Monday, November 28, 2011

I'm not ready for this!

Today we reached a milestone: Katrina asked to go bra shopping. I knew the day would come, but it was still a shock when I heard her utter the words. So, off to the store we went. Well, not just for bras, we had other places to go, like the music store for piano books and the pet store for hamster food, and lunch at Culver's was also involved. It was a successful trip: 2 different styles and multiple colors. She was so excited that she was trying them on (over her shirt) in the car on the way home. I put them in the wash right away so they won't be itchy.

 I thank God every day that she is not built like me.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

It's The Most Wonderful Time....

  We've finally come to my favorite time of year. The frenzy of ordering and receiving new products at the stores, choosing which candies and gourmet snacks to stock (Tiramisu hot cocoa mix, Coffee Caramel ice cream topping, Monastery caramels, to name a few!). Actual work-related work!
  Many times, we don't even know what has been ordered, so it's like Christmas when a shipment comes. Or sometimes, we have the name of a few products, but we don't know what they are. This year is a bit different because the buyer (the owner of the store) had knee surgery, so she's been working from home. We've been having lengthy phone calls going over what we have in stock, what sold well, what should we stock. So, we have a better idea about what's coming. Yesterday, it was about an hour's worth of conversation about playmobil. These were the toys I always wanted as a kid, but never got. Now I buy them for Katrina so I can play with them too.
I can't wait to see the "Indiana Jones Treasure Hunter" set in person!
We're expecting to get several shipments on Friday when I'm scheduled to work, by myself. It may not be pretty, but I'll be enjoying myself!

Friday, November 11, 2011

It's a mess

Now that the waters have receded, it's time for cleanup. It's not like we had a foot of water in the basement, but it's enough of a mess to where we've taken everything out of the closet (which needed to happen anyway) so the floor can dry out. Thursday's job of taking everything out and piling it up in the family room is complete. I even started throwing things away! I also made a trip to St. Vinnies with five large bags of linens. Why do I have so many sheets and blankets for a queen size bed when I've never owned a queen size bed?
  My "contractor on retainer" (aka my dad) concurred with Karl that the entire wall does not need to come out, only the bottom couple of feet. So, Karl took today off and will be doing just that.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

This really sucks!

Today started out good: Katrina got up on time and took a relatively short shower. I fixed her lunch. It was raining so we compromised about her broken jacket (no arguement!), she found her umbrella and went off to school. Then everything went sour.

I made my way downstairs to the office to check my email. When I stepped off the bottom step, there was a "sploosh." Not good. I turned on the light and there was a literal river making it's way across the basement floor: out of the office, across the family room and toward the laundry room. I played Lewis and Clark, and followed it upstream to find the source. Across the family room, into the office, and back into the closet - that same closet I was going to clean out on Thursday because it was starting to look like some hoarder's stash.

Back upstairs to put on some waterproof footwear (the wellies were closest) and grab some towels. By the time I got back downstairs, it occurred to me that 1) It's a good thing I just cleaned the laundry room, because that's where the water was headed, and 2) I need to make sure the shop vac is empty before I start sucking up water.

Once I started with the shop vac, it was quick work until I got to the closet. The water was still coming full speed ahead! So I kept sucking, and sucking. After about an hour it has slowed enough to where I could take a break, send a quick email to Karl, and breathe a sigh a relief that the water didn't get to the computer. A little detective work ensued to find the cause, as it was not really raining that hard. Sure enough, the gutter was clogged with leaves ("Oh, I guess I need to clean the gutters." says Karl), so there was a waterfall complete with a pool below, right at the source of our basement river.

There was nothing I could do (I'm too short to get the ladder down from the garage wall) except hope the rain would turn to snow sooner rather than later. My prayer was soon answered, but the puddle remained, and the water continued to flow. After two and a half hours of sucking (hee-hee, I said sucking again), it slowed enough to where I  could take a shower and get ready for work. I was 45 minutes late getting to work, but no-one seemed to be out shopping anyway.

Karl came home from work early, cleaned the gutter (at least in that spot anyway), took everything out of the closet, vacuumed up any remaining water, and started the fan and dehumidifier. I have my work cut out for me tomorrow!

Thursday update: Karl tells me that two giant maple leaves  somehow made their way under the gutter-guard and were blocking the downspout. TWO friggin leaves! I blame the squirrels.

Friday, November 4, 2011

xmas FO #2

Finished Christmas gift #2, and immediately (re)started on #3 (I had cast on too many stitches). I've had to add a few items to the list, since I kind of forgot about some co-workers, so now I have 6 things to knit (all but one are small, so I'm not panicked)  Bulky yarn, big stitches! That's my mantra.
I'm glad I started early, because today I got notified that I've been selected to test knit a pattern for an upcoming book. I don't even know what the project will be, but I'm super excited. I have to keep it a secret until the book is released and that will be hard!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Late to the party

As usual, I'm the last one to join in. I just started playing Words With Friends and I'm completely hooked. Do you play? look for me - my name is cat_nurse. I'm not very good, but word games are my favorite kind of games so I keep trying. I'm addicted to Pathwords also, and play at work - I have to demonstrate for customers, right? I'm up to level 25, so each puzzle takes almost all day.