Here We Go Again!

You would think after we spent last year going through this and having a giant insurance claim and spending months with construction workers in the house – all would be well.  But alas, it is not.

Here’s how it went – 

Cell phone rings – it’s my neighbor “Hey – is your basement flooding”?

Um, I went down there before I went rowing early this morning– all was well – let me check again – walk down stairs, all looks ok – then SPLASH.   Nope, all is not ok…

Hang up, call plumber – text husband at work “We have a flood in the basement again”.  

Look around – you can actually see the flow of water coming up from the drain – its moving fast!

Ok, chill, plumber is coming, he’ll be here soon – it will be ok.

Plumber comes – 140 foot of drain snake later (apparently 80 feet is normal?) he has found nothing, water is still pouring in, he tells me to call the city – it’s the “Main”  i.e. - it's not ok.

Call city – they say they will check it out – water is just pouring in…

Call husband at work – one word – “HELP”- he’s on his way.

I start to bail the water – its three inches deep, I can’t believe this is happening again – our beautiful freshly finished basement – it hasn’t even been a year.  

Plumber made a giant mess in my beautiful laundry room – really it’s not his fault – but yucko!

Husband comes home, we sit on the couch to strategize and watch the water flow rippling across the floor, he goes to Home Depot – time to rent a pump, blower and super duty carpet cleaner to suck out water. 

 

Water is still coming in….

Call city again – they tell me they are at the main – I walk over to my neighbors yard where the main is (the third gentleman that is having flooding in our area) of course – they are NOT there.

Pump hooked up, hose outside window – similar scenario next door – water flowing to the street out of hoses. 

Time to rip out the less than a year old carpet in the laundry room – it can’t stay after what the plumber stirred up.  Same goes for our treadmill – out to the trash it goes.  So, so bummed out – let down – disenchanted – this was not our fault.  After twelve years in this house – why are we suddenly having a problem?

Go to janitorial supply store for super duty germ killer (the same stuff the guys used last year), buy paper suit and mask for homemade hazmat suit.  I’m sucking water out of the rest of the basement carpet with the vacuum (wonder tool!) he is all suited up to scrub and spray the laundry room.

Four days later (and why there was no post Friday), dry as a bone, looks good – except there is no rug in the laundry room.  Going to look for the same stuff they put in last year – since it looked so fabulous (for ten months).

I promise, we are going to use some tricks that all houses had in the town I grew up in (on an overflow river) THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN – NEVER, I PROMISE.

Oh – while all this was happening, my darling neighbor girl came over – she wanted a picture “For her slide show” of all the fun we were having as a neighborhood, and this is what she got – her mom said “make sure to get those boots in the shot” – yeah – thanks!!

(And yes, I know it's sideways - it's not in the shot I have, it's just that - well, apparently that's how it feels today, a little sideways - so that how it's going to be...)

Say What NBA?

A few weeks ago I took this picture off the TV, because they say a picture paints a thousand words – or in this case ten – but it could be a thousand, because it says a lot!!

Soooooo, what we can gather from this little white box of dialog is that drugs – while not ok in College sports - are perfectly fine in the NBA??

Clearly it states this kid failed his drug test so he can’t play ball in school next year – therefore – he is going to go Pro.   

Or at least he will be welcomed into the draft, even after a failed drug test…that I might add was taken just after the playoffs – in which they were supposed to go far – win even - but they didn’t.   

Could this boy be to blame?

The NBA should be fuming at this assumption that it’s ok to enter the draft because you failed the Universities drug test and oh yeah – your reward for failing is that you will become a millionaire if a team picks you - as opposed to playing for nothing if you finished your degree and kept playing College ball.  Oh and he's a Sophomore...

The ridiculousness of it all.

Lactose Tolerant?

So what’s true?

Seems like someone is a bit confused at the company – it has to be one or the other, it can’t be both.

What do I mean?   Well the other day I picked up a creamer and poured it in my diner coffee just to watch it promptly sink to the bottom - like I put nothing in it.  

Wait – creamer (half and half) doesn’t usually do that, it should swirl.  So after I stir it up, I look at the label, to see what kind of Frankenstein mix I just dumped into my fresh coffee. 

In a big purple swipe it says it is a “non-dairy” creamer.  OK, fine – whatever, that’ll work, I just need something in my coffee.  Then in bold letters directly under the non-dairy bit it states that it “contains: milk”.  

How is that again?  Is it non-dairy or is it dairy?   

Milk strikes me as THE MAIN dairy food coming out of a Dairy Farm and its many cows.  I’m sure if you were to ask them, hundreds of dairy farmers around this world would agree with that.

So how is it that a Non-dairy creamer contains milk?  Lactose intolerant folk must not be too happy with this – it’s like selling a mild salsa that is full of habanero peppers – it just doesn’t work that way.

What kind of labeling laws do we have in the US?  I’m going to go with not very consistent ones – that or this one slipped by the inspector. 

Huh – wha?  George, hey George – you seem to have nodded off – that new blend of creamer we are sending out today – how did that look?  Oh good, everything was fine?  Great – you know how first runs are, there is always something wrong , glad you were on the job to make sure it all went smoothly!

What the Bloom?

So husband and I take a trip to Holland to see the tulips last weekend….

The hundreds of thousands - no millions of tulips, in row after row of grand color in the fields – the beauty of which you’ve never seen before…

What, you don’t see them?  Look at the many colors, the beauty, the awe inspiring wonder of it all.  Yeah, husband’s with ya on that one – he doesn’t see it either.

It’s been so friggin cold this past winter they weren’t out, apparently they are still waiting for spring.  Some of the red ones were (as a rule they come out first) but beyond that we were looking at fields of lovely greenery. 

Oh, I should point out that the Holland we went to was on the west side of Michigan – not the actual Holland.  But don’t tell them that – they are very Hollandy – complete with giant imported windmills, Delftware (the actual stuff, made right there with permission from the real Delft in the Netherlands) and wooden shoes – also made right there.

It’s a lovely town and they have a two week festival to celebrate the millions of tulips grown and sold from there every year – and well this year – the tulips are growing, but we missed the show – by two weeks they estimate.  Long after their annual festival is over.

Our garden had more color – my tulips were out last week, even the pink and yellow ones – not just the red.  So here are pictures of my tulips, I guess the better show was in Detroit this year – see, we’re not all bad!

Just Too Cutesy Wootsie

Is anybody hungry for dinner winner?

I thinky winky that I might feel a bit like Takee Outee, how about youee wouee?

Are you hungry wungry?

It’s good to know you won’t have to drivey wivey, because it will come Wok to You, if you ask it nicey wicey.