're missing... We concluded that they could be anywhere in the Rue plant by now though, they're so tiny!

3:00 pm

Our second batch of caterpillars hatched with the exception of one... maybe he just needs to cook a little bit longer.  They were quarantined from the first batch in a container, so we tried adding some Rue leaves. They didn't seem to be the least bit interested, like I don't even think they tried a nibble. They seem to love fresh calmansi and water mist though.  Well, we assume love, but they might be freaking out too.

We're trying to keep them separated so they don't eat each other... or whatever happened to the first batch.

Caterpillar count: 

Batch #1: Maybe two out of 8 in the Rue...

Batch #2: Five out of six in the quarantine container.

Crafty like that!

This is our new "over the toilet shelf". Reactions have ranged from "Awesome!" to "I feel like its going to fall on me when I'm pooping"

You might think we have gotten *slightly* carried away with our air plant masterpiece... But isn't it awesome?!?

I'm half-seriously considering either installing full spectrum lighting on a timer, a window... or doing something creative with mirrors like the Egyptians used to... Once I start seriously researching this project it'll probably end up being something creative with shiny things.

The brackets are from a tiny little shop in a tiny little town up near Pismo... I think Cayucos, and then we just put a pretty border on a chunk of tabletop wood and stained it... twice, because the first set of colours looked awful ;)

We be jammin'

I'm so proud of us *smug grin* we just made our first two batches of jam... and they ALL sealed (including one from each batch that we poked - yep each of us separatly, it was the Ninja's first time, but Mom I still haven't learned and it was an accident! I was just *pointing* at it and it popped I swear!)

Two phone calls to Mom to gird my confidence, random canning supply shopping an oompf and we finally just did it!

It turns out that the Kraft "Certo" brand is "Sure Jell" down here... whatever Kraft, and it now comes in powder or liquid which mixes in sooooo much faster *rolls eyes* We tried both, cooking time is comparable, although we're probably not the best benchmark ;)

*plink*

The first batch looks prettier, but I think its cause we brought it to a boil at a lower flame, so there was less foam to scrape off... see? So pretty!

 

The second batch is the weird one, I would blame the liquid certo but we cooked it at a higher temperature and it was foaming up the sides... and even with a little butter it tried to climb out of the pot! We gave up trying to scrape the foam off  because we would have been left with strawberry jello jelly :/ ... 

Also, this happened:

me: *peering into the sterilized lid pot* "Gross what's all this stuff?!? that *definitely* wasn't in here when I started..."

The Ninja: "You put the one with the label in there...?" It wasn't even a full question, like she already knew that's what I'd done :p

Yeap... *sheepish look* I forgot to take the label off of the one lid before sterilizing it... I very carefully made sure we cleaned the one off of the jar before putting them in the oven though... *sigh*

The Ninja almost went diabetic when she saw how much sugar goes into how little jam... but then she tasted it on hot-out-of-the-oven baking powder biscuits ;)

*plunk*

I am loving the sound of jars sealing, it is so satisfying :)

Day 5 we have babies!!!

So around 3:20 pm there was this one...

And then another one just behind it, and then we literally got to watch one hatch!

First he squeezed his big head out, and then he wiggle wiggle wiggled!

It was so cool!!

By 6:00 pm there were 8 baby caterpillars measuring ~1/8th of an inch!

It's amazing how much bigger they are outside their little eggs... like they get vacuum sealed in there or something and inflate upon opening :p

Day 1 (Sunday)

No change in the butterfly baby eggs...

*yells* But we're gonna have MOOOOORE!

Yesterday: +11
Today: +6
Current egg count: 17!

The Ninja saw this slightly smaller Momma butterfly depositing more little bundles of nom-nom-nom on the calmansi tree...

 ...and we learned *whispers* that sometimes they EAT each other!!! *gasp* (Its like a canniballistic protein shake *shudders*) Sooooo they've been separated at least until after they hatch into bird droppings - which is what they're gonna look like if they're the kind we think they are... 

Yep, all kinds of beautiful caterpillars and we're hatching the ones that look like bird poo... *mock sigh* 

Luckily they're not endangered though,  so we can practice on these ones before we try helping with the monarch migration ;)

Zomg we're gonna have butterfly babies!!!

I was absolutely mesmerized by this butterfly today, he was flitting around and around the calmansi tree... I was enthralled, witnessing the gentle gracefullness with which he moved that until relatively recently science and engineering had deemed impossible.

I was so excited, wondering if he was thirsty and looking for water... or maybe a bite to eat until I showed The Ninja and she said "Is it laying eggs on my calmansi?!?"

Sure enough upon closer inspection we found little egg nodules... Ruh roh...

A moderate amount of Googling later and we discovered that they hatch within 3 to 5 days... 3 to 5 days?!?!?! We hatched a plan to save the calmansi from voracious caterpillars, and headed to the nursery to pick up something more appropriate for them to munch on.

We went in thinking we needed milkweed but the lady at the nursery was so awesome, and knew from the picture we showed her of the eggs that it was a citrus tree, and then guessed before I even showed her my pictures that it was a giant brown swallowtail not a monarch and that we needed Rue!

We stopped only long enough to grab a soda before hurrying home, and here are the butterfly eggs in their new home!

At least I hope they're butterfly babies... 

Oh well even if they aren't... they're in a mesh cage, outside ;) In any case, I'll keep you posted! 

No need to be rude, just use your words

It continues to boggle my mind that some people think that they are somehow in a bigger rush than everyone else...

We were buying shoes last night, and standing in line when a new teller opened up and the lady behind me dashed over...

Seriously?!

I actually said something. I usually don't, but come on!

Thankfully the teller handled it really well and basically said these people were here first, I'm just going to ring them up and put her stuff aside in a matter of fact kind of way.

The thing that kills me, is that I've been in line before and had people behind me say "Excuse me I'm in a bit of a hurry <for whatever reason like needing to pick up kids>, could I possibly go ahead of you?"... and usually the answer is pretty much always yes. 

I can appreciate being in a hurry, but there's no need to be rude about it.

Stargazing from the roof... like they do in the movies!

It's probably been more than a year since we upgraded out ladder to this nifty folding/rearranging one (the one he demos at the end in the background), with the intention of watching fireworks from the roof of the garage. Being able to climb up to the garage roof in relative safety to watch the Perseids was totally worth the extra cost... No short ladders on small, stable objects... like *ahem* tables for us anymore! #safetyfirst

We saw a combined total of 8 meteors before my inner kid's excitement wore off enough that my inner grown up started to glaze over and beg sleep, already dreading this morning's alarm...

I still feel like a little kid lying on the ground looking all around the sky hoping that I wont be blinking when the next one streaks by... crossing my fingers that I'll be looking in the right spot so I'll see the entire burst of energy however brief it may be.

This morning I'm still pretty stoked that we saw any meteors this close to all the city lights, and I'm in awe at how pretty and magical falling rocks can be. 

Like a boss!

So I left her unsupervised for *five* minutes while I went to get the key to unlock the rack from the hitch, and this is what happened...

She didn't actually hit anything, didn't even kiss anything or give it a love tap... but it is so perfectly nestled in there that mere millimeters in either direction would have munched something :p

You may not be casino lucky, but you've got good "carma" ;)

It's the little things

Having been a programmer in a past life, I fully and truly appreciate the sentiment of this error message.

See what is there... not what you expect to be there

Look at things as though you've never seen them before... and you may find you never truly have.

Granny gave this to me forever ago, but this is the first time I've noticed the shadow it casts on the curtain despite being sunny every day since...

Anything can happen if you let it...

The Ninja is conducting for the Youth theatre group's rendition of Mary Poppins, and she'd been hinting at how cool it would be to have the Mary Poppins bird from the end of her umbrella as the handle for her baton...

We looked at decorative birds at Home Depot, but none of them were a good size or shape... and there was still the problem of getting the baton stick into the head and making the two fit together nicely... and not *look* decapitated...

Well what feels like four days ago "it would be really super cool" turned into my next "emergency arts and crafts" project, and I dove head first into a previously unexplored medium!

There were so many open questions when I started like "Will it melt... Or explode?!? Is it even possible?!?", that I felt like Han Solo responding "I never ask that question 'till after I've done it!"

I went through a few beak iterations that were too big, but good practice. Then settled in to getting the rest of it fleshed out.

I started to get a little nervous the closer I got baking it, and did some emergency Googling and a test bake to make sure the white wouldn't scorch (thanks for decreasing my perceived optimistic liklihood of success Google). Despite my new found fears though it went well! I got some good tips, although there was one in particular I should have followed and didn't... Supporting said project in a bowl of baking soda... I thought it would be okay, but it cracked a little where I'm guessing that the handle inside melted and bent a bit. Remembering other notes that said it didn't harden up until it had cooled though, I busted out a rubber band and strangled his little neck back together as far as it would go whilst cooling it.

The end result? *Practically* perfect ;) But I must say that I am nonetheless satisfied with my efforts, and more than happy with the astounded reaction I received upon presenting it -mere hours before the first upbeat- to its proud new owner, working wonders of her own in the orchestra pit below the stage.

If I was five again, I would camp in the livingroom!

Ha! My Mom said when I grew up that I could do whatever I wanted... I later discovered the "catch" was that a whole new set of rules apply, like not being able to burn off cake every night for dinner *le sigh*

But I don't *have* to be five to camp in the living room... although granted at some point my roommate's tolerance for a tent in the living room will diminish to zero... (see, this is one of those new rules) but until then... 

*yells* Whooohoo!!!! Camping in the living room!!!!! *grins*

I'm seriously questioning the intelligence of owning a tent larger than a space indoors to put it up in... nevermind, it fits in the livingroom is now the livingroom! While it is nice to be able to stand up in it, it's gonna be a bear to dry it out or do any kind of maintenance.

...and whilst undergoing the tedium and sticky fingers of seam sealing it, I know in the depth of my wet innards that the hours spent here will be well worth even the briefest of time keeping my outer bits dry and warm during a rainstorm... *ahem* however unlikely that may be in California

Check out my new rack!!!

My new bike rack arrived Wednesday catalyzing the expenditure of a weeks worth of pent up excited energy and anticipation!

I spent a good chunk of the evening installing it, and overall am impressed!

My only disappointment is in the cable locks, I know they're only supposed to be a deterrent... but it just seems like they did such a good job of making them integrated and easy to use, that the implementation of the actual lock bit falls short of my expectations.  It just doesn't feel that secure to me, like maybe if I reefed on it the right way it would just pop open :/

That aside, I love the rack so far! It feels super secure in the hitch, and my bike feels super secure in the rack and when I try to wiggle either the whole car moves rather than jiggling... which makes me happy :)

Adventures in healthcare

So I finally got set up so I can set an appointment to get my healthcare checkups and had to go through the standard questions.  Some of these I routinely struggle with on paper, but of course it was more comical trying to answer them out loud with an audience.

Assistant: Marital Status?

Me: Uh... What are the options?

Her: Married, Single, Divorced... *I glazed over* for some other options that definitely didn't apply...

Me: Siiiingle?

The other assistant laughed and said "You don't sound too sure about that!". I retorted that it was process of elimination and that answer was the closest ;)

Her: Race?

Me: White.

Surprised she looked up quickly, and I conceded... Well I'm not Black, I'm not Hispanic, I'm not Latino or any of the other minority groups, and it's probably under Caucasian... *restraining an eyeroll*

Unfortunately I forgot my friend's awesomest answer to this question: "Race? I am part of the HUMAN Race"

Her: Ethnicity?

Me: *looking truly confused* Canadian?

*laughter erupted and ensued*

Come on, how is that even a valid question anymore?!?! Seriously, I'm part British, Czech, and who knows what else coming out of the middle European countries that are all super close together and invaded each other frequently... and most of the people I know are of unknown mixed ethnicity for similar reasons. 

Even when you think you know, there's that person in the family that traces the tree back and goes "Hey did you guys know, we're part Scandinavian? Apparently four generations ago this guy got stranded when he was hired to invade and they couldn't pay the raiding party, so a bunch of them settled down and took local wives"

Hopefully with the advances that are being made in healthcare they'll figure out a better way to group people together rather than relying what we think we are.

Seesig shortcut number one

Last night we had a traditional? fried pork Filipino dish called Seesig... which we'd picked up most of the ingredients from a local Mexican supermarket when Trav asked:

Auntie, how do you cook the meat for this?

She lowered her voice and confided "First, I let the Mexican man cook it for me..."

Women and cardinal directions...

Don't ask me North, South, left, right!!!!

...

So you're okay with East, West, up, down?!?

I had a dream the other night...

I was hiking up an old logging road, it was dirty, and dusty and extremely rutted... and it was steeper than it should have been.

Semi-regularly there were plastic silver pins in the road with the NHL stamp on the top, almost like survey markers... I recognized them but couldn't quite place them...

For some reason I had a large backpack, despite which I was making good time and marveled at how effortlessly I threw my bag up a particularly steep section and jumped up after it passing a "runner" who was red, panting and practically crawling up.

Just beyond that there was another steep section, and as I climbed up I saw a lady pushing a cart on her way down and realized that it was the Stanley's cup. I respectfully stepped out of her way, watching in awe as she descended to my level.

She was *the* Cup bearer. She was the one in charge of the Cup while each player took it wherever they wanted for a day.

I asked if I could take a selfie with it, realizing in a panic that I didn't have my phone on me.  She smiled gracefully and assured me that she could take a picture of me with it on her phone, and that she could send it to me.

Somehow I ended up hiking down the mountain with the small group, some hockey player Gonzales that I'd never heard of who for whatever reason was still in a navy blue and burgundy uniform *skeptical look* and was the player of the day. I got to hang out with him and some of his closest friends as they told me about all the other places they'd taken the cup in their 24 hours with it.

It was amazing, it sounded like they'd had a blast and it was incredible to be able to share the evening with them. I woke up feeling as excited as if I'd seen the cup in person ;)

Flux always makes me think of flux capacitor

I've been working on a project whereby a light will come on when someone has left the garage door open (even just a little bit), and that light will be visible from both down and upstairs... of course as we discovered last night, that only works if someone is home to see it *sheepish grin*

Of course there is a pipe for the hot water tank pretty much in the exact spot I wanted to drill through the garage wall, so I ended up having to feed the wires through a vent... which meant I was soldering things in awkward places, like at the top of the ladder.  (which isn't nearly as bad as trying to start a chainsaw at the top of a ladder *coughs* Daaaad!)

Anyways, while I was up at the top of the ladder applying flux from the lid to the wires I was going to solder, the bottom of the container containing the majority of the flux fell *gasp* bounced a couple times and then wedged itself ever so neatly between the leg of the ladder and the hot water tank. Sideways.  Sideways as in it was mostly the edge I was looking at, with a little bit of the bottom.

Now flux is a little gooey, kind of like the consistency of crystallized honey... so when it wedged itself suspended above the floor I'm pretty sure I literally held my breath for a few seconds... I realized that there wasn't any on the floor yet, so it was either slowly dripping, or starting to drip and that time was of the essence! Sloooooowly as not to upset it's precarious balance I crept down the ladder... and managed to extricated it, flip it, and tap-tap-tap it all back in! *exhales*

Afterwards I did find some errant flux strands that must've flown out during it's decent, but I managed to save most of it!

Did you know that...

Apparently in America they've never heard of pencil crayons, they're called "coloured pencils"... sorry *ahem* "colored" (we don't use the Queen's English down here)... sometimes I'm not sure who's English we use...

I guess it makes about as much sense though... *shrugs*

Easter fun :)

Our rendition of "Kiss me" by Sixpence none the richer...