November 5, 2008: New Hope - and New Light

What an exciting night..and what a new feeling of hope in the air on Wednesday. It's a great feeling to know the world is watching and seeing America as a symbol of freedom and great possibility and inspiration.

Vin the Electrician must have been feeling inspired as well, since I came home to see this warm glowing feeling was not just metaphysical but also literal.
Coincidence? Hmmm...

Trick or Treat... A Haunted Week

This week, the following things happened.. seriously.

Saturday
we cashed out all of our savings and put a deposit on a new (2005) Outback to replace our 99 Saturn RIP (YAY!!- ooooh -heated seats, CD player, working AC and heat, working radio, working engine.. these are some of the luxuries we are now reveling in)

Sunday
AM Maggie was throwing up with blood in it. Since by some strange coincidence we already had a vet check up/shots appointment for the other 3 critters, we dragged her along too, in the disgusting Saturn, which was simultaneously overheating and burning oil due to a crack in the head. After $800 worth of veterinary care, we drove home to drop off the monsters. Then, drove straight back to the Subaru dealer to trade in the junker and take home our new Ru. We literally high-fived each other as the Saturn rolled into the lot, spewing smoke.. we were terrified it would give up the ghost en route on her farewell voyage. Phew.

On the way home with the Ru, got a call from the vet- she wanted another round of bloodwork for Maggie before the end of the day. Kidney values out of whack. SO within one hour of owning the vehicle, our first passenger puked up in the back seat. So much for that new car smell.

Monday
was spent either at or in transit between home and the animal hospital emergency care. Monday took a financial toll and an even bigger emotional toll. The hospital vet wanted to keep Mags overnight and do a kidney biopsy (a quite risky and very expensive procedure). Since she had not vomited in 24 hrs I convinced them to let me take her home and to wait and see what the test results showed. we were sent home with 2 antibiotics and lots of fear for what the tests might show (kidney disease- glomerunephritis- was the tentative diagnosis)



Tuesday
I was doing field work in the rain all day. Day 2 in the Ryan family for the new 'Ru and she was already packed to the gills with equipment, and driven over sand hills, rutted roads, along power lines, and through giant lakes of stormwater. Seriously, if there was a flaw with this car I would have found it. I LOVE OUR CAR. (its now in NJ with Mr.LL... so week one and I think we put close to 1000miles on that thing). Maggie seemed to be doing ok but not great.. no more vomiting.. and the tests showed very high levels of lyme disease indication..with other results pending..she couldnt jump up on the bed or the couch and she seemed unhappy. But - she was eating and drinking and doing her business.. so she was less sick than over the weekend.

Wednesday
I worked from home for part of the day to keep an eye on Magster..she seemed a little better than the night before. By evening, she was barking at passersby and following me around the kitchen- very good signs.

Thursday
Another crazy long day in the field for me, and another long day at the crappy construction site for Mr. LL.
Maggie is like a whole new dog! We think the meds are really working their magic..seems like it might be lyme caused or something.. talked with our regular vet and she said to come in Saturday for more blood/urine work before deciding about the biopsy.

Friday
Lots of running around for work in the AM. And then...
I start getting weird phone calls..Some creep STOLE MY ATM CARD # and was running around ordering gold chains from Fortunoff and making charges to FedEx!!
Freaky. I still have my card, so they got the # somehow.. It *appears* that a major disaster was narrowly averted.. thanks primarily to the kind soul at Fortunoff in Long Island who called me to verify the $688 purchase when she couldnt get a signature verification. So, she SAVED ME because then I knew which card to have canceled.
After several hours on the phone, I had canceled the ATM card, checked my credit report via Experian and placed a fraud alert on it, spoke with FedEx and got the fraudulent account closed, and filed a report with Boston police. I also checked on my credit cards and no strange activity there. So far, it appears that none of the bogus charges actually hit my account.
But GOOD GRIEF.. what a way to end the week.

Saturday
Maggie to the regular vet for follow up tests.. But she is DOING GREAT! And our vet agreed we probably should not do the biopsy, and just wait and see.

With all that has happened this week, that was the best news of all..

Now I need a stiff drink.

Too Many Minor Fiascos for One Evening

Here is a list of things that happened tonight.
- Mr.LL broke a glass in the sink (an omen of things to come)
- The tenants turned on the heat for the first time. About 20 minutes later there was a mini waterfall coming through one of our recessed kitchen light fixtures. It was one of those delayed-reaction moments, something like:
"what's that noise, do you hear that?"
"huh? It's nothing, its just the radiators hissing"
"Wait, no.. that sounds like dripping.."
"what the---"
"OH my.. &@$!!&$#@!!!!!!!!"

We dashed upstairs to find the leak... it was leaking profusely from the radiator side of the connection between the radiator and the steam valve stem. I sprinted downstairs for a towel and pipe wrenches to find that the dogs had gotten into the dogfood cabinet and were gorging from the bag of spilled dogfood on the floor.
- Back upstairs, in the process of attempting to tighten the leaking connection, we sheared off the radiator threads, breaking the connection completely. luckily by this time most of the (additional) leaking water had drained out and been caught into the bath towel. We were able to shut off the steam valve and call the plumber for a visit tomorrow.
- Nevertheless, the kitchen ceiling has surely sustained some water damage. the only saving grace may be that the water mostly ran out through the light instead of collecting in the ceiling. Time will tell. I've got a fan blowing on the wet spot and hoping for the best. I don't want to jinx it by saying it could have been a lot....but, you know.
- After recovering from that incident and settling down to a glass of wine, the SNL primetime special and a nail-filling/trim painting session, I proceeded to knock the cable box, along with my glass of wine (white- a minor blessing) onto the floor. Not breaking the glass, mind you, but in fact breaking the cable box.

- yes, thanks I'll take yet another glass of wine.. this one in a sippy cup please.

Ole! The Dining Room is (pretty much) dine-able!

Look there, is that the dining room floor? And-hey, theres actually a frame..around the door way..and check out my new FABULOUS SCONCES that I'm in LOVE with (Thanks Rejuvenation.com) ..no matter that they dont have lightbulb power yet, candle tealights will do for now..

yes we were able to have a cooking party in our kitchen and dining room last Saturday. It was a fantastic time with great friends, amazing food cooked by everyone, and a cozy new space taking shape. The added bonus was that the Sox won to force a game 7 with TampaBay. Hey-they didn't make it to the series this year, but at least they made us proud trying their best to get there.

Another good thing about the party was that it forced us to bust our butts to get all the baseboard and door frame trim in place and to clean up the space for the party.

LOTS more detail work to do (filling nail holes, caulking gaps in our less than pro trim handiwork) and painting trim. Oh yeah, and those windows.

Breaking Point

I've cracked


This broken window pretty much represented my mental state last night.

I @#!$*# hate windows. There are so many bloody components. Sashes, sills, balances, casing, glass, glazing, stops, trim. And when all of these components are either broken, rotted, cracked, missing, falling out, and/or all covered with lead paint... you think MAYBE its time so dig into that bank account and say goodbye??

Why on earth did we not just plan long ago on buying new windows for this project? Well, for one, I got it in my head years ago (bolstered by our experience with vinyl replacement windows in our last apartment) that somehow replacement windows were useless expensive hunks of earth-destroying junk. And in fact i'd still say that about cheap crappy vinyl replacements. And secondly, new windows are so damn expensive if you want good ones. So I set out on an excruciating crusade to restore the old wood windows. And after 6 years, I have restored exactly 3 of the 26 windows in the house. Even at that I paid the building co-op to reglaze them, because for some reason I just know I don't posses the patience to learn how. Notably, those three windows are in the living room. So there are two remaining nasty ones.

So I procrastinated and procrastinated all summer on getting to these.. but now as the nights dip into the lower 40s, there is no time to waste. Mr.LL and I set forth with conviction last night to mount an all out assault towards the restoration of the remaining two. As the true scope of the mess unfolded, my brain began to become paralyzed and I spent 15 minutes staring at the rotted glazing wondering what the hell was I thinking.

I snapped myself out of it, commenced with the paint removing heat gun, and was just breathing that first sweet whiff of lead fumes and... crackle.. the broken pane.. followed by a meltdown of disproportionate size to the issue at hand.

Words Cannot Express...

How happy we are to have walls again...but beautiful, smooth, flat walls this time..So I'll just let today's photos speak for us:

They did a beautiful job. Now all we need to do is pick out a paint color. Fortunately Chippy has an impeccable sense of style....

But picking out color swatches is taxing and requires much rest. Sleep on it, Chip and let us know your decision tomorrow. (For some reason he has such a bias towards the oranges and butterscotch tones...)

The Plasterers are Coming!

supposedly tomorrow morning.
HOORAY!