Why is it...?

My WIP is driving me nuts. I have a self-imposed deadline of June 1st (the finished book has to be turned in to my editor by July 15th) and I think the story derailed, so I'm taking a few days to mull it over. And since I don't feel like kvetching about it, I'll kvetch about something else - like coupons that are for everything in the world except for that one item you really want.

That when I have a really good coupon (like, of, 20% off), the item I covet is listed in the fine print as excluded?

WTF is that? Drives me nuts.

I mean, I know why they do it - (and you know which store I'm talking about, don't you? They sell stuff for the Bedroom, the Bathroom, and beyond that...Oh, and if you need something Stapled - they do it, too) but I don't think it's really right. Instead of listing that endless paragraph of exclusions, they'd be better off saying something like: This coupon only good for a 10,000 count package of store brand used Q-Tips. (ew.) Because really, that's pretty much all it covers.(Or, if you're in need of Stapling, the fine print should read Good only for 10,000 ct box of broken rubber bands.)

I need a new toner for my printer. It's an HP laserjet. The toners are crazy expensive (and I'm relatively cheap, so you can imagine how many times I take that stupid cartridge out and shake the bejeezus out of it to eke out a just a few more pages' worth of toner,) Now, granted, I only replace it maybe twice a year, but still... So when I get a coupon for a specific office supply place, I'm happy when I find those coupons in the newspaper, or if they come in my email (gotta love those store cards. I've yet to be able to use any of the coupons they've emailed me. I'm pretty well set for neon pink pens, really.) My toner is ALWAYS excluded. HP toners are apparently as rare and special as deep-blue Tanzanite. And they must NEVER be discounted. Ever. The store, or maybe HP, would shrivel up and die if that happened, apparently.

We also need to think about replacing our vacuum. I've been coveting a Dyson since forever. But remember, I am cheap (and not rich, either, I might add) so $500 for a vacuum is going to leave a mark. And if you look in that coupon fine print, guess which ones are excluded? Of course. So guess who's probably not getting a Dyson. And guess who haz a sad over it. :(

Home Projects

We've lived in our house almost five years now, and I'm still in the process of making it ours. When we lived in the townhouse, it looked the same the day we moved out, as it did the day we moved in. How sad is that? I think I changed the curtains in the kitch--nope, now that I think about it, even the damn kitchen curtains remained the same. They were white, lace-type curtains with geese and ducks on them. Geese. And. Ducks. Damn, how lame it that?

I'm proud to say there are no geese and ducks in my house now. But I am still making this my home, even if it is taking forever. It needs to be repainted, but that's a job I'm dreading, so I'll put it off for as long as possible. Besides, my son's room gets a redo first and I'm planning that for this spring/early summer. One thing at a time. First his room, then the Girl's room (which has the ugliest paint scheme I have ever seen. One wall is pale green, the other three are this awful shocking Pepto-Bismol pink. So. Effing. Ugly. I can't stand it. And the pink's going to be a nightmare to cover, I'm sure.) Then I'll tackle the rest of the house.

When we first moved in, and my kids finally had their own rooms, I bought the cutest valances for the Boy's room. I don't know why I didn't for the Girl's room, but I didn't. They both had miniblinds, and that was fine. Until the Boy ripped off the cord on one of the miniblinds in his room. For the last year, the blinds have been down on the one window. It takes me a while to get around to these projects - mostly because they never go smoothly and I'm afraid the spike in my blood pressure will make the top of my head blow right off and because my kids don't need to be exposed to the type of swearing such projects usually bring forth. I'm very creative when properly riled.

Well, I got sick of his room always being kind of dark, so I thought curtains would be nice. For both kids, since I can't really buy for one and not the other. So I'm going to get curtains and hang them. No problem.

Riiiight.

Ugh. There are two windows in the Boy's room. First, I had to wrestle off the valance rods. Managed to do that without wrecking anything. Then, I dropped the first screw for the first bracket probably a dozen times before I got it to stay anchored. After that, it was relatively smooth sailing. It only took about 2 hours longer than I expected and I was able to take down the miniblinds without destroying the wood around the window, so yay me! I'll tackle the Girl's room later on today. Hers shouldn't be too bad, since she only has the blinds and they are staying put because, unlike her brother, she didn't wreck them.

Of course, I probably just jinxed myself. If you hear someone weaving a colorful tapestry of obscenities later on, it's probably me and I'm not going to apologize. :D

A Post About Nothing

Actually, that's not true, of course. Obviously there's something here, or else you'd just be staring at a blank page. Do that for too long and people begin to whisper about you behind your back.

But since I'm trying to get back into the swing of regular blogging (or at least something a little better than once-every-six-weeks blogging) here I am.

So let's see... Hurricane Irene was what? A month ago? (yikes, has it been that long already?) Aside from being without power for almost five days, the worst of our damage was to our pool.

It's hard to tell from these pictures, but the vinyl liner bubbled and pulled away from the surface and the bottom (in one part of the shallow end, the bottom of the liner rose to break through the water's surface.)

The pool guys came out about a week after the storm to assess the damage. Now, this liner is only a year old so having to replace it really wouldn't make me happy. Fortunately, it doesn't need to be replaced (for now), but the pool did need to be drained, the liner reset, and then we could refill and close the pool.

Now, this pool is huge. I've tried to get pictures of it emptied, but I need something in the bowl for scale and no one is brave enough to climb down into it (except the Boy, but the temptation to just leave him there might be too much to overcome. Kidding. Or am I?) But it holds somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 gallons. So trust me when I say, this pool is huge.

It takes about a day to empty, and then almost a week to refill. We use the garden hose, and let the water run. And run. And run. It gets shut off at night, but that's pretty much it. It takes about 6 days to fill, as long as it isn't too hot out (the pool gets afternoon sun from about 1 until sunset. When we had that heat wave at the beginning of the summer, the pool water was like a bath. It was nice.)

So, we drained it, the liner was adjusted, the vacuum was set in behind the liner to suck it flat against the walls. And the refilling begun.

Until...


(you knew it was coming, right?)

My husband noticed there were new creases in the floor at the slope of the shallow end. So we shut the water off and called the pool company. This was over the weekend. We're still. waiting. for. them.

So I'm not real happy. I'll be even less happy if the walls of my pool end up damaged because there's no water in it. I don't know if this will happen, I don't even know if it can happen. But, since I'm a big believer in Murphy's Law, I know that if it can, it will. Especially with this pool. In 4 years, we've had to replace pretty much everything but the ladders.

I'm really hoping to have this pool filled and covered before the first snowfall. When I was a kid, I thought the coolest thing in the world would be to live in a house with a pool. Let me tell you, they are pretty much more trouble than they're worth. I don't think I'd ever buy a house with a pool again. Never. Again.