Super Sweet Saturday

[CathyS]

I've been up since before 6 a.m.

So far I've done almost 7 loads of laundry!

Mike will be landing at Toronto Pearson airport in 17 1/2 hours.

I hope to be done by then.

[DeeClutter]

Wow, Cathy, good for you.

I've been pretty much awake since 4:30 but didn't get up till after 8! Now I've finished my meds, it's time for s2s and breakfast before anything else.

[Harriet]

Good morning, Cathy. Hope Mike's trip is safe and sound.

I'm getting ready to call my dfirstmil and dfirstsil and see if we can work out a time to visit them. Dd is in the shower. Hoping she gets out and dressed before a repairman arrives. We had been told "between 9 and 10" and he called at 8 for directions.

Well, we're off to visit. I've got the driving directions safely in my purse, but dd will be with me. HRH is going to have to wait on this repairman.

[Nancy]

My Poda & ci: Productive coughing today.
Skipping the spinning meeting.
Staying close to home today.
Laundry is going.
Hens got me up at 5:30 they have been fed.
Coffee is on.
Kitchen needs attn. In a bit.
Qt & journal next up.
Watering up later on.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up after a rough night. It took over two hours to fall asleep, then I woke up at 6. Sigh... Stayed in bed because dh was sleeping against me and he has to drive today.

I've got a load of laundry started, folded and put away last night's load.

I'm doing henna on my hair today, wheat blond again. I note this here only so if I need to know when I last dyed my hair, I can look it up. I have 20 minutes more until rinse time, not sure the washer will be done by then so will have to remember to stop and restart it.

I'm eating my breakfast to kill the time. Also unloaded the dishwasher.

[Twins' Mom]

Wow, we have a bunch of early risers today! I slept in for as long as I wanted for the first time in at least a week and a half. Have been schlepping ds to work this week, before that we were in DC, then I had several super busy days before that.

Nice evening last night altho was a lot of work somehow. And dh grilled the salmon and veggies. I'm not sure what I was thinking when we invited them, but it turned out well. We fired up the firepit and nice a nice fire going outside - it's cooler here right now so we were in jackets and blankets. They didn't leave until 11 - dh did most of the clean up altho dishwasher was full. He emptied it this morning and reloaded it.

Dh corrected me that the kitty was cremated and today they are burying the ashes.

Kathryn, we had a field line failure several years back in our old house and it was a mess! They dug all the field lines up and relaid them apparently. So I take it the second opinion was in agreement with the first? And I think you're wise to sit down with your buyers and discuss the issues.

Harriet, here's to safe travels all around for both trips for you. I've been meaning to ask if the "rolling" has done its job?

WTG on the laundry, Cathy!

Harmony, glad to here of the clean bill of health for Mr Harmony's hip. Also nice to have a good visit with D and hear of some happier things.

LOL, OKay at the guys picking out HK for DGD. Pleased that dd gave you address for her BD presents, and that her bros were involved in the selections.

Lucylee, love the GWTW reference - yes I can see your dad and Mammy scowling their faces with chastisement.

Ivy, I love your tag line quote! Just perfect.

Gotta get rolling....funeral at 11.

[helia]

Today is a day of wearing multiple hats. I hope I can do it with grace. . .

Hat 1: Picnic Pops volunteer: I'm volunteering at the city wide high school outdoor band festival from 2-3 before watching dd15's band perform at 3:30.

Hat 2: Hostess to out-of-town guest. His conference ends around 4 pm today. He may join us for our small group.

Hat 3: Hostess for small group, meeting at our house today.

Then, there are the daily hats of being a mom, a wife, a friend, etc. etc. . .

PODA:
- Picnic Pops (band festival) at local high school; I'll be out from about 1:40 - 4:30
- Small Group at our house 5 - 8:30 or so
- Out for coffee with dh and dfriend? around 9 pm, I hope

Before I leave, I need to:
- make small group main, a ground beef kima to eat over rice
- get the kitchen ship-shape; the girls left it a TOTAL disaster area after t heir baking adventures last night. They're entering a cake in the annual bands cake decorating contest at the band festival. Our high school hasn't won this competition for 10 years so they would love to win. Dd18 used her sculpting abilities (she is probably better at sculpting than painting/drawing. She is especially good with human forms in sculpting - and painting/drawing) to make a bust of our band director out of cake pop mix and then marzipan. It is not an exact replica of him, but it is quite good!! Dd15 dyed some sugar gray and brushed it on for his hair and rough beard. The bust will sit in the center of the cake. I'm going to take photos. This morning, dd15 whipped up cookie dough b/c we get 1 hour volunteer credit if we donate a baked good to the cake walk, and we need that to make our required 3 volunteer hours/family. SO that mess is on top of the cake mess - and there is no surface in my kitchen untouched.
- get play room ship shape; I think there have been several social get togethers that have happened in the play room recently without being cleaned up afterward. Plus, ds' stuff is in there. Plus, now ds is sleeping in there while houseguest is here. . .

That's the bare minimum. would also like to dust living areas and s/s bathroom downstairs and do a quick inspection and swipe of upstairs bathroom too.

Dd18 had a friend come over last night to help in the band cake construction. She set to work making musical instruments out of stretched out starbursts. She slept over.

Anyhow, I'm up, drinking tea. I went for a jog first thing this a.m. and cut it a tad short (30 seconds + skipped most stretching) to drive dd15 to the band festival - except, she was worried I wouldn't get home in time, so she had ds drive her. He was pulling out just as I was pulling in.

Dh is going for a 12 mile run today. It is a cool morning, so I think he'll do well. I did well! Even though I'm averaging only 2x/week and not really losing weight, I can feel my body is gaining strength and stamina. I'm slowly increasing my speed and therefore the distance I go.

I'm off to tackle the a.m. routine. I may be back to report progress.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

The primary question with the septic field is 'has it failed?' The answer to that is yes. The secondary question with the septic field is how the heck did it end up so deep. It is 4' below surface not the max 2' allowed. It would have been inspected when it was installed, and we assume it passed. It hasn't falled 2' (to do so would have disconnected it from the tank.) Nor was the tank also buried 2' too deep (so anyone pumping had no idea something was weird.) The guy yesterday speculated that the owners or builders added 2' of fill to the yard but that doesn't make sense. The yard is level - both from south to north (the septic is north of the house) and west to east, although that is a gentle slope because of a shallow drainage ditch between us and our back neighbour. The filled in theory also implies bringing 2' of fill, to cover over 200' x 50'. Besides the foundation at the front isn't any higher than at the back. So I can't figure out how it got approved in the first place.

That approval though, allowed the system to fail since any sign that would normally be on the surface is still 2' under ground.

So I'm very confused. I'm not surprised at the failure in theory (the system is 30 years old and built on clay and most systems in this neighbourhood have failed.) I'm just surprised because I had no clue ours had failed.

Anyway, because it is so deep, there are no repairs that can be made. It will have to be replaced. And it can't be replaced with the same system, they don't work well on clay, so to put that kind in means building it on top of the year and covering it up (so there will be a 5' high mound in our yard.) Or we'll have to put in this newer but more expensive system which has a life expectancy of 40 - 50 years rather than 25.

I don't want to pay for that when I will never get a chance to use it. Sure, I have the money but it is a significant portion of our net wealth and means we'll have fewer assets earning income to offset the cost of the apartment. I'm willing to pay half and the new owners can add half to their mortgage. Or if our current buyers back off, we'll either find someone who will split the cost, or we'll put in the new system and offer the house on the market for $60K more. Which will mean our current buyers will have to give up the hope of moving into this village since we were the cheapest house on the market here already.

[Sadie]

Hello Dear Ladies,

Stopping by on my way to work.

Took Dson18 to cardiologist yesterday. He has an electrical problem with his heart and will have a procedure called ablation where they go up through the vein starting in the groin area and up to the heart where the bad areas are burned off the heart.

Will be an overnight stay in hospital.

Has to have a few things done before then like ultrasound of his heart, blood tests etc which will be done in June. I'm thinking it will be July sometime.

I feel good about this for him, like we're nipping it in the bud. Doc said he would continue having the episodes of racing heart and it would weaken is heart if it isn't fixed.

Because of my shoulder surgery, I have met the family deductible and have a really good start to finishing up the out of pocket amount so insurance should pay for just about all of it. Told everyone this was the best time to be doing this.

Gotta head out the door.

Great day to all!

[DeeClutter]

Oh my, Kathryn. Such a ball of wax. (Now where did that idiom come from?)

Dh was late getting home from work last night. He said, "You didn't notice all the activity going on?" Uh....I can't see very far from here and the action was on the other side of the park it seems. Said he had the ambulance to direct in and a sheriff was here, etc. Funny part is: This is the scenario -one site called 911 because her granddaughter had fallen & hit her forehead on the toilet, gashing it a little. Of course dh's ambulance pager went off as did 2 other guys from the park. Dh knocked on the door & the lady opened it and he asked, "What's going on?" (as do all fire people who show up at a scene). She bluntly told him it was none of his business and slammed the door -as all 3 are standing there after their pagers have gone off for this site. Of course the ambulance came -which dh had to go direct down the back way & the sheriff. Guess in the end it all settled out, but dh was a bit 'miffed' as were the others who had answered the call.

I need to really do something about my table/office area. It's driving me crazy. I need more space!! Edited: Did straighten one area of the table which holds a tray with all my 'office' type stuff. That did neaten up the area. Speaking of desk, when dd was here she tried (unsuccessfully) to set my printer up as wireless. Went to print something the other day & realized I had unplugged the printer from the computer for some reason & was starting to plug it back in, when the printer suddenly started. Lo' and behold it's been printing wirelessly ever since. Just printed out my grocery list and wallah it was still operating in that mode. Love it. I could probably set the printer somewhere else now but not sure where that would be either.