Things are not as they first appear

We've been dealing with a leak that became evident during the big rains of a couple weeks ago. We've had the landscaper, then PG&E, then the plumber to ferret out the problem. We discovered a section of the house where there was no seal between the house frame and the foundation. We thought that was the problem. We contacted the builder (our warranty expires this year - yikes!). They assigned us a service request and a local contractor to work with. Well, the contractor came this morning and he agrees that there is indeed a hole between the house and the foundation but he was puzzled that the area was still wet. So he kept searching and he discovered that the builder had installed piping that the communication cables (telephone etc.) run through and the piping is full of water. The pipes come up anywhere from 6 inches to 12 inches and there are a number of them. I expect that with all the water we had the water finally filled up the pipes and has stayed in the pipes - you know that physics experiment about water staying in pipes....Anyway, he's putting in his report and says he'll be back in about a week to start the repairs.

Marathon bike ride

Had a great workout day starting with a "marathon" spin class - actually a little longer - 1 1/2 hours and 30 miles, followed by the usual Saturday housecleaning stint and a 6 mile walk! Yay!

A pretty typical Friday

I think it's wonderful to have a day that plays out pretty much they way you expect it to. When I was working one of the major stresses was that I had way too many things on my to do list before I even got to work and by the end of the day, I often found that I accomplished none of them as so many "Urgent and Important" things came up. It became pretty clear that many of these "urgent and important" things soon became less so as even more "urgenter and importanter" things relegated them to the run of the mill - "when you can get to them" list. One of the wonderful things about life now is that there isn't much that is so "urgent and important" and I can really step back and enjoy the wonderful things in life like this beautiful sunrise on my way to spinning class this morning. - Ahhhh beautiful!

Fun day cooking

Today was a fun day filled with cooking. Cousin P's son is here from Minnesota and they're coming for dinner. I decided to make a Chinese meal since he isn't here when we have our comfort food meals together. So we're starting with potstickers, then napa with tofu and rice noodles soup, and then peapods and baby corn with chicken in white sauce, t-pang and sticky rice and ending with a blueberry glace pie (not Chinese but oh so yummy!)

The other good news of the day is that T has been calling in all week about whether he has jury duty and he was supposed to call again at noon to see if he would be called this afternoon and he was excused.

We also heard from the construction company that is handling our service request to repair the damage from the hole in the exterior wall. They are coming on Monday morning. Hopefully we won't get anymore rain before they arrive!

Bed covering one more time

Bed coverings nowadays are so poorly made they don't even have a one year life! We bought new bed coverings when we moved here 3 years ago and within 2 years they started to show signs of wear. We replaced them around October and the new ones didn't last 2 months! The bed skirt ripped on the first day we put it on the bed and the comforter was so light that I had to throw another blanket on the bed! So today we went to buy yet another set and see if we have any better luck with this set. Planned obsolescence is one thing but instant trash is ridiculous!

Busy last couple of days

We had a second round of Christmas on Sunday. KT returned from cold Rochester, MN for a delayed Christmas celebration. The west coast family gathered at P&S's including their 2 "kids" and cousins KM and C and another one of their cousins. We really appreciated the second Christmas feast with all the trimmings - starting with bacon wrapped scallops and followed by eboned stuffed turkey, stuffing, potatoes, carrot soup, broccoli, butternut squash souffle, lemon meringue and maple pecan pie - Yum!

Monday was a full day activities including returning some St. Barnabas t-shirts to the screenprinter that were the wrong sizes, activating my replaced bank card (original one was canceled as part of a large group of cards with compromised data), dropping off a pack and play play-pen at Womenade for a newborn baby, dropping off a dehumidifier at P&S's (we brought a brand new one from West Hartford and have never needed it but they do) and then a run to Costco. We returned and de-Christmased the house and finished with making dinner. I'm tired just reliving the day as I write this. Amazing when I think of how I dealt with all this and a full-time job once upon a time!

Today I enjoyed a morning filled with lots of aerobic activities at the gym, followed by the start up luncheon for the Tuesday Ladies Who Lunch group - one new person. Today was also the January board meeting for A Hand Up. What an energized wonderful board we have at the moment with lots of people jumping in and doing things - YAY!

New Year's Day

Well, in keeping with my resolve to blog more frequently, I thought it would be a good idea to start on the first day of the year. The day dawned pretty beautiful considering the weather gurus were calling for rain to begin sometime during the night. We were going to a New Year's Day party and I was bringing an appetizer. I wanted to take a walk before the party so I started making the appetizer - crispy shells filled with sausage and peppers. I monitored my time so I would have 1 1/2 hours for my walk. At one point I happened to notice that the clock I was benchmarking to hadn't changed time since I looked at it a few times ago! It was then I realized that it was about 45 minutes behind real time. Fortunately I had left myself enough time to get in a great walk before showering and I beat the rain. We went to a great party hosted by one of the other Clark Center captains. For me it's always more comfortable when I am familiar with a large number of the party attendees.