okay -- we've been living in this house for more than 10 months now... and so far we have had so many workers come out to fix various things...
the latest has been the garage door opener -- which wasn't covered under the home warranty like the other items.
At first it would just get stuck about a quarter of the way up, and then stop. This could usually be fixed by pushing the button to send it back down again and then waiting a minute and then trying it again. But then it got to the point where it wouldn't move more than 8 inches off the ground. Andy decided he was going to tinker with it -- I was headed to the loo so told him to wait for me. I'm sitting in the loo and I hear this giant boom -- the house shudders -- I'm freaking out imagining decapitation or something... so I go rushing out and he's fine but the opener is most definitely not! I can smell burning. Basically the gears have gone. Game over.
Because we don't know how old the opener is we don't know if it is still covered or anything. So we start looking around at prices for a new opener. We settle on Sears one because they will install it and much more will cover it under warranty for 2 full years (extendable if we want it) for only $30 more. The new one has a keypad for if you forgot/lost your keys or if someone is taking care of the cats while we are away or something.
So mr. man came yesterday afternoon to install it -- it was a bit of a palaver making the appointment, it was originally for wednesday (he'd have done it on monday if i'd been free) at 4 and they had to call back because the installer who was going to do it backed out, so he was working with a different installer now -- and so it was for Tuesday at 4 -- the cats and I both jumped when there was loud knocking on the door at 3pm.... he was an hour early....??? That has never happened for me before!
It didn't take him long to do it and then he showed me that everything was working and how to change the keypad code and other things... then he was off. I then went to open the door to the garage to reach around and push the button to close the garage door and the door opened by itself and Andy walked in-- scared the life out of me! (he's been doing that lately -- the other night when I got home from the crop at 1:30am, I was getting a glass of milk and all of a sudden he starts talking to me from the hallway -- I couldn't even see him or anything -- I nearly wet myself)
So we now have a working garage door -- but we do need to get to a do-it-yourself store and buy some new casters for the door's tracks -- it makes a lot of noise right now squeaking and squealing.
Happy birthday miss Abigail Kate Mackenzie!!
I have not forgotten your birthday -- and you will be receiving a little something in the post soon -- I hope it was a great birthday!!
Come and visit me soon -- now that I am not going to be working -- it's the perfect time!!!
I miss you TONS.
I ain't workin' there no more....
Yep it's true-- I have handed in my two weeks notice at my job.
Why?? You may ask with incredulity (as most of my colleagues have)...
Many reasons...
1. I hate working at crops -- almost always have... I hate the way they throw my body off like jetlag or a hangover (if I'd ever had one to compare it to) -- I don't sleep when I finally get home from work at 1:30 or 1:45, and then I am in an exhausted, headache-filled fog for at least a day, many times two days. It's awful. And Cord has taken advantage of me too many times... making me do four crops in four weekends in a row! And just last week I worked a crop on the Saturday night and then turned around the following Friday night and did it again -- two crops in the span of one week... TOO MUCH. Not even to mention the catty attitude that some (not all -- most of our croppers are super nice, but it just takes one or two to really ruin a crop!) are just so catty. We are having all kinds of problems recently because our crops have been very full (we can fit 40 people) -- so full that there are always people coming in late and expecting to sit together and it is just impossible and others who have been there for hours don't want to move to accomodate them (which I don't blame them one iota but it sure makes my job hellish).
2. It is extremely stressful working at a place where most of the employees dread their job and want to quit! Not 100% of them, but about 90%. We have pressure from corporate to perform well financially, pressure from them to be the best Cord store they have, pressure to keep the store immaculate (and we do all the cleaning ourselves), and pressure to change the way things work on a moment's notice because someone in corporate has made a decision to change something... too much pressure for someone being paid minimum wage.
3. Home life -- I miss out on spending my weekends and many evenings with Andy. I don't get to participate in all the activities I want to at church. I feel like I have no friends because I can only see them about once a month. Our house is a tip because I'm not home often enough to keep on top of cleaning and tidying, and not to mention that we've been in the house almost a year and not done one single bit of decorating. There are unpacked boxes everywhere. Andy's folks are coming in just over 3 and 1/2 weeks and I'm starting to feel panic.
4. Lastly -- physically -- We want to start a family in the next six months. We have both gained a little weight since I began work because of eating out so much -- my shifts often start at 10 or 12 and finish at 5 or 6 or 7... and many times I haven't been to the store to get items for lunch, or I am too exhausted at 6:45 when I finally get home to do any cooking. Plus I stress about working crops, so don't sleep well the night before and feel like I am tired all the time.
All in all, I'm happy with my decision, and I am probably going to do some guest-teaching in the new year for them, so I haven't burned my bridges or anything. Guest teaching means I can choose my own classes, and everything is on my terms. No more crops, no more shifts, just the fun part of the job -- working with people and helping them learn how to do cool and fun things with paper!
Andy heard this great quote recently and when he said it to me last night I nearly wet myself...
"Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film." (Steven Wright, comedian -- on the show "Dr. Katz")
I actually do have film... and it saves my tukus a lot and it keeps us from getting lost -- and was especially useful on the cruise.... Andy got turned around a lot of times and I'd be like... "you still don't know where you are?"
I love him anyhow. : )
Last weekend after we got back from the cruise, we decided to just take it very easy... still kind of suffering from the tummy bug (still *am* suffering!) and so when I saw in the paper that they were having a Harvest Days at the local nursery, it sounded like an interesting adventure.
The nursery is only about a mile and a half from the house (and we knew they have bathrooms!!) so we weren't venturing too far. Plus it was a gorgeous day -- sunny and cool, beautiful.
At these Harvest Days, you can get pumpkins for carving -- they even had the man who currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records for fastest pumpkin carver -- Jerry Ayers (who is from Ohio!) -- he was fascinating to watch and it was really cool because when we arrived at the nursery and walked over to where he was carving, he was just finishing up carving the pumpkin he was working on. When he was done, everyone else got up and walked away, but because we'd only seen a minute or so, I decided to stay there (Andy got up and was walking around taking pics of the entries for the World's Biggest Pumpkin contest) -- Jerry struck up a conversation with me as he began another pumpkin, asking me if I am a carver (which I am -- I love to carve pumpkins!) and so we chatted and he gave me a leaflet about carving geometric patterns in pumkins. It was fascinating to hear him talking about carving and he had lots of great tips too -- when he begins to carve, he cuts around the stem with straight lines, and where the lines meet up, he carves a diamond out -- with half the diamond in the lid and half in the main part of the pumkin. He does this so that the heat from the candle can get out, and also so that it is very simple to see which way the lid goes back on! Also he mentioned that if you don't like the smell of burning pumpkin flesh when you have a candle lit inside your pumpkin, you can put nutmeg and cinnamon on the inside of the lid -- that way when the heat of the candle reaches it, it smells wonderful -- like pumpkin pie!
So having been very energized by his talking and really craving some carving -- we set off around to the back of the nursery (to grab some yummy food!!) to take the "All you can carry for $9.99" challenge. The lady in charge of "judging" that was so nice -- I went over to her and asked what the trick is to getting lots of pumpkins and she told me it's all about balance. The rules say that you have to take at least one step to qualify (and she added that the step can actually be a backwards one! VERY helpful!!)
So we scouted around and found a few bigger ones and several smaller ones -- and stacked them all on this table where she was judging. The plan was that Andy was going to carry them and I was going to load him up one at a time until we reached full capacity. The judge was really funny too -- once she heard him speak she thought he was an Aussie, but was really amused when she found out a Brit was about to take the challenge. We wanted her to take a photo of Andy when he was at full capacity, but she misunderstood us. She took one while we were in process. (see below)
In our first attempt, we got Andy loaded up with 7 pumpkins!! And since we were so successful, we decided to go again -- and the second time we managed 6 pumpkins. So for $20, we ended up with 13 pumpkins -- not bad when normally they are $1 per pound (our pumpkins totalled around 60 lbs!!)
I love this picture of Andy with the pumpkins -- we got lots of comments from passers-by because they were so impressed -- they all thought he'd done all these pumpkins in one go!!
My hubby the strong-man!!!!
I know that Andy has a huge great big blogfest on our Cruise -- he just has to type it all out! I took a fab picture of him writing furiously in his little comp book (manual "blog") -- so I'll leave my filling-in comments after he's posted that... it may take him several days -- he wrote a ton!!
Brief Summary --
The Itinerary:
Sat. 30th Sept -- we flew from Columbus to Cincinnati to Miami. Boarded boat, had horrendous evacuation exercise in very uncomfortable life jackets.
Sun. 1st Oct -- day at sea -- Kristen wins trivia contest and then gets gagged (see Andy's blog for more details -- he enjoyed that part wayyy too much) during the gameshow game -- formal night for dinner, got dressed up and had many many pictures taken
Mon. 2nd Oct -- in port at Cozumel -- rough 45 minute ferry trip over to mainland Mexico for our excursion at Xcatel (WONDERFUL PLACE) -- loved it -- another rough trip back to the ship, quick race across the ship to get to the boats that took us to the island of Cozumel -- did some shopping
Tues. 3rd Oct. -- day at sea -- Kristen gets a manicure first thing in the morning -- nice and relaxing -- Fish & Chips for lunch with some Minnesotans and North Dakotans -- played Name that Tune (Kristen comes in 2nd place!) -- play Battle of the Sexes (hilarious!) and then watch Newlyweds Not So Newlyweds (nearly wet our selves laughing!!!) -- dinner and then went to Illusionists show which was enjoyable but we've seen too many "Magicians Secrets Exposed" kinds of shows to truly believe in the magic -- late late late in the night the tummyaches begin (got some kind of viral bug)
Weds. 4th Oct. -- in port at Grand Cayman Islands -- Kristen is too sick to go anywhere -- Andy goes to Stingray City and snorkeling on his own and has a blast -- Kristen orders iced tea and pretzels for room service
Thurs. 5th Oct. -- in port at Ocho Rios, Jamaica mon -- Andy goes on the booked excursion to climb Dunns Falls and on a bus tour of Ferngully and then goes tubing... floating down the White River -- Kristen is well enough to go into town to do some shopping, gets accosted by every single resident of Jamaica asking if she wants a taxi, her hair braided, or a tour of the shops; decides that Jamaica's catchphrase shouldn't be "No Problem, mon" it should be "No THANK you, mon!" -- has a virgin strawberry daquiri at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville -- back to the ship -- formal night again for dinner -- waiters sing and dance!!
Fri. 6th Oct. -- at sea -- just relaxing around the ship -- play Name that Tune again -- Kristen wins this time! (gets a goody bag with fun items in!) -- pick out the photos we want to get copies of ($$$) -- relax at the piano bar with James the piano player, doing Sing A Longs -- watch the "Legends" show (karaoke) put on by guests and the Carnival dancers (actually really enjoyable -- funny skits in between some of the acts involving crew members) -- at 11:30pm realize we have to get our luggage packed and outside our door by midnight... frantically pack and put them out at 12:30am, fortunately they have not gone around for the final time yet and they take our luggage
Sat. 7th Oct. -- arrive back to Miami about 7am -- beautiful sunrise -- eat breakfast and pick up photos that we ordered, only to realize they have gotten the order wrong -- get our bill for the room and realize there is a charge on there that we didn't do -- Kristen goes to sort out the photos issue and Andy goes to sort out the bill -- Kristen gets back 1/2 hour later, Andy gets back 2 2/1 hours later!!! -- wait in the room until our color tags are called -- then the cattle moving process begins -- lots of waiting in queues and sweating (HOT in Miami!), then sitting on a bus waiting, then sitting at the airport waiting, then sitting in a different bus waiting (crammed in like sardines!!), then fly back to Columbus directly -- Dad meets us at the airport and we got back to Mom & Dad's house for subs dinner
Overall it was a fantastic trip that I would do again in a heartbeat -- our room was very private and was huge (it was different than a regular room because it was handicap accessible). I loved that we had a balcony! It was great watching the ocean and being able to go stand out on the balcony and take in the fresh air. The downsides were the fact that we caught that viral bug (which we still are not quite over -- went to the doc yesterday & she said just wait it out), so I missed out on Grand Cayman Islands entirely (I was sooo sick) and didn't get to see Dunns Falls or go to the Botanical Gardens and see the butterflies and orchids... I want to go back to Xcatel someday -- and spend at least a day there -- there were so many parts of the park that we didn't get to see!!
Back to work yesterday -- the ground still feels like it is moving!! I'm sure I must look like a drunken sailor wobbling around the store...
Last time I looked, it was the end of August -- September just flew past me!
I had a wonderful birthday (thank you Kim for my surprises!!) -- had to work all day but got to go out to lunch with my boss Stephanne and when we got back, Kim totally surprised me with a yummy cake, balloons (i LOVVVE balloons!!) and presents!! I was stunned. It was awesome!
Then later that night Adam & Steph cooked dinner for Andy & me -- a spicy firey curry that I later *almost* regretted -- but the flavor was so rich and full -- just wish it hadn't been such a hot curry.
Then my boss had her baby girl -- hooray! But that meant several weeks of lots of working! Many of my classes were cancelled because I didn't have enough folks to take them... which is sad. :(
And then finally at last the 29th was here and I played mahjong with Mom & the Mahjong Queens -- lost money :( and then that evening Andy and I packed our little hearts out and Saturday morning the 30th we flew out from Columbus to Cincinnati and then from Cincy to Miami!
(cont'd)