Horse Manure Park

Ugh. 'Twas a windy, wet, cold October day.  It rather reflects my mood right now. No, it has nothing to do with the Vikings getting shellacked by the Packers last night.  I was expecting that.  I was prepared, and being prepared is a good thing. That leads me to my news of the day. Over the last couple of winters, we've had a few problems with our furnace.  It has had several parts replaced, including last winter.  In fact, it was one of those brutal -35°F nights last December when our furnace simply stopped working. Luckily, a technician came out in the middle of the night and fixed it.  All seemed to work fine during the remainder of last year's painful winter. Then a couple weeks ago, after running for a day or two when it was chilly outside, the furnace went kaput again. This time we weren't so lucky. Two days, two technicians and five hours of diagnostics/processes of elimination/new parts later, including checking the vents ...

One week ends, another begins and time keeps on slipping into the future...  There's a song in there somewhere. Saturday was a memorable day, friends. A member of our troupe was involved in a head-on collision Saturday morning.  Luckily, he walked away with just a few scrapes. You see, the dingo and the boxer were in the backyard playing some kind of doggy freeze-tag and the dingo zigged while the boxer zagged, and... well... This is what happens when a 70 pound boxer hits a metal gazebo frame while running full sprint.  The gazebo lost. The boxer let out a loud "Yipe!" and the Wife was certain he broke something.  Visions of an early morning emergency visit to the Lakeland Vet Hospital danced in her head.  What a great way to start the weekend!  However, after recovering from the initial shock of ruining my damn gazebo , the boxer appeared pretty much none the worse for wear. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the gazebo.  It's fi...

Our troupe's goal was to make yesterday a perfect day. And we were almost successful. Keyword: almost. The first item on our list was to pay a visit to Santa Claus.  As I mentioned on Facebook earlier, Santa and Mrs. Claus stopped at the Shante (a cozy little coffee shop) in Pillager as a part of their 2013 pre-Christmas World Tour (St. Nick must love to travel). It is amazing what a difference a year can make.  Last year Santa scared the hell out of the Boy.  Not that I really blamed him for being horrified.  He was asked to sit on the lap of this strange, white-bearded, brilliant red suit-wearing fat man. It kinda reeks of creepiness when you really think about it. But this year, the Boy couldn't wait to see Santa.  When we got to the Shante he immediately began his quest to find the man with the bag.  Once in his crosshairs, the Boy made a beeline for the jolly ol' elf, budging in front of all the other good little girls and boys, and cli...

So I got this letter yesterday from my insurance company telling me that an error had been made in the set up of both my health and pharmacy coverage.  They won't tell me what that error is or when it will be fixed, only that they are "in the process of correcting the error." Great.  I just can't wait to see where this is leading. But the best part is the last paragraph, which reads, verbatim : "If you have any questions you may call customer service, but be advised that they will not be able to provide complete information about your situation." Interpretation:  You can call us, but we can't help you. I've said this before - if I was this incompetent at my job, I would be unemployed. And with that, have a great weekend!

It's been two weeks since I updated things around here.  It seems blogging just creeps further down the priority list, but the kids are tucked in bed and sleeping (for now), so I'll take advantage of it. Disposal Blues Let's see, back on the 19th, the Wednesday we were set to leave for Farm Fest, we had a plumber here snaking things out and accessing pipes I didn't know existed in my house.  I had a bad experience with the food disposal - hey, I've never had one before, it's a learning process.  (When I was kid, the food disposal was called "Pepper," my dalmatian/black lab mix).  Anyway, long story short, I learned my lesson about putting too much down the disposal and I plugged things up good and proper (if you're going to screw things up, you might as well kick ass, right?).  The plumber came out and 3.5 hours and $300 later it was fixed.  Ouch. Farm Fest Another Farm Fest is now in the books.  A good time was had and for the first time in ...

Another day, another blog entry.  How about that? The dryer got fixed today.  The repairman said the blower belt was installed wrong at the factory - it was put on backwards or something - and slipped off, which in turn caused the thermostat to burn out.  Installed wrong at the factory!  I guess it is hard to find good help anywhere these days. Of course, it was totally covered by warranty, but if it wasn't the total damage would have been $177.  Dodged a bullet there. In other news, when I got home this morning, I found poor Beth in a bad way.  She has been battling a cold/upper respiratory infection for the last 10 days and she was miserable when I got home.  She hadn't slept and her head/jaw/eyes were killing her.  No doubt about it: this was sinusitis.  So I got her into Urgent Care at 9:10 AM and she finally got some antibiotics.  I hope she feels better soon.  I don't like to see her sick. Well, it is almost time for w...