It Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time

Miss K and I are trying to decide what to do tonight. The original plan was to play volleyball at 5:00 on the sandcourt by the Tempe Town Lake, where the big fireworks spectacular will be later on. That way we could commandeer some of the best seats in the house when the show goes on at 9:00 p.m. Funny, most everyone cancelled when they finally realized it's over 100 degrees out. But it's ALWAYS over 100 at that time of day this time of year.

Wussies.

So we may go check out one of the nearby resort bars and see what's going on. I expressed my concern with it just being old guys on business trips but Miss K reminded me that those guys love me. Sigh. Yes, they do. But maybe that will save us from buying our own drinks.

If that place is lame, we'll move on. My only requirement is that we're not out all night. I need to be home for my Elvis.

He's holding steady, still eating, drinking and looking for love. He wanted to play when I got home from First Friday artwalk last night. What a sweetie pie! He can't play too much before he has to stop and catch his breath, but it's great to see him in great spirits.

It makes it hard to figure out what to do. If I wasn't feeling the pressure of this trip coming up on Thursday, I'd be a lot more comfortable making some kind of a decision.

Well, guess I better get ready for a night out and about. I hope everyone is having a great holiday - or just a great Saturday if you are in one of those countries that doesn't have a July 4. :-P

(yes, I know it's July 4 everywhere. It's a joke, people! Ha ha!)

This is in the garden in Millennium Park.
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Since Arbed scooped my usual daily post of Savage Chickens, and I don't feel like posting pics of me in my sweet Great White North headware collection (now I have a toque and an umbrella hat!), here's my salute to my neighbors to the North, courtesy of Cakewrecks!

Canada Cake

"The finger hole was the result of an over-eager guest, but that "leaf" is pure Wreckerator skill at work. Kinda looks like a monster on a Popsicle stick, doesn't it? Eh?"

And a salute to the National Fabric:

I heart flannel

It pays $555 to be exact.

I realized late Sunday night that my air conditioner had a 10 year manufacturer's warranty. My heart dropped into my stomach when I thought I screwed myself out of $800. Because we all have an extra $800 just sitting around, right?

I called the manufacturer's customer service line yesterday, and was told to call the repair company. So I called the repair company and sheepishly admitted I forgot I had a warranty at the time of the repair. The nice lady told me she would have the service manager call, but maybe not until today because he was out on calls.

In the meantime, she was trying to run my card but the technician wrote it down wrong. She left a message at home so I didn't get it until last night. I called back today and gave her the right number and then said I had called about the warranty. She put the service manager right on the phone and he could not have been nicer.

He's all, "Oh, yeah. Our guys usually call but because it was Sunday they wouldn't have been able to anyway. Looks like we'll only be charging you labor. I'll have her void this bill and send you a new one for $245. How does that sound?"

It sounds wonderful. Spectacularly wonderful.

I think my luck just may be turning around. I'm not a numerologist, but 555 seems to me to be some kind of auspicious number. We shall see!

I should probably wash that shirt one of these days. Or give it a shave. It's his happy spot for chilling out.
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My good friend Sean, who lives to give me grief, has informed me that I will be buying a new disposal and not cheap out by using the liquid duct-tape option. I then informed him I have been spending plenty of money lately, thank you very much.

Sean and I might have been an old married couple by now, but we decided years ago we would kill each other within weeks so it's for the best if we just stayed friends.

I asked if this means he'll help. "Yes, but I'll need something from you."

Me: "Do I need to put out?"
S: "No. But your sewing machine does."

I'm conflicted on how I should feel about that.

Moving on. Here's last week. Cranky said I get a pass because of all the other crap I had to deal with:
1. Finance report. Time is running out for me on this. Blargh - FAIL
2. Upload Chicago Peep Meet Pics! - Sort of. They are on my computer at least
3. Vacuum- FAIL
4. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible  - SUCCESS!

This week:
1. Finance report.
2. Fix garbage disposal
3. Spend as much time with Mr. WuvWuv as possible
4. Work on the painting for a friend that I meant to do last year and totally forgot about until I came across the photo of her cats this past weekend.
5. Vacuum
6. Read
7. Yoga
8. Swim
9. Relax 

At some point I'll do a real post today. For now, this is as good as I can muster.

Chickenekman

I paid a couple of arms and a leg this morning to get my air conditioning back up and running. Ouch ouch ouch (one ouch for each limb used in payment).

This evening I was throwing out some of Mr. Elv's uneaten gooshyfood when I noticed water in the bottom of the trash can. I pulled more stuff from under the sink and found evidence of more water. Great. Effing great.

My super sleuthing revealed a small rusted out hole in the side of the disposal. The whole thing will need to be replaced. I haven't looked at those cost, but I'm hoping not much and I'm also hoping I can replace it myself or bribe one of my handy friends to come over and install it.

It can't be that hard, can it? Famous last words, I know. But I've fixed toilets and installed faucets. We farm girls are pretty handy, if not downright stubborn.

Instead of helping out a friend by being in his student movie this morning, I'm having my air conditioner repaired. I came home last night and realized it wasn't blowing any cold air. Just what I wanted to deal with at 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night.

I called my friend to apologize as I knew I was going to be dealing with this. He asked if I could wait to the afternoon, but as of 10:00 p.m. last night, it was already 90 degrees in here. I feel so bad for letting him down but there's no way I could let this go longer. Plus, I would have been in the movie with my old crush, Lemon Seed Guy, and I was kind of looking forward to seeing him again.

Miss K invited us over to her place last night but I didn't know what would be more stressful to Elvis, being hot or being in a new place. I thought we could tough it out through the night and Elvis and I slept in front of the fan and on top of a collection of cold packs. It seemed to help a little.

The repair guy is on the roof and the unit just kicked in and is kicking out cold air. That's some really expensive air, too. This is not a good month for my finances. Now I'm waiting for my car to get jealous and do something to get its share of money and attention. That's always how it seems to work.

Elvis is doing fine today. His good moments still far outweigh the bad and still seems to be happy and fairly comfortable.

It's been a pretty crappy week for me so I think I'll go back to bed and enjoy my expensive air by taking a nap.

I needed some help with the folding and the cutting, but I figured it out!

Now I look forward to settling in for a good read. I'll put some tea on.

I hope it's as exciting to read as it was to make. Otherwise it will be terribly anticlimactic.

(Page numbers mine with my own trusty red pen to help with manufacturing.)

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