Today the kids head back to school, and I think they’re actually excited. Our eldest woke up at 4am and we had to coax him back to bed for a few hours. Here comes the youngest who also seems to be excited but we need to watch closely as he can turn on a dime! From what I remember, school is a whole lot more fun these days than when I was a kid. I don’t mean that we didn’t have fun, it just seems to be less structured these days.
Well we tackled the “smell” yesterday afternoon with an army of men including the plumber, contractor, myself and and an architect. After pulling the dishwasher out of the wall and some major demolition, we finally found a small leak, we thought we had won the war only to find that the leak was as strong as ever after putting everything back together and turning on the water. Should have known it was just a tease! The beast was just toying with us as we could almost hear her laughing. (yes we now know the sex from the teasing thing)  Next step was to cut open the walls in the basement and after several attempts (and a lot of drywall dust and insulation along with a few spiders), we think we have found the mother of all leaks. Now the problem is we need the contractor back to cut out a section of the basement roof and some metal studs so we have ample space to get up in the ceiling to attempt to finally capture or kill the beast. On top of that it turns out the water in the upstairs bathroom toilet (according to the sewer man who will also be back today) has nothing to do with the leak. We have bets on what we’ll find, a toy army man, a pair of socks, a dog bone or maybe some kind of stuffed animal. So we continue to eat off paper plates, can’t use the kitchen sink, and are waiting for the final tally of what this is going to cost. Grandma offered a bit of wisdom regarding her plumber which she managed to get here yesterday, “don’t visit with him” as he bills by the hour! We also need to decide if we should actually turn this into the insurance company or not as we just had a huge claim last year resulting from a tornado that virtually tore off the roof. Our fear is they’ll probably drop us. Another example of corporate America at its finest, you pay and pay and then when you actually need to use them, they drop you.
Ate pretty healthy yesterday as we really didn’t eat. With the plumber and his gear sprawled out all over the kitchen floor from mid afternoon until early evening, all we could throw together was a chicken breast which my wife creatively put on a stick for the kids who were thrilled with “chicken on a stick” just like at the restaurant. Without the stick there would have been no way they would have touched it.
Looks like the wife also has an interview with Whole Foods today! Yeah! We got a call last night telling her to call today. First thing is to get the job, then we’ll have to figure out how to cover for her when I’m out of town on business and the kids get home from school. Lucky we have a pretty much retired super duper uncle that lives 3 doors down the street. Now we’ll have to see if he’s up for it. The boys really love him!
Still no drinking and we feel great! I think (or it could be an optical illusion from not drinking) we’re both kind of looking like George Clooney and Angelina Jolie. No exercise today as too much work and a big tax bill from 2007 is due tomorrow. (they jut keep coming, we get these letters giving us 10 days to pay and by the time the mail gets here, we’re down to 5) Good news is that we can only get 2 more letters, 2008 and 09 as we’ve paid all the other years.
Anyhow looks like the morning meltdown is coming from the kids (about twice as bad as the movie Ice Age) and my wife needs some help yelling at them (her voice is giving out) so time for her to get off the field and send me in. (seriously it’s not that bad but it is a good analogy) It’s like 2 teams in the Super Bowl, the kids on one side running around with reckless abandon and the parents on the other trying to use their superior intellect. The trick is not to let them pull you down to their level as then all is lost. Their voices are much louder, they’re much faster and can score at will once they get you on their turf!
Have to go now, they’re carrying my wife off the field on a stretcher and now it’s my turn.
Take care and if anyone won the MegaMillions jackpot, call us today!
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