The Champaign Gang

Two weeks ago I had to run to Champaign to do a bit of clean-up research for a presentation and article I'm writing.  And while it might seem strange to speak of running a 400 mile trip, we did just that - there and back again in three days.  Although I spent most of my time in Harry Partch's archives there, Joy and the boys came along to visit dear friends from grad school that we manage to see at least once a year.

On the last day, we grabbed lunch with them all before heading out and snagged this picture on the benches outside:

Look at that line of deviousness.  I love how they all are sitting with their feet in different positions, clearly showing their personalities.  In a few years we won't be able to get together without them taking over our plans with plans of their own (and yes, Sam has a pair of chopsticks from lunch).

Easter Weekend

We've had quite the weekend, one that zapped our energy so much that the entire family (including Sam!) took a nap yesterday afternoon after church.

It started Thursday night, when I played the organ for our church's Maundy Thursday Service.  Then, Friday night, we went to hear Liszt's Via Crucis at a Good Friday service, and then Saturday night UMKC put on one of Joy's favorite pieces, Poulenc's Gloria.  The boys went Thursday and Friday nights and then had a sitter on Saturday, but were so wound up by then that they didn't go to sleep until almost 10:00.

They were also a bit wound up because Saturday afternoon we went to the Easter Eggstravaganza that Prairie Baptist puts on each year.  Since Noah is only 2 months from 3, he was among the oldest in his age group (1-2 years) and so got plenty of loot in the egg hunt:

Sam, on the other hand, had to fight it out with the bigger kids and so ended up with fewer eggs, but his eggs had cooler stuff, like a compass, stick-on earrings (which he promptly used to decorate his Crocs), and little popper toys (that Noah calls blow-pops):

All in all a good weekend (at this point in life, any weekend with a nap is a good weekend).  I even managed to get a few good pictures of the boys in their matching Easter shirts, but when you take 79 pictures, a few are bound to come out right.

Happy Easter!

Noah vs. the Roller Blades

Yesterday was a gorgeous day - the first true taste we've had of life after winter.  The sun had a crystalline luster only possible after months of gray, and the warm outside made everyone want to sit down and never return inside.  Joy decided that the boys needed to move and run in the new springtime and so took them to Shawnee Mission Park for the afternoon.  They set out on the walking trail as it wound around the lake, the boys running far ahead of her until their energy, already spent playing at school all day, began to wane.  Towards the end of the walk, they were dragging a few paces behind, Joy exhorting them to keep up.

Joy later told me she thought nothing of the 40-year-old man barreling toward her on his roller blades at first other than a realization that he was traveling faster than usual.  In the time it took her to decide to turn around and tell Sam and Noah to watch out for the man, he had passed her and collided with the boys.

Sam took a glancing blow and fell to the side, scraping his elbow in the process.  Noah received all 200 pounds and went flying through the air, head over heels over head over heels until finally landing on his head.  Joy's protective instincts kicked in, and she scooped Noah up, ignoring the man who had returned to see if everyone was all right, a wise move given the string of invectives that surely would have knocked the man for the same kind of loop Noah had just endured.  She put both boys in the car and drove to the visitor's center, leaving the man and his roller blades far behind.

Joy hoped to find a nurse at the visitor's center, but only found a recommendation of the carefully placed urgent care clinic over the hill right outside the park's gates.  She hoped to have Noah examined at the urgent care clinic, but only found a recommendation to head to the nearest ER.  She hoped to have a doctor look over Noah at the first hospital, only to find that the hospital did not have an ER.

By this time, Noah was turning blue and starting to doze in his car seat, so Joy enlisted Sam's help and together they began singing, and telling jokes, and poking Noah to get him to stay awake.  Noah slurred for them to stop singing, but managed to stay awake as Joy stopped at home to grab the cell phone, call our pediatrician friend, and leave a note for me.  She headed to the hospital where Sam and Noah were both born and settled in to wait for the triage nurse.

I was teaching during this entire episode and so arrived home oblivious to the saga.  On the door as I entered our house was a note scribbled on blue paper that merely said, "Noah took a fall.  We're at the ER."  As I stepped in the house, the phone rang.  Joy called to fill me in and invite me to the ER, so I packed up toys and books for Noah, a bit of food for Joy and for Noah, and headed out. 

When I arrived at the ER, I could tell Noah wasn't himself.  He absentmindedly chewed on his fingers and barely offered me a "hello."  He was pale, covered in cuts and scrapes, and had a bump the size of a golf ball sticking out of his head at his hairline.  The triage nurse had seen him by that point and declared that it looked like Noah did not have a concussion and left Joy and the boys to wait on the doctor.  I took Sam home to have a late dinner and to wait for word from the hospital.  By 8:30, Joy was home with Noah, cleared by the doctor of all major injuries and provided a list of warning signs to watch for over the next few days.  I took Noah to the bath and gingerly washed all the dirt off him, taking note of the scrape that covered half his back and caused him to avoid walking and wince when picked up.  Fortunately, with a large dose of ibuprofen he was able to drift to sleep and rest until 5:00 this morning, when he was too sore to settle back into sleep.

It was a scary four hours, but this morning Noah seemed happy again, though sore and slow to move.  Well, I should qualify that it was scary for some of us.  Sam, on hearing Joy relate the story on the phone this morning, remarked, "Mom, Noah's double flip was awesome."  Joy asked, "But wasn't it scary for you?"  Undaunted Sam finished, "Well, it was a little scary, but it was mostly AWESOME!"

My Experience with Craigslist Scams Part I - Arianna Emmert and TNT

Two years ago, we came back from Christmas break, powered up the computer, and nothing happened.  I cracked open the computer, cleaned out the enormous amount of dust, and replaced a bit of memory.  Everything went back to normal, we backed everything up, and went about our lives.

Fast forward to two weeks ago.  We come back from Christmas break, power up the computer, and nothing happens.  I crack open the computer, clean out the slightly less than enormous amount of dust, and fiddle with the memory.  Unfortunately, I discover that one of our memory slots is shot, meaning that instead of our normal 1 gig of memory we could only operate with 512 MB.  In other words, our computer became really, really slow.

I quickly began shopping for a new computer and since I use a Mac at school, thought about switching at home as well.  As part of my searching, I went on craigslist and found the following amazing deal:

2 Month Old iMac for sale running 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 Processor, 4 GB Memory. $610.
Snow Leopard 10.6.4 Respond to post with any further questions regarding this computer!

I read the post and thought to myself, "Too good to be true," but followed up anyway, sending the seller the following message:

Hi,

I was wondering if you still had the iMac for sale.

thanks,

The next day, I received back this message:

Hi, I am getting back to you regarding the 21.5-inch iMac from Craigslist

My name is Arianna and I am now in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.
I am selling the iMac for $600 USD. I have attached some pics with it to this email.
The iMac is still available and I hope you are still interested. The iMac was bought brand new from Apple a couple of months ago.
About the iMac I can say it's in perfect shape, as I used it only for a few weeks. Included in the $600 price is everything that came with the iMac.
The iMac is here with me.
I tried to be as thorough as I could with the presentation so you can have all the info if you decide to go ahead and buy it.

Please get back to me and let me know if you like the iMac if you're really interested in buying it.

Thanks,
Arianna

Chief Logistic Officer
www.bluechipremovals.co.uk 

She even included pictures of an iMac like this one:

Needless to say, a red flag went up when a transaction that was supposed to be local suddenly went global.  I decided to play a bit and see where this went, so followed up with this message:

Arianna,

Thanks for the e-mail.  Two quick questions.  First, why are you selling the computer and second, why did you advertise in Kansas City?  How would you get the computer here?

Thanks,

Now the story gets really interesting.  Since most people won't just send money overseas without having the object purchased in hand, "Arianna" responded with this option:

Hi,

I posted the ad there because I live there. But now I have been relocated here with my work.
I am selling the imac in the US because the warranty is good only there. Because of that, nobody wants it here for this price.
I found a way to sell you the imac that will cover the both of us. It's a worldwide delivery company called TNT. They have a service that will allow you to test the imac before I receive my payment.
Please go to the TNT website below and read their procedure so we can be on the same page:

http://ukservices-tnt.com/tnt.express.wolverhampton.depot.overseas.transactions/

I will pay the TNT shipping fee and I can use 2 day delivery if you are in a hurry.

Thanks.

Arianna Emmert

Chief Logistic Officer

www.bluechipremovals.co.uk

 

Hmmmm.  I followed the link and it was extremely well put together, and actually looked like the real TNT website.  But look through the two sites and you can begin to see small differences.  I sent a note to TNT's fraud department and then did a few searches for "Arianna."  Seems like she moves a lot, has had several last names, and tries to scam people on craigslist regularly.   So I thought I'd see how long I could string her along and replied with the following message:

Arianna,

I'm in no hurry and I need to talk to my wife about the computer today.  I'll get back to you.

By the way, where did you live in Kansas City?  In the city proper or in one of the suburbs?  Find some favorite BBQ while you were here?

She must have realized I was on to her because no messages since then.  But hopefully my posting this little saga will help someone else out who encounters "Arianna."

2010 in Facebook Statuses

Snow Day!

I was supposed to start teaching today.  I had the syllabus up on Blackboard, the powerpoints ready, new topical jokes to try out.  Then the snow started falling.  I don't have morning classes on Mondays, so I elected to stay in and watch what happened.  Slowly, the tally of school closing rose until UMKC could no longer hold on and it closed the campus at 1:00.

I hadn't even gone in.

What to do on a day with everyone home from school and the roads bad enough that going anywhere seemed silly (not that the roads stopped us from going to Target this morning for last minute Kindermusik purchases for Joy and new snow boots for Noah)?

These two had an idea:

After naps, We all bundled up and headed outside.  The boys immediately fell on their backs and began making snow angels, they ran from bush to bush and from tree to tree shaking limbs to make snow fall on them, they wrestled and tromped and had a generally good time.

Me?  I shoveled the walk.  And helped a neighbor up the street in her back-wheel drive, sport tire car that barely got any traction at all. 

And, of course, endured a barrage of snowballs from these jokers:

Not that I didn't retaliate some.  I mean, I did have a big shovel full of snow most of the time.

The House Renovations that Never End

Every summer (and most Christmas breaks) I spend a large chunk of my break transforming various parts of our house.  I enjoy the work because it is opposite what I do most days. I usually sit or stand around and talk and think and write - physically inactive work.  But working on the house is physical labor that I find rewarding (though I would not want to make my livelihood at it).

I'm aided in my enjoyment by a wife who always has ideas for improving our house.  So over the five years we have lived in this house, we have now changed every room in some fashion, some quite dramatically and others only marginally so.  Throughout it all, we've always had the ultimate goal of removing our carpet and exposing the hardwood we knew was underneath.  We were simply waiting until the boys were old enough that hard wood would not meet soft heads on a regular basis.

So this summer, I slowly started taking up carpet, one room at a time.  Our bedroom was not bad - it was small, could be closed off for the kids, and we could sleep downstairs on the pull-out couch.  However, once the carpet was up I discovered that the floors needed a bit of work.  Evidently, two layers of carpet had been put down and when installing the second layer, the workers left the staples from the original carpet pad in the floor and then gouged the floors in sections putting in goodness knows what.  I had to pull two layers of staples out, fill in the holes and the gouges, sand down the floors, clean them, and then apply a few new layers of polyurethane.  A bit of work, but not bad because we could keep the boys out of the room.

Not so with the hall, living room, and dining room.

I tackled each individually, and Joy gamely took the boys on excursions.  We ate at odd times and in odd places (especially when the piano was sitting in the middle of our kitchen), had mountains of furniture to try and keep the boys off, and had dust and dirt from the carpets everywhere.  That was our impression of it.  The boys?  They just loved having all that exposed, hard floor that was better than a bowling alley or a roller rink.

We have a bit more to do painting-wise, but the floors are finally finished and we've been enjoying them (and the boys still ride all their machines on them constantly).  Noah had discovered they make a great loud sound when you throw things on them and the boys have had to stop tackling each other on the stairs (which is a happy consequence of this change), but overall we've settled into new floors quite well.

We're Full of Water

After the great family room flooding of the past few years, I doubted I would have so much water in my life a mere year later. But with Sam starting swim lessons, we're up to our ears in water these days.

Sam is loving his swim lessons. He goes twice a week right now and will go every day for four days in the next session at month's end. Although he still has trouble sitting still in the pool, he's learning quickly. At his last lesson, he was messing with his goggles and accidentally stepped backwards off the step and into the pool. He valiantly dog paddled and managed to almost keep afloat until the teacher rescued him, but his face was under water. He didn't panic, however, and seems to have found new confidence in his swimming. The lessons and the teacher are hard core and great and once Sam is comfortable putting his face in the water, he'll be swimming.

Noah, of course, wants to do everything Sam does, but has more hesitations. Joy's parents were here this past weekend to celebrate Noah's 2nd birthday a bit early. We decided to try out a local pool that has a playground in the water, a small wave pool, and a few bigger slides along with the pool itself. Sam loved the pool and the water guns and getting splashed; Noah was uncertain at first. He sat next to Nana and Joy and me at the water's edge until we found some small fountains he could splash in. Although he never warmed to the water slides, he did float like crazy in the water - he's much more relaxed than Sam and so finds it easier to let go and let the water take him.

This is the kind of water I can handle in the summer - let's hope it continues to stay in the pool and out of our family room.

The Return

The past two weeks have been a bit hectic at our house. Both last weekend and the weekend before, I had conferences where I was presenting new research. So I spent the week leading up to each talk researching, writing, and getting my slides together. Add in papers to grade, two reviews to write, and a set of four programs to annotate and my family hasn't seen much of me recently, much less this blog. Most of that is behind me now (and one of the papers went so well that I was invited to submit it for a graduate student award), so back to filling you in with stories of Sam and Noah and general musicological musings.

If you need something to fill your time until then, you can see the redesign of our church website I've been finishing in my spare time the past three weeks. It isn't done quite yet, but it is at least ready for prime time.

Last Weekend

We've been quiet around here because we've been busy. And we've been busy because last weekend we traveled to Champaign-Urbana to do research, attend a concert, and see friends. Having those three intersect was fortuitous, and Joy and I decided to take advantage and brave the possibility of snow and the likelihood of children meltdowns to travel.

We left Thursday morning later than we expected, but Noah, who had decided not to sleep the night before, decided to sleep for over half the trip. So we were able to make record time to Champaign and only had to entertain one child for most of the time. Things were looking good for team Granade.

Friday morning, I packed myself off to the archives to do a bit of Partch research (discovering a wonderful review of a Partch production by Roger Ebert, of all people), while Joy met up with our friends and their children for a playdate. Here was the result:Yes, everyone got so carried away that they stayed past the saturation point into full-boil meltdown (even our even-tempered Noah is getting in on the action).

Saturday morning, we all met at Barnes and Noble at story time so the kids could be afraid or indifferent to Clifford the Big Red Dog, who was making an appearance, and instead play with trains or books or stuffed animals or each other. All went so well that we decided to try dinner that night:Ah well. At least Sam was the only one tired of this party. He had places to go, people to see, bedtimes to miss. That's right, we decided to put him and Will, son of our friends with whom we stayed, in the same room for sleep. The first night, Sam crashed. But the second night, we heard them giggling and getting out toys and saw the light come on in their room. We reminded them that it was nighttime and threatened to separate them if they didn't stay in bed. We checked later and the light was out and though we heard soft giggling, thought nothing of it. When the giggling didn't die down, we investigated further only to discover that they had shut the door so we wouldn't see the light and had been up playing from 9:00 until after 10:00. They are already outsmarting us at four; I worry for fourteen.

Saturday night after dinner, I attended the excellent concert of Mikel Rouse's Gravity Radio, a composer I'm starting a project on who writes incredibly interesting and marvelous music. By Sunday's drive home, we were all happy but exhausted, a condition we are only now remedying but happily took upon ourselves because we had such a fantastic time. (and thanks to Jaime for the pictures.)

Time to Get Out of the House

We've been home five days, and I've shoveled snow four of them without completely clearing our driveway. It is so cold that Sam could stand playing in the snow for 10 minutes before demanding hot chocolate and Elmo. My iPod shut down while I was shoveling because music evidently only sounds above 10 degrees. We've watched our two Elmo DVDs so many times that Sam recites them almost verbatim. Every toy from the bottom of the toybox has come out, been played with, and deemed passe. We've actually gone through our bread and milk and needed to buy more.

All this, and you know how I knew today that we've been isolated in our house for too long?

Going to the post office today seemed like the social event of the season, and not just for me. Noah was beside himself he was so enchanted by a room he hadn't seen in days that he stood, staring at it all and wouldn't respond to my voice.

Perhaps it's time to play in the basement. Or the bathroom. There has to be some place in our house we haven't played.

Stuck in the Snow

While we were away for Christmas in balmy Arkansas, Kansas City got sacked by snow. To give you an idea of how much snow we've gotten (and how strange the amount is), last year the city received 18 inches of snow throughout the entire winter. The amount for the past week and a half since the snow started falling for a White Christmas? 16 inches. And there is 2-4 inches forecast for this afternoon with wind over 30 mphs tonight and tomorrow.

Some of that snow fell on Sunday when we drove home. We were fine until we got to northwest Arkansas, an area of the state that seems to own one snowplow. It was amazing to see that the moment we crossed into southwest Missouri, the roads instantly cleared and we were able to make good time back to Kansas City.

When we arrived, though, our driveway was covered under snow. I bravely (read foolishly) tried to pull on in our garage, but the car got stuck on the snow that snowplows had piled at the foot of our driveway. As the sun sank, I frantically dug the car out and cleared enough of the driveway to get the car in the garage. But I still had to unload the entire car (and all the boy's Christmas presents) before it was light enough to move again.

While the snow is giving us headaches, the boys are loving it. They were thrilled to watch all the snowplows pass our car as we drove up Missouri's spine Sunday afternoon. Sam "helped" me shovel snow Monday morning and both have been begging to get outside (though I think it is a clever plow to then come back in and have hot chocolate). But as much as we're getting tired of being stuck inside or at the base of our driveway, at least we're not stuck in an airport. Though if we were, hopefully we'd be as resourceful (and contagious) as this singer stuck in Newark on Monday:

Avoiding the Balls and Other Useful Life Guidelines

This past weekend, we celebrated Sam's birthday with my parents. Having another birthday was a huge deal for Sam; he kept mentioning this was his "third" birthday to everyone we met. His first birthday was the weekend Joy's parents and sister came. The second was his actual birthday when we took him to eat ravoli (his current favorite food). I'm surprised when he received more presents yesterday (this time from his good friend Alexander) that he didn't declare the day his fourth birthday. At least then we wouldn't have had to explain to everyone that he was actually turning four, not three.

As part of the birthday celebration, we went to a local play place. Sam loves this place. There is a pretend village, a giant water table to splash in, a train table full of trains he doesn't have, an area for cooking and one for doing crafts, a sprawling outdoor playset, and the ball pit and plastic tubes to climb through.

Beforehand, Joy and I agreed to keep the boys out of the ball pit. With the flu and other viruses circling around the city like buzzards, we thought it best to limit exposure to the petri dish that is a ball pit. Then we noticed that everyone else evidently had the same idea and the ball pit was essentially empty. Then our kids, playing the next room over, began to notice the ball pit. Then it was all over.

Sam is an old pro at ball pits. He jumped and tumbled and threw balls through the bullseye and in general had a great time. Noah? He stood.
That's right - Noah treated the ball pit as his own private runway. I'm filing this one away for when I want to ruin his life by being a stage parent for his modeling career.

They both had a marvelous time the entire weekend, but the germy pit of balls was clearly the winning moment.

Slow Transformation VIII: The Bathroom Completed

You may remember that back in May, this entire renovation began with the bathroom. In the house, it was the one room that always bothered us but that we had done nothing about for five years. The upstairs bathrooms were worse, but we fixed them within the first year of our buying the house. Downstairs we figured was mainly for family, so it could wait.

It had bad wallpaper, carpet on the floor, bright blue paint, and an ancient vanity that gave you no room to put things you might need in a bathroom like soap and toothbrushes and towels.

So I spent last May ripping off wallpaper, painting the room (twice - it took a while to find the right paint), and cleaning the floor. In June, we put down the new flooring and put in a new vanity and towel ring. In August, I ripped up the floor where there was a leak and put down new flooring and installed a new light fixture. This month, I've hung a new mirror, added a shelf, and we picked out towels and a rug. With this portion of the renovation finished, I can finally see the light at the end of the project. Here's a bit of a comparison for you between May and this morning:























I'm very glad to have that piece done, and the bookshelves are close to finished. Once I get the doors on and touch up a few areas of paint, I'll be ready to call the entire room finished.

At least for now.

I'm Totally Fit

I remember when my brother got his Fit and tracked the fuel efficiency, I was amazed by the 37 miles he got to each gallon. So I decided to start tracking my Fit (which is the next generation after his) and let you know what I found.

I had my first fill-up yesterday after driving 389 miles I put in 8.97 gallons to fill the tank up, which means I averaged about 43 miles to the gallon!

Who knows how that will level out as the engine gets broken in, but considering that I used to average about 14 miles to the gallon, I don't think there is any way the old bank account (and the atmosphere) won't feel a difference.

They Come in Threes

We've had an eventful few weeks, from the conference, to getting a new car, to Sam repeated throwing up in said new car and everywhere else yesterday. But for some reason, our house has come under the most fire the past month. You remember the incident of the bathroom floor. I spent the days around the conference frantically digging a new drainage system for our backyard next to the house so we wouldn't have to worry about flooding under the new flooring again.

Then, two days after I finished the new drain, we heard a loud crash right after we had gone to bed. I jumped up to make sure both boys were in their beds and hadn't fallen out before collapsing back to sleep, figuring I would find out what the crash had been in the morning.

This is what I found in our backyard:
That's right, a giant limb had fallen from a tree in the backyard, hit the ground and then the broken end somersaulted into our house. The only reason it did not come into our bedroom was that it hit a supporting wall joist.

You'll also notice that there is a rather dead looking bunch of leaves underneath the branch. During the summer, we had a tree next to the house die on us, so when we had the branch removed and the wall patched, we had the tree removed as well:
Ah, if only that were the end of the saga. Early last week we began noticing that the refrigerator was not as cold as it normally was. I attributed this to Sam who has taken to standing with the refrigerator door open, longingly looking at the things he can't eat. I just figured he had finally noticed the knobs that control the temperature and turned them down.

If only it were that simple.

By Wednesday, we knew we had a problem, so I called for a repairman and he came last Thursday morning and in five minutes had replaced the fan motor to fix our refrigerator.

So if you are keeping count, that's three for the house and none for us. But the bottom level is almost finished, and once it's done, I'm counting it as a huge win for us.

Slow Transformation Part VII: Finishing up the Stairs

The project that has consumed my evenings for the better part of five months is finally winding down. I'm in the middle of painting the new bookcases (more on that later) and once they're in this weekend, I'll only have a few small things to fix from the great transformation of our downstairs.

During the week of the conference, I wanted a small project to work on. I had started the bookshelves, but knew they would take more time than I had that week, so I decided while I was sanding wood to use on the bookshelves I would sand, stain, and paint the stairs as well. Originally doing the stairs wasn't part of the grand transformation plan, but we discovered that stairs that have rested under dirty carpet for many years tend to need a little TLC.

First thing I did was fill in all the holes and divots that had formed over the past 40 years with a bit of wood filler. Then I went to town sanding.

Joy and I both decided we wanted the stairs to have a bit of a distressed look, so I didn't sand down the stairs to the most absolute smoothness. As you can see, the middle of each stair was still a bit darker than the edges and the filled in spots stand out ever so slightly.

I also only lightly sanded the rise on each stair because we decided to paint them to give the entire stair a bit of a lighter feeling.

The main point in all of this was to make the stairs feel smooth underneath our feet and give them a durable finish so we didn't worry about the kids dropping things.

After sanding, I put a thin layer of a light stain and then coated them with polyurethane. That process was fascinating because we couldn't walk on the stairs. So each night I'd put a coat on and Joy and I would run out of our garage and up to the front door when we heard Sam or Noah in the evening or when we wanted something to eat. I'm sure my neighbors wondered why we kept carrying ice cream into our garage those nights.

During the conference, I came home in the evenings and painted the rise before collapsing into bed. Only two coats of white paint and look what we have now:
(and yes, that's Noah wondering what is going on down there) I only have to figure out now if I want to put white quarter round down on each stair step.

Look, I'm Fit!

That's right, after almost a month of waiting to get my car, the gov'ment finally came through for us! The old truck held on (though I was very careful with it) for another four weeks and we didn't have to get the major work done on it that would be needed for a second four weeks.

The color is Blackberry Pearl (who thinks up these names) and it is extremely zoomy. As you can see, even Sam is into the car, all ready here for school this morning.

So if I don't blog for the next few days, you'll know that I'm vrooming all over town.

Slow Transformation Part VI: The Saga of the Toilet

I know you probably thought I had forgotten about our downstairs, but truth be told, since late June I haven't done much on it. Much, that is, except fight the toilet.

You may remember that when I started redoing the downstairs, I started in the bathroom. That was last May. Since then, I've had the toilet taken apart four times, and in those three months, it has been usable perhaps 1/3rd of the time. I first took off the toilet's tank to paint behind it (1). Then I took the toilet out to put in the new flooring (2). I then took it apart because there was leakage around the base, and I determined that I needed a bigger wax ring (3). At that point, I thought I was done, and we confidently left for the month of July thinking everything was fine.

I didn't count on water from the backyard.

Occasionally we've had seepage into that bathroom from the backyard. This increased when our backyard neighbors kindly began pouring their runoff into our yard. Last summer, Dad helped me fix the problem, but erosion caused it to happen again in May. I thought I had fixed the problem again until we returned home from Arkansas in early August. My brand new floor was buckling in places and there was water around the toilet. Water had seeped in again and gotten under the flooring, slowly turning it to mush over the course of a month. So the first thing I did upon arriving home, even before unloading our car, was take apart the toilet so the floor could begin to dry (4).

That was almost three weeks ago. With all our traveling I didn't get to the floor until this weekend. I dutifully pulled up the offending boards, wiped up all the remaining water hiding under the underlayment, and then put down new flooring. Night before last, I put on my two wax rings (I wanted to be sure there was no more seepage there) and attached the bowl to the floor and then put on the tank. Once I turned the water on, however, I realized I had forgotten one of the cardinal rules of putting together a toilet - always replace the bolts and rubber washers. That's right, my tank was leaking around the bolts, so I had to take it apart until I could get more bolts.

Yesterday, Noah and I went to get more bolts (and a new rubber gasket just to make sure), and last night I finally put the toilet together, officially finishing that bathroom after a grand total of five times the toilet has been in pieces. Well, almost finishing. I put in the new light fixture yesterday, but we still need a mirror and a shelf above the vanity. *sigh*

Fit for a Clunker

Back in June, when the Cash for Clunkers program was first announced and then signed into law, Joy and I talked it over and decided to participate. We had been saving towards a new car to replace the truck so we'd have two safe cars for the boys to ride in and felt $4500 from the government was too good a deal to pass up. Since we were gone most of July, we planned on going as soon as we returned home.

During that time, we followed the news about the program with interest, watching the lines of people collect at dealerships to cash in on their old cars. We fretted that we might not be able to participate, but when the extra $2 billion was signed a week ago, we made plans to go test drive and buy.

We looked at several different cars, but ultimately settled on the Honda Fit for its size and gas mileage. This car will basically be my commuter car and needs to be able to haul the boys and their ever-expanding gear a few days a week as well. If you haven't been in a Fit before, it has almost as much room as our CRV, is amazingly fun to drive, and gets in the mid-30s for gas mileage (though friends and my brother who have one all report regularly getting in the upper 30s). So last Thursday we loaded up the boys and headed to the dealership.

Now, up until now my truck has not really been a clunker. Sure, it gets around 12-13 miles to the gallon and has almost 200,000 miles on it, but it still runs great. At least it did until we we to replace it. The truck must have known it was being thrown over for a shiny little upstart, and so on our way back from the dealership, decided to overheat. On the interstate. In 90+ degree weather. Turns out that not only does the car leak oil (a problem I had known about but didn't monitor since we were gone a month), it also was basically out of coolant. I limped it to an exit and finally got it a nice drink of coolant and drove it on home Thursday night. Now it is getting evil glances from the family and is a bit of an outcast until our deal is cleared by the government, at which point we'll go swap it in for the new car.

Of course, with the way the program is going right now, it may be out of money by the time our request is processed. If that happens, I'm afraid we're in for a bit of the Exorcist in our household. Stay tuned.