Yesterday was the first day we had both blinds AND working television throughout the house. And I have to shamefully admit – I rather missed having a TV in the living room. You’d think I could make do with my iPod and a few books… but nope. I really missed the mind-numbing entertainment that emanates from that seductive black box. The siren calls of American Idol and Lost sucked me right back into the churning water and smashed me against the jagged rocks. Ah… TV…
That’s not to say I am glued to the cursed thing 24/7 – now, for instance, I AM listening to my iPod (and writing a blog post to boot… I’m such a multi-tasker…). But tonight, after we’ve returned from dinner at Rick’s parents’ house, I will take great delight in curling up on my couch, retrieving my recorded Lost episode, and watching it on my now-functional television…
So we’re starting to feel a little more settled in the new house. Seriously, the blinds and television have helped. It’s weird to live in an eerily quiet house with an unwanted (and literal) window to the world outside (knowing that everyone has a window to YOUR world INSIDE). So now I just have to work on unpacking boxes and finding a place for all that “stuff” that seems to be scattered throughout the house at the moment. Oh, and everyone will be happy to hear that my cutting board survived the move safe and sound – my mom kept a close eye on it to make sure it wouldn’t wander off, like my previous cutting board. I still haven’t found that one… I was hoping it might turn up at some point during THIS move, just so I would know it DID, in fact, exist. Because sometimes I wonder… perhaps the cutting board was merely a figment of my overactive imagination. Perhaps I created a fantastical world of helpful kitchen appliances in my mind. (Is my can opener real? What about my coffee press?? Oh, I hope the coffee press is real…)
There’ve been a few little annoyances throughout the moving process. Last week, before we even started moving things into the house, we had some people come in to seal the tile in the kitchen and sunroom. It’s travertine, which is a natural stone and tends to be rather porous – so if you spill, say, grape juice on it, the stone will soak up some of that purple color and never let it go. So we wanted to make sure we sealed it before we started living here, and that way we wouldn’t have to worry about spilling anything on the tile. After the sealant was applied, Rick asked one of the floor-sealing crew how long we should stay off the tile. “About an hour or two,” was his response. Well, the next DAY – after a full 24-hours of staying off the tile – we carefully stepped onto our meticulously-sealed travertine and just about skidded from one side of the kitchen to the other. The tile was like ICE. And not only that, but any time anyone stepped from the tile onto the hardwood floor in the hallway, they would leave waxy footprints on the wood. At first, I was running around with my Swiffer, frantically scrubbing up the marks… but eventually I gave up and realized I’d just have to wait until the stupid sealant was TOTALLY dry. Otherwise I’d be Swiffering constantly…
We bought a new fridge for our kitchen, and I really like it. But I was worried when I first started using it, because it seemed like something wasn’t quite right with it. A fan somewhere inside it was making a rather loud rattling noise, and condensation kept building up on the ice dispenser. It also seemed like everything in the fridge was slightly damp – like condensation was building up on the shelves and on my bottled water and on the condiments in the refrigerator door. I was worried we’d have to put in a service call, and we’d only had the thing for two days. And then, as I was showing my mom and Rick how it seemed to be acting weird, Rick noticed there was a loaf a bread on a shelf in a plastic bag. And the plastic bag had settled over a little vent thingy (hey, I’m not a refrigerator expert… I don’t know the “technical” name…), and apparently it had been affecting the circulation of cool air throughout the fridge. As soon as we moved the plastic away from the vent thingy (whatever it’s called…) everything started working perfectly – the fan no longer rattles, the condensation on the ice dispenser is gone, the food in the fridge is properly chilled. How sad would it have been if Rick hadn’t noticed it and we called out some refrigerator repairman? He would’ve moved aside the piece of plastic, turned around, and handed us a bill for 95 dollars…
Well, the more I write, the more I avoid unpacking. So it’s probably time to stop writing and start getting organized… :)
2 comments:
That reminds me of a time long ago when my washing machine wouldn't work. I called for a repairman, and he found the problem - a blown fuse. How embarrassing! If I had only thought to check that box full of those little thingys!
It's like my dad (the Engineer Whisperer) always says -- look for the simplest answer first, because it's probably the one that'll work. :)
Post a Comment