Bathroom

Tile work Sucks.

Saturday morning I went to Home Depot and rented a tile cutter.  I wanted to get the tile in the bathroom done.  That ended up being a bigger headache then I thought.  I should start by saying I have no idea what I am doing.  I have seen tile work done on the home shows.  That is the extent of my training and familiarity with tile work.  I knew enough from reading to understand I would need time and patience.  Neither of which I am very blessed with.  Halfway through the wall I realized the tile cutter wasn’t going to cut it.  It had an arm that would not let me use the guide on 12 x 24 inch tiles.  I ended up buying a wet saw that looked more like a table saw.  I should have done that from the beginning.  Cutting tile to fit around the window was a special trip into hell.  A simple “L” shape shouldn’t be that hard.  It is with Porcelain tile.  I should also point out that Saturday might have hit a high of 40 degrees.  It was also windy.  As I worked the various angles trying to fit around my rental saw I slowly realized my hands were numb. 

See the window - not fun.

Good times.

With the new saw I was able to move quicker.  I ended up stopping for the night when I couldn’t see anymore.  Dark + diamond blade = bloody stumps for fingers.

Had to stop here.  No more light.

Sunday.

I had to go grocery shopping and run a couple of errands to keep things moving in the right direction at home.  I was looking at a one-piece, dual-flush toilet at Costco.  I didn’t buy it right away as it had been there for awhile.  So I thought I would pick it up today.  Of course it wasn’t there and I can’t find it online. 

This ate a couple of hours off of work time.  Plus I had to stop to run Jason to his friend’s house at 2pm so they could work on a school project.  Luckily they dropped him off later.  Today was almost 70 degrees.  No more hyperthermia and frostbitten fingers!  I only got the second wall done.  I have the wall with the showerhead and faucet left.  I am dreading cutting holes in the pieces of tile.  I am guessing that will not be easy.  I also ran out of adhesive.   Instead of mixing the thin-set, the kind folks at Home Depot recommended a premixed adhesive.  This stuff was ultra sticky which helped with sag.  Plus it dries waterproof.  I picked up two gallons thinking that would do it.  I didn’t think I would use the economical 3 gallon bucket.  I am out and will be buying my third gallon.

That little bit of wall was 6 hours in the making.

Go me!

When we redo the basement I see solid surface in our future.

Friday

Upkeep on this blog is more difficult than I initially thought.  It has been a rough couple of weeks at work and I have not been in much of a writing frame of mind.  It would be fun to tell you all what I was doing but then as the old clichéd phrase goes “If I told you then I’d have to …” Well you know how it goes.

Lindsey took the week off for spring break.  She is off having fun and I am here typing on my blog.  Smart girl.  Not being at work by 6:30 is weird and very unsettling.  I do not like having this much time in the morning. 

The kids are doing well.  Sam’s friends all live in different neighborhoods.  This is problematic when I am trying to get a bathroom installed.  I find myself running errands or kids instead of working on the bathroom.  That and the tile work has me a bit worried.

Jason is working on class projects with friends.  They have to get together to get it done.  More driving.  He is so funny there is a girl in his group and they have been chatting on the phone about it.  Not sure if I should start picking on him now about it or wait until Jr. High.  There will be picking on.  Do not feel bad, this is the way of the world. 

I must find the naked baby pictures.

Kids

I took Friday off in an attempt to get some things done that I just couldn’t seem to get to.  I went to Home Depot to pick up paint and supplies to get working on the bathroom.  I am in line when I get a call from Jason’s school.  He is calling to let me know he fell in gym and he hurt his arm.  The school wanted me to come get him.  This was at 11:30 in the morning.  3 hours into my get stuff done day and I am heading to the school.  When I got there Jason was holding his arm.  I asked him what happened and he told me he tried to get the ball in basketball.  The other kid moved and Jason went to the ground.  The gym teacher thought he may have broken it.  I told him to rub some dirt on it and go back to class.  For a second I thought he was going to.  I told him I would sign him out for the day.  

Off to the hospital we go.  The ER ended up splinting him with a follow up with the Orthopedist.  They couldn’t be sure he didn’t break anything.  Yeah me.  It didn’t stop him from running around all weekend though.

On Monday we saw the Orthopedist who confirmed no break happened but a couple of more days with the splint couldn’t hurt.

On the up side I got the bathroom and hall painted.  Looks good too.

Dogs

The dogs were getting pretty ripe.  On top of that they need their nails cut.  That was a fun day.

I took Abby and Candy to PetSmart for nail trimmings.  Candy is fine with it.  Abby needs a muzzle.  She tried to bite a lady at PetSmart so I warn them ahead of time.  Even with the muzzle she makes it very tough on the poor girls that are doing the trimming.  This time I had them ground as opposed to cut.  It was a buck more but they are shorter and smoother.  After their nails were done it was off to Shampooch!

Shampooch is a self serve wash your dog place.  It sounds goofy but it is so much easier than the tub.  (not just because I do not yet have a working tub)  They supply everything.  They even have high speed blow dryers.  The Tubs are standing height with a small leash to keep the dog in the tub.  There is a sprayer on a long hose in the tub so it is much easier than being hunched over a normal bathtub.  This was a handy thing since it was below freezing that day.  Again Candy seemed ok with it, Abby not so much.  Not sure why but Abby is afraid of being cleaned.  She tries to bunch up in the corner and you are constantly moving her back to the middle to wash, rinse and repeat.  In the end it was worth it as they now smelled like clean wet dogs.

My life is very exciting.

Summer Camps

So the kids need supervision during the day during the summer when they do not have school.  Christine likes to try and enrich the children’s lives.  I merely want them not to be dead at the end of the day.  

With Chris’s goal in mind (let’s not kid ourselves, she was going to win) we signed them up at Schoolcraft College.  The kids went there one week last year and loved it.  This year they will go for three weeks.  Chris was nervous that they would fill fast and the kids would miss out on their first choices.  She tried to sign them up online.  Of course this did not work.  So I sat in my car until 8:01 am on the first day to be the first in line to get them signed up.  Sadly I was second in line.  I was the first to the cashier’s cage so we kinda tied.

We couldn’t miss Video Game Design or Art Explosion.

We will do another week away at Camp Copneconic and a couple of weeks at the YMCA. 

For the other two I don’t need to camp out like a groupie to register.

I'm back

I have said it before, I am a bad blogger.  Chris did an amazing job on her trip reporting.  http://momdeployed.blogspot.com/

On my first day back 2 and a half weeks of being gone jumped up and slapped me.  I had a solid week of Mondays.

On top of work crap my car is now dead.  I had the car towed to Hal’s auto shop in Northville.  They gave me a call to let me know the cool sound it makes when you try to start it is the timing chain slapping around.  If the only damage done to the car was a snapped chain then it would be about a $750 fix.  Odds are since I was driving at the time it is very likely the pistons touched the valves.  That would be very bad. He wanted to know if I would like him to work up and engine replacement quote.  I told the mechanic “You had me at $750. Push it outside I will donate it.”  He made an attempt to try and talk me into the repair.  I reminded him it was a 2001 Stratus.  He understood.  I donated it to Cars Fighting Cancer.  I had a vision of ‘Mater from cars with boxing gloves on his front tires.  I donated there.  They sent me an iPod Shuffle for my car.  There it is.  A 2001 Dodge Stratus with a blown motor equals an iPod.  Sounded good to me.

Being down to one vehicle makes me a bit nervous.  I haven’t been without a back up since 1993.

Vacation

We just spent two weeks on Christine’s R&R.  A week in Orlando and a 7 day cruise in the western Caribbean. 

I highly recommend the Central American coast for beautiful beaches.  No idea what the countries in question are really like but the beaches are fantastic.

I would go into more detail but Chris already did and should be posting it in her blog after she gets home on Tuesday. 

Our wonderful neighbor Kim dropped us off and picked us up at the airport.  That worked very well.

Once we got home the kids moved the luggage downstairs and all was well.  I told them I was heading to the bank and Kroger.  After much begging I agreed to pizza as well.

I drove out of the garage and realized something didn’t feel right.  The right rear tire was completely flat.  I backed back into the garage, cussed a lot and I re-inflated the tire on the van.  I was surprised it held air.  I figured if it held then maybe I could get a new tire on Sunday.  (No luck.  The tire folks do not work Sundays) I got into the car. It started slowly but I didn’t think anything of it as it hasn’t been started in a while. I was just across 6 mile when it started making an odd sound.  There were cars around me so as I tried to figure out where the noise was coming from the engine died.  I put it in neutral, hit the flashers and tried to re-start the car.  Odd noises come out when I tried to crank it. I coasted into DFCU’s lot and got it parked. I tried unsuccessfully to re-start the car. It sits there now.  I grabbed the gloves out of the trunk and because I was so angry, I walked home. It seemed like less distance when I started.  I guess walking fast and zipping up my fleece worked.

I stopped at CVS and picked up milk and Pizza rolls.