Friday, February 04, 2005

Checkin In

If you had seen our apartment last week before we cleaned on Saturday,you would have freaked. We cleaned it though, using real rags andcleaning solutions...we just didn't have time until Saturday. It's hard when you work 12-13 hour days and have to come home and cook. Thank god for that George Foreman grill, I love that thing. The crockpot is useful too, but I'm sick of recipes that use cream of something soup. It all tastes the same. And I made the mistake of putting pork chops in there, they just fall apart and you have to pick out the bones...plus after 12 hours everything burns.

Speaking of, I have a lovely browned pork chop soup available if you're up for it?

It has snowed for the third time this week, but barely under an inch,and we're going through a heat wave so it is melting (highs in the 40s and 50s). Pete took the truck to a fixit man who said he'd need $350 to fix it by replacing the spark plugs and doing a coolant system thingy. Pete instead took the truck back and bought a manual from Autozone to find out how to fix it himself. Do you think he can do it? He ain't no bob vila I can tell you that. He tried to fix our garbage disposal (didn't know about the reset button) and he hit the pipe under the sink accidentally and broke a hole in it. Landlord said he'd fix the garbage disposal, but the pipe is our problem b/c we broke it. So Pete heads to home depot...four times in one week b/c he says he can't find a pipe that fits. I went with him a fifth time and saw that the pipes are all two sizes. 1 and 1/4 or 1 and 1/2. I told pete that it would be ridiculous for our pipe to be a different size than those two and I wanted the sink fixed THAT night (it had been a week) so I made him buy BOTH sizes and two kinds of a connector bit that I found (he had given up and said Home depot didn't have what he needed and I found it in 30 seconds)... we went home, he attached the right size and the sink STILL leaks.

I think I should find those bob vila time life books on ebay to get him.

He also put up a new showerhead for us... which took three trips to Home Depot and one trip with the wife to find the correct connector bit. But the grooves in the connector and the showerhead aren't the same size so it leaks/spurts out water to the wall/ceiling even with the plumber's tape. He is so fed up that he wants us to just deal with the leak.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that I don't even like the showerhead.

Virginia Tech has screwed up again with my paycheck, they paid me for the 40 hours that I missed during Christmas when I came to visit, so this paycheck they docked me those hours... PLUS another 20 hours. When I inquired why, I found out that because I was on
leave-without-pay before and after a holiday, I did not get the holiday pay... so I did not get paid for Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve or the other corresponding holidays. So my paycheck for two weeks is only for 20 hours of work. Not ONLY that, but they lost my direct deposit information - a SECOND time and had to mail me a paycheck from blacksburg. However, it has been a week and has failed to reach me here. And I won't get my travel reimbursement until February 10 (for relocation) but that is actually going to be direct deposited. Because of the delay, I get to pay the bank lotsa overdraft. I hope they wash windows for the money I'm payin' 'em.

There was an apartment fire on our street the other night. We were leaving the grocery store nearby (you can walk to it....if you're a crazy Englishman or Washingtonian) and saw 5 firetrucks go towards our neighborhood. I can't tell you the horror I felt at the thought of nobody rescuing our kitties in the fire. It wasn't our apartments though, but ones next to ours, and I don't think it was too bad. I suppose it's good to know that even with a little fire, five fire trucks will immediately come.