Working on the Weekend

Hooray for the second trimester! I have energy again, and though I am not known for being "active", I have never been as lethargic as I was these past three months. I was in a cycle for a few weeks of napping almost daily, or at least going to bed 2 hours early. And it was tiring to walk, like, up a flight of stairs. But, yippee, all that is behind me. I had energy this weekend and so I proceeded to move as much as possible and make my soft, feeble body incredibly tired.

Saturday was gorgeous (I was just tempted to type gorge, like some sort of sassy, New York Jewish woman - yuck!) Larry and I decided to do some work outside, so Larry re-leveled the area were the pool lives in the summer and I scrubbed the vinyl fence with a small scrub brush to get off all of the nasty algae that had grown there over the past year. Larry suggested using the huge pool brush, but NOOO!, that won't work! I needed to destroy my hands to prove that my far inferior tool can make the job take twice as long and allow me to complain about being sore for the next three days.

Once that was done, I set up the carpeting that goes around the pool and then we set the pool up. This week of 65 degree weather is proving that that was a little eager on our part, but hey, its done. Anyone up for a swim? Feel free to stop by. And bring your parka, it will help us bring your core temperature back up once we scoop you from the bottom of the pool.

Sunday I went on a cleaning rampage, vacuuming every surface that I could find. I actually considered vacuuming the dog, if only she wasn't such a wimp. I swept, mopped, blah, blah, cleaning, blah, for about 5 hours. Then Larry and I went to the grocery store to amass the wares needed to create our own My Girlfriends Kitchen style assembly line of dinners. We planned and executed five meals, getting them to the stage that made the most sense to freeze them. I chopped easily a small farms worth of vegetables and Larry prepared and cooked what seemed like 50 pounds of meat. At 10 PM we had these dinners finished in the freezer:

French Onion Salisbury Steak
Beef Burgandy
Osso Bucco - an Italian veal dish
Chicken and Sausage Manicotti
Chicken Divan

The house smelled amazing and we had a great time. I think that, if it had not already been confirmed before, we are officially old, white people. And I didn't even mention that we went out to dinner on Saturday night at 5:30. While at the restaurant, I was certain that we had found an elderly-rich area of town, but then realized that everyone was just there early to make sure that they could get home in time to watch 48 Hours:Mystery. Old whities love them some murder mysteries.

Gone to the Dogs

This morning around 7, Larry and I awoke to the sound of a howling, barking beast who normally goes by the name of Jezebel. She will bark here and there from time to time, but not usually like this. We yelled at her a few times to stop and then Larry went to investigate. It seems that there were two German Shepards in the neighbors back yard. Larry locked Jez in her crate and went back to bed.

When we came down an hour later and let her out, the dogs were out and so was the neighbor. I thought that it would be nice to open the gate that connects our two yards and let them run together, as we had done in the past with our previous neighbors and their dog. I was worried that these new dogs were recent additions to the family and that every morning we would rise to the sound of a canine hellion, who felt the need to announce to the world "Hey the dogs in the next yard over are emptying their bladders! I would love to go out and stick my face in it! Please wake up and do my bidding!"

It turns out that the dogs are just there for the weekend, as the neighbor is dog sitting for his friend.

Me:"Are they nice?"

Him:"They wouldn't care if they knocked me over".

Me: "Are they good with other dogs?"

Him: "My friend said it would be a bad idea to take them to the dog park."

So basically this guy agreed to dog sit two huge, vicious dogs and the only thing keeping them from tearing into our yard is a vinyl fence that Larry and I installed ourselves and have had to reattach slats for using glue. I know I feel safe.

Ultrasound Advice

BABY PICS!

Here are my first ultrasound pictures. I will post the video that we took as soon as I can figure out the best way to upload it. YAY BABY!

Night School

Last night, I received a somewhat panicked call from the basement tenant of our single family home turned three-unit apartment building. The basement houses two 30-something brothers, as well as the hot water heater and boiler for the radiators. The boiler's pressure release valve was leaking an dripping, a lot, and they didn't know what to do. We had them put a crab pot under it to catch the drips, hung up, called the first floor tenant (who is in charge of the thermostat) and had him turn the heat off. I checked online as to what could be causing the leak, while Larry looked for the name of an HVAC company that we could have come out the next day.

I called the basement tenant back, and started talking with him about the possible issues that were causing the leak. I walked him through steps to check if it was an overflow tank that was too full (not the issue), then had him clear out the pressure release valve by opening it a few times and allowing the water to flush the line. And it worked! The leak completely stopped. After an hour, I had him call to let me know the update - still no leak. The tenant was happy to learn about the system and actually said "I love you as our landlord". And so, the Symms Hands-On Technician Night School was born. Sign up today!