Damned if I do, damned if I don't

I’m mad. 

We had been out of town for the holiday weekend, and when we came home yesterday we found water all over our kitchen floor.  Somehow the dishwasher filled up with water and started overflowing onto the floor.  Here’s the kicker though…before I left for the weekend, I shut off the water main to the house.  Ever since our basement flooded three years ago from a leak in the water softener, I always shut the water off before we leave for trips longer than one night.  I thought that would help me avoid another flood.

We just bought this dishwasher back in January.  I called the store we bought it from this morning and talked to their maintenance guy.  His theory was that it flooded BECAUSE I shut of the water and relieved the pressure by briefly turning on a faucet before we left.  He said the valve requires pressure to work properly.  He also called a Whirlpool technician and he agreed with this theory.  I still have a hard time buying it though.  There was a lot of water in the bottom of the dishwasher and floor…more than what was probably left in the lines.  I think it had to have taken water from the water heater somehow.  But unless there was an electrical malfunction, which the repairman doubted, I don’t see how it could have drawn the water up from the water heater.  It just doesn’t make sense.

I’ll have an insurance adjustor coming soon to assess the damage.  There are two spots in the basement with water marks on the ceiling.  Some water made it to the carpet in the living room, so I pulled up the edge and tore out all the wet padding.  I propped the carpet edge up and blew a fan on it to help dry things out.  I’m just afraid that we’re going to need a new sub-floor in the kitchen, or at least parts of it.  Our deductible is $500, but I think we’re going to wind up with far more than $500 worth of damage.  It just burns me up that this happened when I took measures to make sure something like this would never happen again. 

2-0

I had another late softball game tonight, so I’m trying to wind down from that before I go to bed.  We had another good game and won 23–5 in five innings.  The field was wet from the rain, but at least it quit by the second inning.  The other team didn’t do themselves any favors and had at least eight errors.  There was some entertainment when a drunk heckler from an earlier game started razzing the other team for their play.  The ump had to escort him off the premises and threatened to call the police. There were almost fisticuffs.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any pics, so here’s one of Payton from last weekend.  Uncle Dean found this slide in the apartment complex he manages, and Payton really loves it.  Thanks Dean and Leslie!

 

It's a monster!

Holy crap!

 

I've never seen something like this before

I was quite surprised to come across this article this morning.  The Sporting News, which is a reputable publication, is picking Iowa State to win the Big 12 North in football this season.  Also, they will begin the season at number 22 in the polls.  Pre-season polls are pretty worthless, but it’s still nice to see the Cyclones get some national respect.  Unfortunately, I think this prediction is based more on the rest of the North being awful, than ISU being a dominant team.  Hopefully they don’t collapse under the heightened expectations.  It’s one thing to come out of nowhere last year and have a shot at the Big 12 North, but it’s quite another to be the pre-season favorite.  I just hope this means more games will be televised so I can watch them in this potentially historic season.

 

Quick thoughts for today

• Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” could possibly be the worst song ever written.
• I saw Revenge of the Sith yesterday and loved it.  Good job George.
• No more Rob and Amber crap.  Who’s going to watch their wedding special anyway?

Happy Joe's Part II

A while back, I mentioned that Happy Joe’s will be coming to Rochester.  Now I find out that the people who were going to do that have come up with a different business idea instead.  I think they are making a big mistake with their Dish it Up concept.  I really don’t see that taking off, and I bet it will be closed within a year.  So if I understand this right, they have a few pre-packaged, uncooked meal choices and you take them home and can have a meal ready in about an hour.  Guess what, this already exists, and it’s called a grocery store.  Big mistake folks.  You had a winner with Happy Joe’s. 

I guess that means that the ball is back in my court to bring Happy Joe’s to Rochester.  As you can see, opening a full service restaurant takes quite a bit of money, and in Rochester, I’m assuming I’d be looking at a figure toward the upper end of that price range.  I think I need to find a couple partners to go in on this with.  Let me know if you’d be interested in a business opportunity like this.  I am certain Happy Joe’s would do well in the Rochester market.

I don't agree

I got this from Ryan’s blog.  I’ve been to Austin before for work, and sorry, but it’s not a place I’d want to live.  I think Denver is the only place on here I’d consider. 

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Austin

65% Denver

65% Las Vegas

65% Miami

60% Atlanta

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Angels

Be skeptical if you want, but I found this story to be very intriguing.  This past weekend we were visiting Holly’s grandfather who recently moved into a hospice facility.  The man in the room next to him had chronic hiccups.  The only time he didn’t have them, was when he was sleeping.  I was eating lunch in the kitchenette area, and Holly’s grandfather’s wife, Joan, was talking to the wife of the man with the hiccups in there too.  She told Joan that for the past few days, her husband had been seeing angels.  Apparently, the previous night, he was visited by three angels.  One of them asked if there was anything they could do for him.  He told the angel that he’d been having the hiccups for three months and they were really getting annoying.  That next day, when he awoke, he didn’t have the hiccups any more. 

I know when my grandmother was sick with cancer, she was seeing angels and dead relatives towards the end.  She was also heavily medicated, so it seems easier to dismiss those as hallucinations.  I find it a lot more difficult to attribute the visions to drugs when something physical is associated with it.  It’s definitely a comforting thought to believe it could be real.

Less Than a Week!

Only six days until Star Wars Episode III opens!

New Weezer Album

Now playing: Weezer - Perfect Situation

I picked up the new Weezer album the other day and have listened to it a few times now.  Out of their five albums, I think this is my third favorite.  Their two self-titled albums are by far my favorites.  The one refreshing thing about the new album is that it has about 45 minutes of music on it.  Most of their previous albums have been barely over 30 minutes.  Good stuff.

 

Weekend

This past weekend was very productive.  We got a lot of work done in the yard, I got some stuff planted in the garden, and I even cleaned out my closet and dresser.  Let me tell you, I should have cleaned them out long ago.  We plan on having a garage sale in July and it looks like we’re going to have a lot of stuff for it.  I figured that as long as I was cleaning out my closet, I should at least organize it properly, which I’ve never done before in my life.  Since the weather is getting warmer, all the short-sleeved shirts are toward the front.  I grouped all the polos together, then the camp shirts, followed by T-shirts, and then started in on the long sleeved shirts, which were also grouped by style.  This organization should help me decide on what to wear in the morning.  You don’t think I have OCD do you?

As I mentioned before, I also planted some stuff in the garden this weekend.  It should be pretty safe since I didn’t plant any tomato or pepper plants yet.  I put in two rows of corn, two rows of peas, three small rows of carrots, one row of beans, two hills of zucchini, two hills of baby pumpkins, and one hill of random gourds.  We’re getting a lot of rain this week, so hopefully it all comes up for me.  I still have to put in the potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and a couple more rows of some of the stuff I’ve already planted.  I’ll post pictures soon.

Subway stamps

In case you hadn’t heard, Subway is discontinuing their stamp program.  They no longer give out stamps and as of June 30, you can’t even redeem them anymore.  So make sure you use up the ones you have before then.  If you don’t have a full card’s worth, don’t worry, you can get forty cents off your purchase for each stamp.  This is the case in the local Subways at least, and I’m assuming it’s a corporate phase out of the stamp program.  I couldn’t find any information about this on their website, so I might be mistaken.  Let me know if your local Subways are doing the same thing.

I'm going to be sore

We had our first softball game of the season tonight.  Out of eleven games this season, we are lucky enough to have five of them at 9:15PM.  Fortunately our bats showed up tonight and we ended up winning 22–12 in six innings.  I had a career night, scoring all five times I was up.  That was a lot of running for me, especially for the first game of the season.  My tank was getting pretty empty by the time I reached second base for the fourth time.  I may have reached base all five at-bats, but only three of them were base hits.  One was a fielders choice, and the other one was a fielding error.  At least the weather was decent tonight, and it looks like spring is back to stay for a while.  Hopefully now I can get out and ride my bike to help get in shape. 

Snow? In May?

This is May isn’t it?  Then why was there snow on the deck, car, and rooftops this morning?  It was just a dusting, but it’s still depressing.  At least it’s supposed to be back to the sixties for highs by Wednesday, which is the night of our first softball game of the season.

I did get the garden tilled this weekend, and once again expanded its size.  I plan on posting pictures of the garden throughout the season since it’s something I’m pretty proud of and enjoy doing.  Maybe I’ll get some of the seeds planted this week if it warms up.