AC IS FIXED!!!

The AC guy came out yesterday about 3:00 and after replacing the fan and another part, it worked again. We also found out that the 5 year warranty on parts and labor just ended about 2 months ago, but luckily, the previous homeowner bought an extended warranty on the parts (another 5 years)! Thank you John! So it only ended up costing us about $100 for the labor. Well worth it. To celebrate, we went to our neighborhood pool, which was really nice. Water temperature was great and there weren't too many people there. By the time we got back to the house a couple of hours later, it was nice and cool, just how we like it.

Justin's Birthday

Of course we didn't take pictures, but we had a fun night to celebrate Justin's birthday. Skyler came over with his 2 Jack Russells, so Buddy had some playmates too. Skyler and Justin went to Wal-Mart and bought a charcoal grill, steaks, and other veggies for a cookout. I stayed home to start preparing my seasoned potatoes and keep an eye on the dogs (we had to put the cats in a closed off room). Then Jim and Erica came over with 8-week old Emma in tow. She's so cute! Well, the guys ended up buying 6 steaks, so we had 1 extra. I decided to invite a girl from work, Andrea, who just moved here 3 weeks ago from Miami. She's an industrial engineer here at TI. She was thrilled to be invited. I also invited her because Skyler wanted to meet her; I had told him she was Colombian and cute, so of course this piqued his interest. On a side note, I also learned she speaks 4 languages fluently - English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; a woman of many talents. Back to my story now, everybody ate the delicious food and we sang Happy Birthday before Justin blew out the candles on his cake. Everybody loved the cake too (if I don't make it from scratch, Duncan Hines is the way to go). But as we were eating dinner around 7:30, I was getting really hot in the house. And I wasn't the only one. We checked the AC, it was set at 75 degrees. We figured with the people going in and out, the West Sun that brutally beats in our living room, the oven had been on low for a little while, and having all the people in our house, it just got hot and the AC was having a time to try and cool the house down. It wasn't until everybody left around 9:15 that Justin went and checked the outside unit that we discovered the fan was not working. It's making noise like it wants to work, but nothing is happening. So, needless to say, it was a warm night. We slept on top of the bed and left windows open and fans going. Justin stayed home today to try and figure out what the problem is. I'm really hoping that it will be fixed by the time I get home from work. Oh the perils of owning a home.

Doo-Dah's Dilemma

The following are my interpretations of what I think Doo-Dah is thinking:

Dum-dee-dum-dee-dum; Oh, hey there. I'm just playing with my bright jingly ball, mom. I'm not getting into anything, I swear. If you did find something, it wasn't me.

See, I scoot it around and it makes noise. And if I stay under the couch, nobody can get me.

Uh-Oh! I think I pushed it away too far and I am NOT leaving the safety of the couch.

How in the world do I get it now? I need to assess the situation.

Hmm, my arms aren't quite long enough. Drat!

Oh that sneaky ball; I've been foiled! Next time you will be mine.

Gizmo's New Spot

So I was leaning down to pet Doo-Dah, and for some reason turned and looked up in time to see a little head peeking down at me. My eyes got wide and my jaw dropped as I shouted up to Gizmo, "how the heck did you get up there?!?!" (Maybe not these exact words, but something similar) Obviously I'm guessing he jumped on the counter, then onto the fridge, then to the top of the cabinets. And the worst part is if he doesn't peek his head over, you cannot see him at all. In order to check and see if he is up there (after exhausting all other hiding spots - under the couch is a favorite) I have to climb up on the counter myself and peek over. I've only caught him up there a few times - probably because that first time I scared the crud out of him. Once he put his head back down, he was not expecting my face to come peering over the cabinets at him - prompting him to dive off. If he hadn't peeked over at me though, I would never have found him in his new spot.

Pictures worth a thousand words...

He's been trained well.

Here's the Drill...

For Justin's upcoming birthday in June, and so he can fix stuff for me around the house, I bought him a new drill. I got a pretty good deal on it from Home Depot - I go to that store way too often; I think I've gone more than Justin. Anyway, he got to use it right away to fix a leg in my antique desk. The leg has a hole in it to screw onto the base, but it was completely stripped out so I bought some wood glue and wooden dowel pegs to fill it up and redrill the hole. (It's behind Justin in the second picture). We fixed it right up and made it sturdy again! It's our new mail center.

Giddy as a schoolboy when I brought home the drill:

Ok, manly picture of a man and his drill:

Aww, the battery needs to be charged:

Weekend Project

So, for Mother's Day, we decided to recover the dining room chairs. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought fabric and new 3" foam cushions. Justin undid the straps that hold the seats in and re-stapled them to take out the slack while I cut the pattern into the foam cushions. Then together we covered the apparatus with the new fabric and stapled it in place. Our finished product makes for a much more cushy and pretty seat!

Voila!