It was a Thursday morning and I was woken up by a whining dog. He sat by the gate at the bedroom door whining his little heart out and so I woke up, went to the bathroom, and realizing I was running late getting ready for work, I woke Dave up to take the dog outside while I showered. I went to the bathroom, turned on the water and it was freezing cold. UGH! What in the world was wrong?!? I put on my robe and marched back into the bedroom to now demand that the sleeping Dave get up and investigate the pilot light on the water heater to see if it was out - and of course he then needed to take the dog on a walk since I still had to shower. I removed the gate from the bedroom doorway and Gromit ran out of the bedroom towards the front door. I walked towards the kitchen to check out the water heater when I noticed wet footprints. Did Gromit pee on the floor waiting to go outside? No. I followed the footprints toward the kitchen to find an inch of standing water in the kitchen overflowing to the dining room and hallway and a gushing water heater. I knew right then it was going to be a long day.
Me yelling "the kitchen is flooded!" is what finally got Dave out of bed that day. He ran out to the kitchen to see the mess and went to find the emergency maintenance number. I went back to the bedroom to throw on some clothes and take Gromit outside since he was still whining by the front door. Gromit and I got downstairs and I saw water gushing out of the light fixture in the ceiling in the vacant apartment below ours. Bad news!
When Gromit and I had walked around the building we saw the complex manager running across the street in her pajamas towards our apartment. I decided then would be a good time to call into work to let them know I was at least going to be a little late.
When we got back to the apartment Dave and the apartment manager had turned off the water to the apartment and they were trying to suck up some of the water with a wet vac. Dave and I started moving some of our furniture from the dining room and hallway into the living room so that it didn't get too wet from the water that had seeped into the carpet. A little later the carpet cleaner showed up to suck up the rest of the water with his industrial vacuum and the maintenance guys came to install a new water heater. When it was all said and done our carpets were lifted and industrial blowers were placed underneath in an effort to get everything dry again. Sound familiar? We had a very similar incident in 2009.
Now, a little more than a week later everything has dried out and our furniture has been put back in its place. A couple runs of the Bissel Little Green and some Febreeze took care of the wet carpet smell and things are back to normal. One more disaster down. Let's hope the next incident in our lives waits for a while to happen. I'm worn out.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Olympic Fun and Valentine's Day Weekend
We sure had a busy and wonderful weekend! We kicked off Friday night with an Oh Canada! Olympic Opening Ceremonies party to commemorate the beginning of the Winter Olympics and to celebrate the "culture" of Canada with many theme food and drinks. My mom lived in Canada for four years during her childhood and during that time discovered all of the wonderful and unique food items that Canada has to offer such as potato chips in flavors like Ketchup, Dill Pickle, Salt & Vinegar and All Dressed (which tastes like a baked potato with all the toppings), and candy such as Smarties (like M&M's but taste totally different) and Coffee Crisp (coffee flavored wafers covered in chocolate). We ordered all of these yummy foods from Canada and had them ready to serve to our guests along with some Canadian Bacon pizza!
On Saturday Dave went skiing while I stayed home with Gromit and cleaned up from the party and attacked the huge pile of laundry that I had been neglecting due to party planning activities. Not the most enjoyable Saturday but it did feel good to get some things done around the house!
I also spent my day trying to make a Valentine's Day cake for Dave. Let me just say, baking is not my thing and as hard as I try, I usually manage to screw up anything that goes in the oven. I burn cookies, don't cook chicken thoroughly enough, etc. and Saturday was no exception for me. I mixed batter for a red velvet cake, poured it into the very cute heart-shaped pan that I bought and put it in the oven. 20 minutes later I looked in the oven to see how it was doing and to my surprise the batter had overflowed and was now on the bottom of the oven, hanging from the racks and in some places burnt on the pan. The cake was not a cake at all but bubbly and still mostly liquid so I pulled it out and took a trip to the grocery store to buy more mix and try again. The second cake went much better since I only used half of the batter in the cake pan and then used the other half to make cupcakes for my sister. They sure aren't Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss quality, but this is about as good as it gets with me.
When Dave came home from skiing I surprised him with a candlelight dinner on the table with crab, twice baked potatoes and stuffed mushrooms and presented him with the cake I had made. He was so surprised and appreciated the effort I went to in order to do something special for him.
On Sunday we exchanged cards, I got some beautiful flowers and then we went to a hockey game where there were cheerleaders - so weird for hockey! We finished off the evening with another candlelight dinner of steak and potatoes and spanakopita (all prepared by my loving husband). All in all a fabulous weekend!
Yummy food at our Oh Canada! party
Yes, I'm a nerd and put tent card labels in front of everything so people know what it was. What can I say, I'm an event planner and I can't help myself! I also had some Canada Dry ginger ale and found some yummy Canada themed drinks (ok, I also made up the names for a couple of them) for our guests to try at the party.
Dave and I had a lot of fun planning the party and I think our guests had just as much fun enjoying the food and drinks and, of course, watching the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics! Go USA!
Gromit was patiently waiting for guests to arrive
Patience paid off and Gromit got a belly rub from Mark!
On Saturday Dave went skiing while I stayed home with Gromit and cleaned up from the party and attacked the huge pile of laundry that I had been neglecting due to party planning activities. Not the most enjoyable Saturday but it did feel good to get some things done around the house!
I also spent my day trying to make a Valentine's Day cake for Dave. Let me just say, baking is not my thing and as hard as I try, I usually manage to screw up anything that goes in the oven. I burn cookies, don't cook chicken thoroughly enough, etc. and Saturday was no exception for me. I mixed batter for a red velvet cake, poured it into the very cute heart-shaped pan that I bought and put it in the oven. 20 minutes later I looked in the oven to see how it was doing and to my surprise the batter had overflowed and was now on the bottom of the oven, hanging from the racks and in some places burnt on the pan. The cake was not a cake at all but bubbly and still mostly liquid so I pulled it out and took a trip to the grocery store to buy more mix and try again. The second cake went much better since I only used half of the batter in the cake pan and then used the other half to make cupcakes for my sister. They sure aren't Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss quality, but this is about as good as it gets with me.
Dave's cake
Cupcakes for my sister
When Dave came home from skiing I surprised him with a candlelight dinner on the table with crab, twice baked potatoes and stuffed mushrooms and presented him with the cake I had made. He was so surprised and appreciated the effort I went to in order to do something special for him.
On Sunday we exchanged cards, I got some beautiful flowers and then we went to a hockey game where there were cheerleaders - so weird for hockey! We finished off the evening with another candlelight dinner of steak and potatoes and spanakopita (all prepared by my loving husband). All in all a fabulous weekend!
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