The day the oven died

I ran after work and came home to relax before throwing something together for dinner. Gman started up the grill and I turned on the oven. When I opened it to put a couple of things in it, I noticed it was still cold although it had preheated. I switched it from convection to regular oven and still no HEAT. Hmm, isn't that the whole freaking purpose of the oven?! On to Plan B.

Gman is on the case, promising to try and trouble shoot it tomorrow. Part of me wants to get rid of the bugger and put in a shiny new one, a GAS one but I was hoping when I did that I'd get a whole new kitchen to go with it!

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning up the house

I am having a jewelry party tomorrow and am trying to get the "quiet room" cleaned out. The quiet room was the former dining room that we've turned into the kids homework room. Quiet because there is not TV, no stereo, no nothing. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have grand organizing plans, not sure how far I'll get!

You are never too old for flip cup

Last night was our annual neighborhood ladies' group progressive dinner. Not nearly as classy as it sounds. This year we had an Olympic theme. There were five events--bean bag toss, putting, pictionary, Pandora's box (opening well taped wrapped boxes while wearing oven mitts) and flip cup. The teams were randomly assigned other than to assure spouses were not on the same team. The host at the first house dressed up as Michael Phelps, complete with blue track suit, pool slides and 8 medals. Another one of the husbands came in khaki shorts, a blue jacket, red, white & blue tie carrying the American flag. The games were fun and it was nice to get to talk to lots of people since we are relative newcomers having only been in our house a little over two years. There was a lot of talk about Team USA cheating, as one of the UN referees I can corroborate that they certainly were competitive.

After the planned games the real fun began--flip cup. I'd never played flip cup although it gained great legend after last years party. We left before it began last year. Both Gman and I put in our time this year. I never drink beer but I last night I made up for lost time. I have no idea how many beers I drank since they were all one gulp at a time. As the evening wore on it became the "chicks" vs "dicks." Trash talking went to a whole new level. Our next door neighbor left the table and was bent over in the bushes, after a couple of minutes she came back swearing she hadn't lost dinner. I had to believe her, no one looks that good after puking in the bushes. For all the beer no one was out of control, mean or hanging on anyone else's spouse (at least that I saw). I enjoyed the contained chaos--a balance of college wild side mixed with adults who have to get up and function the next day. Considering how horrible I'd felt most of the week I was surprised that I felt okay last night and even better, I didn't feel like crap this morning. In fact I felt good--although I will admit to a 3 hour nap this afternoon.

Counting down to next year...

Death and taxes

We got a notice a few weeks ago that they'd found issues with our 2006 tax return and we owe the government money. Since I generally do the taxes I was of course freaked out. I was also amazed that we had gotten a BIG FAT ENVELOPE FROM THE IRS and my dear husband didn't open it! I can let a lot of things lay around but a BIG FAT ENVELOPE FROM THE IRS can't possibly be good. Thus began the search for all of our 2006 tax information--yes, the year we sold a house, bought a house and carried three mortgages for a period of time--paperwork hell.

Given that our deadline to respond is Monday I finally sucked it up and re-did the 2006 taxes this evening. According to my estimates we owe but we don't owe as much as the IRS says we owe. So now, do I send a check for the whole amount or just what I think I owe plus the interest? How do I figure the interest on a lower amount? Its not that much difference but I really don't want to give them any more money than I have to, I also don't want to have to pay additional interest on money they've loaned me for the last year. Ugh.

I've got to say that the whole you owe us interest thing really ticks me off. I made a mistake, fine. But you are going to make me not only pay back the money but interest for my mistake that it took you over a year to find? Gheesh, that seems unfair somehow. Oh well. Gman's turn now, I will never, ever send in another tax form until he has gone over it with a fine tooth comb!

Goodbye Old Year, Goodbye Old Window Treatments

I had a dermatologist appointment today to get the once over, lots of people in my family have had close encounters with skin cancer. She tells me its unlikely I will get it because my cumulative sun exposure is minimized by the fact I burn like crazy and am smart enough to get out of the sun! My eczema did lead to a bunch of flat warts on the back of my knees (I know, seriously gross) so she took the time to freeze all those puppies off. One or two wouldn't have been so bad but I must have had 20 on the back of one knee--can you say OUCH! The girls were with me so I couldn't' even curse. In addition I left with, no kidding, FOUR prescriptions despite the fact she kept reassuring me I had great skin, BUT as fair as I am I should start using this on my face and oh, that will help with your rough heals, oh, try this for the eczema and I don't even know what the fourth one was for. This lady is really nice and can talk faster than anyone I've ever met! Oddly the girls got stickers and lollipops for being good--I got nothing more than a sample or two :( To top it off I lost one of my new, favorite earrings, serious bummer.

So, since we were already halfway to Annapolis I decided I'd do a drive-by of the Country Curtains store. Although I wouldn't label my style anything close to "country" I do like a lot of their window treatments paired with something more contemporary! Thank goodness for the Garmin, it got me there and back without any trouble (although we couldn't find parking at the mall for a lunch adventure). So finally, the lace blinds in the dining room (above) will be banished forever (the walls in that room did get painted as well, a gold color). I was pretty disappointed they weren't in stock at the store and had to be ordered so I have to pay shipping, even after driving over there, and I have to wait--both things I hate! I found great new treatments for our plain Jane kitchen as well. I'd show you a picture but they were labeled "TEST" in the store and I can't seem to find a picture online--guess I'll have to appeal to Gman for a picture or imagine, take one myself!

By then the girls were worn out and HUNGRY and had to pee--the trifecta for bad behavior. We headed to the mall--no parking places to be found and enough close calls with teenage drivers to head home post haste. I got the girls to forgo the usual McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A for a "special girls lunch" at Mimi's Cafe. We all enjoyed lunch, there is something to be said for not feeding them until 1:30, they actually eat what you put in front of them without any arguments. The blue cheese walnut salad was awesome although really heavy on the blue for my taste so I left a large pile behind. After fueling it was off to Lowe's for the window hardware. I ended up with some valances and new rods for the girls as well as what I needed to hang my new curtains. I finished off the day by ordering the girls some faux wood blinds (JCPenney is having a sale and FREE shipping!) and some cheap sheers. As I remember I get the redecorating bug this time every year--last year it was re-doing the girls' bathroom while recovering from surgery.

Bad Juju

I've been fond of the bad juju sentiment since they offered it up on Gray's Anatomy. It seems like we have some seriously bad juju at our house the last few days. Nothing earth shattering just enough to plant the "what's going to happen next" seeds in my head. I am cheap, make that frugal. I am infamous for the temperature at which I keep the house in the winter (58 at night) and I hold out as long as I can during the summer before turning on the AC. Last night I'd had it, it was hot and there was some serious humidity so we shut all the windows and turned on the AC. Things were pretty steamy but I'd just finished cooking dinner and we'd just turned on the AC so I didn't think much of it. We ate dinner, watched a little TV, were in and out of the house, I could hear air moving all was well at the house of the bad juju. We went to the gym and when we came home the house felt seriously hot. Hotter than it had all day. The thermostat declared "recovery." My first thought--what the heck is it addicted to?!

I opened windows, GMan tinkered with fuses and circuit breakers and his assessment was nothing is happening with the unit outside. Yippee! I was starting to panic until I remembered we have a home warranty compliments of our fabulous realtor! Gman called and got a claim number and the people to call. Of course no answering machine last night and this morning the phone was busy all morning long. Finally he got through, the verdict--Monday morning 8-noon. Ugh. Forecast for the weekend: hot and humid, highs near 90 with lots of humidity--chance of thunderstorms. Of course it cools down on Monday.

We will be playing "stay out of the house" all weekend long.

Please someone, take the bad juju away.

Blog Blast

Okay, speaking of potentially bad love juju, the folks at eHarmony marriage (a new site that offers an online alternative to marriage counseling) and Parent Bloggers Network are sponsoring a Blog Blast today--"You know you need a date with your spouse/partner when..." The first thing that came to my mind was You know you need a date with your spouse when the only sex you are having is hallway sex, you know when you pass by each other and say "f--- you." Usually its not that bad but I know we need a date when we start to get really crabby with each other because we haven't taken any time to be Gman and Maven instead of employee, parent, Sunday School teacher, volunteer, commitee member and on and on and on. I am trying out the new eHarmony site, stop back in on June 7 to read more about our experience with the site. In addition to that we leave SHMILY notes to each other in the car, on the mirror or in the others work bag. SHMILY stands for See How Much I Love You. Finding that little reminder that someone loves you and thinking about you can really pick up your day and remind you about your romantic link to your partner. I think I first read the SHMILY story in one of the Chicken Soup books but its repeated MANY times on the internet, the link above is just one of them.

If you'd like to write your own response to the question do it today and send a link to Parent Bloggers Network at parentbloggers @ gmail.com and be entered for a chance to win $100 Amex Gift Card and $100 cash to have a special night out with your someone special!