Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
household stuff

water, water, everywhere

So, I’m washing clothes today and was putting a load in the dryer when I heard running water somewhere in the house. No one was upstairs so I knew it wasn’t coming from there. The washer wasn’t running at the moment, so it wasn’t coming from there, either. It sounded like it was coming from our “furnace” room, so I went in there to check things out. There was water all over the floor and the hot water tank was making funny noises. I grabbed a chair so I could turn off the water supply to the hot water tank, but it wouldn’t budge. Given that, I had to turn off the water supply to the house.

Jake and I removed as much stuff as we could from the room and then I grabbed the shop vac and started vacuuming up all of the water. While I was doing this, Brian returned from an auction he was at all morning. Imagine his surprise. Luckily, he was able to turn the shut off valve to the tank so at least we had cold water at our disposal throughout the rest of the day. We finished cleaning up the room and he started calling all of the plumbers in the phone book while I made us some lunch.

Here’s a tip: just because a plumber’s ad says they offer 24-hour emergency service, don’t count on it. At numerous places he either got an answering machine or simply no answer. A few of the places that did answer couldn’t do the job because they didn’t have a hot water tank in stock and the place they get them from was already closed (none of the plumbers would install a Lowe’s or Home Depot-type tank). He did leave a message at one of the places he called (that guy did end up calling back but we had other arrangements made by that point) and kept calling others in the meantime. Finally, he talked to the owner of J. Clawson Heating and Cooling, who had access to a tank and could do the job today. Well, this evening, anyway. The poor guy was on his way to a wedding and was going to cut out early so he could fix our water problem. He and his wife arrived around 8pm this evening and had the new one up and running about an hour later. Now, that’s service. Nice people, too.

weather

somewhere over the rainbow

Did I ever mention that we live in the rainbow capital of the world? Well, we do. More times than not, when it rains and the sun is shining, you can catch a pretty nice rainbow or two in the back yard. Before we moved here, I had only seen a few rainbows in my life. Now, I get to see a few rainbows a year.

This evening was no exception to the rule. It was raining and the sun was shining, so I thought to look out the window. There it was–a double rainbow (we get those occasionally). This rainbow was particularly nice, so I tried taking a few pics of it. Here is the best one of the lot.

out and about

happy mother’s day

We got to see all of the moms at Jacob’s birthday party yesterday, but Brian’s parents invited us out for dinner at Off the Rak in Ebensburg today, so who were we to refuse a free meal? Dinner was quite good, as was their wine list. I had blackened tuna with a few glasses of Mondavi’s Merlot. Both were quite delicious. Brian had the ravioli with red pepper sauce and Jake had the old standby, macaroni and cheese. The mac n cheese must’ve been exceptional because he was done with his meal before we were (this is not a usual occurrence, but we’ll take it).

Jake’s great-grandma Gwen wasn’t able to make it to his party yesterday, but we got to see her today at dinner. He got his gift from her today (a ring toss game) and Jake and Brian are playing with it outside right now.

I have been quite lazy today. I need to get something done before 9:00pm when I settle down with The Sopranos…

celebrations, jake

jacob’s birthday, part 2

Well, we made it through Jacob’s first birthday party where his friends were invited. It wasn’t too bad, but I wouldn’t want to do that on a regular basis. Good thing birthdays only happen once a year. Brian was in charge of the kids so that worked out well for me, anyway.

And I totally hit the jackpot with one of Jake’s gifts. He’s been into Legos lately. Meaning: he will play with them for hours on end. This is the only toy thus far that has caused that reaction. A few months ago, he was checking out the Lego site and he found this set that he really liked (it was a police station complete with cars, helicopters, etc.), so I bought it for his birthday. He was pretty excited when he opened it. And, after all the guests left, he sat down in the family room and assembled it for four hours. Yes, four hours! I think we’re onto something here.

celebrations

jacob’s birthday, part 1

Jacob’s been wanting to go back to Big Dogz since the last time we went there. Since Brian and I have a long list of restaurants we want to go to and this wasn’t one of them, I told him we’d go there for his birthday. So, we went there today. He wanted to go for two reasons: one, he wanted to play a hunting video game they had there (but he hadn’t taken any of his money and we didn’t have any change the last time) and two, they served his dinner in a dog bowl (he’s been talking about it ever since). Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have his dinner in a dog bowl this time, but it was enjoyed nonetheless. I reminded him to take some quarters, so he got to play the video game (one out of two–it’s better than nothing).

Jacob’s birthday is actually tomorrow, so we spent the rest of the evening getting ready for his party (cleaning, cutting grass, straightening up). We still have a bit of work to do, but it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow morning because I am beat. I have been working like a woman possessed all week. As you might recall, a few weeks ago, I was enjoying doing my yardwork/gardening at a leisurely pace. Well, the pace picked up and all of a sudden, I gave myself a deadline to have a bunch of the work done before his party, so I’ve spent some long days working outside this past week. I guess the good news is I can pick up my leisurely pace again tomorrow after the party as we have no other large events planned at this time.