What a Difference!

 Lisa did a great job on this coffee table!

Winter Prep

We cleaned and prepped the backyard for winter today, and it involved an awful lot of frustration and threats to get the kids to do anything. Sometimes I'm certain they could build the Hoover Dam in a day if they wanted to, and on other days I can't get them to wipe their butt without guidance. Thank God Lisa got home and cracked the whip midway through, or we'd still be out there.

The New Mailbox

I just put up our new mailbox. First new one here, if the web is right about the age of the old one, since the '30's.

I Need to Learn to Bargain Better

 I just offered Junie five dollars to clean the basement bathroom, the one that YaYa has abused so badly with hair and makeup mess that no one uses it anymore.

"Five dollars??!! " she said incredulously.

" That's great money for a seven year old, " I said. "Who do you think you are, Shirley Temple?"

"I was just surprised. I would have done it for two. "

D'oh.

* * *

Meanwhile, I'm cleaning the main floor and listening to the great Artie Shaw.

The Pencil Sharpener

 In addition to getting the new couch, I put up an old fashioned metal pencil sharpener in our pantry yesterday. This has been a goal of ours for ten years, since the first frantic search for a sharpened pencil in K3.

It brought back memories of having one in my own pantry growing up.

Finally! Our New Couch

It took two months, Contact Six, daily calls, and in the end I picked it up myself with Socialist, but we FINALLY have our new couch.

Winter Prep

It's been a wonderfully productive day off so far

 #TeamSlap prepped the backyard for winter. Smiley and I cleaned out part of the shed, put away the patio furniture, the double swing, the BBQ and the hose, and when that was done we took out the snow equipment. LuLu cut the lawn while LK raked the leaves. Then OJ and I took an axe to a tree that's taken up residence behind the shed. (Princess YaYa got out of work by being at grandma's) Afterwards we took the oldest girls to their first Cadet meeting, I paid the electric bill, and then LK and I walked the mile or so home. 

Following that PD and I changed both furnace filters and took out all the window A/C's. 

Now, we have to start dinner.

Our Spiders

Come nightfall, the outside of our house is often ceded to a host of huge spiders, some with bodies as large as a nickel. It's been that way since we moved in. They've never bothered us or ventured inside, - and they keep the mosquito population down to zilch. Plus they vanish at dawn and let us 'rent' the backyard in peace. 

Personally, I dig 'em. 

As usual they were nowhere to be seen this morning, but for once they left evidence of their passage. Lulu's bike was covered in webs, and they spun a beautiful web in the bush on our front lawn.

Painting the Ljving Room

 Painting the living room

 No water because a water main is being repaired on our street. Joy

Brrr

It is damn cold in this house. Mayhaps I should turn on the heat, or at least pull that last window air conditioner . . .

Neighbor Drama

The neighbor's teenage son went a little haywire and started smashing the ceramic pots on his Mom's porch. Lisa told him to knock it off, he mouthed off to Lisa and walked towards her,  I got  in his face and said some things, etc Turns out he's angry because he knocked up his girlfriend. Boo-hoo. Now you wrecked your Mom's porch, pissed off your neighbor, got your neighbor's 300 pound husband in your grill, and, oh yeah - your girlfriend's still pregnant. Well played kid.

WTH

 A guy came to the door with a slip of paper claiming to think this was a property for rent from a "Mr. Reynolds". When Lisa answered and told him he was mistaken he went next door, then returned and asked her for directions, then wanted to know if she lived alone and if she was married. She tried closing the door and he screamed at her to show him "her titties" and tried to stop the door. I was half asleep two rooms away when I heard this. I yelled and headed for the door and he booked it and drove off by the time I got down the front stairs. F'ing NASCAR getaway. Middle of the fucking day. WTF?????? Black male, early thirties, 5'11, 220#, black knit cap and scraggly beard.

A Friend's Van was stolen!

Last night around midnight my friend Erv came over to visit for half an hour. During that brief stay someone STOLE his van from directly in front of my house, in the middle of bleeping Bay View! 

We spent the next three hours either talking with police or driving around the neighborhood looking for the punks. The van was recovered this morning - where else? - at Bay View High School.

Nothing was stolen from it; not his ladders, his radio equipment, or the three laptops he had in the back. Apparently someone just wanted a joyride in a 2003 Chevy work van.

A Lost Boy in our Yard

Yest evening I came home and found an 18 month old boy playing in the yard, enjoying my kids toys. There are no kids on my block, or across the alley, so we had no idea where he came from. I set out to see if there was a search party out while the kids and Lisa enjoyed his company. After 20 min we called the police. Just before they showed up (10 or 15 min later) the boys Grandma came down the alley calling his name. Apparently she was babysitting and he wandered out of the yard. He must have seen our toys and decided it was as good a rest stop as any. In the end we let the boy take Junie's old pushcar and a toy lawnmower with him.

A Headscratcher

markers the kids linked together and posted over the office door for reasons unknown

In Progress - The Bathroom Sink Replacement

A Bad Storm

Wicked storms today.  The kids day at camp was ruined, and here at home we have  1/2 an inch of water in our basement, which is a vast improvement over the flooding of '08 & '09. I guess that drainage trench did some good after all. Meanwhile a friend texted to say she had more than a foot of H20 in her basement. This city floods a hell of a lot more often than it did 20 years ago. Sh*t.

Miraculously, most of the water in the basement vanished down the drain w/out my help - another welcome change from prior years. Now all I have to do is get rid of the rest, mop up, wash ~10 loads of clothing that got wet, replace the litter boxes that were soaked, run some errands, and go to work. Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy.

OK, most of the water that was left has been removed and I'm the second load of laundry. I'm loaning my shop vac out to help a friend, but if anyone in striking distance has a good dehumidifer they can loan *us* for the weekend, please holler.

Hey, get this: MKE rainfall Thurs was 2nd-most on record - 5.79 in. But the *Highest* 1-day total was 6.81 on Aug. 6, 1986. That would be the day I had my tonsils out, a day when St. Francis Hosp's elevator shafts flooded & they lost power during my surgery. A memorable day all around.

There is Beauty in It

 The snow is falling here in beautiful, gigantic snowflakes that look like they were shipped right off a Hollywood soundstage.

The Party Across the Street

At 2am I sat on my front porch listening to the corner house across the street. Wickedly loud, but it's hard to get angry at a party that's blasting the Eurythmics and Culture Club.