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« Previous EntriesSpring or Summer
Friday, March 23rd, 2012Winter turning into Spring is a pretty big event in our neck of the woods. It typically means that the snow fall amounts will lessen, and the bone chilling temperatures fade away some. What you do not expect is to see temperatures well into the upper 70’s on the last official day of winter. Remember, I live in New York State, not Florida.
Flowers are not typically something that we see quite this early. Normal highs for this time are in the upper 40’s. So when you walk out your front door to the following, you stop to take a photo.
When I took JSL to nursery school the other day, I noticed that they had a lot of daffodils already out of the ground and open. When I pulled into the driveway, I spotted yellow by the fence. I pulled my camera out to capture these beauties before the bunnies and birds get to them.
The weather is gorgeous, but it is HOT in the house. We went from trying to stay warm with the heat on at 63, to the living room reading 79 last night. So my question to you this week is inspired by the warmer than usual temperatures.
Assuming you have air conditioning units, or central AC, when is the earliest you will use them and why?
We do not have our window AC units in yet. Kind of early since the temperatures are likely going to shift. For now, fans are working really well since the house is warm, but not sticky like it gets in the summer. The cooler temperatures should arrive back this weekend and I will enjoy wearing my sweatshirt outside when taking walks.
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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
Aloha #195
Sudden Signs of Spring
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – 10th Anniversary Edition
Monday, June 27th, 2011As I have mentioned before, Friday was my 10th Anniversary with TechyDad. He went to work, NHL went to school for his last half day, and JSL and I stayed at home to do some cleaning. We had someone stopping by later in the day to check on a clogged bathroom sink. Thanks to this sink, we were forced to wash hands in the bathroom tub.
The day did not exactly go as planned. You see, thank goodness the plumber came early. He showed up at 11:30-ish instead of 2-3. I had to leave shortly after to pick NHL up from school. When he left, we knew we had some large issues. He said he would go to lunch, get supplies, and come back about an hour later to get to work. In the end, he was at our house until about 7:30 at night. Our initial plans were shot and even other items had to be changed. Still, we made the best of the situation.
The Good:
We went to my parent’s house to have cake with the boys before putting them to bed there. Thanks to fumes, we could not stay in our house. Here are the delicious cakes that we had
Once the kids were FINALLY into bed, TechyDad still wanted to head out to dinner. Since it was almost 9:30, we had limited choices. I recalled a new Sushi place not too far away, so off we went to Mr. Fuji Sushi. Our experience at Mr. Fuji’s was amazing. The food was delicious, the people there super nice, and the atmosphere wonderful. Since it was so late, we ordered two appetizers and three sushi rolls to share.
To start we had Age Tofu and Vegetable Tempura
Then we had a Philadelphia roll, Avocado Peanut roll, and Sweet Potato roll
Yes, I believe this is the best sushi I have had in a long time. We will definitely be heading back to Mr. Fuji again soon.
The Bad:
We thought that the plumbing issue would require snaking the pipes. When they tried to do this, the snake refused to go down and kept going up into the pipes instead. When JSL and I left to pick up NHL at school, they were debating a few options.
- Try to go in the attic and snake things and it may last 1-2 years IF we are lucky.
- Replace the old pipes in the section that appeared to be the root of the issue with PVC pipes.
- I went to pick NHL up and bring the kids home for lunch.
The Ugly:
When they arrived back at our house, I saw them hauling a long section of PVC pipe. I knew it was the best thing, but I was paranoid and worried about things. As they started to work in the basement on cutting the pipe open, it started to get more complicated. They could not get to the top of the pipe from the basement. Suddenly, wall removal was needed. Yes, I think I aged several years in this afternoon from making big decisions on the fly and listening to the noises in my house. I knew that they were capable, but it was driving me batty.
The guys came back upstairs to give me the news and I immediately knew we made the right decision. You see, the pipe in the basement was nearly closed shut. The old material has basically closed itself shut. I never went to look in the basement until a while later. I gave permission to remove wall to get at the sink pipe within there. The hole got larger than this, but you get the point from this view:
After a lot of power tool noises and labor in the bathroom with the wall and pipe fighting, they finally got that sucker out. Check this bad boy out. Yes, this nasty object was pretty much what was happening down stairs in the basement as well. Here is our corroded galvanized pipe from within the wall:
It was not an easy job, but these guys were amazing. They dealt with my paranoia and got the work done and well. They even cleaned up the mess when the tiles on the wall next to the sink spontaneously fell off – no I am not joking. Apparently, they were not put on right by previous owners. This was good under the sink since nothing was ruined getting to the pipes behind the wall. I was too sick at the mess during that time to take a photo. I am also sparing you from photos of the basement pipes and sludge that came out of them. Let’s just say old toothpaste and soap are not pretty nor do they smell nice.
In the end, the pipe is fixed, a few more will need this down the road, and we need a massive bathroom rehab soon. More good news, the pipe works and we have a new faucet that is not leaking. Thanks to spray that was used during the cleaning process on the tiles/pipes, there are horrible fumes in our house. It has been a rough few days and we are so very lucky that my parents are here for us.
So there you have it, the good, the bad, and the ugly of our 10th Annversary!
Psssst. . . if you need a good person for home repairs in my area – just let me know. This work, along with the roof, and broken main water valve were done by the same person. Highly recommend.
How Will Our Garden Grow? – June 2011
Sunday, June 26th, 2011I always wonder what will happen when we plant our garden. You see, we have a track record with things happening. On the top of my garden worry list:
- Will our neighborhood bunnies eat everything?
- Will the rain/hail/storms ruin it?
- Will the sun/heat/humidity kill it?
- Will we get anything to harvest?
- Two years ago we had some success, but last year we had nothing aside from some fresh basil. This year we hoped for the best, put the plants in a new location and kept watching. This is what they looked like just over a month ago (May 22 to be exact):
The two small tomato plants are in back, pretty sad looking zucchini plants in the middle, and the small peppermint plant. Check out what they looked like as of Friday. We will start the tour with the zucchini plants. I think you will see that it seems pretty happy.
Yes, they are thriving at this point and even have a few other items that have us very excited. Check this out:
Those tomato plants have gotten to the point that they had to move. They were too large for their location and needed a bit of extra support. As you will see, there are also some tomatoes growing on that.
That tiny little peppermint plant has already had leaves plucked from it and consumed by the boys and some neighbors. Check out how it has grown over the same period of time:
After we bought the initial plants, we found some cucumbers to grow. They had a rough start, but are finally perking up and doing better with a bit more space.
Now we just have to hope that the weather, bunnies, newly found chipmunks, and other natural issues let our vegetables continue to grow so we can pick them and eat them soon.
Did you plant a garden this year? If you did what did you plant and how are things growing?
Please let me know if you posted something about your garden. I would love to stop by and see any photos.
Holy Hail Storms
Friday, June 10th, 2011Weather seems to be in the news a lot lately. Throughout the United States, people have been dealing with severe weather of all kinds. My heart goes out to the people in the flooded areas fighting to save their homes and to those picking up the pieces after the deadly tornadoes.
As I pulled into the driveway Wednesday afternoon, the sky changed from sunny and bright to ominous. It was in the mid 90’s, but the wind started to gust. I will admit that I was unaware that a storm warning was in our area. We packed the kids into the house and got them out of their swimsuits and decided to relax in the cooler house. As I was sitting and doing some work, I heard thunder, saw lightning flickering outside, and then chunks of ice were slamming against the house. Yes, chucks of ice.
TechyDad was able to get the one above when he ducked outside our front door to snag it to show the boys. A little while later, the sun came out and I went outside to look around for damage. Even though it was still close to 90 degrees, there were still good sized chunks of hail in the grass.
I went to check on our vegetables that we outside. Luckily, everything looked pretty good. We were a bit nervous since hail destroyed cucumbers and tomatoes a few years back.
When I went back around the front, I decided to take a photo of one chunk of ice and then next to my foot to show the difference.
Yes, we get hail from time to time in the Capital District area, but not like this and several times in a few days. Thank goodness everyone was safe and sound. Now we just hope things settle down across the country for the rest of the summer ahead.
My question to you this week:
Do you like summer storms? Would love to know why you do or do not. Please share any unusual weather you have had near you.
Pssst . . . be sure to stop by my Dove Men + Care giveaway along with TechyDad’s Kung Fu Panda giveaway to enter for a chance to win some great items.
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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
Aloha #155
Gardening, Grass, and Grilling
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
Pssst . . . stop by TechyDad’s Dinosaur Train Giveaway to enter for a chance to win some Dinosaur Poop and Hatchers.
Tulips Before Bunnies Strike 2011
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
We Have a Playroom Again
Thursday, March 10th, 2011It is no secret that space in our house is a problem. We live in an older home, with small rooms, and limited storage areas. Before we moved into the house, we put carpet into the large, open room upstairs and made it our playroom. We used the room a lot before we had Wi-Fi. When JSL was born (he is almost 4), we pretty much stopped using the room. It was just too difficult to maneuver both boys up the steep staircase. Rather than enjoy the space, we used it as a glorified storage area. Here is a photo of it not too long ago:
The boys are bigger now. They are able to climb stairs. More important than any of this, they need more play space – and I want my living room not to resemble a toy store. TechyDad and I have really been working on the room. This past weekend we kicked it into high gear.
When we were finished trying the summer clothing on the boys, we moved upstairs to see what we could do next. Suddenly, I suggested moving TechyDad’s old work from home desk to the other side of the room (basically the right corner area of the picture above). Oy! This was a lot more work than you would think. This desk is a monster. In the end we got it moved. Then I hauled toys to the stairs and TechyDad brought almost all of them up to the room. The boys went to visit with Nana and Papa for a while and we finished things up. The new toy wall is where the desk used to be. Here is the new toy area in the largely revamped playroom:
When the boys did not have school on Monday, we spent the entire day upstairs. The kids love the space and are doing really well with putting things back before taking something else out. Here are my happy kids enjoying a space that we should have been utilizing long before now:
The room still isn’t perfect over by the desk, but it is getting there. I would say it is 90% finished and very functional. Now we can check that mostly off the project list and work on something else.
So have you tackled a big problem lately? Please feel free to share in the comments below.
Iced Over Mess
Monday, March 7th, 2011I interrupt regularly scheduled blog posts to announce that Winter has NOT left the building yet. The groundhog clearly did not specify where Spring would be coming early.
*sigh*
Over the weekend Mother Nature had some fun with those of us living in the north. First, she gave us warmer temperatures. 50 degrees in early March is not too shabby. Snow mountains that were here a week ago looked more like oversized ant hills on lawns. Sunday we watched as the rain came down very steady at times. Then, as the day moved on, the temperatures started to bottom out. Before we knew it, we were well below freezing and the rain turned to ice.
It is hard to concentrate on anything, including sleep, when ice is pelting your house. This morning schools in the entire area went from 2 hour delays to closed. Even our front door was glazed with ice. At first it was stuck shut. Imagine using that as your excuse not to get into work.
The trees are a mess thanks to the rain freezing on them. This is a little one on the side out front:
Ice is heavy and the tree in our yard is hanging down. If it large limbs fall I fear we will not have power, and may need repairs to the house itself.
Every little noise outside is going to keep me on edge. Excuse me while I go run for a blanket to hide under.
Busy Day at Home
Saturday, March 5th, 2011Dear NHL and JSL,
We stayed home today, but we got a lot accomplished during the time here. This morning Daddy and I pulled out all of the spring/summer clothing. We had to see what the two of you have for the trip to Disney World. After the two of you tried everything on, it was time for lunch. Then, we decided to head upstairs and try to move the big monster desk to the other side of the room.
This sounded like it was going to be a lot easier than it was. The two of you were so wonderful. You sat upstairs watching a movie and helping when we asked. Thank goodness we were able to move the desk. Then, I decided to surprise both of you. I started to move most of the toys from the living room upstairs into the new and improved toy room. This is such a great space that we have not been using since JSL was born. The two of you stayed upstairs with Daddy watching Lady and the Tramp and playing with toys for quite some time.
When you came down here, I had started to watch The Princess and the Frog. You both joined me until it was time to eat dinner. When we were finished eating, everyone piled back onto the couch in their PJ’s and we finished watching the movie.
Tomorrow, we will try to head out for a little while, but I have a LOT of laundry to do to get ready for our upcoming trip. I hope the two of you have sweet dreams tonight of Disney movies and more magical memories coming soon.
Love,
Mommy
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