Massive Missive

So much for resolutions...this past extended weekend was nuts. John and I had house guests in and out beginning late Wednesday night and extending through Monday night. I could make one of those schedule graphs of the ins and outs but it would only make your head spin. It wasn't just one group coming and staying for that length of time...it was various configurations of very different guests ebbing and flowing through the days and nights.

So...no posting. Not much walking, but lots of activity.

To note: TEETH. Yes, there is a God and He has granted a small reprieve in the teething department. One sharp little pearl popped up Friday, the next was visible by Saturday. Maia doesn't like to show off her new possessions. The grandmas were kind of disappointed in the lack of visual confirmation. But mama is happy 'cause I get to make her crinkle-nose laugh with her tongue up and see those specks of hard-earned white.

John spent the weekend putting in our new dishwasher. It's a beaut. All stainless and shiny. It should have taken an afternoon, including putting in the new water filtration system, but it took two days of hard labor. Bless the previous owner of our house, Contractor Steve, as he decided to install new cabinets and the old dishwasher THEN redo the floors. He added an inch and a half of floor height. This translates to the old dishwasher being literally stuck in its hole. John had to take a saws-all and a circular saw and cut the dang thing in half to get it out. Oy. Our back yard looks very po' white trash at this moment with scattered mangled pieces of dishwasher strewn about. The plan is to chop it up into little bitty scraps and slowly get rid of it in our city garbage can. Instead of paying the high dump fees to get it gone in one fell swoop. I kind of like the sneaky way, you know? We got rid of about a ton of concrete rubble in this manner a couple of years back. Not to mention all the scrap from the summer roofing project.

I'll link to pictures of the destruction after he posts them.

You know your in a new, dare I say Adult, phase of life when these new appliance additions excite you. The last time I got this worked up in love with machinery was when we upgraded the clothes washer. The dishwasher is even better. Last night we got to run it for the first time and I wanted to see how well it actually worked. So, lasagna for dinner. Dinner guests. Six cheesy plates. One saucy cheesy lasagna pan. Oatmeal bowls from breakfast with dried on oatmeal starch. Serving spoons with only the merest splash of rinse water applied to them. All in the dishwasher. Soap. Run. Wait and see.

Opened it up this morning and was floored. Everything was spotless and shiny. The glass lasagna pan sparkled. The silverware gleamed. The oatmeal bowls shone. I swooned. You have to understand that the old washer was a complete POS. I had to scrub dishes before putting them in. With our hard water, we would have to pour in about a cup of vinegar in the middle of each cycle in order to avoid a nasty chalky film coating everything. For the past three weeks I’ve been so fed up, I’ve simply been washing dishes by hand. And let me share a little secret with you…I hate washing dishes. I used to cry when my mom made me do them. I avoid them like plague. I would rather do any other nasty, dirty, chore in the house to not do dishes. And yet, there I was at the end of my rope, washing dishes to avoid the even worse prospect of rewashing dishes.

Come to think of it, I’m kind of glad that crap-trap is in pieces all over the back lawn…and I might be an appliance geek. Lord help you if I begin on the Italian range John and I saw on Monday...rrrrraaaawwwwrrrr.

At this moment, yes, this very 10 PM moment, John is putting the new entertainment unit in place and re-hooking all the cables and boxes, with their little glowing lights, together. Sunday before last, Maia began reaching for one very important glowing light, the on off switch for the box that serves as our total entertainment (plus Internet) brain/hub. It just happens to be at a crawling-poke-my-finger-into-everything level. She missed, because she can’t actually crawl yet, but she then took a small header into the corner of the box. An hour later, we were at IKEA looking for a new TV stand with doors.

It’s nice. It’s dark which matches the new ceiling fans (Home Depot) and new side table (also from IKEA). But it doesn’t match the old coffee table. That table is slated to be replaced by an ottoman soon. So we’re updating the whole living room in order to baby safe it. Oh well. Had to happen sooner or later. If John’s not careful, I’m going to have the new couch delivered while he’s a work…

Harvey is doing well. We are still in love with him and at least two house guests threatened to take him home with them. That's two more than threatened to take Maia home. Hmmm.

We're trying to change Maia's schedule, and I'm trying to get more sleep so I'm going to wrap this up. Sorry for the poetic waxing on mechanical things and living arrangements...I'll find some keen insights on the human condition for next time.