Journal
Let the book organization begin!
Personal Nonsense
So this past Wednesday, Shannon said that there was an employee from the Des Moines Water Works, and then on Thursday, as I was about to head towards the shower, another Water Works employee knocked on the door and said he wanted to listen to some pipes inside the house, so I let him in and directed him to the basement and he listened with his device and headed back outside and listened some more and back inside. The conclusion of all of this is that on Saturday we got a letter from the city that stated that we needed to replace the service line. When I called today for further details today, it looks as if we need to replace from the stop box to the house (from research, I've found that it's water main with an off pipe the stop box, stop box to house, simple enough, Denver Water Works had some nice diagrams). We also found that this was our responsibility. So I had remembered hearing some where some number of how much it cost and for some reason I had in my head the number of $10,000. Now we don't have $10,000 laying around (we should have an emergency fund with way more then that, but we're working to get there, but aren't even close to that). So we were under the assumption that we'd have to shoot the gains we've been making at debt reducing in the face.
We just got the first bid in, and it's well under that $10,000 number and broken into a couple of parts (waterline to stop box, one part, stop box to house another) and together they'd be around $6,000. Well we don't have that either, but we do have the money to cover the stop box to house line...though just barely (we could cover the stop box to the waterline too, but not both). What this does mean, however, is that the external painting of the house is put on hold for another year.
Houses are expensive. It seems that every time we get settled and say, hey, We've done the (in order of living here):
- Water heater (~6 months after I moved in)
- Various plumbing things (the previous owner thought he was handy, I feel we have been slowly replacing everything he's done)
- Roof Patch
- New Roof
- New Gutters (immediately after new roof)
- Gutter repair (there were large chunks of ice that fell off the house that just bent the gutters out of shape)
- Dishwasher (this was actually quite the deal)
- New HVAC system (heater, A/C, exchanger, humidifier)
And that doesn't include the painting that we've done. It's getting tiresome. Every year or so, yields something expensive. The only year were I feel like we haven't had at least something going on housewise, was last year, and that was a year we had several unexpected expensive vet visits (which is why we didn't paint last year). So...what else can go wrong? Haven't we pretty much hit all the big things?
Personally I've been fighting an unexplained iron weirdness. This is leading to anemia. In a little over a week, I have the join of getting a procedure more then 15 years before you would normally start getting it, to make sure that I don't have polyps or worse. It has been affecting my ability to get out of bed, my general mood, and my ability to pay attention. I've been doing my best to counteract the affects I think it is having, but I cannot be sure that I am adjusting enough, or if it's due to a larger amount of stress. Either way, I've been taking iron supplements, and just take a moment to look out what a general side effect of that is. My family has a history of poor iron uptake, polyps and cancer in that area, though mid-thirties is a bit early for that stuff to show up.
Oh well, I feel unburdened, and that's quite enough bitching out of me.
New Lamps!
We bought two of these George Kovacs lights at Advanced Lighting in Windsor Heights. I really liked this store. We put them by our bed, replacing the touch lamp that I've had since college...
putting some touches on the house
So now that the dining room is painted we have rearranged some things to put them away.
First we bought a clock for the family room...since the only real one visible at all times is the VCR and the time it keeps is...terrible at best (it gained 10 minutes in 6 months). And the fact that I think it's been over a year since I've last used the VCR....
Second, we got two small bamboo trays to hold our personal effects (wallet, keys, etc), which allows us to organize a bit. Plus, we also got a bigger one to hold my unread magazines (mostly cooking plus a couple of others) and new mail. Also moved the small table that it's on to the back of the room, so that it'll be close to an outlet, so Shannon will be able to charge her phone easily. It also has the hand sewn...table runner I guess? that my Great-Grandmother (I believe) made.
Above it (kitchen wall) we put the Tudzarov that we bought at the last Des Moines Art Festival (why does it always take so long to get new art hung). On each side of that we put the big wooden spoon and fork that was above my grandparent's (father's side) table.
On the Stair side wall of the dining room, we put the book cases and alternated between my cookbooks and Shannon's nick-knacks and some photos, plus on top we put the Irish table runner that we got as a wedding present.
We rotated the table 90 degrees, since the dining room is basically square.
The living room got the cupboard that was in the dining room...but now it's less covered with all my crap, and now holds our wedding photo and some other wedding stuff.
So the dining room is more utilized, and the living room is opened up a bit. We also talked about, unless we need them, putting away the folding chairs out of the dining room...which I like generally...but I don't really know where we'd put them.
I like it and it feels like we'll be more organized and we'll have a place for every day things and I like that...
Painting the Room Red
This weekend we put on two coats of a red paint (it's something bahama, but I can't remember). I remember the Boelmans painting their bathroom red, and to get the red they wanted they had to put on 4 or 5 coats or something like that...Well with two, you can still see a few flaws, so we're hoping that with the 3rd coat we can call it good.
I've been reading a bit more and have been enjoying reading most of the graphic novels listed (I've gone off of quite a few best graphic novel lists to go from there). I must say that it really has made me feel like a kid again and I've been staying up later and later reading a few of these. Some of them were not the best. I was reminded why I'm not a huge fan Superman (might over intelligence) or Justice League (problems have to be so ridiculous that they seem silly). The exception has been Kingdom Come, where the artwork was stunning and the story was really good.
I also have apparently forgotten that I've read High Fidelity, which I think I even own. Though in reading it I find myself more identifying with what I remember from the movie, then what I had read before.
I remember the book The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper from my childhood...considering how much I read as a youngster, to have a book stand out in my memory is pretty shocking. I finally watched the movie that was based on the book...The movie was terrible. I'm glad that Scott told me not to go to it in the theater.
Primerizing Finally
After putting it off for a long long long time (trying to spend only cash we actually have and fit it into the budget and actually avoiding doing it when it's hot out), we have finally double coat primer painted the dining room. So now, instead of having to look at a mostly red wall, where the wall paper border used to be, and then the dingy white, it is now all a bright super clean white.
Now all we have to do is paint it red again.
We decided that we'd have someone else paint the ceilings, front hall, staircase and landing, because...well...painting ceilings sucks.
Monday I went to Cedar Rapids, on the invite of my youngest brother Isaac, to recreate, to some extent, the senior picture that I had taken. In that picture I was laying to my side and baby Isaac was sitting in front with lederhosen. While we weren't able to find lederhosen (well we didn't try too hard), we did take pictures. Shannon came along too, since she had the afternoon off. We were fed white chili, cornbread, melon and apple crisp and played some hearts before dinner.
On the way there, a magic bug went splat against my windshield and even though I used wiper fluid several times (4 or 5), it had little affect against the smear of it. However on the way back, it rained...quite a bit. While driving, we semi-hydroplaned a few times and had the wipers on high, to no noticeable results. After slowing down to well under the limit, it finally got viewable again.
Tomorrow we're going to go see Religulous. I'm looking forward to it.
Not something I expected to see...
Sunday evening, we're downstairs being lazy, watching some DVR'd things. And we both hear a loud thump against the basement window closest to the front of the house (near the northeast corner). I get up to investigate, and there is a tabby cat (stray I'm assuming) and in her mouth is a fairly large bunny rabbit (lots of clover in my yard, so we have lots of rabbits). She looked shocked to see me and quickly jumped out of the shallow window well and started to drag the kill away from our house. Shannon got up and went to the other window (near the southeast corner), to see it drag it further down the dead end.
Certainly not something I expected to see...
A plethora of entries combined for your convenience
Jimmy's 30th Birthday Party
Last Saturday, we headed up to Boone, to help celebrate Jimmy's 30th. On the drive up we passed through lakes...well...they looked like lakes, but really it was flooded out farm fields and what not. One of the gas stations near the I35 - Highway 30 exchange almost had the floodwaters up to their back door. It was quite crazy. We got to Boone, I handed Jimmy the dozen and a half or so oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which he proceeded to go hide. It was a nice meet up with many salt of the earth people, kids, parents, grand parents, friends, neighbors. Quite the gathering.
A few things I noticed, quite a few smokers...but I rarely saw any name brands...or at least not that I recognize. Lotta love (even though there was a lot of jokes thrown around). Worry and tension about the economy and jobs.
A few interesting things. Both Bob and Jackie (who were dating when I was in college) got married on the same day (to different people). Their receptions...were well...right across the parking lot from each other. It sounds as if Bob had checked on where Jackie's was, but it was already booked. It was a strange to hear the stories. Jackie's got a beautiful child.
As night grew on, many got quite a bit on the drunker side of life. Eventually we headed home.
Just a s a side note, we did drive Shannon's car to save a few bucks...though driving with no cruise control...kinda sucks....my car is more comfortable anyways...at least for me.
Ahnaka's 2nd Birthday Party
Last Sunday we went to Backyard Adventures to celebrate 2 years of life in Jerry and Nay's oldest, Ahnaka's. It was actually quite fun, because the equipment is apparently built well enough that even my fat self can play. Shannon slid down a few slides, I did some swinging and even made a silly attempt to shoot some baskets (I suck).
It was fun, got lots of pictures of silliness. They put out some cupcakes, ice cream treats and we fun...
There was a like a old peoples swings and I gotta say i'd like that by it's self...put it in the back yard, and just sit out there and ready while swinging.
Ground Chicken?
So we used a coupon to buy some ground chicken on our last shopping trip. I combined it with some leftover ground pork and made mini burgers for movie night. Spiced it a little (I didn't think enough), used some of the Gateway market dinner rolls, some arugula, some Bubbies pickles, a sliced up tomato, several types of mustard, catsup and mayo. Quite good. That with some over baked fries...mmm...pretty good...and simple too.
Cleaning!
We both had the day off today, so I spent the day doing some outside work, while Shannon got some parts done on the inside. I mowed the lawn, and after a bit got to cleaning the garage. I threw a way a bunch of stuff (some left behind by the previous owner...yeah yeah I know I've lived here for over four years). And then decided to leave more for next week (since the garbage can was filling up quick). I also filled up the divot in the side yard with a bag of dirt that Brandon gave me. Then covered it in grass seed, fertilizer and some water. Shannon got quite a bit of the walls in the dining room cleaned off, from the remaining paste and what not left from peeling off the wall paper.
Medical
My foot is feeling better, walking is no longer a challenge. Though rotating it to the left and the right, still feels wierd and a little painful. I went for a blood draw today, to find out how my liver is doing after being on the Tricor for 3 months. I'm gonna try to restart exercising on Monday, and see how it goes.
Gutters
Thursday, Alan's Seamless Gutters, came out and put the gutters on. I had called Beaverdale Gutter too, to get a quote, and I never got one. It was kind of annoying. The three of them were quick, efficient and had the new gutters on there in short order. The three of them actually reminded me of a friend of a friend, which just struck me a s a bit funny.