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Open letter to former owner of my house September 1, 2008

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To the former owner of my house:

Hi! How ya doing? Great, just great. Why don’t we grab a cup of coffee, shall we? Hey, remember when you decided to wallpaper that bedroom, the one in the corner? Yeah, that one. I have to say that the color choices of the paper always seemed, well, odd. A nice pink bottom with yellow top? I mean the flowers matched and all, but hey, what can I say, it’s not my style. My 6 year old agreed with me. We decided it was time to paint her room. First, I had to remove that wallpaper. I remember when we first moved here how proud the agent was to tell us that you had wallpapered every fricken room yourself. Thanks. I hate wallpaper. Anyway, I had to remove the paper first.

Surprise, surprise! The top? The color I always thought was yellow? Yeah, that turned out to be a light cream color. It must have been your chain smoking husband* that turned the walls yellow. Ick. How do I know this? because you used a good 4 INCHES of extra paper at the border of the two colors! Seriously, this was a royal pain in the butt to get this off the walls! And next time you prep walls for wallpapering? Do you think you could removed the glue from the PREVIOUS wallpaper job? Ugh. The wall against the bathroom had 2 layers of glue on it. My arm is killing me. How many poor horses became glue for that wall anyway?

Sigh. At least it is done. The yellow (ick ick ick) and pink room is now purple. Ah…. without the smoke stains. Much better!

 

Spacemom

 

* We know the husband was a chain smoker. He kept an oxygen tank downstairs and the agent told us everything about the family when we closed. And the fact that there was pristine wallpaper in the shape of a cross on our bedroom wall when we moved in. The yellowish paper in our room was quite…icky

My weekend May 19, 2008

Posted by spacemom in : Home wreckers , 11 comments

Saturday

Sunday

What? doesn’t everybody make cake? January 22, 2008

Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs, Home wreckers , 1 comment so far

This was one crazy weekend. Given that Monday was MLKJr. Day, we had the whole family for the day! For reasons unknown to humanity, our school district gave off  half of Thursday and all of Friday. Oy!

Saturday, the girls went skating while Mommy installed Daddy’s new Elfa closet. (yeah, I’m the detail person in our house). Jay destructed his closet in the morning and I installed it in the afternoon. Then, we had dinner with R, Soleil’s best friend. We left Soleil with R’s parents and went home. Ah, nice and quiet after 9:30. It was almost like not having kids! Imagine what all of the people whose children actually go to sleep can do at nights!

Sunday, back to R’s house after letting Jay sleep in. He was sick, so I did an ichat with my parents, helped Luna paint a box, read the paper…

Sunday afternoon, FOOTBALL! Lots and lots of football. Bummer to the pack fans. I was really pulling for them, but I do respect Eli Manning, so I am happy he is going to the game.

Monday, I let Jay sleep in again and watched cartoons with the girls. The ice rink had an open skate at 11:50, so we went to that. The girls can now skate on their own and go go go! Soleil met a friend from Girl Scouts and they skated together. She even skated backwards so she could talk to her friend! Wow!

Then McDonalds as a treat, a trip out to replace a piece of Jay’s closet that was broken, drop a cable off at a friends…. whew. All Monday I was fighting a migraine. It went from "hey there, can I poke at your temples" to "let’s try to suck your brain out of a 1mm hole in the back of your head" around 4. I went to bed and wanted to die while the girls went swimming. UGH.

But I still had to make a cake. Because it was Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. And you make cakes for people’s birthdays. So we made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. As I was putting it together (I made two rounds), Soleil asked why I had 2 cakes. I said "Layers….like onions have layers.*" And Soleil immediately replies "Like Shrek has layers too!"

Ah yes, Like Shrek!

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Jr. Please know that we had a cake for the man who marched so brown people can drink from the same water fountains as the white people. (As described by Soleil)

 

            * Shrek: For your information, there’s a lot more to ogres than people think.

            Donkey: Example?

Shrek: Example? Okay, er… ogres… are… like onions.
Donkey: [sniffs onion] They stink?
Shrek: Yes…NO!
Donkey: Or they make you cry.
Shrek: No!
Donkey: Oh, you leave them out in the sun and they turn brown and start sproutin’ little white hairs.
Shrek: NO! LAYERS! Onions have layers. OGRES have layers. Onions have layers… you get it. We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. [pause] You know, not everybody likes onions. [pause] CAKES! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers!
Shrek: [restraining temper] I don’t care… what everyone likes. Ogres. Are not. Like cakes!
Donkey: You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits. Have
you ever met a person, you say, "Let’s get some parfait," they say,
"Hell no, I don’t like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious.
Shrek: NOOO!!! YOU DENSE, IRRITATING, MINIATURE BEAST OF BURDEN! OGRES ARE LIKE ONIONS! END OF STORY! BYE BYE! [whispers] See you later!
[pause]
Donkey: Parfaits may probably be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!
Shrek: You know… I think I preferred you humming…

A little lighter August 8, 2007

Posted by spacemom in : Kids, She Blinded me with Science, Home wreckers , 1 comment so far

Sorry it’s been so heavy around here lately. It is hard to deal with Jimmy’s death still and work is funny right now. We are all still in a daze. I am frustrated that I will miss his funeral. It will be next week while we are on vacation.

Right now, I am a bit frazzled between home life, mommy life and work life, even without the complexity of Jimmy.

Home life: We are at it again! We ripped up the carpet in the living room, hallway and stairs. While we are away next week, we have a crew coming in and refinishing the floors. The carpet had been a Wookie orange color. Lovely, eh? And we kept it in place while our children were still learning to walk and fall down, etc. Now we are finally comfortable that they will not kill themselves walking in the living room without a carpet. So bye bye carpet, hello oak floors! There’s been some prep work needed. Sunday we need to move our couch into the kitchen, but it will all be done soon. That just leaves the master bedroom floor to be redone.

I also planned out Soleil’s closet for Elfa shelves. Now I am just waiting for their end of summer sale. The Container Store generally has two sales, one at the end of summer and one after Christmas. We had the Container Store plan out Soleil’s closet and I removed $131 of equipment (all drawers) for now. Once the sale happens, we will go and get what we need and then install when we are ready. Then she’ll be able to reach her own clothes! What a concept!

Mommy life: The 3s suck. I forget this. Luna has been a fricken fruitcake with nuts. Last night, she screamed for ketchup on her mac and cheese. But apparently, I didn’t put it on right, then I took it off, more sobbing, finally the evening ended with her smooshing the mac and cheese all over the table. Sigh….

Note to self: This will pass. It has to. Otherwise I will lock myself into a small room with padded walls and try to play solitaire til dawn with a deck of 51*.

 Work Life: I have been napping at work. My bosses are encouraging it to help heal the mono. That’s good, right? But I am so damn unproductive. I hate that. I am one of those people who need to constantly be doing something. I don’t care what, but something. I will pace while watching TV. Sad, I know. Right now I have four projects:

 

  1. Boresight angles and bright X-ray sources in C++ code
  2. Reorganizing the webpage of internal notes
  3. Planning and writing the code for a flight software patch (someone else wrote the patch, I need to write the commands to send the patch to the spacecraft and then in a few months we will send it up)
  4. Working on a large change to the observation database that our team requested in December and the software team is just getting to.

That’s a bit on my plate to deal with mono. But I have to get through everything, because this is what we do here!

*With apologies to The Statler Brothers.

 

As the rain falls down on us… May 25, 2007

Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise, Home wreckers , 1 comment so far

Okay, it wasn’t rain, but it was water. From the living room ceiling. The day before a trip.Lovely.

Let me backup. Today I worked from home to finish the packing. In between some coding and emails, I would double check my mental packing lists and add something else. Around 3pm, Jay put his presentation in the art tube and I jumped! Something had fallen from the ceiling! My first instinct, as a true arachnophobia, was SPIDER! No, it wasn’t a spider, it was water. We both looked up. OH HELL! The ceiling is WET in a pattern that matches the joists.

We looked at each other and said “Air conditioner!”. Jay got a flashlight and gloves, I turned off the a/c. He went up and reported water on the floor (ie, the drywall for the ceiling), but no source! The overflow for the condensation pan was fine and dry. He went along the length of the drain pipe and where he could see it, bone dry!

I called the company that installed it and set up an emergency call. We had to find the source. I then called a friend to have them call us. If we needed work done tomorrow, they would have to be here.

Meanwhile, Jay was up in the attic (did I mention today was 93 out? So the attic was about 115. It was nasty.) and pulled back all of the insulation back and finding the extent of the water. I got up there and was able to point out that it could be right where a duct went over the drain pipe. Turns out that was exactly where the drain pipe had broken.

We took some photos and called the company back to let them know we found the source. The guy did come and it appears that there is a slight rise in that segment of pipe. The water gets stuck in that segment. Come winter, the water froze. Hence, a burst drain pipe.

He fixed he broken segment, and added some T joints with the holes placed upwards to allow any trapped water to evaporate.

Now, what to do about the water stained ceiling? The water was right on the drywall for the ceiling. Do we have to replace it? From my experience once drywall is wet, it is not good anymore.
Any thoughts?

Sigh…
Oh- Soleil and Luna are in row 30 of the plane. I’m in row 29 and Jay’s in 27. Lovely. Can’t fix this over the phone.
At least the second flight we were able to combine the seats together.

A short series of thoughts May 11, 2007

Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise, Dr. Jay, Fun with Crohn's Disease, Home wreckers, Go Team Go Team Go Team, In A Family Way , 4 comments

In Bullet form?

When Life gets you down… May 1, 2007

Posted by spacemom in : Fun with Crohn's Disease, Home wreckers, Go Team Go Team Go Team, Ghost in the (sewing)Machine , add a comment

You know what you do? You think of people who have worse lives than you. Such as the people who created the world’s largest coconut orchestra…

Actually, things have not been that bad. The weekend was rough, we had to set some limits on listening, but yesterday, we did a great walk in the evening.

Did you have that? We used to take long walks in the evening. Just Jay and I. Hand in hand we would stroll along and enjoy life. Then the two psycho aliens kids came along and we stopped. Yesterday, Soleil rode her bike (with training wheels) and Luna rode in our last stroller bundled with blankets while we took a walk. It was nice and relaxing except for the time where Soleil almost flipped into the path of an oncoming car. She is learning how to control her bike. How to steer straight and watch for dangers on the road. It was really nice to be out there again.

Slowly, slowly we find a new norm…


Jay’s been fighting a terrible cough. We aren’t sure if this is just a normal cold and the remicaid has suppressed his immune system to the point where a cold is killing him, or just a very bad cold. I am worried because he is waking at night to hack up a lung…

I started Soleil’s dress this weekend. She chose a purple fabric. A really purple fabric. I like it! But I forgot to buy a zipper, so I need to go do that. Thanks for all of the advice people gave on sewing. I am learning, slowly.

Tonight, we watch my team again. We lost in double overtime to the NY Rangers on Sunday… Let’s hope for a win tonight so we can head back to Buffalo with a 3-1 lead.


And finally, we are at long last getting the walls painted. The house we bought in 2003 had the world’s most awful wallpaper. We have removed most of it, but the stairwell and the kitchen/dining room have not been touched. Yesterday I got someone to arrange for an estimate, and I picked up three samples. We’ve decided what we want and where, so now it is an issue of getting it done! It will do us good to get some more color in the house. And to get rid of that nasty paper!

I think I have more posts of thoughtful merit, but not right now! I have some code to write!

Only I could do this! April 16, 2007

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I got a new glass shelf for my bathroom last week. I didn’t get a chance to put it up until today…

I measured twice. And then drilled. Leveled and put in the anchors, then I drilled for the second support.

And promptly hit the vent pipe. A nice clank of drill bit against the pipe. Lovely…

I then got frustrated and repositioned everything, Ripped out the anchors. Then I was off by 1/4 inch… Sigh. pulled out one set of anchors and finally got the stupid thing up

Around 12:30 I realized I forgot not just my AD, but my thyroid meds too. I am now very dizzy and nauseated…..

Word to the wise, don’t miss your antidepressant. I hate this feeling…

Happy Patriot’s Day!

Purrfectly good sewing maachine February 28, 2007

Posted by spacemom in : Home wreckers , 7 comments

So after much thought, and mocking from Jay, who can’t understand why ANYONE would want to sew, I have decided to buy this machine.   

Okay. You can STOP LAUGHING RIGHT NOW, Dammit!

It is cute and it has amazing reviews on the Target page.

But did I mention it is so darn cute?

And I just can’t stand to be normal anyway. Now to wait for my credit card cycle to close out so I can buy it guilt free! The book that Figlet suggested is on backorder anyway, so no rush!

HEY! I SAID STOP LAUGHING!

And you thought I was a rocket scientist? December 7, 2006

Posted by spacemom in : Kids, She Blinded me with Science, Religion, I dream of sleep, Home wreckers , 1 comment so far

Oh man, I have picked up a virus of nasty proportions. Add this to the lack of sleep in the space household and I am DEAD. Do you hear me? D-E-D DEAD! (yes, old joke about a football player who…oh never mind, I meant to spell it that way) Luna’s 2 year molars are on the move and trying to kill me. Suddenly, she wants NOTHING to do with Dr. Jay. The hell with him, it’s Mommy mommmy moooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyy at 4:30 am. When Jay reported to the small minion of hell Luna that she was stuck with Daddy, her screamed turned to "I want a CAR RIDE. A CARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE" Sigh. I seriously feel like crap. I need more sleep but it ain’t happening in this lifetime. Please help me in not strangling this child. These damn molars have. got. to. come.in! No more causing pain and then sneaking back into her gums. COME. IN. DAMMIT.!

The sun has been being a royal pain in our ass lately. There is a huge sunspot group. This has released some energy in the form of X-ray flares. Sigh. The observatory shut down last night to protect itself from this. Lovely. It is good and the better news is that I tripled up on duty the last few weeks, so I am not on again until January. But the bad news is that a piece of my software failed last night and now I am fixing it.

Jay and I are hoping to skip out of work early to stop and talk to some people about a fireplace insert. I know I know, lazy, but think of it, flip on a switch and whoosh! a glowing fire straight from our natural gas lines with a higher efficiency of heating than our heater. At bedtime, a simple flick of the switch and we turn it off. No smoke in the house, no logs (and spiders) to carry into the house, no poking at the fire while sparks fly and burn your clothes…Ah….The cost is $$$, but it is a luxury that we would like to do.

I am also at a loss for what to do with my over energetic 4 year old. She is refusing to sit still at school during her dance class. We are taking her out in January. She just won’t listen to the step by step instructions for the ballet part. If it involves tumbling or gymnastics, she loves it, but not the dance part. She’s been complaining that it’s too hard. But that is not a reason to stop, I say. Lots of things in life are hard.
Daycare is also getting annoyed that she won’t sit still during nap time. Okay folks, you are forcing the poor kid to sit still for 45 minutes on a mat. She doesn’t nap. It’s hard! We don’t do an enforced quiet time on the weekends or Mondays… sigh…

I do want to send a thanks to all of those who commented, either via the blog or email, on the Christmas Goodness post. I really appreciated the different ideas!