New Couch!

As you might have noticed from the PaceHouse 2.1 list the other day, we're working on getting some deferred maintenance done, and finally doing some projects that are overdue.  (RCP, have you called Gabriel about the trellis?)

RCP had spotted a nice couch at a screaming price at Costco a couple weeks back.  However, they kept not having any in stock. 

Last weekend, she called and Costco said they had them.  So, I hopped in the car.  I went to Lowe's (right next to Costco) to rent a truck, since the couch is in three large boxes.  I then learned that you can only rent Lowe's trucks if you are buying something big at Lowe's.   So, I call home and my brother and rallied a convoy.  Then I went in to Costco.  Fruitless wandering revealed no couches, and customer service told me that there weren't any.  Luckily I got hold of the convoy before they had mobilized.  Grrr.

Last Friday, a phone call indicated that more were available.  RCP got a hold of a delivery company.  (Yay!) On Monday, the new couch arrived.  They brought it, unboxed it, and set it up.  It looks great, and is very comfortable.

PaceHouse 2.1 Project List (First Draft)

• Trellis for patio
• New couch
• Master bedroom closet system (see closet fail)
• Hot Tub
• Paint master bathroom
• New dresser for EJP
• Fix fan in master
• Replace dead plant area on hill
• Replace small, cat friendly gravel with suitable alternative in SKGP garden
• Work area / computer lab in kids' study
• Replace portion on back lawn with additional raised garden bed
• Install ceiling fan in SKGP's room
• Replace futon in library
• Replace front lawn with synthetic turf
• Install emergency water tank
• Install rainwater capture / cistern system
• Install solar panels
• Fix damaged exterior on van
• Install organizational system in garage
• Tankless water heater
• Water softener
• TBD
  

Completion date: 1/1/2010?
Budget: I don't want to know

Skunked

Last night, Garbanzo ran outside around our bedtime. We didn't worry about it too much, as he'll come meowing to the door in a few minutes to be let back in. This time, he didn't.

Around midnight, I woke up and saw him at the door, so I let him in. I vaguely noticed a smell, but I let him in. Then the smell hit me, and I realized we had a skunk problem on our hands. I corralled Garbanzo to the laundry room, to minimize contamination and come up with a plan. I noticed he was wet when I pet him, so I grabbed some paper towels to squeegee him off.

Then the smell kept getting worse. I moved him out to the garage. Very quickly, the garage became foul. R suggested that he needed to get outside ASAP, but he was hiding under the van. I opened the side door, and open the garage opener to scare him out and to get some fresh air in there. He ran for it.

I did some other tidying up, left the garage door open, and went back to bed soon enough. Clearly, this was not a problem I could deal well with in the middle of the night.

For the rest of the night, he sat outside our bedroom and howled. And stank.

We spent this morning trying to eradicate the smell from the house. Amazing stuff, skunk spray. A little goes a long way. We are making good progress, but it still persists around the house. From his short time in the garage, both of our sealed cars became rank.

R found the Mythbusters' approved anti-stink solution, and Garbanzo was freaked out enough to let her clean him without much complaint. He smells much better, but I think he got hit in the face, and it was hard to wash there.

Roomba (Try #3)

Recently, iRobot came out with a new version of the Roomba, the vacuuming robot. We had an older version last year, and loved it until the cat hair killed it (and its replacement).

It appears that this new version is easier to clean; you can open the cover and get to the inner guts where the old one appeared to get gummed up. I hope that this one survives. However, since we got it at Costco, the risk is low.

We haven't named it yet.

Note to Self: Less Squash

Our garden is doing very nicely. We have lots of tomatoes and varieties of squashes. We have made one batch of salsa, and we need to do another shortly.

Today, while doing some lawn maintenance, I decided to clean up the garden area a bit. There were lots and lots of large dead squash leaves buried in the middle of other plants. I hacked them back, and moved a large living plant that had decided to grow on top of one of our tomatoes.

While it is nice to have home grown squash, they are not my favorite vegetables, and they take over the whole area. Next year, remember to plant fewer squashes, and don't put them in the middle. Instead, put them on the edges so they can grow outwards.

Crabby Dance

Admire Uncle DMP's fancy video skills.



We call this the Crabby Dance.

Christmas Party

Last night, we had a Christmas party at PaceHouse 2.0. It was fun. There was lots of good food, some tasty drinks, and lots of fun conversation. And it showed that Trader Joe's in Morgan Hill is a very good thing.

We experienced the offical drink of South Africa (with a name I've forgotten), which is amarula (marula fruit cream) and creme de menthe. It was a very yummy gold and green shooter.

The attendees were:

• Andrew and Tammi
• Arielle and Catalina
• Erik, Sheryl, and Dylan
• Faith and Pierre
• David and Rebecca
• Pallavi
• JEP, RKCP, SKGP, and EJP

I used the Champagne Sabre on a bottle of Kirkland Champagne. What else could you ask for in a party?

Christmas Disaster '06

My family has a couple Christmas traditions. We always watch A Christmas Story at least once. We open stockings as a group in the morning, and all sing "Ri-Co-La" when the cough drops arrive. We also have an annual Christmas disaster.

Once, we put the turkey in the little dorm fridge. The little door to the ice area was open, and so the turkey was found frozen solid on Christmas morning. A scouting party eventually found a turkey at the bowling alley restaurant.

Once, the garbage disposal got clogged up, and the sink filled up.

Once, mom was taken to the emergency room, just in case.

Tonight, our giant tree fell over as we ate dinner. The stand we have might not be able to handle a tree this big. So, I'm off to Target to see if there is a stand that can handle something this big.

I hope that this counts as the Christmas disaster for 2006.

Family, please post comments of the other disasters that I've forgotten....

Christmas Time Is Here

Tis the season!

Christmas Parade, where On Friday, RCP wrapped the staircase banister with lights and put up various holiday thingies. Yesterday, EJP and I put up the exterior lights. Then last night, we saw the Gilroy Christmas Parade; SKGP and RCP marched with the Brownies. We also got to take some pictures with Santa.

Today, we went and picked our Christmas tree. The place where we got the tree last year didn't grow Douglas Firs, which we have decided is our official tree. So we found the Uvas Tree Farm (11370 Watsonville Road, Gilroy, CA 95020. Phone: 408 842-3746). Here's how they describe their operation:

We have unique and individual trees for the unique individual. If you are looking for a tree that looks like it was shaped in a pencil sharpener you will not find it here...we have no two trees a like. What we do have are healthy well cared for trees in a friendly environment and customers that keep coming back, once they have been here. We might not look like much from the outside but it's what's inside that counts.

We found the place, and the guy sent us down to a cow pasture / forest. The cows were gone, but they left mementos of their time. After wandering around for half an hour, we chose a tree. It is very big, and it definitely doesn't look like it was "shaped in a pencil sharpener". It has character.

We made it home, loaded it into the stand. It falls over a little, but that'll just add to its charm when it drops on us during presents opening. With Gramzilla's newly arrived help, we rearranged the furniture a bit and brought it in.

Now we're listening to Christmas music, with a fire in the fireplace. And drinking wine and eating yummy appetizers. And RCP is wrapping lights around the tree.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Our Tiny New Friends

For the past couple days, SKGP has been itchy. Because a friend had a bout of head lice last week, we were suspicious. This morning, I was sent to the store to pick up some special shampoo. As we combed her hair with the special brush, our fears were confirmed. Infestation.

We think we killed them.

Now my head itches. And the other areas of my body that are covered with hair. I've got a lot of hair.

DMP is going to read this and freak out. We may not get a lot of work done together this week.

Mouse is to mice as louse is to lice. So, what does that say about spouses?

Lifehack: Flipping the Mattress

The people say that you're supposed to flip your mattress regularly in order to minimize lumps and sagging . I've always had the problem that I don't know which way to flip. As the "strong" one in the relationship (ha!), it's always my job to do the deed, and I worry if I'm doing it right.

Last time I had to do it, I thought for a minute how to make sure I didn't mess up. I came up with:

On each of the 4 possible mattress positions, use a Sharpie to write a number 1 through 4. When it's time to flip, add one to the current side, and make that side be up. After 4, go back to 1.

Ta-da.

This post suggest one way to do it based on time of year, but I think I'd forget what season meant what. They suggest flipping every 3 months, which seems like a good interval.

American Scientist Online seems to have the same system as mine, but it's buried in complex math, and they count from o to 3, so my system is obviously better.

iRobot II: This Time It's Personal

Our Roomba has been acting up recently. It would move about slowly and jerkily. For a bit of research on the net, it was getting clogged up. I did my best to clean it with canned air and at a tire fillling station, but it still moved crazily.

Since we had bought it at Costco, which has the greatest return policy, I returned it today. I've had it for a month and a half and they didn't bat an eye to give me a full refund. I love Costco. Then I went into the store and bought a new one.

Which brings us to the contest: Name that robot!

We're looking for a name for the new robot. The first was called "Roomba." A little family discussion yielded "Cinderella", "Snow White" (but the robot is not white), "Rosie" (from the Jetsons), or "Alice" (from the Brady Bunch).

Leave comments with your votes or suggestions. The kids will probably be the final say. Thanks for the help.

Ha ha ... He Said Ballcock

As I mentioned, our toilet was running.

Last weekend, I went down to OSH and picked up a new ballcock which I had decided was the problem. Why did I think that? I looked in one of our home-repair books, and that seemed a likely candidate.

I went with the Korky QuietPlus. Sure, it costs a little more, but why be cheap with your toilet?

Halfway through the installation, I realized that I had done this before, a couple times at PaceHouse 1.0. So, things went smoothly.

Once the part had been replaced, I turned the water back on (then tightened the dripping hose) and flushed. Everything worked well, except it still ran.

So, it was the flapper. I sent RKCP to get one (another fine Korky product!), and we've been flushing just fine ever since. Except the othe leaking hose, which I fixed that night.

The Honeymoon is over

We've had a good run, but it was going too well to continue forever.

Our new house isn't as new as it used to be. The toilet is running when it isn't supposed to. I now have to remember how to fix things around the house, and run to OSH to buy the thingamajob I need. Luckily, I still remember how to curse.

Alas!

Swab the Decks!

It was at Costco. So, of course we had to get it. (I wanted the Kirkland Vodka, but some people just don't believe in the miracle of Costco and its brands like I do.)

We now have an electronic slave scrubbing our floors for us. That's right, we're the proud owners of a Roomba. And it is awesome. It is picking up tons of cat hair (a truly frightening amount of cat hair) and other detritus that is filling our house. One might think the Roomba was just a toy, but it really does clean up, and leave the nice vacuum lines on the carpet (in a completely random order).

It is driving the cats nuts. Especially Garbanzo -- He tries stalking it, but flees at the slightest provocation. I hope he adapts to our new friend.