Decorations

Well I got my xmas lights up today. Since I like to turn them on right after Tday and we won't be home that weekend and it was really nice today I got them up today. I had them on for a little bit this evening just to make sure the spacing was right and that I didn't have any burned out. Off they stay until we get back from the trip up north.

Chris helped me get the lights out of the attic and that was about it. He did help me get on the roof and got me a couple extra bulbs while I was up there - oh and he hung up the wreath at the peak of the garage after I put lights on it. Other than that - if I want lights up I put them up.

I had a couple neighbors ask if I would put thier lights up as well... nope I only do my house.

My things that are breaking

This weekend we lost both the dryer and the water heater. So that means nothing can get clean around here.

Never buy a Whirlpool Flame guard water heater. We are replacing the ignition element about ever 4 months at $22 a pop and the water heater is only 4 years old. We signed up to be part of the class action law suit against them and got a new heating unit assembly which was supposed to fix the problem and extend the life of the ingintion element. We put the new unit in and about 4 months later the thing breaks again. We are now to the point that we always have one on hand for times like this. We are ready to pitch this water heater and get a new one because of the agrivation. So Saturday after noon when the shower wouldn't heat up and I had been washing dishes with cold water I had chris look at the pilot light. It was out and would not re-light - so 1/2 and hour later he had the coil changed. Which made us late for an evening out with some friends.

As for the dryer the ingnition coil broke - burned clean thru so now its in 2 pieces. We bought the dryer used for $50 and its probably about 4 - 5 years old and I know the ignition coils don't last for ever due to the heat. Only problem is no one in town (who is reasonably close) has one so I'm going to need to order that online - should be here in a couple days. So no clean clothes until then unless I want to drag everything to the laundrymat (Chris might have to break down and do that as he is running out of work clothes).

So who else has had something break recently besides Zoe and I?

What my husband does for a living

Chris spent the better part of this last week in Erie PA taking a plane apart. Why was he taking a plane apart? Because the guy who owns it ran out of gas before he made it to the runway and crash landed. He walked away from the landing but did some serious damage to the plane. 1 wing is a total lose and the other has an interesting buldge to it so it may not be salvagable. The main body of the plane needs to have a complete inspection done to see if there is any damage to it. This a picture of one of the struts that has pierced a hole thru the bottom of the wing.

Since it was not flyable they had to put it on a trailer and tow it back to Indy. Its only about a 6 hour drive when you are not pulling a plane but more like 10 when you are.

They got up there Tuesday and started to take it apart. They continued the dismantle and building of the support structure for the trailer on Wed and loaded it on the trailer on Thurs. They took off this morning for the drive back.

You would think people had never seen a plane before based on the number of cars that drove by taking pictures of it. They almost had a pickup truck plow into the side of them because the driver was so busy taking pictures. Wonder how many pictures of it I'll find on the web later on this week?

Did you know?

That wet horses when its cold out sort of smell like a cross between wet dogs and cat pee? The combination of both smells can be pretty overwelhming.

And I had just been thinking she hadn't had a bath in a couple months unless she got rained on. Well now that its cold out she won't get a real bath until spring. As long as she stays dry she won't smell too bad till then.

Badgers won!!

We went to see the Badgers play the Hoosiers in football this weekend. Why couldn't it have been last weekend when it was still really nice and warm out? I think it maybe hit the low 40's, overcast and a breeze. I couldn't feel my toes by the end. I know, I know, it could have been raining, alot colder with alot more wind - if it was like that I would have watched back at the tail gaiting site and stayed inside where it was warm.

As for tail gaiting - Chris's cousin Paul (brother of Mary) knows everyone. So we ended up at Bob's garage right across from the stadium. And this is no ordinary garage - its only used for tail gaiting. They divided the garage in 2 - 1 half is the bar and food area, the other half is heated, with a bathroom, a couple couches and TV's so you can get warm. And they had 2 grills going. Lots of people and lots to eat. Only thing was they were wearing the wrong color red.....

The Pantry it in!!

This is part of what we have been working on this last week - getting the pantry completely in so it can be used.

The shell was installed a couple weeks ago and I thought great - I can start loading it. But due to the way the wheels were made, the weight of the food on them caused them to sag and rub thus being very very difficult to turn. So major re-construction needed to be done. We ended up using plate aluminum to support the shelves and a bit of creative construction and the lazy susans are back together, the doors are on and its loaded with food. Which means I can see the top of my dining room table again and most of the floor!!

There are still some things sitting on the floor that either have not found a new home or that need to go away (how many bread makers do we need??)

Because I now had a free shelf guess what got to come home from storage? My Grandma Seter's China. The box was packed in mid May of 1997, was opened once when I moved into the Lombard apartement and then has not been seen since.

I knew it had a silver rim but I could have sworn it was a blue patern - but thats okay - I really like it and Chris thinks its beautiful and is amazed no one else wanted it when we boxed it up.

The only casualty - 1 dinner plate cracked in half that was in the middle of the box. Other than that its all in 1 piece. So I officially have a setting for 11 now with some pieces that go to 16. Its got dinner plates, salad plates, bread plates and saucers for tiny tea cups (I have 16 of those). Large soup type bowls and then smaller bowls. A creamer and sugar holder, a gravey boat. A really large plater, a slightly smaller plater and 2 serving bowls.

I'm going to do a little bit of web surfing and see if I can find replacements for the missing pieces. I heard of a place a couple years ago (hope its still there) that collects odd pieces and china collections and you can search their inventory to replace pieces you have missing. If I find it I'll let everyone know about it (Good way to get rid of china you don't want or have too much of)

Long time no Blog / Halloween

Its been a very very busy last 2 weeks so I've not have much free time to do anything but work, sleep and orchestra (have I mentioned I hate concert weeks?).

So I have a closet Halloween lover living with me. He has been planning for weeks on what he wanted to do to scare the kid that come by and this is what he came up with.

Since I wasn't home for the night I had Mary, Amy and Von come over to keep him in line. But I guess he was still chasing the kids around the block.

From what I heard there were a couple kids not scared of him at all.

But then he did manage to scare Jeff (neighbor at the top of the street and who he works with) pretty bad.

I guess compared to last year we only got about 1/3 of the kids we did then. I'm thinking that because it was a Friday night they were all at partys and such they were throwing around town.

Give a man power tools and what does he do with them? Carve pumkins - he really wanted to go after one with a chain saw but the really big ones were way tooo expensive.

This one is mine - I was going for the evil orge look. I drew it out and Chris carved it for me (using his power tools of course).