Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice

Dad's visit went extremely well. I was a nervous wreck over his diabetes, but he didn't pass out or anything so I think I kept a good watch over him.

On the first day, he and Ben installed our new dishwasher. Our old one had died and it was cheaper to get a new one than it was to get the new part and a handyman to install it. We even got a great deal on  free delivery and free installation! Unfortunately you get what you paid for and the installers refused to do the work.

The installers claimed the new washer was too big to fit into the spot. Except the new one was the same size as the old one! He was measuring from the counter to the hardwood floor, not the counter to the unfinished floor that the washer was sitting on. When I pointed out all these things, he still refused because "he doesn't do floors." To add to my frustration, he wouldn't even attempt to remove the old washer for me.

I was extremely annoyed because I am sure most homes have their counters on unfinished floors. Why would anyone waste money on expensive hardwood flooring in a spot no one would ever see? The installer was just too lazy to do his job!

Since the original goal was to avoid the high costs of a handyman, I looked at airline tickets. It was cheaper to fly my dad in round trip than it was to hire someone to install the washer. So dad came to the rescue. And he didn't have that much trouble getting the old washer out and the new one in. There was one part where Ben and dad had to both lift the counter while I pushed the washer in, but other than that, the whole thing went in smoothly.

And my new washer is fantastic. It actually cleans things! (Unlike my old one which merely covered all my dishes in a film of ground up food.) I'm pretty pleased.

The next day, dad and I chopped down our horrible dead tree in the front yard. This tree was green and beautiful right before we bought our house, but the first spring after we moved in, it was half dead. Eventually the whole thing gave up. I suspect the previous homeowners poisoned it.

Anyway, dad tried to angle the tree to fall to the right of the house. Instead it fell to the left. By pure luck, my neighbor's mailbox had fallen  down a few days earlier, so we luckily did not crush it. The rest of the day was spent chopping the branches off and cleaning up the mess. The tree was horrifically brittle and sent broken branch pieces all over the road and my neighbor's yards. (My neighbors, by the way, all felt the need to come out and comment on the cut down tree. So nosy!)

The day after that, we bundled up the smaller branches. The bigger logs would make good firewood. I'm considering offering them to one of my neighbors a few houses down. He heats his house with a fireplace in the winter, so I'm sure he could use them. The bundles, we left in the street for trash pick up, but someone helpfully came in the middle of the night and took them away.

Dad had a half day left after that, so he fixed some outlets for me and helped me start painting a railing in my house. Ben had to help me finish, but it was good that we at least had the first coat taken care of.

So for the cost of a round trip airline ticket and a few days worth of food, I got my dishwasher installed, tree cut down, and various small projects around the house. Pretty good deal!

Now I get the fun and excitement of cleaning the house for another group of friends visiting. I got some of it done already, but I lost a lot of time this weekend fighting with an IMPOSSIBLE math assignment. I even asked my friend Rob, who does calculus for a living, for help and he agreed the assignment was way too hard for cal I. But with his help, I managed to get it done. Yay!

So I should probably get back to cleaning now. Ugh. I wish I wasn't so bad at maintaining a clean house.... But at least I have a dishwasher that works!

My first week of work was crazy.

When I arrived on saturday, everyone told me how happy they were to see me. Then they threw a giant pile of work at my head. :P

So apparently my predecessor left rather abruptly with a package in the works but very far behind. And no one else knew what to do with it because the woman DID NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN. They gave me that package to get out the door. We're still not there, but we are a lot closer than we were before and I have been writing stuff down to make the whole process easier as we get to the end.

Among the problems I've had:
- No contact info for the artist
- No status on draft or reviews of the art
- No indication if the copy was even final
- Specs for the art did not match original specs in the mail plan
- Mail plan didn't have ask build info (telling me how much money we should ask for from donors)
- Data strategy included 3 times more online activists than real donors (online activists are the suckiest type of prospects. you want to only have a few in the mix if you want any at all)

Despite absolutely no orientation training beyond "this is how you log into your computer" I have managed to keep this disaster floating at least. I hope at some point I will be given some training.

Aside from that crazy situation, the place seems nice. They threw a big welcome lunch for me the first day. And everyone has been very helpful when I come panicking to them because something else in that horrible nightmare project has exploded.

I share an office with a woman fresh out of college. She doesn't know anything about marketing at all so they have had to train her every day on everything. I didn't require that sort of training, so I was told by multiple people on Friday that I was "a rockstar" for being able to jump into the project and hit the ground running.

My clients are African Wildlife Federation, Food and Water Watch, and Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. It's a good mix, I think. I was afraid of getting clients with goals I didn't agree with, but these are all pretty good. (I'd be happier if that last one wasn't religious, but you can't win all battles.)

The workload is a little stressful right now (I had to work late on the first day!) but hopefully once I get more stuff written down, the madness will abate. I can't believe the previous woman never wrote anything down. How did she get anything done?

Anyway, other than that, life goes on as usual. I took Noname to the vet today. She developed a rash. I thought it might be the same rash Maggie had a little while ago, but it didn't respond to the medicine I had leftover from Maggie's treatment (just a solution to wash the region) so I made an appointment to get it checked out.

The vet said it probably started like Maggie's rash, but because Noname was licking it all the time, she introduced even worse bacteria that for some reason was resistant to the old medicine. So now she has a bottle of antibiotics and a bottle of antihistamines. Between the two, the rash should clear up and Noname should stop licking it. However, they didn't have any medicine around the office small enough for my dog! So I have to break up tiny capsules and roll them in cheese or something similar to deliver the medication. The vet even had me do a practice run in the office to make sure I could do it correctly.

After that adventure, I returned home to help stain the deck. During the summer, we only applied one coat before the heat wave hit and we couldn't work outside at all. Then came the rain that didn't stop for a month. The single coat didn't hold up well to that abuse at all. So now we have to completely start over. Ben worked on the floor while I did the tiny stupid details on the railings. I didn't finish, but the railings were in much better condition than the floor. Ben is going to apply a second coat tomorrow. I will probably work on the railings as I have time in the coming weeks.

The storm was nothing for my area, as I expected. In fact, we've had thunderstorms more powerful than that. When I went outside yesterday to check for storm damage, there wasn't even a broken branch on the ground.

However, I did find a crack in the foundation. This wasn't there on Tuesday, so I guess it popped up during one of the aftershocks. It's a small crack, so I don't think it'll be a big issue. After we seal it shut, it should be ok.

Ben and I took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon. I didn't see much damage there either. Pretty good. I'm glad we bought a house in a reasonably safe area.

Yesterday was a cleaning day for the most part. I got up early and started making the house ready for the puppy.

Then I took a break to go to the farmers market. The person selling strawberries and cherries was brilliant. She sliced up a bunch of fruit and let the wind take their smell all the way across the market. By the time I got to her booth, I HAD TO HAVE a box of cherries. They were as good as they smelled!

I also picked up cucumbers, which I brought home and turned into pickles. They will be tasty on burgers next weekend.

After that, ben and I finally finished applying the first coat of seal to the deck. We'll work on the second coat after the 4th of july. One coat is good enough for now. It was so hot, the stuff was drying almost instantly. It was a bit hard to work with.

We were starving after all that work, so we went out for fast food burritos. It was energy food! I felt much better after that.

When we got home, ben mowed the lawn and I continued my war with the weeds growing in our front garden. Some of the weeds are practically trees. Slowly I am cutting them all down and reclaiming the garden as my own.

I took a short nap after that. Then got up and did some more cleaning. Aside from a few heavy boxes I need ben to carry, I think the house has been fairly puppy proofed. Yay!

And then I took a couple minutes to give noname a bath because she was rolling in something awful smelling in the yard. She gets so adorably super hyper after a bath. She was running all over the house, flipping over and wiggling on every patch of carpet.

And then the day was over! Just like that! It went far too fast. I miss the weekend already.

We had a huge sudden storm last night. During the worst of it, it felt like the sky was exploding directly above my house. The whole house was shaking with each roll of thunder. The windows rattled, objects on tables bounced, and the walls were vibrating. It was pretty scary. I jumped more than a few times. And the dog and bird were equally terrified. They insisted on sticking close to me the entire time to protect them. I have never seen my bird that scared before.

Thankfully the storm left as quickly as it arrived. By the time ben got home, it had mostly faded. He was able to cuddle and reassure my pets while I was finally able to pry them off of me to shower.

This morning, the neighborhood felt like a rainforest room at a zoo. Very hot and humid. I thought it was neat. My dog was less amused and wanted to return to the ac as soon as possible. She is so spoiled.

I was highly productive today.

In the morning, I began to spray paint an old rusted firepit left behind by the former homeowners. I dream of summer smores. In between coats, I did laundry and worked in the garden a little bit.

Then ben and I went to the hardware store to pick up some supplies he needed for replacing a ceiling lamp and to look at garage and patio doors. It began to rain just as we got home. I was annoyed by that because I still had a lot to do. I decided to take a nap to wait it out. That was a good idea because the sun was back and shining when I woke up.

I spent the rest of the afternoon mowing the lawn in the backyard. It had grown very very tall. It took me hours to do. I was dripping in sweat when I was done. I badly needed a shower. Especially because I turned the sponge BLACK with all the dirt I had caked on me. Yuck!

I was too tired to make dinner after that, so we ate leftovers. But I think now I'm going to prepare some pie dough so I can make some mini veggie pot pies this week. Then sleep. Glorious glorious sleep.

I have done too much today. I am very tired.

I woke up early this morning to head to the farmer's market. I was in need of fresh spinach. It was obtained with only mild frustration. Why can't the market sell spinach by weight? How can I compare a bag vs a basket vs a different size bag? I had to eye it.

The market is much bigger than last year. There was a new pickle booth which was too crowded for me to check out. Also a wine booth. And alpaca yarn! But wow that yarn was expensive. I thought I could get some as a gift for a friend and then went "woah" at the prices.

While I was in the area, I browsed the used bookstore. I scored a copy of The People of Sparks. It's the sequel to City of Ember, which I enjoyed.

After that, I drove to a nearby park where I knew the county provided free compost. I filled three garbage bags worth.

From there I drove to the comic book store for Free Comic Books Day. I was dismayed because there was a three comic limit, but at least I had prepared so I knew what I wanted. I ended up getting the Captain America/Thor comic I REALLY wanted, plus Baltimore/Criminal Macabre and Civil war Adventure. The Mouse Guard comic I originally planned on getting was a reprint of a past issue I already owned. Which I guess makes sense if the goal is to get new readers instead of attracting the ones you already have. I had a hard time choosing my third one and ended up picking the civil war one because it looked so so lonely. It was the tallest stack in the store. Nobody loves history...

Captain America/Thor was just as delightful as I expected. It was both an ad for the Thor: the Mighty Avenger trade and a reward for all those that bought the comic in issues. It doesn't look like they plan on spinning it off into a series, but I hope someone at Marvel will give that creative team more work. They got ME to read super hero comics!

When I got home, I had a mild breakdown because I was doing so much stuff and ben had the audacity to ENJOY his weekend. He eventually came down and mowed the grass while I went out front and trimmed the TREES around the mailbox. The previous homeowners planted trees around the mailbox! What were they thinking!?

The neighbors were nice and let me borrow a hedge trimmer to tackle the branches. It actually wasn't that helpful, but it was quite nice of them. After about an hour of trimming and sawing, I got the trees in somewhat more respectable order and now the mailperson can actually get into our mailbox.

Then I went back into the yard and emptied all my mulch into my garden. And wanted to cry. Three huge garbage bags only filled 1/8 of the garden. I had to go back and get more... Thankfully ben was able to go with me this time and help. We stopped on the way to get sturdier bags so we could fill them even more. It started to drizzle as I was shopping, which didn't help my mental state, but the sun came back out soon enough. We ended up filling up 4 much bigger bags. They managed to fill the rest of the garden, just barely. Depending on how early I wake up tomorrow, I may go back and get more mulch while ben finishes sleeping.

We had burgers (well, I had nuggets) for dinner, so I went into a bit of a protein coma after dinner. I took a badly needed nap. Now I am awake and crave dessert. I am contemplating apples dipped in caramel. Then I think I will finish reading my comics. (The Captain America/Thor one was the only one I was in a rush to read.)

If I wasn't so tired, I'd ask ben to take me to the Thor movie tonight. *sigh* I was far too productive today.

I have not been enjoying homeownership. There is always something that has to be done on the house. For example, our lawn right now is so tall, I lose my dog in it. (She loves it though. She is a wild mighty hunter, stalking her prey on the grasslands.)

We finally bought a lawnmower last night. An electric one because I have never been able to start a gas one in my entire life. Plus gas is expensive these days. Tonight we'll need to set it up and charge it.

We also bought some border fencing (like these, but not that exact one) to finally build my compost bin. Which is great because we will have all those grass clippings to compost soon!

I need to start thinking about painting. We need to finish priming several rooms. And then we need to put a real coat of paint down. Anyone want to volunteer? I'll feed you!