2006-02-24 - 4:28 p.m.

ARGH. What an afternoon.

It was a source of consternation to me when I discovered (too late to do anything about it) that the contractors were tossing debris into the alley in front of the house and then later picking it up and putting it in their truck. They did a pretty good job of picking up the chunks so I figured when the street was dry (the piles of shoveled snow are melting) I would go out there with a broom and shop vac and then hose it down.

Well, I just found out from my next-door neighbor that they should have been using a chute and a dumpster, and that they were rude to her when she pointed this out. I was mortified. I can't believe I didn't think of the chute/dumpster thing myself -- I've seen them around the city on construction sites.

I apologized about fifty times and asked her in the future to tell me immediately if something is not being done properly. I hope she will. I also went out and started hosing things down as best I could. I suspect it'll take another couple passes to get it all. I also scoured the whole area cubic foot by cubic foot looking for NAILS since apparently there were some of those out there. ARGH.

That was very embarrassing and I feel terrible, but at least I've learned from the experience. :( I'm going to order flowers for the three neighbors nearest me and apologize for the mess and inconvenience and say that we'll do a better job of managing our contractors in the future.

On a much more positive note, LJer CamilleOphelia is having dinner with me tonight, and since it is so warm out, I am going to meet her wearing my new cape:

I've had my eye on this at one of my favorite vintage boutiques since the fall. I had budgeted to buy myself another fun coat this season, and I've been looking everywhere but kept coming back to this one.

When I went back to the shop to get it, it wasn't there. I was sad, but I tried on a few more coats and capes and got to chatting with the owner. There was a brown tweed one that I kinda liked, but was a little big. I mentioned how I had liked a cape that was gone, and she said "which one?" and I described it. She said, "I have that in the back! There was a girl in last weekend, and her card didn't work, so she said she'd come back for it later but she never did!" And she helped me try it on, and I just liked it so much I could not resist. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

I love everything about it -- the colors of the plaid, the rounded collar, the shape (it tapers to a longer length in the back), the pockets, and the big gold buttons off to the side. I told the owner that I was the only person I knew who was going to like this thing. :) So far that seems to be the case. Poindexter made a face and said, deadpan, "It's very nice," and now refers to it as my "old lady poncho". Whatever! I AM an old lady!!

2/24/06

My theme for this afternoon is "Embrace your Dorkitude".

I am on Amazon.com using "Customers who bought this album also bought..." to weave my way through the 80s and I am playing the little song samples. As I write this sentence I am playing the little sample of Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie" for the sixth time. I LOVE THIS SONG!!

What started it was LJer jupiter29's post in which he was ... ahem ... uncomplimentary about the GREATEST SONG OF ALL TIME, "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. I kinda lost it over there.

I've been a music dork for like, ever. I remember back when my parents bought a Ford Mustang, white with red interior, and it had a great sound system, and we kept going for rides in it with whoever dropped by, to show off the new car. My dad had made a tape off the radio that had two songs that had recently been released: "You Got Another Think Comin'" by Judas Priest, and "Too Much Time On My Hands", by Styx. The Judas Priest songs seems to be considered some sort of classic, but guess which song I liked best, that still gets me dancing in my chair even today? I am a DORK.

So, I want to go listen to the 80s songs from MTV and the radio that I forgot existed. Remind me!! So far I have listened to:

Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Papa Don't Preach
I Know What Boys Like
Black Coffee in Bed
She Bop
I Want to Know What Love Is
Hungry Like The Wolf
What is Love?
Hold Me Now
99 Luftballons

What else!?

And going back a little more, does anybody remember Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron"!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ooo, I'll play that again. I like the theme from the Partridge Family too, "C'mon Get Happy"!

*********

I am beginning to suspect that we have some sort of cosmic debt to pay where water is concerned.

Longtime readers may recall the Great Flood of 2001, at our house in Virginia, wherein the connection between the hot water and dishwasher broke (faulty installation when the house was built) at 3am. It merrily flooded the first two floors of the house until it shorted out the fire alarm system, which sets off every smoke detector in the house, and woke up poor Poindexter. It required complete replacement of the floors on the second floor (where the kitchen is located) and a lot of drywall replacement on the bottom floor.

Prior to that, we had a few more plumbing leaks in the walls, though relatively quite minor.

In this house, we had a leak (only when it rained really hard) that we hope was fixed when we had the roof replaced. We're still waiting for a good hard rain to find out about that one.

When we got back from visiting the in-laws in January, we discovered that a leak sprang out of the toilet tank on the top floor while we were gone. The water level in the tank rose too high, so it was leaking out the opening for the flush handle. There was a puddle in the bathroom, and it was leaking down the walls into the guest bedroom (old office) closet AND right down onto the beautiful dining table that we got from Poindexter's grandmother. The only thing that kept the table from being ruined was that the leak was very slow and it fell DIRECTLY into the napkins in the (full) napkin holder. I couldn't believe it. Talk about lucky. The napkins were soaked but no water had even gotten into the tablecloth.

Unfortunately, the guest bedroom carpet was soaked, and got a little moldy, so Poindexter has been experimenting with bleach and baking soda trying to get it out. It seems to be working, but still smells a little musty, so we might have to replace the carpet in there. Very annoying.

Last Saturday, after I took a long shower and the washer was draining, we had a DRAIN BACKUP. There's a drain in the laundry room and it backed up, so there was water all over the laundry room and half bath floors, leaking into the carpet in the main room down there. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. So we had to call a plumber and get him to come over and fix that.

The cause of the clog was papers and bits of debris that were in the water pipe OUTSIDE on the sidewalk in front of the house. The cover was broken, so there was no cover on it, and the contractors from last week were throwing the debris into the street and some of it got into the pipe. UNBELIEVABLE. It's a good thing Poindexter was planning on replacing that carpet with tile anyway. UGH. We have a $1000 deductible so we have to pay for it ourselves regardless.

What's next? I'm going to drop by the office of the insurance company who handles our homeowner's policy and make sure that just about anything water-related is covered. The next thing that happens may not be something we can handle ourselves.

On top of all that, I've been having computer troubles.

On 2/12, the backlight on my laptop (which I use for work and personal stuff) died. Poindexter made a few calls trying to find a local business to repair it (since I'm out of warranty), but couldn't even find a business that would answer the phone.

On Valentine's Day, as I mentioned, he was on the phone with Dell for half an hour trying to arrange for the repair.

On Thursday 2/16, the BACKUP COMPUTER DIED. I was down to one computer -- Poindexter's. All during the weekend, off and on, he swapped out parts until he found a working CPU and motherboard in his stash and got the computer working again. Of course this motherboard is so old it can't handle the USB port at all, so I can't post pictures of my cute little outfits.

On Tuesday 2/21, after A FULL WEEK since our call, DHL had not dropped by to pick up the laptop. Poindexter called Dell and they arranged for a pickup that afternoon. Very nice.

TWO DAYS LATER, 9 days after we originally called Dell, DHL shows up with the original box. Groan.

Today, Poindexter calls Dell to find out that the LCD also needs replacing, so I won't be getting my computer back until Monday at the earliest.

And now, since Poindexter is home and using his own computer, I am using the guest computer with a replaced CPU that is so slow that if I have more than two applications open, I type faster than the letters make it to the screen. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

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