Category: Life

Day 1

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Spent the first day of our four day weekend sleeping until 8:30. Then we went back to the store we visited a few weeks ago and bought this tile for our foyer/guest bath renovation.

Tile

I got a coupon earlier in the week for 10% off the entire purchase so it was perfect timing. I’m really looking forward to updating our place.

We also hit the produce market, library, Sears Optical, and Petsmart.

Sears Optical is on my list at the moment. I really like the doctor but his staff, while nice, leave something to be desired. First they weren’t able to order my lenses while I was there on Monday and told me they’d call me back the next day. I never heard from them so finally I called them yesterday and was told they needed Joe’s SS#. I don’t know it by heart and he was unavailable, so I told them I’d call them back. Instead, we just headed over there today and proceeded to wait around fifteen minutes because there was one person working there who told us she’d be with us after the person who was in front of us in line. In the meantime, another worker came in and instead of asking her colleague who was next, proceeded to take care of everyone else who had come in AFTER us until I approached the counter again to make her pay attention to us (and this was the second time she pulled this crap as she did the same thing earlier in the week when Joe was picking up his contacts).

We were so aggravated at this point that we just asked for the prescription. I’m going to order my lenses from 1-800-Contacts and just get reimbursed from the insurance. My contacts will be delivered to my home so I don’t have to go back to Sears and wait forever for them to take care of me once more.

And these brick and mortar stores wonder why their business is suffering?

Monday’s Tweets

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* 18:42 Throwing a cigarette out your car window still constitutes littering. Just thought you needed some reminding, smokers.

* 18:46 Trying out our new rice cooker.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

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Interestingly enough, after my rice cooker tweet, Aroma Housewares started following me on Twitter. How did they know that was the brand I bought? Oooo Big Brother!

The rice cooker is great, by the way. I can cook many things, but rice is not one of them, so this purchase was definitely worth it. On sale @ Target for only $30.

Leakage

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Last night, as we were getting ready to go to bed, Joe was making sure all the doors were locked like he always does when he discovered water all over the laundry room floor. It was like our own mini flood. Apparently something in the water heater burst. It wasn’t that way when I got home from work – I pass through the laundry room coming in from the garage – so it happened sometime while we were home but we didn’t hear anything.

Luckily my boss is laid back and didn’t have a problem with me working from home today while waiting for a plumber since Joe had important things to cover at work.

$1100 to replace the water heater (it was 11 years old so it was due). Can you believe it? The equipment itself is worth $400 – it’s the labor that costs so much. At least the plumber was a good one – very courteous and knowledgeable. It’s always my fear when hiring someone that they are going to be incompetent, rude, or both. He was neither.

If we were living in our “forever home”, I’d totally get one of those tankless water heaters. They are more expensive initially, but they are more energy efficient and have a much longer warranty. Plus if you get a higher capacity model, two people can take a nice hot shower simultaneously. That would be nice on the weekends we have the kids and four people are trying to get ready to go on an outing.

I’m just happy to be able to take a shower again! One morning without one and I already felt disgusting.

Yay or Nay

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I called in sick today because my stomach has been doing flip-flops ever since yesterday afternoon. I don’t think it is food poisoning since I’ve only eaten my own food which Joe has also eaten and he’s fine. Perhaps it’s a stomach bug? Or can iodine give you issues? I had a CAT scan with contrast on Friday. Would it take that long? I drank plenty of water as advised.

In any case, I “slept” until 9:30-ish this morning when my director called to check on me since apparently my boss had called in sick and no one was sure if I had as well. I’m sure I will have a heck of a time sleeping tonight now, but my stomach wasn’t allowing me to sleep well last night either so I was exhausted. Getting up every few hours to…. well, you know, isn’t fun.

So that would be a nay for the stomach issues.

But here is a yay: Scrubs returns on January 6th, but on ABC. I’m not sure if this is the final season, but if so, at least we should get some closure.

Nay: The State DVD set still has no release date. I really can’t wait for it; I just hope it’s as funny as I remember.

Huh?: These are the best albums of 2008? Well, either I have poor taste, or this magazine doesn’t have a clue.

Nay: Pownce is no more as of December 15th. It’s too bad, because although I didn’t use it much (because friends weren’t on it), I did like the concept.

Flicka Flicka Flicka

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Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillar

I had such a busy work week that I didn’t have time to make specific plans for the weekend like I typically do, so we got a late start yesterday. For one, we slept until 9:30 am. Secondly, getting my husband to come up with ideas of things to do is like pulling teeth! After me insisting he come up with something, he suggested we check out this one grocery store way out in Plainfield because their Indiana store usually has the Butterball turkey polish kielbasa we can’t find anywhere else. I gave them a call first to check whether they had any in stock and once they confirmed they did, we poked around online to see if there was anything nature related out that way worth visiting.

Will County’s forest preserve website isn’t as easy to navigate as DuPage County’s site, but Joe managed to find Lake Renwick forest preserve which has a rookery where five species of birds, one of which is state endangered, nest together. It’s closed during the breeding season and yesterday was the first day it was available to the public. Unfortunately, without a better zoom lens, we just couldn’t get any good photos of the birds. We did come across some crazy looking caterpillars, however. I learned online that they are Milkweed Tussock moth caterpillars, to be exact.

After walking around about an hour, we were sweating to death so we went to the grocery store and got our beloved turkey sausage. Now we don’t have to rely on my mom to buy it from Indiana anymore. Yippee!

Today we got up a bit earlier and ran some errands. One of our stops was Walmart where we bought a couple of those reusable bags that I’ve seen a lot of people carting around. The plastic bags are out of control! It’s too bad Target’s reusable bags are so crappy. I’d much rather use a bag that says Target than one that says Walmart but the Walmart ones are sturdier and better designed, so what can you do?

Once we got home, Joe washed both vehicles while I cleaned the kitchen and dining room. He’s going to clean the rest of the house tomorrow before picking up the kids. We have them Monday-Sunday and Joe is off all week while I’ll be working Monday and Tuesday. Then it’s off to Wisconsin Dells for a few days.