Cowabunga Dude

Nathan is FIVE!! Can you believe it? I can't.



We had a fairly large party at the house. Invited twin boys who we've known since swim lessons when we first moved here, and who are in Nathan's Pre-K class. And Sunny and Mimi who we've been friends with for awhile. Plus a girl from daycare and skating who shares Nathan's b-day, and whose party we went to on Saturday. We also ran into his girlfriend from Canton, and decided to invite her too, even though we seldom see her anymore. Her Mom was a font on knowledge on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lore, so that was a bonus.


All total, that means there were 8 kids between the ages of 2 1/2 and five running around. Two other parents never RSVP'd, so I was prepared for having 10 kids. They were actually very well behaved, so well behaved that I was afraid they weren't having fun. Especially when they all sat quietly around the table eating the fruit and veggie platters that Dan made. But there was enough chaos during the pinata to make up for everything (and no, they didn't bean anyone with a bat, you can get pull-string pinatas now).



I love the party dresses that all the girls had on, I'll have to get a cute one for Claire's birthday.

glug, glug, glug

Yay me, I fixed the exterior pipe on the sump pump. But I must have been a little rough with it, and twisted the pipe too much, because I think I'm responsible for breaking the pipe in the cellar.

The water is no longer gushing out of the side of the house and puddling against the exterior foundation. It is now gushing out of a broken pipe and spraying against the interior foundation in the basement. Sigh. This is a job for a plumber, because there is no way I'd be able to do the repair in time to stop the water from backing up too far. I unplugged it for about two minutes and the water level rose considerably. I really wish I knew where this spring was so I could dam the damn thing up. Although I do have really soft hair since we moved.

Our own Niagara Falls

Pretty, isn't it? Too bad it's not supposed to be doing that.

The white pipe is from our sump pump, which keeps the water from the spring in front of the house from turning our basement into a swimming pool. This pump has been going 24/7 since we started getting snows and thaws. Whoever ran the pipes for it did a pretty poor job. When we moved in, a section of pipe had broken and eroded all the dirt above and around it. And last week we saw that another section had broken about a foot away from the first break and was creating another mini-lake in the yard. So I was already planning on ripping the whole thing up to dig a deeper trench that would be more frost resistant.

This ice show just happened today I think. The coupling broke, and the water coming down from the house is hitting the broken pipe and spraying all over the place. I don't want to think about how much of the water is just leaking back into the basement. Although the basement could probably benefit from a good flood, if the furnace and hot water heater weren't down there. Some more pictures to give you a full view of what you get when you buy a hundred year old house.

This is the hole where the sump pump is. I have no idea how deep that hole is, I only know that it is currently filled to the top with water. Where the water is coming from is also a mystery. There is a gravel filled ditch that runs the length of the basement, and I think that any leaking water from the walls is supposed to be channeled from there into the sump pump hole, but I really don't know if that's what is happening.

The reason I don't know is that I try to spend as little time as possible down here. Even at my height, I hit my head on the ducts. And those are the stairs on the left. The steps are only about half the width I'm used to, so you have to watch every step coming down.

But I do think this is pretty cool. The wood beams that support our house, that were put in place a hundred years ago, still have bark on them.

All gone

This was last Saturday, when the kids and I had a grand time building a fort and playing in the snow.

On Sunday, Dan got into the act and made the gigantic snowball pictured here.


Alas, by Monday night it was all gone. Truly. Every bit of snow on the lawn is melted, and all that remains is the icy, dirty piles that line the roads where the plows have gone by, and they're on their last legs too. Today, the ground was dry enough that we could go out and pick up the tree limbs and shingles that came loose during a crazy windstorm last week. You'd think it was spring, we were even up in the high 50's one day.

Meanwhile, everyone is reminiscing about the ten year anniversary of an ice storm that knocked out power for days, even weeks in some areas. Shame that it happed just two weeks after Dan and I moved to Georgia. Look at the fun we missed.

Screw the Networks

Now that our T.V. viewing habits are completely messed up by the strike, I've taken to watching lots of TV on DVD. Although now I'm getting confused about whether watching DVD's is supporting the writers or not. They get residuals, but apparently they're pretty minuscule. I'm know I shouldn't watch reality T.V, Leno or internet downloads, but after that things get iffy.

Anyway, here's a few reviews to cheer up your darkened T.V.....


Kitchen Confidential - I don't know why Fox pulled this after only four episodes. It's crass, sexist, violent - you'd think it'd be an instant hit. Maybe the "gourmet food" angle turned people off. Personally, I just had trouble trying to believe that Will from Alias could be anything like Anthony Bourdain. I read Kitchen Confidential a few years ago, and it was almost enough to make me want Dan to change careers. Dan and I have been watching a few episodes each night since he got it for Christmas, and it's really funny. Especially the bits where they torture the intern. Although I worry that it's giving Dan ideas. And after he shares it around work, I'll really worry about anyone who comes unprepared into that kitchen. They've been known to send fellow employees out looking for ingredients that don't exist.


Odyssey 5 - This was a Sci-Fi show on Showtime. Yeah, try to figure that one out. I found it a few weeks ago on the Sci-Fi network, although they only ran one episode. It's possible that taking out all the swear words and gratuitous nudity made the censored episodes hard to follow. Decided to rent it because the premise was cool, and because it had my new T.V. boyfriend, Christopher Gorham from Ugly Betty, in it. (And if you ever find Jake 2.0 on Sci-Fi, he's excellent in that too.) It's about a space shuttle crew that witnesses the destruction of the earth, and then has their minds sent back in time to their younger selves to try to prevent it. Lots of stuff about sentient beings roaming the internet and synthetic creatures making trouble. In the meantime, they're trying to work out problems in their personal lives that may or may not be repeating in the new timeline. I'm not quite done with the series, and I've been warned that the never resolved cliffhanger ending will drive me crazy, but I've really liked it so far.



Freaks and Geeks - What a wonderful show. It's set a few years before we would have been in High School, but looks horribly familiar anyway. Imagine if we'd turned our backs on our Honor roll, band geek, friends to start hanging out with Heavy Metal listening, class cutting, stoners. Hmmmmm. Moving right along. The problem with watching it as an adult, is that I can't decide if I relate more to Lindsay or her mother now. Although it's Sam who really steals your heart. (and he's the intern in Kitchen Confidential too)


Deadwood - Borrowed this from some of Dan's co-workers. I think the third season stumbled with the Hearst plotline, but the brilliance of earlier episodes outweighs that. Although sometimes I feared that the T.V. would burst into flames each time Bullock sent a lustful look Mrs. Garrett's way. Tim Olyphant could outstare a statue.

What else should be in my Netflix queue? I'm going to give Undeclared a go next, with Seth Rogan and many of the Freaks and Geeks & 40yr-old Virgin folks. Any other late, lamented shows that would make good viewing?

Up to our necks in snow

And I thought is was hard to take pictures of the tree. It's even worse trying to get kids in motion while opening presents. Nathan got all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but seems most excited about his dinasaur "Cuddly". He came with a website link that let Nathan name a star. We picked one in Ursala Major somewhere. Claire got about three baby dolls, but for some reason has focused on the one that cries when you put a pacifier or bottle in it's mouth.

Today was supposed to be a day of semi-relaxation mixed with home improvement while the kids went to Grandmas. But we're looking at another foot of snow today, and didn't want to have to worry about driving over to get the kids tonight. So instead, the kids are eating popcorn while Dan is shovels the driveway and I tear all the old, broken, dingy window blinds down and replace them with old, dingy curtains. And I'm kind of astonished that whoever did the last paint job here didn't remove the blind brackets first. I've always thought the paint was one of the good points here, but now that I'm looking at a square of brown paint in the kitchen corner windows, and a swath of white paint over the front door, I'm pretty annoyed.

And Dan is annoyed that he can't find metal shovels anymore.