Cranky Update

Well, I woke up in a pool of my own sweat this morning (sorry for the repulsive imagery) and knew that the air-conditioner was not working. I could feel warm air barely blowing out of the vents. I headed down to the basement to, I don't know, look at the blower. I flipped on the light in the laundry room and was greeted by a small pond on the floor. The big storm must have hit overnight. I slept through the whole thing.

So, now I get to clean up the floor, and then clear out at much crap from the laundry room as I can so that a repairman can get in there. That's no easy task, believe me. The upside of of changing the basement plans to include this laundry/utility room is that I now have a room to hide/store stuff. The downside is that I now have a room to hide/store stuff. It's just full of crap right now, and I'm going to have to deal with it, whether I want to or not. Poop.

I just heard a teaser for the morning news that mentioned the big storms we had overnight, and all the flooding they caused. Great. I'll watch the news while I swab the deck.

Me and my BIG mouth!

I should have known that this post was going to jinx me! I just walked into the laundry room to make a phone call, and I almost face planted!! There is water everywhere!! DAMN IT!!! Not only did the temperature soar to almost 60 today, it's been pouring for a while now. We had a pretty nice thunderstorm going for a bit, which normally would make me very happy. Actually, it DID make me happy. That is, until I walked into the laundry room, without turning the light on, and started to hydroplane!! Looks like I'll be ringing in the new year by wringing out the old towels. Oh, joy...

Bitch Fest, Part 1

Sometimes I can't believe how grown-up Stud has become. Then, there are times that it's like he's still a little boy. This is one of those times.

We stopped at the dollar store last night to get a poster board for an art project he has to do (photos coming soon!). He wanted some kind of stupid candy, and so he started acting like a little kid, trying to make me laugh and give in. All of a sudden, I hear him say, "If you buy it for me, I'll let you take a picture of me in this hat." I turned around and saw this:


I LOVE the look on the lady's face behind him. I'm sure she was trying to figure out why this grown man was wearing a dinosaur hat AND letting me take pictures of him! Actually, after I snapped this one, she immediately started apologizing for getting in the shot. Then we both had a good laugh at Stud's goofiness.

Now that I've had a few giggles, I suppose I can move on to the hell that the past couple of days have been.

My delivery window on Tuesday was 1-3pm. The truck showed up at around 2. Not bad. The delivery guys were to take out my old washer, dryer and fridge, and then bring in my new stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer. Great. I'll skip ahead to the part where the guy was going to attach the doors to my fridge. I realized that they were attached on the 'wrong' side. It then occurred to me that the salesman at Sears never asked me which way I wanted the doors to open! That was where the day went downhill. The guy told me that they (the delivery guys) weren't allowed to switch the hardware, and that it had to be done at the warehouse before the appliance is sent out. I told the guy to just leave the doors off because I was going to have to switch the hardware myself, so there was no reason to put the doors on just for me to take them back off, right?

As the delivery guys were leaving, one of them calls me over to the door, and shows me the two spots on my landing (you know, the one covered in bamboo!) where they scratched the ever-livin'-shit out of my hardwood!! Oh my hell!!! The scratches are bad. I wanted to cry. He then had the gall to ask me to try and use some kind of product to cover it up, and to not call and complain because they're independent contractors, and if I call and complain, they'd be responsible and it would cost them dearly, and yada yada, yada. I said, "Well, yeah, I'm sure, since it cost ME dearly to put the hardwood in!"

They leave, I start to switch the hardware. Well after taking out the first three screws, I realize I need a bit that I don't have to switch the rest. After doing some swearing, I decide I'm just going to have to put the doors on the way they are for now because my food has already been out of the fridge for a few hours now. I called my dad and he said he would come switch the stuff later. He also said he would come over and hook up all the appliances that night. (I made a roast, with veggies, in one of my crockpots, and a big pot of cream of potato soup in another, so that I could have my parents over for dinner that night. In the windup, my sister and nieces joined us, too.)

I put back the screws I had taken out, then started to put the door on the fridge. Done. That was easy. I then move on to the freezer door. It took me a few minutes to finally figure out that the problem was - the damn top hinge was missing!! I looked all over the basement, no hinge. I went outside and looked all over the backyard, and down the driveway, thinking that maybe it fell out of the box. Nope, no hinge. By now, over half an hour has gone by, and my blood pressure was rising.

I called the service number for Sears. I was put on hold at least 6 times, and transferred to at least 4 different people. Argh! AND, every time I got a new person on the phone, I had to repeat ALL of the same damn information (Name, address, phone number, order number, blah, blah, blah...) I was getting angrier and angrier. Someone finally comes back on the line and says that if I'd like to make an appointment, they can have a service technician come out in the next day or two...WHOA!! Wait a damn minute!! Day or TWO!!!??? Oh, HELL, no! That's pretty much where I lost it. I may or may not have screamed at this woman that my food has now been out of my refrigerator for over 3 hours now, and I will NOT be waiting a day or two, and I don't care if someone goes to the damn showroom floor and takes a damn hinge off one of those damn refrigerators and drives it to my damn house, I WILL get that hinge NOW!!! I then asked her if they could just call the delivery guys and ask them to check the truck. I was put on hold AGAIN! When she came back, she said the delivery guy would be calling me.

While I was waiting for the call, I took a better look at my house and found MANY spots that were scratched/dented/chipped, whatever. I had planned to take pictures for you, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I finally got a call about 15 minutes later. The driver tells me that they don't have the hinge on the truck, and asks me if I looked around the basement. REALLY!? Are you fuckin' serious!? No, it never occurred to me to LOOK for it! You're a genius!! Assbag! He tells me that they have to finish their last delivery, and then they'll come back and help me look for it. Yeah, that'll work. In the meantime, my damn food is sitting outside now, in laundry baskets, in an attempt to keep it cool, despite the fact that we were having a mini-heatwave that day, and the temperature was in the 50s. Not exactly enough to keep my frozen food from thawing.

I decided to just start putting my furniture back where it belonged (I had moved it all to make room for the delivery guys to bring the appliances in) and do some cleaning up after the mess they made. Soon, it was time for my family to arrive for dinner. About 5 minutes after my parents walked in, the delivery guy called back. He said they were about 15 minutes away. He then tells me his 'partner' said that when he took the door off the truck, he put it down on my swing in my backyard, and asks me if I looked there. Uh, no, no I didn't. I walked outside while I was on the phone, and sure as shit, there it was!!! DAMN IT!!! I could have put the damn door on the freezer literally FOUR hours ago!!

He then asks if I still wanted them to come back, and I told him, "Absolutely!" I figured, why the hell should I have to put the damn door on, let them do it! They came back, and as the one guy was putting the door on, I showed the other guy (the one who showed my the scratches on my landing) all the other things I found that they damaged. And, I wasn't all that nice about it.

They finish up, and start to leave. The one who put the door on actually had the unmitigated gall to ask me to give them a good rating when the service center calls with a survey later. You know, because "we really worked hard." Are you kidding me!?

I'm going to have to split this delightful story into two parts because this has been way too long already. (I started this damn post well over an hour ago!) I'll come back tomorrow with Part 2. In the meantime, here are my pretty new things.

My brother insisted on upgrading the washer from the one I picked out. This is one of those new-fangled washers with no center agitator. It is a high-efficiency washer, and it has these cool sensors that weigh the clothes and adjust the water levels accordingly. The only thing I've noticed so far is that it seems to take much longer to wash a load of clothes, which doesn't make me happy. I suppose I should read the manual. Maybe I'm not using the correct settings.

After I took these pictures for you guys, I started heading upstairs, and Dorky Dog was there. He is pretty damn cute, isn't he? And, yeah, it HAS been over three years and the stairs still aren't finished. Shut up!

Awesome day!!!

Today was a professional development day for CPS schools. Last month, I was sent a letter from the Early Childhood Dept. letting me know that there was a kindergarten-specific workshop scheduled for today. Naturally, I called immediately and signed up for a spot. All my Bloggy Buddies already know what that means - FREE DAY! I dropped Stud Muffin off at school, then drove into the city, fought the morning rush hour, parked in the college parking lot, walked into the building, up to the assigned room, signed in (and OUT!), then repeated the whole process in reverse. I actually drove back home in about 1/4 of the time, since I was going the opposite way, which made it all the better!

Obviously, I knew for a while that I'd be enjoying this FREE DAY, so I had a long list of things to do. I didn't actually go straight home, because I had to take care of the first errand on my list. I drove straight to the DMV (I know, gasp!) to purchase my renewal sticker for my license plate. After standing in the wrong line (!) for 10 minutes, I got in the right line, and was back out to my car in less than 15 minutes. Miraculous, right?

From there, I went to the furniture store because I decided today would be the day that I finally purchase furniture for the basement. I've been looking for the perfect furniture for about 3 1/2 years. I thought I found it back in October, but then it didn't work out. Long story short, they couldn't get it in my house. OK, so I've spent the past 6 months looking for what I want. Wednesday, I found it! I received a sale paper from a local furniture store, and right there on page 2 was what I've been looking for. Oh happy day! So from the DMV, I went straight to Harlem Furniture to check it out. I really liked it, but I just couldn't let myself commit to such a large purchase without another person's opinion.

I called my sister, she was busy. I called my mom, she wasn't dressed yet. She then told me about another furniture store that was having a sale, and said we should go check it out. I told her to call me when she was dressed, and I went home. About a half hour later, she called, we met at the store and of course, she didn't really care for the furniture. I agreed to go to the other store. But first, she wanted to go literally across the street to yet another store. It was the store where I purchased the furniture back in October. I've since gone there at least 3 times, only to be disappointed because they never had anything new. But, my mother was relentless, so I gave in and we went. This story is already wwaaaayyyyy too long, so let me just say, I FOUND MY FURNITURE!!! It's a done deal. The only 'bad' part is that they did not have it in stock, so I have to wait nearly 2 months for delivery. But, that's ok, because it gives me time to look for an area rug that goes with the furniture.

This was the furniture grouping I had purchased that wouldn't fit in the house. I really like it, especially the chair! Oh well...

This is what I bought today! It's EXACTLY what I wanted! It's a 5-piece sectional, each of which is small enough to fit down my dumb-ass basement stairs. I love the color (well, duh, it's the color of chocolate!!) and the fact that it's leather. The set I saw first this morning was exactly the same except it had microfiber cushions, which I was afraid were going to be a magnet for dog hair. This is sooo much better! Thanks, Mom!!

Wow, is anyone still out there? After buying my beautiful new furniture, and doing a happy dance, I came home and made another splurge purchase! I'll spare you the details (you're welcome) and just say that I recently received another Barnes and Noble gift card, which brought my total in gift cards to $150. I used it to buy myself a Wii!!! I've been wanting one for the longest time! I was able to get it for $100 out-of-pocket. PLUS, it's going to be shipped in one day! I plan to get the Wii Fit package, and maybe finally work on getting this fat ass into some kind of shape other than round!!

My plans for my basement finally seem to be coming to fruition. Hopefully, Stud's friends will be hanging out, sitting on my new furniture and challenging each other to Wii games very soon. Just thinking about it makes me smile.