Good Morning?

THIS is the scene that greeted me this morning. That's right, SNOW!

The frost in our yard has only gone down about a foot, so our yard is still sloppy and muddy. It has rained several times in the past 2 weeks, which only adds to the slop. The forecast for the next week calls for highs in the 50s...not enough to knock the frost out of the ground.

We finally got sick of our cable company's haphazard internet service and shoddy tv reception. We're now in the process of switching everything over to our phone company. They hooked up our DSL a week and a half ago.

We found out that free installation is worth exactly that...nothing! All the technician did was hook filters to our 2 phone lines and plugged in the wireless modem. Nothing worked after the technician left except the phones, which are static-filled. It took L and Z a week to get us running. The tech hadn't even left the codes to access our account! Our DSL is only running at 10% of what it should be. We're wondering if our 23-yr-old interior phone lines are to blame.

This week I bought new, heavier phone line to replace our old lines. L and Z were going to crawl under the house and replace the line today. L came down with stomach flu yesterday, so I suppose Z and I will now be crawling under the house. If the new phone line doesn't improve our service we'll start raising hell with the phone company.

We're still waiting for the satellite tv installer to show up. I can't wait to see what kind of screw-ups that will involve! IF we ever get the whole system up and running we'll be saving $50/month for the next 6 months, and $20/month for the following 18 months. With this package we'll be getting free, unlimited nationwide long-distance, caller ID, and call-waiting(which I don't want). We also got a free mini laptop out of the deal....SWEET!


Naturally, my kitchen painting project is going slower than I expected. It took me all last week to complete the south wall, which is pictured above. It takes 3 coats of primer to cover the pattern on the printed paneling, plus 2 coats of paint! The paint was supposed to be a deeper shade of gold, but we're still happy with the results. I only have one coat of paint left to apply to the north wall, then I'm on to the east, and final wall. The east wall contains our fridge and stove, so we'll be doing a LOT of appliance moving during this phase.

I've had several interruptions in my painting project. One evening I spent at a meeting that layed out our options for water-line replacement. I'll post more on this later.
Last week we had an overnight visit from a very close friend. This week my beloved cousin, who recently lost her husband, drove 6 hours for an overnight visit. Both of these visitors wanted to see my Dad before he has surgery on Monday.

I have no doubt that the surgery will cure my Dad's colon cancer. We're all worried about Dad surviving the surgery itself. My Dad is almost 80, and a diabetic. He's also been weakened by the treatment for his prostate cancer.

My Mom's dementia has worsened in the past 2 weeks. We're certain that this is caused by the stress of Dad's upcoming surgery. We don't want Mom driving alone, so L and I have planned out a schedule for getting her to the hospital to be with my Dad during the week he has to spend in the hospital. L will take Mom to the hospital in the morning and bring their dog to our house. I'll pick Mom up and feed her dinner at our house, then I'll take her and the dog home. We've had to explain this plan to Mom EVERY day for the past 2 weeks! I'm hoping that we'll be able to pull off our plan without confiscating her keys.

Oops..gotta run...the dish installer just called. He'll be here in 30 minutes. I'll keep you posted...

UPDATE: We just had the 2 sweetest guys install our satellite service! One guy played tug-of-war with Hairry, and the other took pictures of the snow to show his kids in Tucson. They explained, in detail, how to take down the dish when we re-side the house. They also got us free HBO and Starz for 3 months, even though it wasn't part of the package we'd signed up for! When I mentioned that we were running new phone lines under the house, they said to run lines to the converter boxes and we'll save $10/month off our dish bill. No problem!