None

My car has been fine since it went to the mechanics'.

We are probably going to go to the county fair tomorrow. This year I don't think they were selling any discounted ride tickets before the fair started, so we'll have to pay full price. That means we won't be doing more than a ride or two for N and J. A ride ticket costs $1 for a ticket. If you buy 30 tickets, you can get them for $27. Each ride costs two to five tickets. Lunch will be deep fried and expensive.

J's kindergarten orientation was today. I skipped it since it is too hard to do with small children (as I discovered at N's when J was little). We found out Wednesday that J has the only other kindergartener she knows at her school (the little sister of one of N's friends) in her class. We are very pleased because there are five kindergarten classes so the chance of this happening wasn't great. All J's preschool friends live where they will go to different schools (richer neighborhoods). Since I wasn't going to orientation, I gave J's bag of school supplies to the mom of her friend, and she took it when she went to orientation. She also brought me back a packet of information that I need to look at and fill out. That was very nice of her.

School begins Tuesday, right after Labor Day. We're doing the fair tomorrow, having a cookout and camp fire Sunday, and I'm not sure what we'll be doing on Monday, our last day before school's starting.

I took N and J to the shoe store after playgroup yesterday. Both of them needed shoes 1 1/2 sizes bigger than the shoes they were wearing. No wonder they had been complaining their feet hurt when they had to wear their shoes during Vacation Bible School! N and J have worn sandals all summer except at Vacation Bible School. The kids behaved pretty badly at the shoe store, and K got into everything and tried to rearrange all the shoe displays. I remembered why I delayed taking the kids in.

We had rabbit with rice and gravy for dinner. The kids actually ate dinner. That's one thing (besides bacon and pancakes) that they'll eat.

My car is so expensive

My car has failed us again. I just got it back from the shop last night, and now I'm a bit over $700 poorer. I admit that $400 of that was getting all the fluids changed at 50,000 miles, as I'm supposed to. It also nearly overheated Saturday evening, and when I checked it, there were only puddles in the antifreeze reservoir. I added a bottle of pre-mixed, and it still took more. I mixed some more up and put it in.

Then the car wouldn't start in 96 ° F weather on Sunday, but I guess it picked an okay spot to fail us. We had just looked at potential rental property (not in good areas) and were stopping by 7-11 to get treats for the kids for behaving during the boring search for new property. We were in a not-that-bad area between Mr. K's office and our house (also near the gym I go to). When we started it up, it was as though the battery were no longer working. Nothing happened, and even the overhead light didn't go on (it still had when the battery died last week). My roadside service number had a warning that due to the high volume of calls, I'd have at least a 15 to 20 minute wait to reach someone. Since we were using a cell phone, I was afraid of killing the battery. After trying to reach any friends of mine who live in the area, trying to reach a cab company to get the kids out of there with one of us, and finally arranging to have Pop-A-Lock come and try to jump start the car, I went out to the parking lot where Mr. K had the kids, and found some kind person had tried to jump start the car and the motor was running again, but they felt that the car started more from their moving the connection around than from their trying to jump start it.

We took the car straight to the mechanics, stopping by our house long enough to drop Mr. K off so he could take the truck to the mechanics with us to get dropped off so that he could take us all home in the car, and return the car to the mechanics to leave it there and drive his truck home. Meanwhile, we dared not shut off the car's engine. (We play musical cars like this any time we take my car in because we have no other vehicle that will hold us all, and no one around to watch the kids so that just Mr. K and I can go.)

I had several other things I wanted them to do while the car was in. It was supposed to get its safety inspection in September, but since I don't want to take it in again, I had them do that, too. They found a leaking crack in the break cylinder. I'm not sure what that means, but I had them replace it. The engine light has been coming on and then going off. They weren't able to figure out why, and they don't know why my antifreeze level dropped; they couldn't find a leak.

The reason my battery failed me at the 7-11 is because when the new connectors were installed, the guy didn't remove the paint from the wires so the connection was precarious. My mechanic removed the paint from the wires so it won't happen again.

It was a hot day so the mechanic couldn't get my belts to squeak, but I'm sure they will again when the weather is cooler.

I am hoping my car will be fine now. It's going to be seven years old on September 30. N was just a baby when I got it. I'm hoping it will survive one more year. It should; it only has about 51,000 miles on it.

New car battery

Mr. K was able to watch the kids while I took my car in for a new battery this morning. First he had to jump start the car. In order to do that, he had to scrape a bunch of bluish crystals off the battery connection. I'm guessing it was copper sulfate.

I drove my car to the auto store that will install the new battery while one waits. I got my last battery there March 2006. I didn't have the receipt, but they had the record of it in their computer, which was good, because that battery had a three-year warranty. I got the replacement for free.

When the technician went to install the battery, he was so surprised by all the corrosion and crystal gunk that he went in to get the manager. The manager said it had been years since he had seen one look so bad. He sold me some replacement connectors to the battery (less than $4) and then did the battery replacement himself instead of having the technician do it. Instead of disconnecting the old battery, he cut it off at the connectors and then replaced them with the new connectors while installing the new batter. I started the car up with no problem and then went back home.

I haven't started the car up since then, but I need it to run tomorrow morning when Mr. K, the kids, and I meet the real estate agent at the first of the four little houses we'd like to see the insides of. If it fails me, Mr. K will have to go alone in our old truck.

Six stitches

Mr. K is back. He was gone less than 1 1/2 hours. It was actually closer to 1 hour. I'm impressed. He said the waiting room was nearly empty, and since his head wasn't actively bleeding, he left the towel in the truck so everyone could see the bloody mess all over his head. He figures that got him service even more quickly.

Antibiotics tear his digestive system apart, so he talked the doctor out of prescribing them now. If his cut starts to get infected, though, he'll need to go back and get some. I sprayed his hat with Lysol this evening to try to kill any germs in it to keep them from getting in his wound tomorrow. It's a good thing he wears a hat as part of his uniform. He can't wash his hair for a while. They shaved it in the area of the stitches. He keeps his hair so short you can see his scalp, and what you can see now has quite a bit of dried blood on it. The stitched area itself has some type of gel on it.

Trouble

Mr. K is at the local urgent care facility. He cut his head open (about a 2-inch gash) by bumping it on the sheet metal roof over the rabbits when he was feeding them. It bled very much. He soaked a bunch of paper towels before I gave him a dishcloth. As soon as I had a peek, I started loading everyone into the car, telling him it looked like he'd need to see a doctor. We got into the car, and it wouldn't start. The battery was dead.

Fortunately, my neighbor who doesn't actually live in her house yet although she's owned it for about three years (not the neighbor with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other) was at her house mowing the lawn. She was willing to do whatever we needed to help. I know she teaches health at the local community college. I asked her if she'd had first aid. She said she teaches first aid. She came into the house (I think Mr. K had hoped everyone would just leave him alone and let him be), and I got her some vinyl gloves. She looked at Mr. K's head and said it looked like it would need stitches, but she also mentioned the bleeding had pretty much stopped.

She offered to take Mr. K to the local urgent care place, but in the end, he refused and drove himself in the truck since the bleeding had stopped. I wasn't happy, but with my battery dead, there wasn't much I cold do.

He's been gone nearly an hour. I don't expect him back for a long time. There's usually a long wait at that place. No appointments are necessary, and they don't make appointments at all. Because they are opened until 10 p.m. and no appointments are necessary, Mr. K made that place his primary care physician for our insurance. I did that a long time ago myself, but they aren't very competent and couldn't identify my Lyme Disease, my cellulitis, and misdiagnosed me with a kidney infection when I only had an adverse reaction to the antibiotic I was taking for a bladder infection. Mr. K prefers convenience to quality so he kept them. I'm sure they'll know how to stitch him up. The other great thing about this place is that they are about 1 1/4 mile from our house, and you don't need to get on a busy street to get there.

Tomorrow Mr. K is supposed to show the rental house to someone. When he comes home, I need to ask him about canceling that appointment. I'll need him to watch the kids tomorrow evening so I can get the battery replaced. If the battery isn't replaced, I won't be able to go with him to look at houses Saturday, and he'll have to take J by himself in his truck to a birthday party she's invited to Saturday afternoon.

Isn't it amazing the way the battery died (it only started giving indications of trouble this morning) right when I needed it for an emergency?

None

My dishwasher is fine. I was able to cancel the appointment. It was operator (me) error. I thought it was still running because the lights hadn't gone out. When the light switches from washing to drying to clean, it is done. It means the dishes are clean. It only takes a bit over two hours to run a cycle, which is longer than the previous dishwasher, but not unreasonable. It sure beats hand-washing all the dishes. That was driving me crazy.

I spent most of Sunday (after church) doing computer paperwork. I wasn't done until dinner time. Mr. K's office person was on vacation, and I was entering invoices and confirming that commissions were tracked correctly for her. It took me extra time because she has changed how it is done from how it was a couple years ago when I did more of it. I kept having to re-do stuff that wasn't coming out right because I barely knew what I was doing. Adding the commission part makes it so it is too much trouble for her to send it to me normally. She did have an office assistant, but the assistant quit about a month ago, not leaving time to hire and train another before her vacation.

Mr. K is setting up a new solar-powered electric fence around our filbert bushes. He's testing it out to see if it does what it says it does. We would prefer to eat the nuts without sharing them with the squirrels. We planted the bushes.

We still don't have our rental house rented, but Mr. K and I are going to look inside some new properties on Saturday. I think the problem with this one is two-fold. It is on the bad area/good area line, and it is boring and ugly from the outside. Our next house will have some curb appeal.

I ordered some pink jeans from L.L. Bean. They arrived yesterday. The fit isn't perfect, but they were $9.95 on clearance, and they arrived at my house so I didn't have to go shopping. I got a cream shirt and a white shirt, too. I can go out with my girls with all of us wearing pink pants now. Scary! My color choices were pink or orange. I don't think I've ever worn orange except for a pumpkin costume when I was a kid, and I have no plans to start now. Today I'm expecting a pink fair isle sweater. I placed a couple orders from their August clearance catalog. It will be nice to have a few new things this fall. This year I'm in the mood for things that are pink, brown, beige, and white.

N and J finished swimming lessons today. Next week is their last full week before school begins. I'm getting excited! K and I will have the run of the city together. N and J will have their minds filled and expanded, and I won't have to listen to them fight all day.

The hot side of the Cold War

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, during the Cold War. Of course I know the Russians are the bad guys. They always have been, and I suspect I will never trust them, even though the U.S.S.R has been gone for what is getting close to two decades. I do not trust President Vladimir Putin. I still consider him to be KGB. In no way do I trust the man. Generally I've even considered him to be unattractive, too.

Well, I have to revise that last bit. I just saw a news story that includes a topless picture of President Putin. He's actually a very good-looking man in just his trousers. I'd never have guessed. I'll try to post the link.

Anyway, it doesn't change my politics. It just surprises me.

Also it has me hoping President Bush doesn't get the idea that he should pose topless, too. He looks just fine in a suit, and I really don't want to see any president of ours without all his clothing on. It's not dignified.

There she is

Here she is. I took this shot of her this afternoon when we were out playing in the yard.

Dishwasher woes

I now have a dishwasher that doesn't leak. The thing is, it doesn't work correctly, either. I ran my first load yesterday, and it wasn't done after five hours. I called Whirlpool, and they think it sounds like something wrong with the heating element. They will send someone here on Wednesday afternoon to fix it.

I won't go into all the details here since they bore and frustrate me, but I found that the dishwasher is broken after I pay a plumber to install it, and he has to make many modifications to my plumbing to make room for the unit. It is deeper than the old one, and doesn't fit into the hole well even now because it bumps against the drain and water pipes in the back of the cupboard it fits into. In my kitchen, the piping is in the back of the cupboards because there is no basement beneath the kitchen, and no access to the space below the kitchen. The plumber moved the water line and drain line all the way back against the back wall of the cupboard to just gain a couple inches of space in which to push in the dishwasher. The door sticks out a couple inches from the cabinets, but I could live with that if only it would wash dishes.

Our power was out for a while. Thursday evening we had a huge thunderstorm. It was one of the worst ones I've ever seen. We had hard rain and thunder and lighting here from around 8 p.m. until at least 2 p.m. (when I finally fell asleep). Our power went out before 9 p.m. It came on yesterday afternoon. It made things a little trickier for the plumber, who finished the job yesterday. Mr. K's rain gauge said we got 4.5 inches (there was a little gap unfilled above that). I told him the rain was coming down hard enough that I think it overflowed his gauge and the gap was only because it splashed out. He didn't agree. Then I found my Brita water pitcher, which had been left out empty to sit on top of a bale of straw N is using as an archery target. It was full except for a gap at the top. Mr. K measured that. It held six inches. I think we got more than that and it splashed out, but Mr. K doesn't think so. We'll never know because I don't have anything else out there that held more.

Just Peachy

We'll see if I run out of time or material to write about first. I'm guessing it will be computer time.

Yellow Walter: Mr. K found him dead under a bush yesterday evening. His head/neck was chewed up. Mr. K suspects a mink from the creek down the road sneaked up and got him. N is very sad and gets upset when I want to look at old pictures of him. I had planned to use the picture in the previous post as my computer's wallpaper, but it upsets N too much. I had forgotten that this rooster has been our lead rooster all of N's life, as far as he can remember. He doesn't remember Black Walter or Ugly Walter. The original Walter Emanuel ### (### replaces my maiden name since I don't wish to post it here) was my paternal grandfather's name--my name was German for rooster, so I guess I just gave it away). The first Walter was killed by a hawk when N was a baby.

Peaches: We have peaches going out our ears. Our peach tree is producing white peaches faster than we can use them. I made a chilled peach pie this weekend. I used a homemade graham cracker crust (excellent) instead of a traditional crust. It had raw peaches held in place with a Jello-based glaze. It's gone now. Mr. K baked a two-crust pie with some of his peaches. He's made a cake-like cobbler a couple times. Mostly he's been cutting them up and putting an orange-juice/sugar based syrup over them before freezing them in freezer containers. I lost count long ago about how many are now in our freezer.

Sunday Evening: Yesterday evening we (all but Mr. K) were supposed to go with one of N's friends and his mom to their church for a harvest festival. They were late getting back from Williamsburg because of the traffic, so we were going to leave about an hour later than we had planned. K was getting too fussy because it was near her bed time so I canceled. While I was on the phone, Mr. K agreed to watch K so we could go. We got to the church to find it was over; we had missed. Instead, N's friend's mom suggested we go to a putt-putt golf place with an arcade room. We did. As J and I walked in, she said she had to go to the bathroom really badly and couldn't hold it (and this after I asked her if she had to go before we left). She proceeded to pee all over the floor. I had to get an attendant to mop it up, and then I left N there with his friend while I took J back home to change. When we got home, that's when Mr. K showed us Yellow Walter's body as he began digging the grave for him.

I mentioned Yellow Walter's death to N when we returned to the arcade. He was shocked. I didn't go into any detail at that time. J got her tokens, but she's really to young to play so we went to some machines and tried to figure out what she might like to play. There was one machine we put a token in and pushed a button twice to stop two moving lights. A few tickets (for prizes) spewed out of the machine. I looked at the instructions and saw you were supposed to try to line the lights up. I did it again, and the first light stopped at a line named "bonus." I pushed the button to stop the next light, and it also stopped at the line labeled "bonus." Tickets started spewing out of the machine. They came out for a very long time. People stopped and stared. Finally the machine ran out of tickets when it still held 74 more for me. I got the attendant to add more. I think it was a total of 955 tickets that spewed out of the machine. You could say I hit the jackpot, except the stuff you buy with the tickets looks like it came out of a pipeline direct from China. It's pretty much nothing I'd want in my house. I turned the tickets in for a slip of paper that showed how many tickets it counted. You use these slips to trade in for the prizes. At ticket 302, it jammed, and I had to get the attendant to fix the machine. Since it was J's ticket I had used, I let her have the ticket credit. She got six decks of cards, three tootsie pops, and one tootsie roll with her tickets. She shared a deck of cards and a tootsie pop with N, who was very jealous of all the tickets J got. I was glad to get out of there without junk that had small plastic choke-hazard parts.

Dishwasher: My dishwasher has been running poorly lately, and the covering on the rack is worn away in a lot of places so it gets rust stains on my dishes. Today Mr. K noticed the floor is coming up near the dishwasher, and he'd been wondering about a bit of molding near it that was looking water-damaged. It turns out it was water-damaged. Mr. K got the lower front part of the dishwasher, and we turned it on. Water spurted out. We don't know how much wood damage has occurred or how long it's been leaking like this. Anyway, I had to hand wash all the dishes. I've decided not to call a plumber. Since I'm thinking of a new dishwasher anyway, I don't want to pay a plumber to fix this problem so I can turn around and buy a new one in a couple months. I'll just look for another dishwasher in the next couple days. When it is installed, I want them to turn it on and look to see that it doesn't leak. I don't know if the problem is with my pipes, the old dishwasher, or the connection. I'll take my chances that a new dishwasher will fix the problem. If it doesn't, I'll have a plumber come out and hook up a new one so that it doesn't leak.

Well, I'm about done, and I have to go do other things.

Yellow Walter, Ours April 2002-August 2007, Rest in Peace

Sunday

K was a little terror at church this morning. I finally took her into the foyer and let her run around. Then she was happy. Then I felt guilty for rewarding her for bad behavior. I took her back into the sanctuary just in time for her dad to take her up with him when he took communion. I left with her a couple minutes before the end of the service because she started yelling again. Mr. K told me she was poopy. When we got home, I found that she wasn't He concluded he just must have smelled bad gas from the elderly lady who sat ahead of him.

We had our doughnuts and coffee. That's my favorite part of Sunday. Church is a pain since I can't even follow what is going on because I'm so busy dealing with the kids. Mr. K doesn't believe in using the nursery.

Mr. K is at the store with our neighbor. The neighbor is getting more beer and cigarettes (and groceries). Mr. K is going to pick up some string cheese because I forgot to get any when I went to the store last night, and K is in a phase where she eats several cheese sticks a day. She's able to bite them apart with only three teeth.

For the next two weeks, N and J have swimming lessons. I have to get them to the YMCA pretty early. I think we need to be there by 9 a.m. After the lessons, I think I have one unscheduled week left before they start school.

When Mr. K gets back from the store, he's going to harvest a chicken. It will be the little chick we got that a hen hatched on her own earlier this year. He turned out to be a cockerel so we'll eat him. He's not a little chick any more. I'm going to make a recipe called "Bread Pan Pheasant" that I found on the Internet with him in a day or two. (I'm sure a scrawny chicken can be substituted for a pheasant.)

I'm also planning to make a Stromboli this week for dinner. I got some deli meat at the store last night. I had to make a substitution, though. I was supposed to buy something called capocollo. Our deli didn't have any. I decided to try prosciutto instead. I'm not sure how similar they are, but they are both strange Italian deli meats. Good enough for me.

I guess I must be hungry. I keep writing about food.

Lost another chick

Today J wanted me to wake up the female chick. She wouldn't wake up (dead). I got rid of her. Now we have just a little cockerel left. I'm afraid he's lonely since he wasn't ever alone until today. I took him out to our deck and lured the other chickens to the deck with bread so he could see and hear them. He was twice the size of the chick that died, and I'd been worried about her because she hadn't been growing. I pick him up more now since he's alone, but I don't want to get too attached because we'll end up eating him. We would have kept the female.

Mr. K has another batch of eggs in the incubator so perhaps we'll get more chicks in a couple weeks (I forget when they're due).

I'm contemplating taking a trip to Washington, D.C. with N, J, and K. Mr. K won't go. I was thinking of catching the Amtrak in Glen Allen and then riding it to Washington. (I'm the only one I know around here who doesn't call it D.C.) I'll have to do it on a Saturday because I don't want to have a bunch of commuters on the train, and I don't think we'll go until after school starts. I need to figure out what kid-friendly things I can do. It looks like my diaper bag will have to get searched at most places in Washington to assure I'm not a terrorist or a criminal. If I go ahead with my plans, I'll need to come up with stuff to do for about five or so hours. We'll arrive around 1:05 and leave around 7:30. I could arrive earlier if I wanted to leave earlier, but I can't imagine why I would want to do that. It will be hard finding enough stuff to do with K. Since she's less than two, she rides the Amtrak for free.

Clothesline not working

My new clothesline isn't drying stuff completely. Even with the extreme heat (around 100 °F), wet clothing can spend the day outdoors and still come in damp because of the humidity.

Heat

Today has been the hottest day I have ever experienced. The official high temperature was 104 °F. I think that's 40 °C. The weather defies description.

A moment at the computer

It's been hard to get a chance to use the computer. I think Mr. K's business has been slow lately, so he's been home between appointments during the day using the computer. N and J have been eating dinner a little more often so they've both been using the computer a lot, too.

This morning after I dropped of N and J at the church, I took K to Target, and we began the horrid process of trying to purchase all the junk they need for school. Back in Michigan, all this stuff is provided because they view school attendance as a state mandate so they need to provide the materials need for school since they require you to attend. Virginia isn't so smart. I bought many, many packs of crayons, pencils, glue sticks, bottles of glue, folders, markers pens erasers, etc. If it weren't for China, I don't know how we could have afforded all this junk. We used far fewer things when I went to school, and the school provided that sort of stuff.

The worst thing is that I hate shopping, and trying to match the stuff up to a list was impossible. J needed two 4 oz. bottles of glue, but it didn't say school glue. I found a couple at Target. N needed one 8 oz. bottle of white school glue. They didn't have any that size that were school glue except a bottle of bluish gel school glue, but it wasn't white so I didn't get it. (I had to go to Staples later to try to find the stuff I couldn't locate at Target.) At Staples, I found only 4 oz. bottles of white school glue. The 8 oz. bottles held all-purpose glue. I ended up getting two 4 oz. bottles because I got sick of shopping.

J needed a 10-pack of washable markers. I found all sorts of packages of them, but it took me a long time to find a pack that held 10 markers. These problems at finding exactly what was on the list were driving me crazy. At least J's glue stick requirement had options--10 jumbo glue sticks or 20 regular ones. I found 20 regular ones pretty easily.

In past years, they'd ask for like six packs of 16 crayons. Those are expensive if you can even find them. The 24-packs go for about 25 cents per pack (20 cents this year). I'd just get the bigger pack because it's so much cheaper. This year they allowed for the 24-packs on the list, probably because so many people bought them anyway because they are the ones that are cheaper during the back-to-school sales.

Gotta go now. Mr. K has come home and needs the computer.