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July 27, 2006
Getting down to the real poop...
Lori and the kids arrived a little after noon, yesterday, a little worse for wear from traffic and wrong turns. Apparently while wading through a little heavier traffic Lori mused to the kids why there was so much traffic. Kieran: "Maybe they are all going to Grandma's" Gotta love that kid. snort.
After a little lunch and some bed jumping we headed out to the pool where I was much impressed with their ease in the water and swimming process. Lori suggested in a couple of years they would be playing Marco Polo...Grandma: "Over my cold dead body" Nothing will send me covering my ears faster from a pool than a bunch of kids playing Marco Polo. ::::::::::willies::::::::::::
After about an hour and a half of some pretty strenuous cavorting about the pool, Kieran declared he wanted to go home..his real home. Delving a little deeper, he was tired and wanted to take a nap. Pop Pop's bed in the hotel room would do and he was out like a light. As was Mommy, and Grandma started to drift off on the couch with Maura until a whispered singing of "Where is thumbkin" caught my attention. Somehow my smirking gave approval for a closer examination of under my eyelids by Maura. We played with pencils and paper and computers while Kieran and Mommy slept...it took a while but I found where Maura had dragged and dropped ALLLLLLLLL my pictures. Pesky Mouse.
Pop Pop joined us after work for trip down to the beach in West Haven and hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches at Chick's. While sitting there, I felt a thwack across my back and turned to glare at the kids behind us who obviously were throwing things around...nobody there. Hmmmm...my back still fet icky...ummmm..Me: "Honey, do you see anything on my back?" Greg: "urp".... Thank heavens Lori was there and still in cleaning poop mode although Kieran is doing very well with very few accidents. Damn Seagulls........eeewwww.........
I know we all slept well last night. I declared I had not had that much exercise in a pool in years.
Oh yeah, I'm not sure I mentioned our hotel neighbor and his cell phone conversation the other night. He's got one of those voices that is loud and low and just resonates right through you, especially when he chooses to stand on the landing right outside our door to chat. I popped open the door to explain to him how loud he was and he moved back into his room with many apologies. So how come this morning at 6:15am, he thought it was just fine to carry on another conversation right outside our door? I whipped it open and glared at his friend who was standing there waiting for him (HE had moved back into the room again) Me: "His voice is too loud" Friend: "Ok, I'll tell him" Me: " I told him that the day before yesterday!" Slam door. Greg: " You didn't sound as nice as you did the night before". Me: "Once is excusable, twice? He's just an ass and doesn't understand nice..." gggrrr...
Moving right along. So how are the gas prices in your neighborhood? We left VT having filled up the two cars last week. Medium grade $3.07 for one and $2.99 for the other. Here in CT I saw Costco had reg for $3.07 and high for $3.29. Stop and Shop had medium for $3.29 and $3.27 with your Stop & Shop card....then I had a 10 cents/gal off coupon so I got my fill up for $3.17 which who am I kidding, is really $3.18. that should get us back to VT.
I think I might do some pool hanging today..it's already pretty hot and muggy. Have a good day all......
Posted by frani at 09:38 AM | Comments (6)
July 26, 2006
Witty Title...not
So things are going along here in New Haven. It's been hot and the humidity is on the rise.
There are quite a few residents here at the Residence Inn (duh). The evening snack time is great for viewing the inhabitants and making guesses about them. Some are patients at Yale New Haven hospital...unfortunately they are a little obvious. There have been two groups of men sitting together this trip. Greg proclaimed one group to belong with the Comcast trucks and the other, I speculated to be military. Next morning at breakfast, Greg's group were wearing Comcast shirts and my guys were in desert fatigues. We're good.
We lost internet access for a little bit this morning but it's back..whew. Of course whenever I come down here I have a friend who has a Palm Life drive like mine and we always have issues we try to clear up by comparing our settings and new found knowledge. So this morning, when I called her to proclaim I remembered the internet access issue and walk her through it, neither one of us could connect. sigh...the Squiggly line has to be off, Leslie! Just wish I could remember what the Squiggly line was.
In the meantime I'm waiting for a visit from Lori and the kids this morning...yea! I'm so excited to be able to see them. We were feeling bad that they were just far enough away to make a trip over to see them not an option this time and the weekends weren't good for either of us. They are undergoing kitchen redo hell and Greg needs to get home to get ready to leave again on Sun. Soooo, it's great for us that Lori is willing to come here with the kids...hhhmmm, maybe the workman will miss them "watching"...hehehe.
We'll play in the pool then have some dinner by the ocean after we pick up PopPop from work. ;-D
Have a good day all
Posted by frani at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2006
Blog Fodder
Soooo, along with Saturday's rain, I heard a knock at the front door. Poor things, I thought...hard to sell stuff in the rain especially at our front door with the poring down rain spout off to the side. Well lo and behold, slap me silly, it was an AOL PPer and her daughter. Explanation: I belonged to a message board group on AOL since 1995 and had met many many wonderful women over the years and here was Gail standing at my door! Well silly me, I had no idea so I'm sure she got the blank stare to start with..it picked up after that, I hope. ~~~~ at Gail...thanks for the visit!
I realized recently that without traveling, I found blog fodder was at an all time low. Fear Not, Fans! We're in New Haven, CT this week and the blog fodder can't get much lower than this!
No really, the CT drivers still drive in the left lanes...must be they all vacationed in VT so they were heading home yesterday..a caravan of Caravans (Windstars etc) all in the left lane. Sigh.
I only nodded off once (falling into the console of the car)while listening to the audio book..TG for seat belts.
I forgot how to make coffee in the hotel room with the traveling vac pot...um..it needs work but then again I'm comparing it to my "normal" double shot espresso cappuccino I get out of my home "coffee pot" Oh well.
BTW..we are back in New Haven again instead of staying in the outskirts. The room is a little seedier than before, but the new staff is pleasant and the old staff gave me hugs, the Internet connection is functioning and the area around Yale-New Haven has only one piece of construction to contend with...I guess we'll survive.
I'm hoping things will pick up a bit while I'm here...I may go to the beach, or just sit at the pool. I may see some friends if I can convince them to come this way. Hey! I noticed a banner on the way back from dropping Greg at work...Concert on the green next Saturday features the Temptations! Cool...we won't be here but cool anyway.
Have a fine day all and you just might hear from me sooner, 'specially if there is fodder!
Posted by frani at 09:03 AM | Comments (2)
July 15, 2006
Catching up.....
We do have a new tenant...Jamie is a sweet young thing fresh out of college with her first job and a Daddy who is very handy. I like that in a tenant. Apparently she wasn't anymore attached to the paint Colleen had applied to the walls than I was so Daddy spent 3 days repainting. Works for me...I think...I haven't seen the new colors as yet...wonder how many coats it took to cover those orange walls in the bathroom. HHmmm...and to think the apartment has the same lovely blue toilet/sink/tub we just removed from our bathroom...nice.
It now takes me 2 days to mow my lawn...well it's HOT out there and the yard is uneven and has inclines and and and...and my lawnmower doesn't just go by itself. I think it's time to trade in for a self-propelled model...maybe next year. I am NOT Old...no one would like to push that thing around in the heat and humidity.
So I was quite excited when my future Granddaughter-in-law ran up to me yesterday and wanted to be picked up and hugged...hey she's two...afterall, she really hasn't seen me very much at all. Then she ran up to Greg and wanted hugs from him too...hrumph...guess she's the friendly type. Will have to curb that in the future but in the meantime, I think she and Kieran could set the world aflame someday. ( I purposely chose my words...I really didn't intend to use the phrase "set the world on fire")snort...
So when you oven fills with smoke while you are preheating and you really can't remember anything spilling over in there, you might want to just check it out before just switching to self clean mode. The bright light (might have been flames) emanating through the oven door was a clue there was something amiss. Cancel clean, wait for cool down, aaaahhhh broken fractured bubbled up broiling element. All fixed after a little trip out to my local Amana dealer for a new element.
For the past year and a half..maybe 2 years...my car has been "telling" me to Fill Coolant Fluid on a routine basis. Even I know this is not normal. I received a new water pump the first time I brought it in to be fixed. From then on, things have been tightened, adjusted, not problem found, etc but I was still filling the coolant fluid. people were taking to leaving notes on my car..."hey I noticed all your antifreeze was pouring out of your car!" It was rather embarrassing, never knowing when your car was going to leave the little telltale yellow green dribble in some public area. Do they make Depends for cars? The latest diagnosis was the radiator cap...I am now sporting a new one...we'll see.
Leo/Eldon came by yesterday to pick up more of his stuff out of the garage. I think he took it all. Not to worry, he still has ladders and scaffolding around the yard...he's no more really gone than either of our sons who have "stuff" here. So, rumor has it Leo is off to my Partner in Crime's home next week...now Lizzie, you have to keep him for at least a year and take good care of him. BTW, I showed Leo the redo of the upstairs bathroom after he did his part and he was impressed enough not to give me any crap at all! ;-D
Hhhhmmm...strange...my stream of consciouness chatting/typing has just shifted all around. yeah Ok, I must have done something to cause it but I'm not going to worry about it now or fix it...have a fine weekend all...
Time to forrage for breakfast type foods...
Posted by frani at 08:37 AM | Comments (2)
July 06, 2006
Just call me Craig...
So our apartment is empty again and I was loathe to go through the advertising in the newspaper thing again. I'd tried the word of mouth and was hopeful on a couple of occasions but nothing. Time to become a bit more proactive.
Advertising in the newspaper is awful on so many levels. It's expensive ( nearly $300 )and I really only need 5 people to answer...not 105. I've held an open house arrangement in the past..here's the info, here's the address, show up for viewing between these hours on this day and fill out an application and I'll choose. that's fine be still crazy and you still get a bunch of crazies...do I really want a bunch of crazies knowing where I live? O'Yeah well, we can't do anything about family and friends but strangers we can, ya know.
So I thought I'd try to find some other way...so I Googled SB apartments and after a couple of listings for places that charge $65 and $30 for ads that run a month ( as if I need that!), I saw craigslist vermont!
Well holy moly ( slap my forehead, I coulda had a V8, why didn't I think of that before)..I never even considered that...what the heck...what have I got to lose I'll post a little something and see what I get for response. "Craig" said my post would show up within 15 minutes so I was looking around at all the stuff listed...5 minutes, fans...I had my first response within 5 minutes. 10 within an hour and 31 in the 24 hours it's been up and before I pulled it. I've shown it to 4 prospects and I'm pretty sure one of them will take it.
Not too shabby, not too hard on me and some of the "getting to know you" and weeding out is already done for me. Using a work email address is good for me.....;-D Finding someone as being resourceful was impressive...oh I don't recall giving you my full first name and you?, we set up an an appointment and I never gave you the house #. so as I'm googling you, you are googling me huh? Fair enough.
I guess as accustomed as I am to using the Internet, I'm frequently amazed still by it's usefulness...and for Ben's Dad Joe in Alaska...thank you for your inquiry but my name's Fran, not Craig, Craig is just a listing/classifieds service...oh never mind, you can call me Craig if you like.....snort.
Have a good day all.....
Posted by frani at 02:02 PM | Comments (6)
July 03, 2006
Moving on up...to the East side...
So it looks like our tenant, of the four legged variety, has been out shopping for new digs....literally! She dug a massive hole under the porch right next to the foundation. She threw dirt all over my lawn mower AND my wood chipper in the process, too. I was getting somewhat concerned about all of this especially if she really did decide to chuck wood while she was underthere...not on my new porch thank you! Then I didn't see her for a couple of days until this morning as she scampered across our lawn into the neighbor's lawn to the East of us. Admittedly they have a much nicer yard..groomed and landscaped as it is and all and besides, we have been enjoying our porch the last few evenings with my Sister/Brother-in-law from Maine. We may have been just a tad to boisterous for her since we saw her again later this afternoon carrying a big sheet of plastic, which had been part of our foundation lining, with her over to the neighbors. Don't ya just hate when the tenants move out and take your belongings with them? Ingrate. I can't imagine she would chose Jasmine the dog over us inspite of all the pretty flowers and gently groomed grass. hrumph.
Buh-bye.
Posted by frani at 05:09 PM | Comments (4)