Houston, We have a Problem!

I am a consultant - which either has me working from home or working from my current client site during the week.  I have been lucky that I have not had to travel since I bought my house - as it makes settling in much easier.

Last week was like most any other week.  During many days, I will host conference calls and lead WebEx meetings for hours at a time.  Wednesday was no different.  I had ended a call a few minutes early, and I heard something.  It sounded like air or heat was on full force, except nothing was on.  So quickly walked around the house and everything seemed fine - but I knew it wasn't.  I walked outside to make sure the facet wasn't on - still nothing.

Then, I walk around to my crawl space.  Water was seeping out from under the door - and when I opened it - it was several inches deep already.  I freaked out.  I was suppose to be leading a meeting for 2 hours - but I could not let my house sail away on the rising flood waters under my house.

I knew I need to cut the water off, but I didn't know where the shut off was.  I called a plumber that had serviced the house before - he was across town.  So, I had Tim go under the house while I tried to turn it off at the road.  After wading through my snake-invested waterlogged crawl space, Tim was able to find the valve and turn it off.

Okay - so my house was not gushing water, it actually didn't have any water.  My dad thought he could probably fix the problem - but he was traveling out of state.  So, I could try to find a plumber - or wait until 2 days without water.  Plumbers are very expensive - so I opted for the wait.

I survived with some gallons of  fresh water and the rainwater from my rain-barrel.  (If you don't have a rain-barrel, I highly recommend getting one.)  Friday, Dad shows up and has everything fixed in under an hour.  The problem?  The connector of 2 pipes broke off.  So now, my pipes are reconnected, my crawl space is all dried up, I got a lesson on how to turn off the water at my house and road, and I didn't have to pay an expensive plumber - thanks to the best dad in the world!

I am Suzy Homemaker - hear my broken pipes gush!

All the Rage in Christmas Decorating

As this will be my first Christmas in my new house - so I wanted to do it right. I was shocked to see Christmas stuff go up as soon as Halloween cleared out - maybe I shouldn't be as commercial as all holidays have become.  As soon as I put away my skeletons and pumpkins, I started researching different Christmas tree themes since I would be starting from scratch.

While I grew up with a traditional tree filled with decorations made and bought over many years, I really had a desire to do something different.   I started with lights - I decided that I would invest in LED.  They have “Cool White” – which is more blue than the “Warm White” which is more yellow.  I immediately loved the LED Cool White lights.  Going with white would allow me to change around ornaments, but not have to reinvest in lights.  So, I got 2 boxes – thinking that I would have a smaller tree and that would be good.

Then, I moved to ornaments.  Almost immediately, I found a set of ornaments and I had my theme - red, lime, blue, and purple/pink.  I have stars, bulbs, onion-shaped, balls and snow flakes - all in the themed colors.   

Okay, lights and ornaments, check; now onto the tree.   I knew right off that I wanted a live tree - preferably one that I cut down myself.  So I ordered this really awesome stand that holds the tree up with a cable – you just set the tree in the base and then use the foot pump to tighten the cable.  One person set up – the base is all hard plastic – so no metal feet to scratch my hardwoods!

Unfortunately, with a full holiday schedule, the dream of cutting my own tree died - especially since you have to go OTP to find a tree farm.  I settled for a pre-cut one.  Once it was home and in the stand – I knew exactly why my mother used an artificial tree.  This tree is definitely not straight, has random holes, and sheds worse than my cats.  On the bright side, it is no Charlie Brown tree and it smells nice.

After waiting a day for the limbs to relax into place, I put on my Christmas music and started decorating.  I got nearly ½ way up the tree and ran out of lights.  Typical.  So I run to Target to get 3 more boxes.  Only they don’t have ANY – and I mean ANY white lights.  Typical.  So I go next door to Lowe’s – they do not have ANY white lights either.  Great. 

I go home.  I go online – this is why you have free next day shipping – right?  Can’t find any Cool White LED lights online either.  Are you kidding me, all of the internet doesn’t have lights for me?  LED White lights must be the new black.

Target said that they had a “limited” stock of them at a store across town – so I risked it.  The very nice stock boy helped me go through every box – we found 2 pre-opened boxes stuffed in the wrong place.  I took them and told myself that I would make due.

Reading back over this I realize that I have not expressed this hunt for LED lights as I truly experienced it – but then as I think of ways to covey it – my blood pressure rises.  I will keep it PG and say that I have learned my lesson at Christmas shopping and smile because hopefully I will not need lights for many years. 

My New Addition!

It seems that EVERYONE is expecting new additions (babies) right now (I swear I have at least 10 friends who are expecting now - and that doesn't even count how many friends have recently had kids).  For any reader who does not know me well, let me tell you - that is not the plans for me in the immediate future.

Besides not being married, my career is not exactly in a place where I could have kids.  Actually, for the longest time, I was not even in a position to have a pet fish.  But recently, with a new house and a boyfriend that has time... things have changed.

So... last weekend I adopted 2 cats from Fur Kids (a large no kill shelter).  I would love to have a huge dog - but that would require a bit more time and effort than I can offer.  And 2 cats are better than 1 - as they can play with each other.

Now, about the cats, 2 brothers - Gizmo and Gremlin - about 18 months old and HUGE.  Both are still skiddish and getting used to being in the house - I am not sure if they have ever lived in a house before.  I have found that they like watching tv, sleeping all day, and partying all night - not far from many people I know. 

Almost every night I wake up to them running from one end of the house to the other - I call them thunder cats because it is so loud.  Sometimes they like to wake me up by jumping up on the bed - usually right on my head. Then during the day - when they could be up - they just lay around.  I should have expected no less. 

These cats hit the jackpot - from shelter to ruling the house - they have hit easy street.  Here is how I find them most of the time (when they are not causing chaos at night):

 Things are starting to feel like a home around here.

Cold Blooded Snakes!

Fall is a time for cooler weather - which is always a nice break from the scorching summers we have here in the South.  With the cooler weather, I always personally look forward all of the bugs, mosquitoes, and snakes heading south or underground or dying - whatever they do in the winter, good riddance. 

With the changing of the weather, the leaves were beautiful this year - but resulted in about million dead leaves to clean up.  I can't complain really, I love the fact that I have trees (even though I think many of the leaves come from my neighbors - but I am sure my trees are just as friendly and share back).

So this weekend, I headed out to do another round of cleanup - before the rain was suppose to come in.  The first rake-ful of leaves I pull back - what happens?  Oh, that is right, a snake jets out from the leaves.  At this point, I really believe I have a snake infestation on my property somewhere.

I kept raking the snake back into the street until Tim was able to find a stone and drop it on the snake's head to kill it.  So it wasn't big - but it was a snake - and it is now dead.  Whatever happened to snakes avoiding the cooler weather?  It makes you think twice before picking up leaves with your hands.

Beware snakes - I am Suzy Homemaker!

PS - The rake in the picture - is amazing - it cuts your raking time down.  I can do my entire back yard in under 30 minutes.  Now bagging leaves - I will have to get back to you on a time saver once I find a good one!