Vindobona

Bedrest, Washers & Dryers...

I managed to be a bit of a handy Jane this weekend since my partner's bedrest is officially lightened to allowing her 'one excursion out of the house per day'.  This means she can do little things - a load of laundry or an evening meal. 

Which is lovely because this weekend I finished the floating floor in a basement room we are finishing to be a playroom and even managed to get some baseboard into the dining room.

Don't You Dare Fridgedaire

The bad news is our washing machine died.  Damn it - we just spend hundreds having it repaired last summer!  So if you found this blog after googling for Fridgedaire Gallery front-load washer - listen up!  It's cheaper than most, but has a reputation for the ...struts  (things that hold the drum in place.  It's supposed to spin, not dangle in the machine swaying this way and that) going out.

That said...we only started to have problems with it when we stacked the dryer on top.  Just because you can doesn't mean you should.  It makes perfect intuitive sense that having two bodies of machinery attached to each other spinning at different times, rythyms and sometimes directions should create an almighty stress on either or both machines.

I could NOT handle the stress of 2 weeks with no laundry like last time so convinced my partner (it didn't take much) to consult ConsumerReports.org and let our fingers do the shopping.  Within 48 hours we had a new Bosch on order, another 48 and it was installed.  God I love the internet.

But about that Dryer

As we had decided stacking may have exacerbated the problem we didn't feel shackled to a stack-freundlich brand.  But now, with a Bosh and a Fridgedaire, there was no way we could stack.  And that led us to the unfortunate realization that the newly (renovation 2 years ago) created dryer vent and 3-prong heavy duty outlet were too high and too far from the lengths we had.

But that's what hardware stores are for.  A couple of glasses of red swill, a bowl of Trader Schmoes Veggie chips (surprisingly tasty) later and I've replaced the dryer vent tube as well as the 3-prong cord.

So we're doing alright.

...the other thing she said...

The other cute thing my daughter said which I alluded to previously was this: 

We were at the library in the section where the "holds" are - that is, books you've ordered via internet and now want to pick up.  The hold section is arrange alphabetically by last name.  Slips of paper stick out of the book with the first 3 letters of your last and first name so you can locate your books.

"Why?" observed spawn "do these [books] have bookmarks when no one is using them."

I love this kid view of the world stuff.  Lucky me there is another on the way to keep it coming!

Quotes from a 4 yr-old

It's been awhile and I know I owe ya, so quickly now just a couple quotes from my daughter:

Bones

My daughter & I picked out a book about the human body at the library.  At home while looking through it, daughter pointed to a picture of a boy with his bones super-imposed.  "What are these for, Mama?"

"Why," I said "those are the hard things in our body that give us structure."  Then I pulled out a pair of her pants from the nearby laundry basket and held them up close to the floor as if someone were wearing them.  "See" I explained "our bones allow us to stand, but if we didn't have bones..." I continued letting go of the pants so they fell in a heap on the floor "we'd just end up in a pile like these pants."

Without losing a beat she observed: " Yea, but then we could just slither!"

Much to celebrate!

Our daughter's 4th birthday party was a huge hit.  I don't go to many kid parties (I guess my partner usually does) so I was frankly surprised at all the sincere thank-yous for providing 'adult' food (yummy salads, good cheese, etc.).  Apparently folks usually only provide perhaps a bowl of carrots and lots of sugar.  "hey" I replied to one couple "good thing I'm selfish cuz after a swim (it was a pool party) I just wanna eat. So of course I wanted good food!"

Actually I didn't swim (too many logistics to juggle) but everyone who did had a blast.

Ach, gotta go.  Time for the family B-Day celebration!

A burden lifted!

I still work for the same company - but now for a different department!  So you can quit your boss after all!

Sag' zum Abschied leise Servus...

I still work there.

...tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock...

Mrs. Blazina

Mrs. Blazina (not her real name.  Divorce.  A looooong time ago.  But I like to keep things fairly anonymous in this blog so I'll use that now mostly useless name) had straight brown hair down to her hips.  I'm talking Crystal Gayle hair.  Now if you know who Crystal Gayle is (was?) don't assume you and I like the same kind of music.  It's just that Crystal Gayle was enjoying her televised 15 minutes around the time I first saw Mrs. Blazina...that's the sole reason for the association.

Mrs. Blazina, the other 12 yr olds whispered in the bleachers where we were about to be introduced to Jr. High, was difficult, mean and quite a witch.  Had they been bolder or felt permitted so, some might've said bitch.  Whatever happens, the one to the left or right or front or back or I don't remember where hissed, don't get her for English.  And those kids should know!  They had older brothers or sisters.

It was 1980 and the Jr. High in our small town was a wing in the High School building...which made the transition for we ex-6th graders of elementary all the more impressive.  For it was not a Jr. High school gym in which we were introduced to the Jr. High staff but the HIGH School gym...shared by our new wing.

I can still see those teachers lined up with their backs to the wall while the Jr. High principal (I would end up calling him Kamikazee Kiko Kanicki for reasons lost to my grown up self) introduced we Jr./High School building virgins to the teaching staff.  A teaching staff, I noted with dread, that had Mrs. Blazina assigned to me for English.  Oh....(based on hearsay)...god.

--

It's been over 11 years since we last met but between then and 7th grade we kept in touch sporadically.  Mrs. Blazina was awesome.  I had, I think now, a school-girl crush on her.  I cared, for example, what kind of car she drove, stayed behind to chat with her while the others ran off to lunch and she stood at her locker mirror combing her long hair, walked her to the front of the lunch line chatting  only to turn, after she walked on through with the privileges reserved for staff, to retrace my steps down the hall to the very back of a very long line of very hungry students.

Then I moved.

Then she divorced and I called from out of state with adolescent condolences (it had not been an easy one).  Then we exchanged Christmas cards off and on over the years.  I went to Europe, I stopped by and had lunch with her and my (damalige) girlfriend - were we the first Lesbians she had ever encounted in this rural county in America?

The point is, I had been cautioned.  I had been warned that the worst possible thing that could befall a vulnerable 7th grader would be to get Mrs. Blazina for English.  But she was awesome.  She was creative.  She was goooooood.  I probably had a crush. Nevermind. As I grew older and into adulthood...we kept in touch as friends of a sort.

The point is, I'm glad I reserved judgement.  That I didn't listen to the convinced and loud chorus of others.  That I waited to see for myself, that I discovered...against anyone else's prediction...someone to learn from, enjoy, like and even cherish.

That, friends, was when I first learned that however hesitant I was to trust my own opinions...they are still better than blindly accepting the opinions of others.  Reserve judgement.  See for yourself.  Especially when it comes to opinions held by some about others.  Otherwise...your loss.

Don't Cycle with your Mouth Open (oh, and I quit my boss)

The Perils of a Gaping Mouth While Cycling To Work in the Pouring Rain

I biked to work at 0615 this morning in the pouring rain. I had all my post Xmas sales new bike gear on and headed out into the dark, cold rain.  The first 90 seconds were pure hell but then those endorphins (or whatever benevolent dolphins bless our endocrine system) kicked in and voila:  happy at work, happy at home!

Oh, but JUST as I was pumping through my own 2-inch puddle of dirty standing water a car next to me smashed into what was surely an 8 meter deep puddle for the wave that lunged at me.  Ah, nothing like a good 6:30 a.m. shower from above (the rain), below (my puddle) and the starboard side (the car's puddle).

That's also when I realized I shouldn't cycle with my mouth wide open.  At first I felt refreshed, a little thirst quenched, but then I tasted the grit and slim of dirty city street water.  (KOTZ!)

Today I Quit My Boss (And She Didn't Beg Me to Stay)

No, I didn't quit my job - nor do I intend to.  Not to say that I still HAVE a job as of tomorrow... ;-)

I quit my boss, my manager.  I wanted no longer to report to her and she readily agreed.

Now those of you paying close attention will think: say...isn't this the new manager & friend that you were so optimistic about when she was promoted?  Indeed.  And I still think she's one of the better things to happen to the department given some critically needed skills that she possesses.  We all have weaknesses, though, and ours seem perfectly matched & conceived in hell (gee, that's so heavy metal of me)  She & I just could NOT get a good rythym going.  We're both opinionated and outspoken.  But when I put my gin cards on the table she saw tarot.  And when she played her poker hand I saw Uno.  I felt I'm better off not having to bureaucratically be accountable to someone with whom every communication is like two people speaking two different languages.  So...I quit my boss.

A novel idea, this quit the boss thing.  I mean, if you have two people who are clearly assets to a company who are put into a situation where they cannot perform at their best (she and I with everything that we touched together) why quit the job when you can quit the dysfunctional relationship?

Anyway, I am so totally and utterly relieved.  I've had many weeks of tense, sleepless nights over this and have come to accept that this is one of those proverbial things I cannot change (hey, I've always wanted to utilize that tidbit of pop-wisdom!).  Whatever happens after this - whether I stay with the company or not - is all good...because this, I know, is one step in the right direction.

But just because I'm relieved don't think it was easy!  I'm a little sad too.  But better to face a hard truth than subsist in denial, I say.  OK, it only took me 32 days of resisting & 4 months of downright denying.  But that's another story.... 

It All Happened at Once

That Heart-Lurching Moment

I was at work frantically trying to do 5,000 things for 10,000 urgent requests including emailing back & forth with our VP when my cell phone vibrated.  That was when I realized with absolute horror that I had left my car 5 hours earlier in a 2-hour parking zone.

My partner on the phone:  The contractor's here, can you come home?  ugh.

Water, Water Everywhere & No, I Can't Offer You a Drink

Yesterday evening we stumbled home late after a fun time with friends, my back still screaming from carrying our not so light in a dead sleep daughter into the house in yet another most un NW-like drenching rain.  Wet, tired, achey and not drunk enough I rushed to the kitchen to get catfood for our forgotten Gitmo Kitty when I saw the water on the kitchen floor.  Then heard it.  Then spotted it dripping from a light canister in our kitchen...and what the hell is that bubbled up paint where the 6 X 12 beam is?!

I didn't give a damn what time it was, I called my contractor and - mustering all my experience leaving in 'Aggressive Wien' combined with my usual pleasant demeanor (bwahhahahahah) and cashing in on a few PMS hormones simmering beneathe my skin - left a message.  I was fit to tear heads off collarbone with my bare teeth, to give you idea of my tone.

Good man, he did show up this afternoon so after pocketing my parking ticket and picking up a gift of coffee and wine for "his quick response which we appreciate" (aka Keep Them Off Balance By Being Unpredictable) went home. 

That was when I noticed the standing water in the basement.  ARGH!  Flashlight in hand I determined it was not coming in from outside...(surprising that, I must say).  And the last time the drain in the basement backed up it meant the grey water pipe that runs UNDER our house had broken (who the HELL would put a pipe under the house in the first place).

Yes there was that one little stream...flowing INTO the puddle...coming from...the underthestairs closet....?  The galvanized pipe that runs cold water to our water heater had decided now would be the perfect time to prick a seal and spray water parrallel to the floor at the wall where my partner's rollerblades hang (and drip).  AHHHHHHH!

I don't know what to do first: the scarey task of talking to the contractor when the "who's paying for this" hasn't been decided, the spraying water, the clogged floor drain, change out of work clothes, portal into work email to see if the VP has any more questions, pay my parking ticket, say hello to my partner, hug my daughter, greet her little visiting friend, or just scream until the universe puts itself on pause.  I chose turning off the water line into the house.  Then took one....thing....at....a....time.... (yeah right, my partner says).

The roof is fixed (last weeks windstorm that had blown power out for 3 days had also ripped the roof vent off - god knows whose yard it's in now.  Handshook and bribe exhanged (I mean gift!  gift of appreciation - yes that's what it is) - me all smiles and charm (Keep Them Off Balance...).

The floordrain freed.  The water to the house off.

Fortunately we have keys to the Sister/Brother in Laws apartment for catsitting.  Tonight she's gonna have company cuz we want showers & coffee in the morning.

How was your day?

Last of the Lagavulin - 17 Windows to Go

That's right, yesterday I put that last bit of casing on the door making the score 2 doors down, 17 windows to go with a lifetime left to play.  Oh, and I finished off the Lagavulin - pure liquid smoke (which tastes better than it sounds).  Won't stock up on that again for some time.   Fattening, expensive and entirely too inviting. (sigh)

One of the gifts Santa gave my daughter is an battery operated keyboard.  She seems to long for more music and dance than our rushed grown-up home typically affords, so thought we put an instrument (of sorts) in front of her and see what happens. Long piercing high notes followed disharmonically by eardrum crushing low ones, that's what happens.. (shudder)

After running grandma to the airport (no more mouth-watering dinners - though I suspect if you use a cubic meter of garlic for every square inch of food you're halfway there. Yummmm) and meanderings through the aquarium (one diver cleaning a tank wore a Santa Claus hat under water!) all three (should I say four?) of us took a glorious vacation nap!  (ahhhhhh).

Gotta go.  The small one and I demand one last batch o'Christmas cookies.

...Voila

The child (in me) and my 4 yr-old decided to make giant candy cane cookies!  Put those hours at Playdoh to good use, I say.  In the process of creating 'snakes' to twist (awkwardly) into canes my daughter decided we needed a real snake as well.  At some point we got distracted by a cookie cutter lying about and took at stab at snowmen as well - though I have no idea where one might find red snowmen in nature... (click photo to enlarge)