Month: July 2006

I was running through our front yard last week and felt water splash up on the back of my legs. Since it hadn’t rained in weeks, I realized something was wrong (smart aren’t I?). I turned around and saw standing water about 10 feet back from our water meter – uh oh. Then I realized why our water bill has been steadily getting higher.

We called the plumber who took a couple days to get here, but found the small hole and replaced part of the pipe into the house. Before he went down into the basement to do some other work, he happened to look at the meter and realize it was still turning. That means there is another leak between the water meter and our house. He arranged to come back today and replace all of the pipe into our house. That part of the project is done so here’s hoping there are no more leaks. My front yard now has a strip of mud, but at least there is no leaking! I haven’t gotten the bill yet, wonder how much all that is going to cost?

I got the bill – it was half of what I was expecting. The funny thing is the plumber was apologetic about how high it was and that he had to charge me for the first day when he ended up having to replace that part in the end.

My laptop arrived back from Sony late yesterday afternoon. However, we were having company for dinner so I didn’t even get it out of the box till this morning. Sony rocks! They fixed and replaced everything for free! Even the damage caused by my dropping it. I got a new fan that isn’t as loud as the one they replaced, a new DVD/CDR drive, and a new faceplate (which includes the power in slot). Anyway, so far so good.

Now to catch you up on all the important things I didn’t blog about.

1.) New people are moving to the area. One of my favorite families to babysit for back in KY has just moved near Anderson. The Kohlers have four kids – two are in college (one at Tech). We went to their house last Sunday for lunch and a swim in their pool. They invited Madison, but I completely forgot to bring her. I would love to see how she does with a pool.

2.) I have finished my current painting project. It took two weekends to complete, but the hall closets are painted yellow and all of the trim in the hall and stairs is now a bright white. That darn trim paint – I spent 12 hours on it one Saturday.

3.) I passed my big test. I won’t officially be a registered agent for another couple months – processing and all, but I’m done with the studying. That test is no fun at all. There are two 3-hour blocks with 50 questions each. During the second half, I realized with two hours left that I had only answered 6 questions. Obviously it all worked out. My dad and Laura even sent me flowers as congratulations.

4.) Our friends from church, Kendall and James, came to dinner last night. They even brought their puppies – Bella and Laney. Madison and Laney got along great. Bella was more excited about Madison’s rawhide bone.

I picked up my laptop to do a little work and it slipped out of my hand. I reacted quickly enough to slow the fall, but the laptop still hit the tile floor. I tried to turn it on and nothing happened – nothing. I plugged it in and nothing happened – no blinking charging light. I left it alone for a few hours and it seems the laptop fairies visited. There is now a blinking light to tell me it is charging and boots up. I’m just going to ignore the fact that it randomly shuts itself down on occasion. That will fix itself too, right?

Here is where I spent the day….

Jamie called me last week and asked if I wanted to go to the beach with her. She had to be in Panama City for a meeting and her company was paying for a rental car, gas, and hotel room. I readily agreed – I can work from the beach as well as my couch!

We started off after lunch and only stopped for the signs “outlet mall”. (My mom and her friend Carolyn shop their way down to visit me and then shop their way home.) However, what we found doesn’t fit my definition of outlet mall. There were a total of six stores – two shoe stores, one kitchen store, one novelty store, one paper/party store and one department store type.

All of those signs on the outside of the building tell you what brands are carried in the department store outlet. Jamie and I were duped!

Wade and I work on projects all the time, but this weekend we reached the “end” stage of quite a few. The upstairs bathroom is now finished! That project started in March, but was put on hold with all of our wedding travel. We are both really excited to finally have it finished. I’m sure our roommate, John, is happy too. (This bathroom is much too small for me to get a good picture.)

When we first moved into the house, we retiled the fireplace in the living room. However, the inside of the fireplace needed to be painted, and Wade finally marked that off of his list.

On my list for a while has been to have a few pages from our sign-in book at the wedding framed – which I finally did. We had four pages framed and hung them in our long hallway.

I mentioned in an earlier post about removing paint from the door hardware. Well now I am polishing the hardware – yuck. The only good thing about this job is I can do it while watching television. (Below are before and after pictures.)

After a morning of painting for me and finishing up the bathroom for Wade, we headed to Atlanta. My friend from work, Tina, was hosting a pool party. Carol, Rick, Maryellen, Wayne, Tina, Dave, Wade, and I were all there. Everyone brought something – I made my favorite chocolate chip cinnamon cake. Then we hung out and played in the pool. We weren’t very good at pool volleyball. We couldn’t keep the ball in the air over 14 touches…

I have spent a lot of time recently painting trim. My current project is the hallway. I have found the easiest way to paint the doors is to take them off, remove all the hardware, and spread them out in the driveway. Being outside helps the enamel paint to dry significantly faster than if they were inside (plus the fumes aren’t as bad). Once I had the hardware off the doors, I wanted it shined up. The door knobs are no problem – most of them don’t have paint on them. However, most of the hinges are coated with layers of paint. I was searching the internet and found a novel suggestion – cook them in the crockpot over night with a little laundry detergent. It works like a dream! The paint comes off with the touch of a finger. Now all I have to do is shine them up.

I think I mentioned that Wade and I ended up with a PT Cruiser from the rental company. The only problem we have found with the car is a little light on the dash that won’t go away and dings for about 15 minutes every time you start the car. I tried to call the rental company and ask them about it, but they wanted to send me back to the rental location, which wasn’t really an option.
Wade and I started the day with a drive north. On our way to our destination, we happened upon Morro Bay. We stopped in this quaint town looking for lunch and found a street festival. I ended up buying tile coasters and a new vase. Wade and I both admired the creativity of the locals (read into that what you will). We then walked down to the water to have fish and chips. There is a fantastic view with a huge rock (Morro Rock) in the middle of the water!

Then we were on our way to Hearst Castle, which is similar to the Biltmore in North Carolina. William Randolph Hearst built the castle and continued work on it until his death. The castle is amazing, but it is obvious there were grand plans left uncompleted. Hearst ran out of money and then died before he could complete the work. The house was built to look like a Spanish Cathedral and has a lot of Spanish influence. My favorite part was the ceilings. Hearst collected antique ceilings and had them placed all over the house – they were amazing!

After the tour of the castle, we made a stop on the rocky beach of San Simeon. There was no path down to the beach, but it was worth the slipping and sliding (me in a skirt and flip-flops).

Then we were on our way to a bed and breakfast for the next two nights. We knew they were expecting us between 9 and 10, which should have been exactly right. However, I was engrossed in my book and not paying attention to the directions I was giving Wade. We ended up backtracking a little before we were headed in the right direction, but we made it.