Blair Makes It Better

I have the same relationship with my husband that many of us have with car mechanics. We take our car in because it's making a funny noise, only the minute the mechanic slides behind the driver's seat, the funny noise disappears and he's left looking at you with an expression of mild concern for your mental well-being. 

Same thing in the Harris house. If you read yesterday's entry, you know I was trapped at home with no phone and no e-mail. I went to yoga last night to calm down and before I left I checked the phone--still open on the other end and we couldn't call out. Blair gets home, picks up the phone, sets it down, and says, "I've got a dialtone."

On the one hand, bless him for fixing the problem. On the other...are you kidding me? There was a problem! There was no dialtone ALL DAY. Please, Mr. Mechanic, I'm not insane and making the noise up. It really was there..

Sigh. Anyway, Blair also fixed e-mail in a jiff. I had deleted a server link and it took less than 5 minutes to restore it. I'm a happy camper this morning with phone and e-mail.

We're still studying the "no signal" problem from our cell phone and cordless phones though. Blair wonders if the wi-fi that came with the new Macs has anything to do with it. When we got the Mac's is pretty much when the phone problems began. I'm going into Verizon today to get a new cell phone and see if that does anything.

Meanwhile, just happy to have returned to the 21st century.

Trapped Without Technology

If anyone is reading this, send the Geek Squad immediately to my home as I have somehow managed to delete, hide, or banish to the outer reaches of the netherworld my outgoing e-mail server. In an attempt (and yes, I should have known better) to fix the problem with my dena@kissmykittybutt.com e-mail account, I somehow managed to set it up so that ALL my e-mail accounts recieve mail, but I can't send messages out. 

Not only that, but the phone saga continues. For those new to this drama, it goes something like this:

The phone rings in my house. I go to answer it but receive a "Welcome. Please wait..." message on my cordless phone. Meanwhile, the answering machine has picked up and VIP is leaving a message for me. I need to talk to VIP so I bound up the stairs like a bunny on crack, only to pick up the upstairs handheld and receive the same message. Augh!

Sometimes I'm allowed to answer the call only to find the phone immediately hangs up on whomever I'm talking to. I turn to my cell phone but guess what? No service! 

So I'm in a house with iffy phones and no outgoing e-mail. As you might have guessed, I am breathing through a paper bag as I type this, assuring myself it will all work out.

The way it will work out is I'll ambush Blair tonight and make him deal with my mistakes. It's one of the little perks that come with being married to me. I refuse, REFUSE, to get on the line with any form of help service. I feel like a dunce and never know the answers to their questions, ("Ma'am, let's start slow. If you could just tell me your server ID and date of primary installation along with in order of age the 5 least successful presidents of our nation, we'll have you back on-line in no time.")

No. Forget it. I'm not calling. We had dinner with friends Saturday night and my friend Pam feels the same. She and I both lose our minds when dealing with tech service. Our preferred method of dealing with a technology issue is to approach our husbands and yell, "The f***ing thing isn't working again!"

I consider myself a modern, capable, self-sufficient woman in most areas of my life but I'm telling you, if not for Blair I think I'd revert back to smoke signals for sending messages. 

Surely it's faster and more reliable than dealing with tech help.

Home Makeover?

Blair and I spent an hour plus today reviewing finances and outlining our financial goals, plans, and dreams for the future. Since we're no longer funneling money into the cabin fund, we needed to make some decisions on where the extra money should go. Once Blair vetoed my idea of just handing it over to me and letting fate float the money where it may, we got serious.

Number one priority is the money pit, aka, our home. I love our 100-year-old home with its 6 (non-working) fireplaces, hardwood floors, high ceilings and wide, worn staircase. I do not love 6 non-working fireplaces, outside doors with cracks big enough for a small cat to crawl under, 30-year-old carpet in the front bedroom and popcorn ceilings. (To whomever sprayed popcorn texture in our historic home: When I find you, I will hurt you.) 

So now we have a list of home projects that include:

• Making 3 of the fireplaces operational. (This will need to be done one at a time. Expensive as crap to drop liners, plus they are coal-burning fireplaces, very small, and needing special gas systems.)
• Replacing the back and side doors.
• Redoing the front bedroom into a writing room for me. Next week will be phase one as Blair scrapes the popcorn texture off the ceiling. A messy and thankless job if ever there was one.

Longer term projects include buying rugs for the hall (It's been 13 years so it's probably time...), adding artwork around the house, building a back screened-in porch/deck, scraping popcorn textures and painting ceilings throughout the house (preferably without leading to divorce), new light fixtures for the hall, redoing the library so it actually resembles a library with bookshelves and furniture that fits the room, ... The list goes on.

We're also looking at taking a trip to Egypt in May. I know, rather random, but Rockingham Community College is putting together a group tour and apparently we've crossed some line, somewhere, where we now consider it fun versus lame to travel with a group of people from our area to a foreign land. We're eyeballing expense and I am NOT happy about leaving the cats for 11-12 days, but I suppose I'll learn to live with it.

Of course, we'll see what pans out and what doesn't. Blair's car is probably in its last year or two of service so we've started saving for that expense, and God only knows what will cave, crash, or fall in around the house on any given day. Still, it's a good life.

And it will be a stellar life once we get those fireplaces working... ;)

Reunion Pictures

A few photos from the 20 year high school reunion...

This is me and my beautiful cousin Amy, preparing to go to the Friday night casual (read: bar) reunion:

This is Amy and me on night two, before the dinner reunion. Note how we have exchanged curly/straight hair styles.

Amy, me, and Brett, who I've been friends with since we met on the bus on the way to kindergarten.