Monday, May 19, 2008

Carpet Cleaning Day

I love snapdragons.   I plant them every year in my planters.   I wanted to buy and plant my flowers this week (I am off) but so far it is just too cold.

The carpet cleaning crew was here this morning.   First thing they rang the bell and the cats scattered like bowling pins hit by a ball.  They ran in the bedroom and one down into the basement.   They came back out after the noise and men were gone.    The last time it was so traumatic for Molly, I even thought she had escaped.   I didn't see her for hours and even went so far to make LOST CAT  signs for her.   But even after I scoured the neighborhood, she was still missing.

It was about 8 hours later that I saw a gray streak out of the corner of my eye running upstairs and streaking to the bedroom.   I didn't bother with the signs this time and she came out an hour later than the others.

Henry is the hairball king.   The cat food is made with dyes, I guess it is to appeal to the owner.   The stains on the carpet are lessened but not completely gone.   The carpet guy said it saturates like Kool Aid and will not come out.   Never buy carpet lighter than cat hair balls. 

  I wanted to turn on the furnace (it is 45 or 50 outside) to warm up the house and help with the drying of the carpet, and guess what, yesterday it would not go on.    Chuck cleaned and poked a needle to clean the little jet holes but the burner will not light.

   He has to call the furnace guy.   The furnace guy who installed the furnace doesn't like to do repairs, just install.   He must have a lot of cash to avoid what he doesn't like to do.  Chuck said he will call him but I do not think he will come.   Have to find a repair guy, I wanted to call the guy who also does plumbing and unclogged my sewer last year.  

The idiots who installed the sewer did not connect it to the street, they connected it to the neighbors and then it goes to the street which is illegal.   The neighbors have a large tree whose roots routinely grow into the line.   What a pain, we have to get some chemical root rot and add it so the roots won't grown.  I sense a huge bill coming sometime in the future.  If it comes down to that I will feign ignorance about the whole matter. 

He didn't need to call the furnace guy.  Chuck gave it a go again..... The furnace has an automatic igniter.  It seems that the igniter was too close together, I guess you can compare it to a spark plug and when the gas starts to flow it clicks and ignites the pilot and then the burner.  Saved us about $300 I would guess.  I guess we pay those big bucks because they know things about the ignitor.   The house is warm and the carpet is drying nicely.   Tomorrow it may go up to 61.  I read a journal and it is 92 in   Washington State.   WOW, my heat is out west.

Next week it will probably be in the 80's and I will be thinking of turning on the A/CLOL

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Sunday

I honestly can not remember what pictures I have used before, there is just so many of them.

Tomorrow the guy is coming to clean the carpet and I had to move the stuff from two rooms out and into another.  How did  I ever collect so much STUFF?????? I have been trying to give things to the thrift store but not enought of it is leaving the house.  

Going out to dinner tonight.  I haven't decided where as of yet.  I am thinking Red Lobster.....

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Even lazier Saturday

Today was even lazier than yesterday.   This morning started out with me trying to figure out if it was to rain or not.   The Geneaology Group went on a field trip to Allegheny Cemetary.   Now, who else in the world would do that???

http://www.alleghenycemetery.com/

Besides a bunch of nuts looking for their roots.   The rain held off, thank goodness.   This cemetery is in the city of Pittsburgh and is 300 acres and only 200 are occupied.  There is a lot of space available.  It was founded in 1844.  It is a Who's Who of Pittsburgh.  I took some photos but haven't downloaded them yet.  This also have two lakes, but, we didn't see them.   We did see deer grazing, guess they were part of the grounds keeping.  Also wild turkeys, they were skittish but the deer were not.  

Buried there were five generals from the Civil War, five Confederate Soldiers, many wealthy industrialists, and many political figures from the city.   It was a good thing to see.

Tomorrow Emily and I will go to the May Market in Mellon Park.  It  is spondored by Phipps Conservatory and they sell plants, gardening items and some food and snacks. 

Spent a lot of time walking and I am here yawning and typing.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Lazy Friday

Quiet is the word.  I don't think I will ever get the hang of the size of the words.  I think it will type what ever it wants  (the computer that is)  When I click on the #14 I get minuscule letter and when I initially clicked on #18 I got the size of the first sentence of this entry. ??????  What goes on,  is it one of the imponderables and mysteries of life.   I will think about it later.

Today is a quiet day.  That is because Chuck and Emily are at work and all I have to deal with are the cats.  Henry is on my desk and meowing at something I can not see.  Although, I suspect, it is some insect.  I am too lazy to get up and see.

I went to the library and got a new supply of books.  They had a sale.  I am an official "Friend of the Library"  that means I have donated.  But, to my dismay,  the preview sale was yesterday and not today as I had thought.   Tomorrow is the sale for all the rest of the non donators.   It will be teeming  masses of humanity.  They will be bellybutton to butt and climbing over each other and trying to find the best book in a stack of books that are catalogued and shelved by some mysterious code.    The aisles are so narrow that some people have to inch their way sideway and in the process trample people who are under the tables trying to read the titles.

Actually it is a lot of fun.   I haven't decided if I am up for it tomorrow.  It starts at eight.  What I can do is buy books at the library sale, read them, and then take them to Half Price Books and recoup some of my money.  Then I can start the cycle all over again.  TA DA.

Friday and Off

 

 

The flowers from the Flower Show are all gone, at the Conservatory but I have them immortalized on my computer.   There is now a show on Chocolate.   While I LOVE the taste, I can't  imagine that there is much to look at.   Maybe I will go to the show anyway.  I am a member and I can go anytime.

I am off today and for the next week.  On Monday the guy is coming to clean the carpets.  There is so much stuff (junk) sitting around this house I need to go thru it and get rid of it.   Things to go to the thrift store, trash, recycling.   I have stuff in boxes from moves of 20 years ago.   It is very difficult to get the time or the motivation to start analyzing and pitching.    It will be a great "pay back" for the daughter when I die and she has to go thru this stuff.    She will probably just throw them away and not look in the boxes; I honestly do not know what is in them.

Lat night when I was in bed Chuck came to the room and announced the terrible misfortune that had befallen him.  It had only been 10 minutes since I has retired; what could this tragedy be????   He was watching the television and the picture closed into a vertical strip of colors and disappeared into nothingness.   The voice remained behind like the Cheshire Cat.    

My job today is to peruse the Circuit City and Best Buy ads for its replacement.   This TV was only four years old.   A person would spend thousands on a television n a TV only to have it die an untimely death in a few years.  I have old TVs that aren't HD that last longer than that.   My friend Rosemary had a TV from the 1970's that was still working and she could not find anyone to take it.  Wonder if she still has it????    LOL   LOL

 

 

Reticent

 
Word of the Day
Reticent (adjective)

Pronunciation:  ['re-tê-sênt]

Definition: Reluctant to speak or say anything; taciturn.

Usage: This word is misused so often to mean "reluctant to do anything" that the errant meaning is creeping into US dictionaries. This adjective has but one meaning: "reluctant to speak or express oneself."

Suggested Usage: The remarkable aspect of this misused term is that it has so many interesting legitimate uses: "Bill was understandably reticent about the lipstick on his collar" or "Hillary became abruptly reticent when asked about the box of chocolates under the couch." Let's restore the original precision of this hapless word's meaning.

Etymology: Latin reticentia "silence" from re-tic-eo "I am silent", based in turn on re + tac-ere "be silent". The stem tac- may also be found in "taciturn" and "tacit."

–Dr. Language, YourDictionary.com

No one has EVER accused me of being reticent.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Just a quick note for today.   Work was long and hard, felt like a hamster on a wheel.    Running and getting nowhere and using up a lot of energy. 

Things I have discovered.  After typing in this journal I have a number of times where my typed things have disappeared.  Well, if that happens to you, you can hit CTRL and then Z.  Some how that makes everything come back.  It doesn't work if you do things after the disappearance.  If you do it immediately things should come back.  I   wonder if we fashion something to make people disappear.  Someone had mentioned cloning and I can not think of anyone I would like to see two of, in fact, I can think of a lot of people that I could do with out one of them.   LOL  LOL

Back to the hamster wheel tomorrow.   Those hamsters really look like they are having a good time.  

This photo was taken Easter  2008  at Phipps Conservatory.