Happy News! I don't have to take the GRE!

I was just talking to the Director of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (HSTM) program and he assured me that they will not require that I take the GRE and it will not reflect negatively upon my application!  This is very good news indeed since I my preparation for the Math section wasn't going so well...although I do think I would have done very well on the Verbal and Written.

The Best Buy/Geek Squad guy came by the house today to advise us on how best to install the new tv on the new flatscreen tv on the new kitchen wall.  The good news is that it will look great and do everything that we want, the bad thing is that I have to have the electrician back to the house to add an outlet.  Oh well---just part of the never ending kitchen project.

Thanksgiving Airport Travel Without the Hassle

We just took Tara and the kids to the airport this morning to send them on their way to Florida and we had worked out a plan to maneuver them through the airport with the least amount of hassle.  All for naught.  We practically had the airport to ourselves--Ian dropped us off at the curb and then went to park the car, and Tara, the kids and I walked directly up to the ticketing counter and were helped immediately.  From there we went to security and since there was no line at all, I didn't even have a chance to point out to the kids what the procedure would be.  By the time Ian had parked the car, Tara and the kids were collecting up their shoes and jackets on the other side of security.  Amazing.

Completely unrelated...here's a couple pictures of Attila.

Enquiring Minds Have Requested an Update on Attila-the-Honey

Attila continues to get acclimated to his new environs - he no longer jumps and runs at EVERY noise; and instead has developing a condition Ian calls "falling over" whereby he walks up to either Ian or me, falls over rather unceremoniously, and rolls sort of half on his back.  He languishes on the floor until we give in and scratch his head.

The other morning as I was preparing to leave the house, I heard a very loud, "bang, bang, bang" and considered momentarily that the workmen had arrived early to finish up the house.  Alas, that was NOT the case.  As I got to the main floor the sound seemed to be coming from the basement, but when I was in the basement, it seemed to be coming from the main floor.  When a plaintive, moaning "meeeooooooow" was added to the cacophony, I was pretty sure I knew what had happened.

A couple days earlier, the flooring guy had removed the wooden grate over an old heat register that was in the dining room floor so he could spray-coat it in his shop which meant the vent was open.  Attila hadn't shown a great deal of interest in it but on this particular morning, he decided to check it out.  Unfortunately for dear old Attila, there is a pivoting flap which enabled him to go one way quite easily but returning was trickier.  The banging sound came from Attila pounding his head into the flap.

In a joint effort of Ian trying to lure Attila with treats and me trying to get a grip on the behemoth, we managed to get him out and upon being rescued he casually walked away as if nothing untoward had happened.

Dave's Floor Sanding to the rescue!

I guess Jon must really want to get paid this week because he was able to get Dave's Floor Sanding to come in this week to finish up the floor.  I feel good about this - Dave's' probably the biggest hardwooding flooring company in the metro area, and while I am sure he has a few incompetents on the payroll, the company has too good a reputation for there to be too many.  Yeah.  They will either start tomorrow or Wednesday!

My idiot general contractor is on a mission to make me insane.

Or maybe this is just a twist on "suicide-by-cop"--instead, "suicide-by-homeowner".  Maybe that's it.  Maybe Jon Bartelt is, besides being an idiot, suicidal but too much of a chicken-sh*! to do the job himself but figures if he really works at it, then I'll kill him for him.  He really, truly is working hard to make me murderous.

Today's bit of news was that he wanted to move my furniture into my soaking wet, mouse-ridden garage for an indeterminant period of time...since he just found out that the flooring guy cannot work on the floor until after Thanksgiving.  Of course, the bulk of the work necessary on the floor is to repair the 10-foot-long gouge in the middle of the living room made by Jon's guy dragging the stove across it.

The floor will be done--and done well--this week.  I've had enough of this.

I LOVE the counters!

The countertop installers were at the house this morning - they said they would arrive between 8-10am and they were there at 8:18am :)   They proceeded to very efficiently install the counters and they look great.  The material is sort of like quartz but is made from recycled glass and mirro,r and the tiny bits of mirror pick of the light and it sparkles just a little bit.

The only slightly down side, and it isn't really a downside since I had been warned three times in advance, is that the seams are slightly visible.  The woman at Home Depot had warned me that with the white materials the seams showed a little more, then the guy who came out to measure warned me that the "Polar Cap" color was the hardest one to hide the seams and suggested that if that was going to bother me I should pick another color before we went any farther.  Then before the installers started installing, they warned me one more time. 

I was starting to get a little paranoid, thinking that the seams must wind up being like blaring beacons, but you can hardly see them...  And I love the color so much more than I notice the seams.

Here are photos.

Note the lovely line of plaster near the top of the wall.  That is where my idiot contractor installed the picture rail moulding---unfortunately, what he installed wasn't actually picture rail moulding but instead cheap, crappy trim moulding, and I had told him I wanted only real picture rail moulding installed just a 1/2" below the ceiling.  Just one of the many things he has had to rip out and do over.

The Countertop is Here! The Countertop is Here!

They are still in the process of installing it but it looks fantastic thus far!!  It sparkles!

Wow, that's amazing!

I've been working away in my basement office for the past couple hours and I thought I would take a little break to see the results of all the sewer work.  They were just finishing up leveling everything when I headed down to the basement and so I expected to see raked sand...

It appears that the concrete guy was here to work up the quote for the sidewalks and put down the temporary asphalt surface...

When I talked to the concrete guy at 9am, he had told me that they had shut down concrete sidewalk work for the winter but that he could come out soon to put in a little blacktop to tide us over til spring.  I didn't know he meant he would do it today...this morning!  Cool.

It's hard to believe that just a few hours ago, this was an enormous pit and a mountain of sandy dirt!

A So-So Night's Sleep Makes it All Seem Better

As Mary Jo predicted, crying did not help but a night's sleep, even if it wasn't a great night's sleep, has made the whole thing seem better.

Here's how my front yard looked as of about 9am this morning:

Now it has all been inspected and they are well on their way to filling in the huge, gaping hole.  I called the concrete people but they said they have shut down concrete work for the winter but they will come over to give me a quote and put a temporary blacktop surface on it so we will have some sort of sidewalk instead of a mud pit.

Attila is napping under the bed and I think he thinks he's hidden...nobody ever said he was bright...

OMG!

This whole homeownership thing is just depressing.  Here's my front yard:

I got the phone call mid afternoon saying that the "best case scenario" just wasn't meant to be.  At least it isn't the worst case scenario which would have meant that they had to dig up the street as well.  It's bad enough...that's a lot of concrete which will need to be replaced.  On the upside, a good chunk of the sidewalk was already crumbling and in desparate need of repair.

I might need to place another call to my friendly banker.

I think I'm going go crawl into bed and have a good cry.