Kauri's Keep

Despite not feeling physically that great (why so unhappy, tummix?), I am going to do some organizing tonight. Pres Man came home with lots of new plastic tubs today to house the things that were previously in cardboard boxes under the stairwell. All those boxes are currently in the middle of our storage room because water got under the stairs whenever it was that we had the pin hole in our hot water line in the laundry room.

Anyway, now we have plastic tubs, and I'm going to work on transferring things over to the tubs and getting all that stuff back under the stairs. That'll help the basement a lot.

Pres Man's back is still iffy from Saturday, so we're not going to put the craft area back together just yet (involves shifting large shelves full of stuff). But even without doing that I can straighten up some in there in preparation for sewing stuff.

Piewacket seems to be getting over an illness. I noticed the day before yesterday that he seemed to be a lot less evident. Then yesterday morning he barely wanted his cat grease (usually his favorite thing), and his chin seemed swollen.

I'm not sure exactly what was wrong; our vet was closed today so Pres Man just kept an eye on him and if Pie had gotten a lot worse, we'd have gotten him in at another vet. But he is much better. Maybe he had a loose tooth that got infected.

He's eating and drinking and he's out with the family all the time now, so he's pretty much back to normal. I'm still going to watch him but I think he's through the worst of it. Today he was purring and headbutting my hand, so that's a big improvement.

It rained a teeny bit today, but we would need a full inch to get to where we normally are at this time. Oh well, at least I haven't had to mow the lawn for a while.

We've still got some nice loud cicadas here. I love that. One of them apparently had an unhappy night a couple of evenings ago, though. All of a sudden we heard one right outside the front door, and it was not a "Hey, Baby, I Gotcher Hot Cicada Lovin' Right Here!" song. It was a "HEY OUCH STOPPIT THAT HURTS OWWWWWW!" sound. I know of what I speak, because I once had a cicada follow me indoors and fry himself on my halogen lamp as I cried.

Our porch light is a cool one, so this one did not burn up. We're wondering if he found out that our many spiders and their webs are a little more dangerous than one might think, or if maybe a nocturnal cicada killer got her baby's meal ticket.

It was a sad sound and brought up bad memories, but it didn't last long and tonight the rest of them are out in full force, so yay.

We've been watching a lot of the Olympics. There have been some strange (and wrong) calls. Overall I've enjoyed it.

My mother's myofascial release/occupational therapist volunteered to look at my knee. She wants me to take two pictures standing up, one from the front and one from the hurt side, in bare feet, so that she can see my knee. She thinks she'll have a better chance figuring it out from those pictures than a regular doctor would from x-rays and in-person poking and prodding.

And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but I also think some people have a gift for that sort of thing and I'm not going to count her out. I'm going to take those pictures and send them to her.

I got to speak to my sister today - my gifts for my nephew did not arrive yet! But I'm sure they will get there tomorrow (if not after I talked to her). I got him some flutes that you put water in to get different notes (they are a bath toy) and the Disney Tarzan DVD. I think he'll like both. And it's okay that they weren't there on his party day because apparently he did the same thing he did at Christmas, which was open one gift and obsess about it and not want to open any others. I think Mommy and Daddy opened most of them. LOL So he was not denied the "joy" of a mountain of gifts just because Auntie couldn't get her crap together in time.

I ordered some Halloweeny stuff. Well, costume stuff. I love The Nightmare Factory and they are having a sale right now. I got two Bajoran and two Klingon communicators because they were nearly half off. I got some color hair extension clips too. I plan to use the hair in my steampunkery. Put a little more punk in my steampunk.

I'm really trying to make it a goal to get to that con. I should bite the bullet and pre-register NOW. Maybe if I commit the money it'll make it easier to stick to my goals of getting costumes and accessories made.

I've contacted a plumber through their website (not the one we normally use, because I have a feeling they would say "YOU NEED A NEW WATER HEATER, STAT!") and tomorrow I should get a call from them. Meanwhile a bucket is handily containing the slow and intermittent water escaping from the relief valve.

Time to go do some plastic tub filling and stacking.

Today I got a text from Pres Man. It said "The good news is that I put the cover back on the basement window. The bad news is it was a day late."

Yes, we had water come in through a basement window in last night's downpour. We had taken the cover off the window well when the plumber came because he had to replace the spigot, which is normally under the window cover.

Annnnnd then we did not put it back. We keep thinking we'll find a different type of window cover, because Pres Man thinks the ones we have look ghetto. But our house apparently has a bigger than normal escape window or something, because all the ones we can find in the home stores are not big enough.

Anyway, it's back on now and Pres Man had already pulled out the stuff and sucked up the water by the time I got home. He also set up the dehumidifier, and everything looks like it's okay now.

Man, I think I'm going to sleep really well tonight. I am already feeling a little sore. But happy. I worked out! Again! And I was under my calories by a significant number.

It was a good day. Warm but not burninating, breezy but not gale-force winds, and I got a lot done at work.

Tonight I picked up all the sticks in the front yard and the west side yard. There were a LOT! Many of them had been previously mowed over and were in smaller pieces, but I grabbed them anyway. I filled up my little bucket three or four times before I felt like I had gotten enough of them. I proudly showed Pres Man my haul later. He pretended to be impressed. That's love.

After Stick Patrol, I mowed the front yard and it was much better without all the stupid sticks. There are still places where the ground feels bumpy because we have grassy spots and then spots where the grass did not take and the ground dips there. Definitely need to overseed this Fall.

That robin was there again. Did I write about him last time? There was this robin hopping around the yard, waiting for me to get right up on him with the mower before he would move. I never expected that a robin would be gutsier versus a lawnmower than my cat would be versus a vacuum cleaner.

Robin was back today. He did not follow me around quite as much (or lead me, I guess), but when I stopped mowing he was all over that yard.

After mowing I watered the grass AGAIN. Robin tried to avoid it at first, but then danced around in the spray. I don't know if he found anything to eat or not. I'm hoping he really like slugs and roly polies. I need my earthworms.

But back to the watering: Seriously, even though we did it this morning, tonight the yard looked like we had not watered it at all. Our maple tree (Dick is his name) must be sucking up all the water. The non-Dick side of the yard looks a lot happier. The yard guy who seeded our lawn warned that could happen.

Dick is probably also the reason our water main broke a couple of years ago. He probably got thirsty and broke into it.

The good news is that despite Dick's unslakable thirst, the lawn is still looking okay. It is not turning brown or crisping up that I can tell. It's just not filling in. But like I said, I'm not even sure this grass it the type that will. I think it's bluegrass, but for all I know it could be a thin-bladed fescue.

The hostas are still happy and none of the phlox have died yet. The geraniums are still green and one of them even looks like it might bloom again soon.

The grass out by the street is suffering. Our main sprinkler does not get that far, and I would feel bad about making our sidewalk completely impassable anyway. I think I may have a tiny sprinkler that I could do a little area at a time with, but that will mean setting a timer and going out to move it every 20 minutes or so, and that means you have to keep the timer with you and you can't really go anywhere and if you're me, you end up getting soggy and dirty because when it comes to sprinklers and hoses, you always zig when you should zag.

I wish I had one of those tractor sprinklers. I would set it up to run along the strip of grass by the curb and then have it come up the side of the yard behind Dick, where it is also pretty dry most of the time.

But those tractor thingies can be pricey and they break. All the ones at the yard sales are broken (this is what I heard at lunch today from my friends who shop a lot of sales).

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. But at the end, we get to dine with Koganei and Kiwi, which will be fun. We have not seen them since last month.

I think we'll have to put off starting the gutters tomorrow night. I had planned that as The Next Outdoor Project, and it still can be, but maybe Thursday.

We did it! We replaced the tube that goes from the condensate pump (and wow, it still bothers me that it's not a "condensation" pump, but that's just me), and we did it right the first time!

We drilled a hole in the outside end of the tube we already had, tied our nylon rope through it, pulled it through, drilled another hole in the new tubing, tied the other end of the rope to that, and pulled the new tubing through easy as heck.

I really thought it was going to be awful, but it was pretty easy.

Having cell phones helped. When you have one person inside and one outside, communication is vital.

I watched it until the first cycle of the pump, and the connection did not leak. I think that means we're good. We'll see.

I'm very proud of us, and relieved that it is done.

I have not yet put the electrician's putty in the hole in the wall where all the pipes and tubes come out, but once we're really sure that this is okay, I'll do that.

Go us! We did something!

Tomorrow, the innards of the upstairs toilet, which has begun leaking water into the bowl. Still pretty slow, but it's really time to take care of that before it starts affecting our water bill.

Yesterday we got a certified letter from the city saying our grass was too tall. The letter came after we had mowed the yard, so yay tax dollars at work. Also, you guys, it rained like every day! Hrmphf.

Today I planted my white geraniums in the urns and I planted three of the phlox that I had. Then I ran out of steam. I'm still trying to work up to going back out and planting the remaining three phlox. Digging is hard. Digging in our yard is especially hard.

We are catsitting this week. We've been over twice and the first time he was obviously holding us responsible for his owner's absence. Today was better; he wanted some cat pats and was less accusatory. Perhaps he has decided to charm his owner's location out of us. lol

I think I might be recovering from a sinus infection. For three days I could not completely bite down on the left side of my mouth. It was not a hurting tooth, it was my jaw that was the problem. I thought maybe I slept with my teeth clenched or something and that it was a pulled muscle. But yesterday I could finally close my mouth again and my sinuses on that side started going crazy. I still have some pain when I try to bring my back teeth together, but I am able to do it.

It's supposed to storm here tonight. I think it will probably hit us since I so diligently watered all my new plantings in. I need to make sure to water those hostas once a week. They are okay, but I think they could be super happy if I would give them a drink more often.

Oh, and I finally planted the pumpkin seeds today. Late, but maybe we'll get a pumpkin or two anyway.

I'm so tired.

Tonight when I got home, I paused to admire the power-washed house and thought "I should take a picture of that!" I went inside and thought "Oh! Stale Coffee! I should wash that out and get the coffee maker ready for tomorrow!"

And then I thought, "Why am I hearing swiftly trickling water from the basement?"

It turned out that the hot water line that leads to our kitchen sink had given up the ghost. It had been patched in two places by previous owners, and replacing a lot of the pipes in our house has been on our "someday" list since the water main died our first Summer. It's just that it was never on top of the things we wanted to do. Other things seemed like more immediate needs.

Ha ha. Until today! I did okay with this emergency, I think. I turned off the water main, started cleaning up the water (which had LUCKILY dripped onto a pile of sweaters that had been layed out to dry and then got stacked up when they were dry and never got taken upstairs because it's not sweater weather anymore and I am lazy), and I realized the water was WARM. So I ran the hot water in the downstairs bathroom to make sure the pressure from the hot water was all gone. That stopped the leak nicely.

And we didn't lose anything. Unless my sweaters did not make it. We'll see. But it could have been so much worse! That counter where the water was dripping has my yarn stash under it! But it's all in plastic tubs and plastic ziplock bags, so it's all fine. I think. Whew!

Instead of working in the yard or do laundry or anything, we moved a bunch of stuff out of the way for the plumber, sat around waiting for the plumber, sat around waiting for the plumber to do his thing, then we paid him the bill plus about $100 MORE than it would have been during regular work hours (totally worth it), and now here we are.

We had to pay overtime since neither of us could be at home tomorrow and we did not want to go so long without water. I was sad about having a broken pipe, but as Pres Man said, that's why we put money away every month, so we don't even have to think about it; we can just get it fixed. It's nice that we are able to absorb an emergency plumbing issue. Though between this and the exterior painting, I think we're pretty much done with big ticket fixes for the house this year. At least, I hope so. :)

And now I'm going to go run a hot bath in hot water and enjoy the sound of no water going anywhere it is not supposed to go.

I cannot believe another day has gone by and I have not taken the picture of the house's exterior. I will have to try to do that tomorrow morning, I guess.

Piewacket would like me to tell you that he was (eventually) very brave and totally sat on the futon for most of the plumber's visit, watching him run in and out and up and down the stairs. Brave kitty. Who is now passed out against my side because being that brave is exhausting. :)

The blinds are completely done! And we got a new sparkplug for the mower, which we hope will help it last another Summer.

I have dug three of the six holes that I need to do for the hostas. I have not mixed in any new soil, sphagnum or anything. It was very hard work to cut through the grass, which is apparently doing VERY WELL in those spots. And then Pres Man said later, "You're using that shovel?" Apparently our OTHER shovel would be better for my hole-digging, so when I go back out I will use that one. Either way, I also bought some files today for shovel-sharpening.

It's not sounding good outside; at first the mower sounded really happy to get a new sparkplug, but now it's sputtering and complaining. Maybe the older gentleman who just came over from across the street will fix it for us. I don't know;I think this foe may be beyond any of us. Cleaning the carburetor last year helped, but not enough. It may just be that our cheap Walmart push mower had a planned obsolescence of 8 years.

Poor Pres Man's allergies have really been getting him this weekend; then he went out and mowed. Poor sneeze-monster.

I need to get myself ready and go to Knitting. Probably there won't be a lot of us there because it's Easter, but it will probably be good for me to go anyway. Even though I am pretty tired.

Our nice lady across the street had her whole fam damily here for Easter, and that's part of why I'm reluctant to go out and dig holes for hostas. What if that older man comes over and gives me half an hour of helpful hints about that? I'd get to hear "You're using that shovel?" again. LOL

Maybe it's enough that we got the blinds replaced this weekend. Now they are all clean, they all match, they all have turning rods (one was missing it before), and they will not jump off the window when you're adjusting them (this is a danger with the cheaper blinds when they lose their plastic sliders; our new blinds don't attach that way).

Pres Man pointed out that there is a sign in our neighbor's yard asking for renters. I guess the people who were there were not our real neighbors? I don't know.

We have had a lot of birds in our yard today. The cardinal was here, lots of littler birds (finches I think), a bluejay, some grackles, the stupid pigeon, and even some robins.

I'm sure the robins heard that we have earthworms. I found four today, which was four more than I thought we had in the front yard. I also found a slug, who went on what may have been a permanent vacation to the sidewalk.

I really need to find my gardening gloves.

FIL got here over two hours later than he said he would, and to my knowledge we did not get a call advising us of the change in plans. Luckily, we are selfish people so after waiting an hour and a half+, we had dinner without him.

On my way home tonight I thought I'd get some cypress mulch at Home Depot, because it was on a deep discount this weekend and I hoped it would still be there today. Nope. All sold out. But I did get six rectangular pavers, six hostas, and a flat of phlox. Last year I remember thinking I should put hostas in front of the house, and I never did. Well, this year that is happening. I think I will put the phlox in my urns and when the geraniums arrive I will just plunk them in there if there is still room. If not, they can live in pots on the porch.

Pres Man and FIL are watching the KU game and I have been sent downstairs to do laundry and keep the cat company. During one of my brief forays upstairs to get more laundry, I greeted the dog and was told by FIL that when Jet saw our house, she nearly got away from him because she was so anxious to get here. I'm glad she likes us, but in a way that just gives him another reason to occupy our house again later.

Oh! I also got a water alarm for our heater/water heater room. That way if we have another pump failure, we'll know pretty quickly.

Today was a pretty good day. It was quite warm, so I did water the grass. I just do not trust the storm to deliver. I also put my new plants where the water could get them, so hopefully they will still be happy tomorrow when I go out to put them in the ground.

Pres Man says I definitely need to find some mulch now, because I need to put it around the plants I do not want mowed. lol My other mulch need is I plan to put it along the driveway by the fence, where the leaves build up and it's just icky/muddy when it's wet. I want to rake it all out, clean it up, lay down wet newspapers to discourage growth, and cover it with mulch to make it look clean and deliberate.

I did not go by the pet store, because I was so anxious to get my plants home. I'll swing by tomorrow after work and get the scooper/grabber. I should find my gardening gloves and throw them in the wash while I'm doing this laundry marathon. Then they'll be nice and clean for playing in the dirt tomorrow. Possibly with a friend, because S from Knitting volunteered to help!

Here's what I did tonight:

Came straight home and painted all three doors, half of the windows (the trim, not the actual glass)(mostly), and I touched up some of the baseboards. I wore out my brush, because I have found that what I like best is a crappy foam spongy brush, and if you use those too long they start to fall apart and leave little sponge molecules on your wall. I stopped and Pres Man and I had dinner at LJS, which was OMG so delicious I cannot even tell you. I don't know what it was, but that really hit the spot. Probably the malt vinegar.

The wasp that was trapped in our nursery window found her way out tonight. She was in there for about 24 hours or so, but she finally calmed down and worked it out. I cannot believe I was cheering for a wasp. She watched me paint for a while, like "Okay, I'm trapped, so I might as well enjoy the show." So she sat there grooming herself and cocking her head politely as if to say, "I think that's a really nice shade of blue."

Speaking of stinging insects, we had honeybees on our redbud tree this weekend. I was really pleased to see them, since honeybees are in trouble lately. I wonder if they are a K-State hive.

We had a few tulips come up in the yard. They survived the Great Rototilling of 2011. I should mark where the daffodils and tulips are so I can dig them up and put them where they should be (not scattered around the yard) in the Fall.

Tomorrow night we should be able to finish painting. We'll do the other half of the windows, do the doors again, and go over the baseboards for real. And that's it. The rest of the week is getting ready for the in-laws.

Mainly by stuffing everything into the room we just painted and shutting the door. Hush, it's temporary. :)

So far Spring Break has been pretty lackluster. It has been raining since Monday and that makes it kind of hard to feel like doing anything.

However, we finished sanding the nursery, spackled everything, we covered the cracks, textured the flat spots, and tonight we finally put the first coat of paint on the walls. I cannot believe how much better it looks. It will definitely need a second coat, but so far it's looking MUCH better. I did not realize how much I disliked that pink.

I broke my mouse sander!!! The good news is that it broke after the majority of the sanding was done. We purchased an orbital sander to defeat the horrible plaster wall patch that would not die, and we used it to sand down the rest of the cracks that we saw (of course, we did not find ALL of them; why do they show up so well when you're painting??).

There's a service center for my mouse in a town about an hour away. We will probably send it in and have them send us a new one; the problem is that out of three supports, one of them broke, and now the unit vibrates way too hard and almost leaps out of your hands. Poor little thing; it had a brief and very hard life. I thought about trying to glue it back together, but I'm not positive that even my best adhesive could glue the broken piece back together and keep it together under the stress of sanding.

Pie is miffed (well, as miffed as he ever gets, which is not much) because we had the windows in the nursery open and we would not let him in. Open windows are for CATS, and we would not acquiesce. He turned it ears backwards and stalked away.

Of course, during the first coat all the things we did NOT fix on the walls jumped out at me. It bugs me that we worked so hard to smooth out the marred surface and there is still so much wrong with it.

I need to concentrate on the things we did improve. There are tons of places we fixed, tons of holes we filled, tons of holes in the trim that we filled, and those giant nasty plaster patches are smoothed out.

And it's not pink any longer. That's an enormous improvement.