And oh yea...

In addition to all the crap with the house that I wrote about before, sometime during the summer (I don't remember when) our A/C went caput -- necessitating a completely new system (outside unit, water heater and furnace) to the tune of $10K.  Yay.  That, on top of the approximately $20K for the plumbing, new bathroom, ceiling repair and electrical work.  And our one car kept dying (three tows!). Now the gutters are falling off the house. 

Sheesh.

But the A/C is fixed.  And the car seems to be running reliably (knock-on-wood) now.  We still need to take care of the gutters.

And then, what's next?  I should start a lottery to see who can guess what our next major fix-it project will be.  Any takers?

What's left.

So I was wrong

They weren't done yet. Now they are. More pix.

Who could that be knocking at my door?

Especially at 7:30 this morning?

Turns out it's some workers who have come to remove the tree in our front yard. The tree is half dead and old enough that the branches get pulled down by the wind on a regular basis. Fortunately, the branches only fell on the lawn, not our cars, but we always avoided parking the car under the tree during storms. Anyway, the worker dude wanted me to move our car so they could work.

Of course, I didn't know they were coming today. I knew the tree was slated for removal, but no one told us when. About a year ago (yes, a year), the county came by and marked the tree for removal. The reason it's half-dead is because some genius 60 years ago, when the house was built, thought it was a good idea to plant a tree directly under the power lines. All up and down the street. Many of the trees have already been removed, and those that remain have been trimmed and cut back into a weird V shapes to avoid the power lines. Not only did the trimming result in a strangled-looking trees, but the trees are dying as a result.

So now I'm watching it being taken down. And I'm a bit sad to see it go. It was a fairly large tree that produced a lotta shade -- and yes, a lot of leaves on the ground. But it was (mostly) a living thing, so it makes me a bit sad to see it chopped and chomped up into chips. Also, it also dramatically changes the look of our front yard. And we'll get much more sun on the house too.

But it's a good thing to have the tree removed. Just yesterday, we had a wind storm. When we came home last night, there were a few branches on the lawn, one of which would have dented a car. And lucky for SM, they're removing the tree before the leaves have fallen. This will save him very serious hours of raking.

So the once lush tree (okay, 1/2 lush) will soon be reduced to a creepy, limbless trunk (they come back to take the trunk and then again, hopefully, to remove the stump). It's actually been a very interesting process to watch. The guy responsible for cutting the branches did it very methodically and used ropes for controlled falls.

Here are some pix.





































































































Done. For now. Kinda sad. But I guess this adds to the ambiance for Halloween!

So now I need to go to work!

Updates

The plumbers are coming on Tuesday to begin the overhaul of our house. All the pipes are being replaced. We're also getting new toilets and a new shower downstairs. Cha-ching. Our house is going to be in complete disarray (more so than usual) for months. This stresses me out tremendously.

And, today I got the news that the doctors have pretty much given up hope that my grandma will regain consciousness, so the family has decided -- I think rightfully so -- to give her comfort care but take no extraordinary measures for her. In other words, hospice care until she passes away. We've already dismantled her apartment and moved stuff to storage. Now they are starting to give stuff away. Losing hope is a hard thing. She isn't dead, but she's definitely gone.

I am tremendously sad today. Maybe watching the final three episodes of Grey's Anatomy^* today wasn't such a good idea?



_{*where everyone dies}

Damn. Enough already!

Let's see, my past few months have included...
* bathroom leak that flooded the kitchen (February 12th)
* molar pregnancy and ensuing procedure (February 13th) while the baseball remains to be dealt with
* kidney transplant for Dad (March 31st) and follow-up care (ongoing)
* various car problems (ongoing)
* chipped my front tooth (May 3rd)
* ruptured pipe in ceiling that flooded basement (May 3rd), necessitating an overhaul of our plumbing and redoing pretty much the entire basement (it's gonna cost us a chunk)

And now, the worst thing yet.  My grandmother had a very serious stroke on Thursday last week (May 14th).  She's in the ICU.  At first, they didn't think she was going to survive, but she did.  And I had hope that she'd recover.  Maybe not fully, but at least functionally to some degree.  Before the stroke, she was completely lucid and active and lived independently.  Now, she meanders in and out of consciousness and has moments of partial lucidity.  But she spoke every so often and even opened her eyes.  She responded to stimuli and our voices somewhat.  And I had hope.

But it's been four days now, and the doctors are saying that they don't expect her to recover any further.  And I'm feeling a bit crushed.  I could deal with her condition well enough when I had the hope that she'd fight through it ('cuz she's really tough), but now I'm thinking my hope is futile.  And I am so. very. sad.  Grandma was so vibrant that it's hard to fathom that she isn't likely to recover.  There was no gradual decline.  She went from life in the fast lane (for a 94-year old, that is) to stop.

::sigh::

We'll find out more tonight.  But I don't feel so optimistic anymore.

Empty.

Our basement, that is. The carpet is out.  The padding is out.  The ceiling and parts of several walls are also gone.  Devoid of (almost) all furniture -- and hopefully, all water.  We're hopeful that the smell leaves soon too.  But who knows?   It's been raining so much that nothing seems dry these days.

Photos to come.

New plumbing for our house...

My past three days:

Sunday -- chipped my tooth; got home around 11:00 PM after being away for three days to find a pipe burst in our basement, spurting everywhere. Water was covering the bathroom floor and had pretty much soaked the carpet across the entire floor. Wedding presents, law books, photographs and gawd knows what else was on the floor. So, after we figured out how to turn off the main valve to the house, SM and I started digging out. We put towels down and pulled out our fans and dehumidifiers. The towels got soaked instantly, so I had to run them through the spin cycle of the washer and then stick them in the dryer. And repeat and repeat.

We managed to get a lotta stuff out of the basement, which is a huge disaster area. Sadly, my junior high and high school yearbooks took a big hit. All of them are damaged. ::whine::

Monday -- took off work to clean up some more. Got the plumber in there to do the quick repair so we could get our water back on and take showers. Figured out that the pipes had burst before (saw an old repair) and were likely to burst again (lots of rust). Ahh, the joys of owning an older house with original plumbing! Got the boss plumber guy in to do an estimate to re-do all the plumbing in our house. ::sigh::

Then I had a doctor's appointment. After I had been sitting there waiting for half an hour past my scheduled time, I asked when I would get in. Turns out they (someone) had cancelled my appointment. They said that I had called in to cancel it. Um, no. I had to wait another half an hour before seeing the doctor. Boy, was I pissed. This office screws things up all of the time like this. Unfortunately, I like the doctor, so I don't know if I'll switch providers.

Today -- taking the morning off work to get stuff cleared out of the basement. I got the area rug up (which was sitting on the wall to wall carpet), and now it's outside on the deck. I'd say it's out there to dry, but given the humidity, I doubt any drying is going on. At least it's not sitting on the other carpet like a petri dish.

Fun times!

Update on our ceiling on the floor

Preliminary conversations with our insurance lead me to believe that they are NOT going to cover this. We need to get a general contractor in there to assess the situation and see if s/he can determine the cause of the implosion. However, if it's workmanship, defective materials or just general expansion/contraction from the aging of the house, we are SOL. Bugger.

So now that demo isn't an issue, we're thinking that we'll probably put in some recessed lighting when we install the new ceiling. Maybe a few other upgrades too. Of course, with the wedding coming, our cash is tight, so we may just have a giant hole for the next six months.

Lovely.

I guess we'll add "new living room ceiling" to our wedding registry...?

The sky is falling... they sky is falling...!

Or, in our case, fell.

As of 7:45 PM today, this is our livingroom:






A ton of plaster and plaster dust everywhere. Pretty much the entire ceiling came down, except for about a foot and a half near the walls -- which was good because that protected what was on the walls. Fortunately, my masks don't seem to have been damaged. So far, the only real casualty was a cheap lamp... hopefully nothing more.

Let's hope it wasn't asbestos, because this was clearly the original ceiling.

Guess what we'll be doing this weekend? D'oh!

Can I just say...?

Both SM and I own property other than our house. I have a studio downtown, and he has a 3BR, 2BA place not far from here. We have both been renting them since we bought this house a year ago.

Which means that our tenants' leases just came up for renewal.

My tenant was, well, not a problem, but he definitely needed hand-holding. He literally did not know how to change the lightbulb in one fixture. Unreal. When I offered him a second year lease, he decided he didn't want it because his plans were up in the air but asked instead for a one-month extension. Which I gave him. Then he asked for a month-to-month tenancy through Thanksgiving. I said "No." The market for my apartment is largely students, and hell no was I going to agree to try and rent it right before the winter holidays. When I told him I couldn't offer him less than a year lease, he decided to sign for a year.

Yeah, I know he'll still probably move out in the winter, but this way, he's on the hook for at least finding a suitable replacement or until the new year when it's more likely I'll find someone else.

SM, on the hand, has three tenants. Two have been fine. One, however, is the biggest heinous bitch I've ever encountered in my entire life.

Okay, maybe not the biggest, but she just might be. She has been demanding, rude, confrontational, threatening and all-together entirely unpleasant. She's one of those people whose life may be a decade shorter just because of all of the negative energy she spews. Bleh. Just dealing with her makes SM queasy (because he's so non-confrontational), and she pisses me off infinitely. We accepted her as the roommate to the person we knew (and liked). Boy, are we regretting that decision! I wish I could broadcast all over the internet what a truly horrible, nasty, awful bitch she is. I wish I could warn everyone out there not to ever deal with her, if possible.

Alas, no.

But, I'm sure she knows by now that if she ever puts SM down as a reference, SM will communicate why he would never ever rent to her again, if he had the option.

The one thing that gives me glee is that she keeps trying to hit us over the head with stuff like "on the advise of counsel, I stipulate..." Yeah, whatever. You can stipulate whatever you want, but it means nothing. And it sure as hell doesn't scare us. We know what the code says, and we're right. You're wrong, heinous bitch and I can't wait to rub it in your face!

Yes, she just has that effect on me.

(Scooter, I know you've have horrible tenants -- can you give me a horror story or advice on how to deal with this awful woman?)

I'm sick. Therefore, I meme.

Why is it that I am developing this habit of getting sick over long weekends? This time, it's a headcold with sinus puffiness and achy muscles. No stomach eruptions. Thank gawd.

And so rather than subject everyone to my whining because I am getting sick, I'll meme. This one courtesy Harmless Error.

Here goes...

The Rules: Pick one past posting about each of the following:

Family.
Friends.
Yourself.
Something you love.
Something you choose.

1. Family: Well, I could kvetch about what a pain my grandmother can be or why I am concerned that my future in-laws are treating SM unfairly... or I could remind everyone what a fantastic little nephew I have. He's always the light of every gathering, and his antics are so amusing. Stay tuned for another dozen or so years to see if this is just a fad or who he really is inside.

2. Friends: This post is about friends in a peripheral way. My friends have helped me to amass this collection. And frankly, I consider these faces to be my friends. I could post about book club or other friends, but there aren't any pretty pictures to look at. So you get masks instead.

3. Me: My vanity in being the only person in the world with my name was toppled with a recent google search that found another (but I'm the original!). But really, I should post about how I've lost basically 30 lbs. since the end of September. 'Cuz that's pretty darn cool.

4. Something I love: So many choices. You pick (sorry, had to break the rules 'cuz I couldn't stick to just one).

5. By Choice: Any edition of the Monday morning haiku. Because, as much as it's a Monday morning monkey on my back, they've been fun to write.

I chose not to tag for this meme. I don't want to spread my germs. However, feel free to snag, absent the tag.

Monday morning haiku

Saturday mayhem:
scrub, clean, dust, vacuum the house.
How long will it last?

Yes, my friend arrived safely and soundly on Saturday evening. Our house was mostly prepared; fortunately, they were too tired -- and too happy to see us -- to notice. Hopefully, the house won't immediately disintegrate to chaos and disorder. If it does, I'm to blame.

We had a crammed weekend. Cleaning Friday and Saturday. We took some time out in the middle of the day to drive around the beltway into Virginia to a mochitsuki... well, it's not a party, perhaps an event? We ate well and then drove back home to clean some more.

We then drive around the beltway again to pick up A and her boyfriend, K, at Dulles airport. We brought them back, chatted for a few hours and then hit the sack, only to wake up early on Sunday to take them back to catch their flight to Ethiopia via Rome.

After dropping them off, we came home and showered and relaxed. Then we once again drove around the beltway to Virginia for a latka pancake brunch with SM's former roomate and his wife. I ate too much heavy food. I didn't eat a lot of food, but what I ate was sooooooooo rich that my stomach almost immediately rebelled. I hadn't had a piece of candy in... I don't know how long, and the one I had, I enjoyed it. For about thirty seconds as I ate it. But almost as soon as it hit my stomach, I was in for a world of hurt.

I guess my gut has adjusted to this diet, and rich foods just don't agree with me anymore. That's good... and bad, but mostly good.

After that, we went to visit my grandmother, who is in a rehab center. Over Thanksgiving, she fell and broke a few ribs and her shoulder. She's almost 93, so we were glad it wasn't a mortal injury. She really could have hurt herself much worse. So we brought her some traditional Japanese food from the mochitsuki and chatted a while. Then we drove to my dad's place to drop off the car (we had borrowed one of his to pick up my friend from the airport since mine seats about 2-1/2 people and no luggage). Then we went home and vegged.

It was a long-ass weekend. I was pooped. We drove around the beltway to various places in Virginia 4 times for about 300 miles in 24 hours. Bleh. Thankfully, we never encountered traffic, but still, bleh.

But, at least the Patriots won handily despite predictions to the contrary. So, all is well in the SS/SM/Gidget household.

Didn't make my goal

I had a short-term goal of reaching -25 by today. I have a great friend visiting from out of town, and I had set the day of her visit as a first mini-goal. -25 lbs.

Well, I didn't make it. However, given the three dinners this week (holiday parties, book club) where I ate everything I wanted, including dessert, triple cream brie (ohhh, yum!) and all sorts of wonderful things with cream sauces, well, I'm thrilled that I actually lost half a pound.

No, I have no idea how that happened. I'm guessing that my metabolism is working faster than it used to.

Anyway, it's all good.

And my friend is coming tonight, so our household is a whirling dervish to clean for her (she's a neat freak, so I don't want to completely gross her out!). I know she won't care what the place looks like; she'll only want to see me. But I care. Maybe not as much as others might, but I have some small sense of house pride.

The other "big" news is that last night, SM and I decided that I should go home with him for a few days over Christmas.

Oh yea, it's the "finacee" visit.

Oh my.

Georgie gave us the 24th off (if his evangelicalism translates to an extra day off before Christmas, I'm all for it -- just so long as it's not in lieu of a pay raise!), so I'm now flying up to New Hampshire with SM on Saturday night and coming back on Monday morning.

I have to admit that I'm a little anxious about the visit. I don't like being the center of a fuss. And I will be. We're going to have have to "make the rounds". Grandparents, aunts, etc. I'm sure it will all be very nice and happy, but I can't help but dread it just a bit -- not because of how I expect his family to be (I've already met many of them) but because I just don't want all of the fuss. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I've got to get back to my chores...

An old picture

From the first big push to unpack the house (early August?). But I just downloaded it off of my phone camera.


We unpacked a box and look what we found... a Gidget! Isn't she too cute?

Hosting book club on Thursday

Uh-oh. That means I gotta clean.

Again.

Since we have already opened our house to hoardes of friends and family*, I don't have too too much to do. Okay, well, we do need to clear off the dining room table and vacuum and clean the kitchen and bathroom and clear out all of the clutter and empty boxes in the livingroom and de-Gidgetize the smell of the place... Okay, I do have a lot to do. But SM is so good at just doing this stuff (as opposed to me, who frets over it, getting my panties in a twist and then -- and only then -- does something about it), that I know we'll get it all done.

Even if we had to turn down an invitation to brats on the grill and baseball tomorrow.

But that's okay. I don't eat red meat anyway.

Our house is a small one and probably one of the least expensive and expansive of those in the book group (including the woman who lives in two storey apartment/condo/part of a brownstone). It's definitely down-market compared to the abodes of most of the others. I'm not too worried about that, except that one member of our group recently bought a place with her husband -- and when I zillowed her address, I found out that its estimated market value is $1.6 million. Only married a year. Their first home... one might even say their "starter" home?

::gulp::

It helps that her husband is a partner at a major, MAJOR firm. He's also a year younger than I am. And she's something like 33.

::sigh::

No, no feelings of inadequacy here. Not me.

Yeah, right.

I guess that's what I get for forming a bookclub comprised almost entirely of lawyers.



*and more relevantly -- since my standards of cleanliness and tidiness aren't really very high

Monday morning haiku

A watermelon.
That's just what my head feels like.
Summer colds -- no fun.

Sorry I've been somewhat AWOL lately. SM and I have been cranking to get our house ready for a housewarming/birthday fete over the weekend. SM turned 38 on Saturday, so we combined efforts to do a joint celebration -- warm and toasty in August! House warming and toasting his birthday.

Okay, I know that's dorky, but the other line I was using was just as bad -- "SM is turning 38, our house is 58 so let's celebr8!". (Told ya' it was dorky.)

So we busted our butts to get the house in decent shape for Saturday. I mean, we hauled ass and boxes and stuff everywhere. On Saturday morning, our dining room was cluttered with stuff on the floor but nothing on the walls. However, by 4:00 for the BBQ, it was all set up. Floor cleared and art/pictures hung. Ditto the living room and the bedrooms upstairs.

But for a while it looked like SM was going to have to miss his own birthday party because Congress refused to finish their work. Not only late nights all last week to get business done for the August recess, but Saturday session too, with the specter of coming back on Monday if they didn't finish. As it turned out, Congress stayed in session until after midnight on Saturday and then adjourned until after Labor Day.

So, as he was out on Saturday morning shopping for food for the party, SM got a call at 9:00 from his boss, telling him he'd probably have to come in to the office. On the Congressional calendar for the day was the agriculture appropriations bill, FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and the defense spending bill. Because the Congressman had questions and SM's portfolio of legislative issues includes intelligence and defense, it looked like he would have to drop everything, put on a suit and head to work. And our entire day would be turned upside down.

For a number of hours, we were in limbo. We didn't know if he was going to have to scram into the office. Talk about stress! We were both really bummed.

It was touch and go for a while. At first, we thought he'd have to head in immediately. Fortunately, SM was able to prepare the info from home and email what the Congressman needed in to the office. Then, because it's standard protocol for staffers to be in the office and generally be immediately available when his/her legislative issues are on the floor, we thought SM would have to go in when FISA was being debated, which would have been around dinnertime. In the middle of the party. But at least he wouldn't completely miss his own birthday bash.

Then his boss (the Chief of Staff) gave him a huge break. He told SM that he'd cover SM's issues and handle the Congressman's questions, etc. so long as SM was immediately available by phone/email. Between watching the House floor on C-SPAN, checking his email, staying wired all day with his Blackberry and cell phone -- and because his boss was so incredibly generous to stay in the office and handle the work for SM when he really should have been there -- SM was able to do his work work and the house work from home. And attend his own party.

Thanks to the generosity of SM's boss who was in the office from 9:00 am to after midnight to cover the issues and allow SM to stay home. I am very grateful for that. We both are. It was a fantastic birthday present for SM. Thanks, COS.

Sadly, however, about 10 friends who are also Hill staffers weren't able to attend the party because they too were at work. Including COS. But his wife came, which was nice.

Although the day started out rocky, it ended up being very nice. I think SM enjoyed himself.

And since we knew our house would be clean for the housewarming/birthday bash and that we'd have plenty of food, we invited my family over on Sunday. Grandma had wanted to see the place, so we had them all over too. It was a (much more) relaxing Sunday BBQ.

Phew! Done with the showing, now we can devolve into our usual state of clutter.

Actually, the house is still very neat -- it's only been a few hours since last night's BBQ -- but that state of tidy won't last too too long since we'll have to start pulling things out of their hiding spots as we need them (yes, we were hiding, stashing and doing whatever we could to clear the clutter). But it's all good. The hard push is over, and it was a successful effort.

And to forestall the inevitable chaos, I've invited my mom over next Sunday, so we can't let things slide too much.

It was a lot of work, an exhausting process. I'm tired just writing about it. But it was worth it. We needed a deadline to get our collective act -- and our house -- together. But to top it off, for his birthday, SM gave me his cold (see above haiku). It started getting bad yesterday and kicked in full force this morning. Congestion, sneezying, running nose, headache, puffy face... I've got it. Fun stuff.

But, like I said, it was all worth it.

Some scary shit

I'm an apartment-owner who has rented it to many different tenants, and I have been a renter many times. But I have never, never encountered anyone who had first-hand experience with anything that remotely resembled the stories described here.

Oh. my. gawd. Who knew there were career rip-off renters like this?

And what's worse, this article is almost a recipe for nefarious folks to follow. Of course, those who aren't inclined to do this wouldn't be motivated by this article, but still...

Chilling.

Lazy butt

Yeah, that's me. SM kicked butt over the weekend -- especially today -- and did so much unpacking that the house doesn't resemble at all the mess we had on Friday. We He has uncovered the livingroom and the dining room. There are actually rooms under all of the crap. Who knew? The basement also now looks like a room, even though it's stacked with even more boxes (that's our "swing" space as we unpack and figure out where things go). But now I wouldn't be completely humiliated to have someone come over unannounced. We haven't reached the stage where we'd invite guests, but thankfully, the house is no longer a dangerous obstacle course.

Me? I worked on the kitchen some more and did about four loads in the dishwasher. And also watched TV all day today. I didn't even go outside, even though the weather was fantastic. I'm a lazy butt.

SM did everything else. Everything. He's da' man.

Tom Daschle found me

One of the great advantages to moving is leaving the junk mail behind. All of the catalogues (of which I got many, MANY), the fliers, the credit card offers and donation solicitations... gone from my mailbox! They don't get forwarded, nor does the post office send the send a notice of change of address.

This, in my opinion, is a good thing.

However, the other day, I got a piece of mail which let me know that the democratic party has tracked me down. Rats! I got a solicitation from Tom Daschle (I donated to his last senate race, the one he lost). Not thrilled about having been found, because once one mailing list has found you, the rest will follow. Oh well. I guess it was only a matter of time. Plus, I'm sure I'll make another donation eventually, so they'll get me that way.

Otherwise, nothing new to report with the house. We continue to have unpacking aspirations, rather than actual progress. I have to say, though, that I LOVE having my own washer and dryer. And -- bonus -- I actually really like the models of washer/dryer that are in the house. They are very nice. In fact, I might have chosen these had I bought them new. Yay! (Can you guess what I'm doing right now? Uh-huh. Laundry.)

Other things I am appreciating more and more about the house and neighborhood? The easy but interesting walk to the metro -- along the way, we pass a center which is home to Theravada Buddhist monks (SM has seen them drive off together in a minivan in their orange robes. I have only seen them around the outside of the house doing various tasks.), some of the very best but least expensive restaurants in the DC area, and lots of mom-n-pop-type grocery stores (Italian, Filippino, Brazilian, El Salvadorian -- and a kosher Jewish deli not too far in the other direction). I also love that the neighborhood is generally so quiet. We don't get bothered by other people's noise or the thumping of the bass line from the stereo of a passing car.

I am also finding things which I'm not so entralled about... There's a large shrub on the corner of our property at the intersection. People dump their trash in it (cans, wrappers, cigarette shit, etc.). That's not cool. We may have to remove the shrub to eliminate the garbage dump but also because it obscures the corner and may be something of a safety issue. Relatedly, there aren't many lights along the streets back from the metro to our house. Many folks put on their front porch lights to help alleviate and illuminate. Right now, the lack of lighting isn't a problem because it's summer, so we're not walking home in the dark. But it will become a problem in the fall. Not so thrilled about walking in the dark-ish. I'll have to figure out another route. Also, our neighbor across the street owns all sorts of boats and a ginormous motorhome, which, while not particularly attractive, is fine except when they park them -- or the trailers -- in the street in front of our house. Then it's annoying. Not a real issue, but definitely annoying.

In terms of the house, we have discovered all sorts of problems which were solved with a "quick fix" by prior owners. We may or may not have to re-do some of those things. We'll see. Plus, the age of the house will bring its own problems, like the plumbing. The drains upstairs are very VERY slow. After showers, I am left standing in a pool of suds. We're going to have to look into that, and if we decide to do anything, it'll be expensive. Also, we have no front porch or entry foyer. That means that when it rains, there is no transitional space. We go from getting wet outside to bringing the wet inside into the living room, making a mess. I find this unacceptable, so we'll probably build a porch eventually. Also, it means that any packages that are left on the stoop get wet when it rains.

But, all that being said, we really like living here.

I'm sure we'll like it even more when we actually unpack.