Monday, August 27, 2007

Catch-up

Hey, ladies... how's it going out there in blogland? It's been an interesting week at our house. Neither one of us have been sleeping well... lots of aches and pains and general tossing and turning. Probably just age catching up with us (again) but it's getting old! No pun intended!

To top it all off, at 3:05 on Thursday morning the air conditioner had a screaming hissy fit and died. This is a very old A/C unit... we've had it fixed two times in our year here, already... this is the third (it's so old the A/C guys have never seen one like it!). I called the house warranty folks first thing in the morning and told them we needed a repair call. Unfortunately, they give the A/C repair guys two days to show up for the repair, so of course they used every minute of those two days! Before we left for work we made sure all the blinds were closed, the fans were on and all the electronics were unplugged but it didn't do much good. At 109°F (about 43°C) it was VERY hot outside so by the time we got home Thursday evening, it was 86° in the house. Gah! We kept everything but the fans and the TV off and tryed not to move... it felt like I was sleeping in a sauna with all the humidity from the thunderstorms added to the heat.

The repair guys finally showed up late Friday afternoon. Apparently the poor old motor had vibrated one of its screws completely out of the mounting. They got it fixed but by that time it was even hotter. My plans to get laundry done Thursday and Friday evening after work went out the window. So did anything but sandwiches for supper! Anyhoo... the air conditioner was cranking and pouring out nice cold air but it didn't cool back down to a manageable level until about 3am... another nasty, hot night!

Needless to say, the weekend was spent catching up on laundry and sleep. I had planned to get some piecing done on the Midsummer Night CQ but it didn't get done. I got the threads and beads from the Sumptuous Surfaces class put away and the cutting table cleared off, though, so the playing field is free! I also sat and took the final sketch and laid it out on graph paper so I could finalize the size of the outer blocks. I'm starting with the outer blocks because I can do them while waiting for Nat to finish the center panel.

So, I announced to Glenn last night that I was going to spend the upcoming three-day weekend sewing so there should be some progress soon. I have to announce it so I'll actually do it... I always feel guilty for taking time to do something just for me! It doesn't matter to Glenn, he's happy as long as I'm happy, but my inner German hausfrau has to be firmly put in place occasionally or I'd never do anything just for me. ;0)

Now, since I simply can't have a post without a photo, here's what our front yard looks like every two weeks. We live in a part of Phoenix that was developed in the 1950's and are lucky enough to still have flood irrigation:
Irrigation 2

Irrigation 1

The birds love it... here's the backyard after it has soaked in a bit:
Irrigation with birdsJPG

It's MUCH better than hauling around a hose and setting up sprinklers!!

Also... in case you didn't already know, Sharon B has a new address for her blog... she pulled up stakes and headed over to Wordpress... The good lady and all her wisdom can be found RIGHT HERE!

5 comments:

Rian said...

I've never seen anything like that flood thing. Did it rain? I know it's monsoon season there...

I couldn't email you a reply about the potatoes so I'll cut and paste the response that was bounced back to me.

Hi Marty,

The potatoes were just so-so. Nothing special. But they were healthy,
I'll give them high marks for that. I cooked them longer than the recipe
said but they were still soupy and slightly underdone.

Yeah, poor Riley. ;-)


Hope you get your AC fixed soon!

Threadspider said...

Really enjoyed your pictures-I haven't seen irrigation like that before. After our summer, irrigation is the last thing we need : )
Looking forward to seeing your Midsummer quilt when you get going. I too am in housefrau mode and seem also to be in garten frau mode!

Anonymous said...

Believe me, Marty, I feel your pain (re: the AC). When the inside of the house is that hot, you can't do anything but sit. (And eat popsicles, in my case.) We've backed off the Phoenix temps here in Nashville this week. We're in the 80's--20 degrees lower than the past two weeks. And last night it even rained.

Not familiar with flood irrigation, but it looks cool.

Rissa said...

I think the idea of taking advantage of the rain when it actually happens is very cool! Unlike your home...hope the A/C is all better by now!

Hummus Recipes said...

Hi nice reading youur post