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Another one of my infamous disappearing acts and here I am again!
What have we been doing? Working and planning and hanging out with the family. Things are going great. Progress is being made. Reality has put the whip to me.
To date, there are now 21 recessed light fixtures in place on the main floor, 22 if you count the one eyeball recessed fixture put up to accent some artwork I'm currently working on to hang above the gas space heater. Nearly all of the electrical boxes are nailed in place with the exception of what will be behind the counter in the kitchen we'll be putting in.
Two built in shelves have been constructed in the master bedroom for the DVD/VHS Home Theater stuff we'll buy when we are closer to moving in there. And, M has been smirking at me because I built a high corner shelf in the bathroom for cable TV. Hell, I figure since we plan to have a whirlpool tub in there, it might become my favorite room. Not that I watch much TV because I really don't, but.... if I want to it'll be there.
I've got all of the coax for the cable TV/modem run on the main floor. It runs to a distribution box in the walk-in closet off the master bedroom. When I get the main line installed, it will run to that point and be amplified and sent out to the runs. This summer I'll bring the main in from the house. The cable will be buried in the courtyard and put into the basement via a conduit run. I've also begun to run category 5e cable for the computer networking router and, it also runs to the distribution box in the closet. Soon, I hope to get the hardwired telephone line run to the distribution box as well. There it will be connected to a junction box and we'll be able to run 4 hardwired runs from there. It's easier to have all of this stuff centrally located, should a problem come up down the road.
I've yet to get the wiring plan down on paper. I need something in hand before I meet with the electrician. Then, we can talk about bringing the power in. I'm thinking now that this will end up being more involved than I thought just because of the power demand of the addition. I would be quite surprised to see that the electrical drop we established in the courtyard for the spa will be enough to power all of this. My guess is that we may have to run another service entrance to meet the increased demand, along with a sub-panel or two. We shall see. But, I have a suspicion that this will cost us. OK. So, I am tenatively ready for increased cost number one.
Apparently, this summer will be a busy one. Hopefully we can get the electrical completed, get natural gas and water service to the building and, have the furnace and central air in before the snow flies. If the universe smiles down upon us, we will have the rooms in the basement partitioned and, the insulation in on the main floor by the time the snow flies. Is it possible? Hmmmm..... I think so. Is it probable? At this point, I really don't know. I am hopeful.
If things move along as they have, it is quite possible. Up to now, things have moved along quite well. Not too many major problems - if you don't count the weather when construction began. That ice storm cost us some additional work - belt sanding down all of the swollen floor sheathing seams. Hey.... worse things could have happened. Don't ask what. I don't even want to go down that long road.
Dave the builder has only has a few little things left to do here. Hopefully, he'll be done later this week. He could have been done earlier but, to us.... there was no huge hurry on him busting ass here when he had other jobs starting and the weather was right. Building a few more houses for people who are a hell of a lot more bitchy and demanding than we are. Go for it Dave. Appease the people on his ass and finish this up when you can. Therefore, Dave has been intermittently showing up on Saturdays and a few Sundays and some days during the week after 6. No doubt he appreciates the fact that not all of his clients are chomping at the bit. And, we are more than happy with what has been done. Him hurrying would have got him his final payment faster, but..... hey.... it's money in the bank.
During his intermittent trips back he has been doing some caulking, trimmed the basement windows in aluminum, put up outside light and electrical boxes, backfilled the trenches, filled in some ruts the trucks made and landscape raked the backfill. Tomorrow gutters should be installed. Then, we'll give it the once-over and note anything that needs his attention and let him know by the end of the week. I doubt if there is anything that will be a problem at this point. And, if we have any issues down the line, I can always call him.
Hopefully, he'll soon give us an estimate on the two decks we need on the courtyard side and the read of the new structure. Of course, I could build them myself.... BUT.... if I don't have to.... that would be great because there is plenty to do.
Since the main floor sits so high from grade, and we have two sliding windows on each end of the building, we have to have a deck built on two sides. On the north end, we'll have a 10 x 10 deck. We don't expect to be sitting out on this deck much, since it is on the shady side, but.... I can see having a cup of coffee out there in the morning and listening to the birds sing. On the courtyard side, we are limited to having the deck 8' out and 14 feet in length along the back of the wall. The size limitation is due to windows on the structure, and that's fine by us since the idea there was to enlarge the courtyard, not to have a honking huge deck.
M's health has been fine since she recovered from the pneumonia. She has had one asthma attack in the last few weeks due to eating something that contained soy. She is highly allergic to soy and you really have to watch it because that stuff is in everything. So, we have to be label conscious consumers. Watch out for soy and MSG.
Prior to meeting M, I never looked at a label once, let alone twice. I am not allergic to anything. And, I am fortunate that I don't get sick often. I haven't been truly sick in a few years now. Not even a nasty ass cold. Knock on oak.
So, there you have it. My hurried attempt to halt the pile of, "what in the hell has happened to you?" emails.
I'm doing fine. Really I am. Just busy. I will have to make room for this. Just so you don't worry about me.
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Damn.
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Is hanging around M rubbing off?
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Ain't I thoughtful?
Happy Mother's Day!
On an entirely unrelated note:
You may not know this BUT..... I absolutely adore bizarre comedian Judy Tenuta!!!!
Welllllll..... my equally adorable friend Stacy Bias..... web diva over at Technodyke.com was interviewed early Thursday morning on OutQ, a satellite radio station for queers.... and, a bit later..... Judy Tenuta was interviewed and she signed her autograph and attached her chewed gum to it on the air and gave it to a friend of Stacy's - Danger Dyke..... AND < drum roll > she is giving it to Stacy and then it's gonna be MINE.
I expect to put some long nights in on my Judy shrine.
ROFLMAO!
OH..... and, for a laugh.... check out this thread on the technodyke forums.
::: skipping away singing: I'm gettin' Judy's gum..... LOL :::
Where do I begin? Seems I've got some catching up to do. Again.
Last week, on Sunday night, M awoke with chest pains. She had pains shooting down one arm and said she felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest. All of this fun began about 3 in the morning. I was sleeping like a rock and didn't budge from my catatonic sleep until about an hour and a half later. So much for the attentive partner, eh? Unfortunately, the ability to sleep like I am basically dead to the world is an insomniac trait. You don't generally sleep well, but.... when you do you are completely out of it. I swear, if M was feeling ambitious, she could change my clothes and I wouldn't wake up. But.... let's not give her any ideas.
When I finally woke up feeling predominately groggy, I recall her telling me her symptoms and immediately snapping into reality. My first thought.... she's having a damn heart attack and I need to call 911. She refused that idea. Spanked it right down. No way was I to call an ambulance. OK then..... so your stubborn streak may kill you. But then, look who is thinking that. I am equally stubborn. Therefore I have no right to voice that opinion and barely a right to think such a thing. Thinking it was as far as that got.
So.... we lay in the bed. M's tortured expression aggrieved me. It ushered in the early morning agitated state. Again mentioned calling 911 and was once again shot down. Nope. Nothing doing. No ride to the hospital for her. She didn't want to ride in an ambulance. The sirens would scare the kids. But, I could ask them to come without sirens blaring. No frickin' way.
The kids catch the bus. Should I take you to the hospital? Nope. Lets go to the urgent care clinic. OK. So we did.
And..... from the walk in medical center, they took her by ambulance to the hospital.
Mostly, they did it as a precautionary measure due to her described symptoms. And, the fact that they gave her nitroglycerin and she felt good..... perhaps "good" isn't the right word. But, at least better anyway.
I arrived at the hospital before the ambulance. I felt a uptight, but didn't actually flip into full panic mode. Amazing actually. The peak stress was upon waking. The initial stress alone took a few hours off my life.
After finding a parking spot a block away, I walked into the emergency waiting room and stood there waiting for a person to appear at the sign in office window. There were 2 desks. The computers were on, papers disheveled on the flat surfaces and not a soul in sight. After about 7 minutes a woman appears. "Can I help you?," she asked through pursed, nearing retirement lips. Not a spot of emotion on her face. You felt as though you were bothering her. I ask to see M. "Just a minute," she said in the terse tone, as she flipped around and headed out of the room again. A curt twist around the corner and she's back in less that a minute. Cranky ass bitch. Makes you happy to know that out of society's sullied gene pool this cranko didn't make it into your family tree. Surprising really.
She walks straight back to the window before me. "She hasn't arrived yet," she says stone-faced. "Who are you?" she asks impolitely.
Who am I? Good question. Like how about an impromptu lowdown on my personality. How would I do that? Do we have all day? I hate that question. Who in the hell is she? Did she flunk public relations? Does she not feel well? Or, is it a requirement to be a cold bitch in the Emergency waiting room? What the fuck is it to her who I am. What a ridiculous question. And said with such disdain. Yet you could tell that she had the demeanor down to an art form. How to lose friends and alienate people. She should work alone in a cold room.
"Who are you?"
I am her girlfriend.
A double take with the first direct eye contact told me she could take that a few ways. I smirked. She open the door and said, "good..... I'd like to get some information from you," and pointed me to a chair near the desk. Then.... some other disheveled and discourteous woman entered the room by practically flying around the corner. She had a couple in tow. "NO.... you must take them FIRST. They were here FIRST." Nobody even looked at me. I got up and exited the door on my own accord. What the fuck ever. Damn. You two ought to be real riot to be working together. Piss on world peace. Those two alone can knock out all chances for THAT ever.
At last, the cut-in-front-of-me couple was gone. She beckoned me with her claw to return to the room. I supplied her name and the date of her last visit here, and she had her records. Then she got up and said, "I'll take you to her." All of which consisted of less than 20 steps and a point of the claw. "Thank you," I mutter. Only because I am already having a not so great day and didn't feel it necessary to counterattack the cranky woman.... she was already in enough pain just being herself. No need for me to add to it. She was doing a fine job.
In the emergency room, M is hooked up to an IV and various monitors. I sit in a chair near the foot of the bed as people come in and out of the room. There is just enough room between me and the bed for people to do a sideways thing when they cross in front of me, thus my seeing various asses flying past my face to reach the other side of the bed where the monitoring equipment was. To my right was a stainless steel sink with an auto sensor faucet that would turn on whenever tried to use the sink edge as an elbow rest. Or, if I moved a certain way. The damn sink scared me a few times.
They needed to take blood. They couldn't get it. Apparently her "good" arm was in use with the IV. The bad arm had small veins that were hard to tap into. A few people passed off trying to draw blood from her by simply looking at her veins. Finally, someone brave enough to try. Someone with a reputation for tapping the "tough ones." And so she did. But she hit it with a tiny needle that took forever to draw the blood out. Then, when she got it, there wasn't enough to do the tests so she had to come a get some more. "We're just a few drops shy," she said, as she dug into her other arm. Nothing doing there. Back to the same arm. Poke, poke , poke. Finally, got it.
M had bad veins. Not only that, but the doc said she had to spend the night to meet with the cardiologist. Those bad veins were tapped every 4 hours from that point on. Severe punishment.
As you might guess, she was less than thrilled with having to spend the night in the hospital, but.... again, this was a precautionary measure. If she had something up with her heart then she was where she should be. It's better to be safe. Err on the side of caution. Don't worry M. I'll take care of the boys. Everything will be fine.
The boys knew she was in the hospital within minutes of getting home. They needed to do some tests and she was spending the night, I told them. They reacted better than I thought. "Oh, she is?" Then, "is she going to call?" Of course she'll call. But, in the meantime I made them hamburgers and gave them chocolate cake for dinner. LOL.... something M would NEVER had allowed or agreed with. But, it was a special night and I didn't want them to worry. Then, they played Nintendo until they resembled zombies and it was time for bed. See. They were doing fine. Distraction techniques come in damn handy.
It was strange being here without M. But, I wasn't panicking like I had in the not so recent past. I couldn't. There is no way that would have been good for the kids. It was held in check entirely around them. Everything would be OK. We all made it through the night.
Turns out the "heart" incident was asthma pain coupled with residual pneumonia/severe bronchitis. Whew. A relief that she didn't have a heart attack or anything. But damn..... all of this excitement might have killed me.
Her Doctor ordered her off work for a week. And so it was. Today was her first day back to work. She's feeling much better but is still tired. Just a relapse. Backsliding health.
It's always something.
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When a few days in consecutive order go by without anything notable or semi-eventful happening, I always check my pulse.
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Still here.
wonder no more why I haven't been posting much here.....
Strange.
Type "madhandymaam" into the search engine at MSN and number 15 comes up as this:
Motel 6 Reservations
Offers information about Motel 6 locations around the country and allows users
to make reservations online
www.motel-6-reservations.com/cheap-motel.asp
Thanks for pointing that out.
No.... I have never stayed there.
We have spent the holiday weekend hanging around the house doing some work and having a little fun. The kids have developed colds and wouldn't ya know it, M got it as well. Arrgh. Somehow, I escaped it.
We managed to spend 3,000+ bucks from the comfort of our home over the weekend. Thanks to the internet we are able to spend at an accelerated rate. BUT.... we've also been able to save considerably. This should work out totally to our advantage. Free shipping and an additional 9% in savings for the Memorial holiday. For a bit more than 3 grand we were able to purchase nearly everything we need for the master bathroom including a whirlpool tub, an astracast sink and faucet for the kitchen, a new hammock and an outdoor fountain we may end up using indoors. This all started when I spied a pedestal sink for the bathroom that was slightly different from anything I've seen up to now. Sometimes I'm damn fussy. Yet I am laughing because we also bought some coordinating accessories from the collection. THAT is sooooooooo unlike me. But before I could say "cheap aftermarket accessories," I hit the send button and laughed.
A good part of Sunday was spent working in the addition. Just as I had drawn an electrical schematic for the main floor days before, I ended up adding more electrical boxes for various things, now I'll have to go back and revise that. What now? Another hard wired telephone in the kitchen, switches for the bathroom lights and fan, pendant lights for the bar, a box for the hanging light over the table and a few more I can't specifically recall.
The bathroom layout has been altered and, finally.... I believe we have something that'll stick. The nice thing about ordering all of the bath fixtures off the net is that we could go to the manufacturers page and download all of the installation specifications. Sweet.
In the midst of the day yesterday, I managed to drink a few beers and sit in the spa with M in the light of day. Most unusual since we generally visit the spa in the evening after the kids are in bed. But, the sunshine lured us.
Looks like I have to cut the grass before the day is over. The sun seems to be playing hide and go seek - I probably should have cut the grass yesterday. There are weeds to kill and grass seed to cast. Raking and shoveling more dirt would be good - after grass cutting. Possibly burning the stick pile. If it doesn't rain. But that is debatable. Looking up at the skylights from here all I see is gray.
WAIT A MINUTE!!!!
There was one huge highlight that occurred over
the weekend. My cheeks hurt from laughing. Stacy Bias, the queen bee of technodyke.com
sang me a song - a parody of Dancing Queen by Abba....
Here's the song and this is what she said about it:
roflmao...... LOL! OMG - I can't believe I did this, and I can't believe even more that I'm posting it, but you gotta know I love ya' Mad. Here's to the totally wacky weekend ahead. I sound like SHIT lol -- and I meant to. LOL
http://www.technodyke.com/users/handyqueen.mp3
(this is so going to come back and haunt me.....)
THAT has got to be the most hilarious
thing I have heard since I don't know when. It was a spawn of this
thread on the boards.
Now I can't get the song outta mah head! <
neither can the kids >
LMAO!!!
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