Someone hates me, I think... Hic.

I have mentioned before that I use texting a lot to communicate with Husband.  Between not knowing where on the place he is, and a hearing problem, we have found that it is a great deal easier, when it's written down, so to speak.

Or, so you'd think. 

I was trying to let him know about something happening in the house, and I wasn't sure where he was.  And then it happened.

Hic. Hic. Hic... urk.  Go drink some water.

HIC! Noooo... More water...

Oh, no.  I randomly get hiccups, but this one was a DOOZY!  I tried, and tried to write a message, but with the hics making me jerk slightly, and a tiny screen with letters to randomly poke, my message might as well have been written by some alien species of  hyperactive Chihuahuas. Or Pomeranians... 

I finally decided to just write Come Here.

That took me about 3 tries, the closest I managed was "Cone heret".

Mercifully, Husband walked in as I was working on deleting the mistake, and I think, seeing how many swear words I could fit in between chirpy sounding hics. 

If I say nothing else about Husband, he does know when it's dangerous to laugh!  I managed to tell him what I needed to say, and after yet MORE water, (I was sloshing, by then), and holding my breath until I thought I would turn purple, I managed to knock them down.

So, until next time, safe texting... 

Unholy Mole-y.

My new patio has been invaded.  There is a mole, vole, rodent digger, that has undermined the bricks, leaving big dirt piles, AND making the bricks unstable, as there is no dirt/sand under. 

To say I am not happy is an major understatement.  I want to let that rodent know that my Husband put that in, knock it off!

Husband was out trying to delete said rodent.  We thought he had, until I went out to water that evening.  A large lump 'o dirt, proving the little monster had managed to elude.

Buzz has been busy, but hasn't caught it either...  Snarl.

One of those things, I suppose.  I have had trouble with these things before, in my garden.  Stupid rodents are fond of worms and roots, and gee, what's in a garden? Pbbt.

I am not sure why they are invading the patio, unless it's because it's fresh dirt, and they are looking for lazy worms, or something...

So, here's hoping that said rodent finds out how good of a hunter Buzz is...  Or leaves.  Either one...

Really?!??

I was going to sit down and watch a movie with my husband.  Normally, this is not a bad thing.

Normally...

However, he'd watched the movie before I had.  Most of the time, that still isn't a problem.  

Most of the time.

The movie starts, and he tells me, "Watch for that, see?"  Er. Yes.  I go back to immersing myself in the sto-

"This part is important, did you see what he just hid?"

Cough. YES. YES I DID...  Ok. Showtime again...

Then an actor I thought I recognized came on screen.  I commented, unfortunately out loud, "Is that Robert Redford?"  

"Oh, yes, and he is a GREAT villain in this one, just watch!" 

I couldn't help it, "Honey, don't take this personally, but SHUT UP!"

He did at least turn pink...  And, while I agree that Robert Redford was indeed an excellent bad guy in the show, I wish I could have found out from THE MOVIE... Sheesh!  

Next movie he starts that, I am finding some duct tape.  

SILENCE, says I!!!! 

The story of the three chairs. And counting...

In the sub, I have a desk.  And that’s fine, I can do my work for one section of the office, take notes when I need to, I have a phone, and a computer, and several forms and information to use, and give out.

And… I have a running battle of late with… 

The chairs.

We had a pretty nice office chair, sort of a red colored seat, with black, and it was pretty cushy.  It has started showing its age, but I still like it.  However, I showed up about 3 or so weeks ago, and there was a new chair.  A black one, with a taller seat.  I thought I would just adjust it.  No dice, it was as low as it was going to get.  So, I sat.  

And realized, it also was tipped forward slightly.  Just enough that I felt like I was going to slide out, if I sat for any length of time.  I didn’t realize it, but I was compensating by leaning back, and holding myself “up” by my toes, sort of ‘on pointe’, if you will.  This did NOT work.  I ended up with cramps in my back and legs by the end of the day. 

So, the next week I used the red colored chair I’d mentioned before.  It was sitting in the back, I just rolled it up to the desk and sat.  SQUEEE-AAAAK!

Hm.  Well, no one is here, and I don’t care, so I will just use it.  And what a symphony of noise ensued!  Groaning, squeaking, grinding noises, some low pitched whines… And then 2 deputies came in to catch up on paperwork.  After about 15 minutes or so, there was a comment about the noise. 

My sin?  I would turn my head from the computer to the papers in front of me, and then click the computer mouse, and look up again.  This basically made a continuous Squee-click-Squank, about every minute or two.  After a comment about what was going to happen to the chair if it kept up, (nothing mentioned about the user, but I really thought I should do something), I quickly went back to the black chair.  And a mild case of leg cramps.

So, last week, I used a non-office-y, plain old chair with padding, that they have sitting out for back office visitors.  Sort of a gray-pink think, with gray metal legs.  

It worked… Except it grips like iron, so when someone would come to the desk, and I would need to come up and talk to them, I would have to do a rather heavy push against the desk to move the chair back.  Once, the desk, rather than the chair, moved. Not much, but enough to convince me I need to find a different chair.

Next week, the deputies will find one of the conference table chairs missing… 

Tardis close call... Szwoosh!

Well, my geek senses went into overload, and now I am on the hunt...

One of my geeky enjoyments is Doctor Who.  I wrote a blog that I want to make a garden shed out of a Tardis.  (Stupid spell check doesn't know what that word is... Hmph.)

Anywho, I was on Craigslist, the bastion of all things cheap, interesting, or generally unwanted, and found this.

This is the item on Craigslist.

Thumbgal (This is what the Tardis looks like, for reference)

Ack!  It was plastic, it was cheap, it was the right general shape, it was cheap, and it was lightweight.  

Oh, and it was cheap!

I called.  

"Sorry, we have someone coming over right now."

I thanked him, hung up. And grumbled.  I decided to look it up online, to see if I could find the same thing... 

Husband suggested I call them back and ask what brand it was.  I did, and they said it probably was Home Depot, or Wal Mart...  It had been some time ago.

So, I looked, and tried different ways of describing it, I have found:

• Rubbermaid makes something close, but not close enough to do the doors correctly.
• Google Image thinks what that first image is a "door", and while there are some lovely doors in the Interwebby World, it wasn't what I was seeking.
• Google also doesn't discriminate well, I asked for images of Plastic Cabinet, and it came up with wooden cabinets, plastic bins, doors of various types, and for some odd reason, a tan couch.

So, I will keep my eyes open, this would make a neat 'shed' for what I want, and it would save me so much work.

(I think Doctor Who just threw his scarf over his shoulder, waved, and closed the door on the Tardis, but I will keep trying...  And for any of my geeky friends, Your Doctor May Vary...)

My dryer had a lint stroke...

It was one of those kind of days...

We noticed that Schrodinger was itchy.  A closer exam showed flea dirt, and then - the fleas.  Since she didn't have fleas until a few days ago, we think our dog might have brought some in when we were letting them get together for "pet to pet" time, so they won't have problems with each other.

Best laid plans. Not. 

I have cleaned and vacuumed, and she was treated, so we hope we don't get fleas in the house.  So far, so good, I am not itchy, nor is Husband, and believe me, I am sensitive to bug bites.

So, the day goes on, and I notice that I haven't cleaned out the lint trap in the dryer.  Pull it out, like I have done a zillion times before, and zzzwhoop, the lint was sucked into the line.  Whereupon, the dryer suddenly became an oven.  NOT good.  (And yes, now I know not to leave the dryer running when I pull the lint trap out.  Grumble...)

After some snarling and growling between Husband and I, (mostly me... Okay, okay, all me...), Husband told me something I guess I should have figured, but didn't know. The dryer vent has not one, but two 90 degree turns in it, as well as running several FEET to the outdoors.  The feet long run I knew about, not the turns.  Well, one of the turns caught the lint, and blew it into a ball, blocking the exhaust completely, hence the oven imitation.

So, Husband had to go under our house to find the trapped lint, and fix the problem.  We tried several different methods, none worked to remove said fluff, so under the house it was.  NASTY to do this, as it is really narrow, having been build on an older foundation, and all the duct work is in the way.  Plus, it is damp and buggy down there.  I stayed up top, to get all the sheets and such put down for his return to the light, (our access to the foundation is in the house), as well as towels to clean up his face and hands.  He started to crawl down there, and came back, asking for a towel.

Oookaay?

Told me that the spiderwebs were so thick he couldn't see.

Oh, I am SO glad he did that.  I think my hysterics would have had hysterics at that point.  He found out not only had the lint balled up in a turn, one of the pipes had come loose.  He then unclogged the bend, put the pipe back together, and came out of the hole, looking like an extra for Revenge of the Mummy.  He dropped the clothing on the sheet, and ran in to get a shower.

I washed lots of spiderwebs out... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.  And dust.  And, um, other stuff.  I don't know what it was, and just hoped it would come out. (It did.)

At this point, the clothes are clean, and strangely, the dryer is working better than it has since we've moved here.

I still hope Husband doesn't have to do anymore dryer vent pipe surgery...