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Although the electrical work is not yet completed, that will be done on Saturday morning, my washing machine and dryer are installed and working.  I know they are working because I ran my first load last night.

For those who read about my proposed betting pool (the one I never actually ran), the winning time would have been 11:06pm on May 17th.

I have canceled the house trap removal for the meantime.  I ran the back wash twice and after the one yesterday there was no flooding in the basement.  Yes, it would be nice to get that huge black poll out of the basement, but if the new pump I’ve had installed is not generating the same problem, why mess around with a pipe that seems to be working just fine.  Yes, it would have been nice to get rid of that big black poll (air vent) but the aesthetics is not worth $1000 at this point.  There would still need to be a drain there so I’m not reclaiming the space in the short term.  It WILL matter when I redo the basement, but that is too huge a project to consider taking on at the moment – too big and way WAY too costly.

I will be running the backwash at least twice more this weekend and when I do I’ll come inside and check to see if its backing up.  If it is, I can always reschedule the removal job, but the drain cap in the basement was bone dry yesterday, I mean completely, and the cap was partially open, so I’m nearly 100% certain that no water had backed up.

Today is dolcelab and my candidacy paper is on the schedule.  I’ve already gotten some feedback from one member. She had some good, but very little, review items – which is good.  I’m hoping to have the same reaction from the rest of the lab because this is the version I hope to submit (although I do plan to make some minor changes already, based on the feedback so far).  What I really want to walk away from today’s lab meeting with is – from my advisor – what do I need to do to get this ready to submit.  Once I know that, and in some fairly short order, I should be submitting my candidacy paper. YAY \o/

I still expect to go through my Facebook friends list and eliminate those who have not contributed back in any way.  It was a larger undertaking than I had first through simply because I have some many connections on Facebook.  But now it should be easy for me to go back and make a yes/no list.

I’m really tired and today is going to be a hectic day but its the last day I have firm plans to go into the city for something school related for the summer.  Hopefully I’ll get to see my lab colleagues ones or twice over the summer, and a number of them will be coming to ELD.  I’m really hoping I can get them to come out to NJ one day for a pool party / meeting.

So, once today is out of the way, the only two major commitments are to doing the finalizing on this paper, which will (fingers crossed) hopefully not take up too much time, and then the conference.  One June 1st has come and gone I can truly enjoy the summer.  And hopefully get to some of the many items that are on my to-do list that have just been postponed time and time again.

Only 600+ words – gah – I’m not really in the mood to write this morning.  I’m still half asleep and the words are not coming easily.  I’m tempted to just say screw it and write however many come out.  I won’t, thought – I’ll go for the full 750, which is only 100 more words at this point.

Now its only about 85.

Now its only about….lol, its like the 100 bottles of beer on the wall song.  I never did understand why that was even something parents would WANT their kids to do.  I guess it does help the time pass, but at what cost!

I was thinking the other day that they could remake All In The Family and it could be pretty good.  You could have Archie be an almost Tea Party Republican, Edith, of course, would be more moderate, and Gloria and Meathead are Occupy Wall Street Democrats.  I think it could be very funny.  I’m even rewriting the words to the opening song in my head.  :)

[rant]

I understand that soccer is a business, and you should love the club or team you play for, but when it comes to the national team, you should really want to play for your country, for pride, and for the love of your country.  And if you don’t want to, don’t f*#k around, go play for someone else.  You should want to win for your country more than you want to win.

Timmy Chandler is a German born player who has twice now turned down a call up from the US Men’s National Team.  This year, for our World Cup Qualifiers (extremely important games) he said he needed rest.  Even though he is German born he has the ability to play for the US as well because of his parentage.  At this point he is not “cap locked”, which means he has not played for the US or German national teams.  Once you play for a national team (called getting a “cap”, so a player with 25 caps has played for the national team 25 times), you are locked into that team.  Chandler is not yet and he’s refusing to get cap locked by the US.

Here is an article that will explain more about the situation http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/usa/story/tim-chandler-sends-clear-message-to-jurgen-klinsmann-usmnt-051512

I’m sure this guy is good but clearly he has no love of the US and the only reason they are trying to get him is that they think he is good enough to play on the team, although some have argued that he’d start on the bench anyway.  I say, who cares how good he is, playing for the national team should be about more that how good someone is.

Do we want the best player we can get – of course, but I think we also want players that love America and want to play and win for her.  I get that this is a business and I get that there is major money tied up with winning and losing.  Yeah, I get it.

But I just find it disrespectful not to want to play and perhaps Chandler is being honorable about it.  Maybe he’s said he doesn’t want to play for the US but the American’s have said to him “why don’t you think about it”.  Others have said that he probably wouldn’t even make the team for Germany and so playing for the US may be his best chance to ever make it to the World Cup.  We don’t know.

But, if you’re ARE going to play for the United States Men’s National Soccer team, learn the national anthem and when they play it, put your hand over your heart and at least mouth the words.  OK, lets start with – just put your hand over your heart.  Do just that.  Even players who are ONLY American, couldn’t ever play for another team, just stand there when the anthem is played.  Don’t be an ass, show some respect, putting your hand over your heart is the very least you can do.

How hard is it to learn the words.  I sing the anthem, yes – out loud – every time I’m at a sport where it is played (which is, every time).  I remove my hat, put it over my heart, and sing the anthem.  I don’t belt it out, but I don’t whisper sign it either.  I’m proud to be an American, this is my country.  I’m not proud of everything we do, I’m not proud of many of the people who are also American, but I only have one country that I was born to, one mother land, and like our family, most of us (or our parents) don’t pick where we were born.

So, you don’t have to actually sing, but at least learn the words and mouth them when it is played.  I understand that the camera is going to be right on you at some point and you don’t want to get caught mouthing the wrong words, but if you REALLY are American, than you’ve been exposed to the National Anthem more times than you can count.  As an athlete, every single athletic event you have been to in America, for as long as you’ve lived, started with the National Anthem.  I don’t see how you could NOT know the words. 

You are being bestowed one of the greatest honors anyone can have – you are being called on to represent our country and if we win, YOU represent us to the world.  Salute or get off the pitch.

[/rant]

I’ve been doing this for about a week now and I’ve come to the conclusion that I really have no way of measuring this.  How am I to know if getting up and writing this post IS actually doing what they say its supposed to do.  I do think that writing once a day like this is a really good idea.  I will also say that I have actually gotten up and done this over the last few days.  I’m not sure how long my streak will last, only hindsight will tell that, but I have actually gotten up and done it, which is more than I can say for past attempts at writing like this daily.

Of course, the big negative is that its set me back 15-30 minutes in the morning, generally a time when I don’t really have any extra time to spare.  Now, I’ve not been late for work due to this – I’ve gotten up early enough to add it to the day, but it has added almost 30 minutes to my morning.  It takes about 15 minutes to write the 750 words and then I have to re-read it and check for all the typos and grammar mistakes, and that generally takes me another 10 minutes or so.

I’m just not sure if I shifted this to the end of the day that it would “clear my mind” (as opposed to getting myself ready for the day) or if I would actually remember to do it. The thing about this is that I get up and come right to the computer, so there is no interceding action that gets in the way of doing it.  Because I get home at different times, get involved in things once I get home, etc.., the writing doesn’t often happen or something else gets in the way.

So, for now, I guess I’ll keep trying this in the morning (as long as I keep actually doing it) and try to make sure I get up early enough to include it in my day.  I am glad I’ve been able to do it, at least for these last few days.  I do like the idea of chronicling what is going on in my life.

I’m excited and nervous that the work is starting in the basement today.  Nervous in part because I won’t be here for the day while the work is going on.  I’m going to be here to let them in and then try to come back at the end of the day, so I’ll be a little late going in to work and leave a little early, but for the bulk of it I’ll be at my job.  I’ve never done anything like that before.  I generally like to oversee whats going on.  After all, this is my home, my investment, and I like to be here to make sure everything goes as planned and as I have paid for.  Its generally also been a learning experience for me. Besides, it’s easier to correct mistakes and problems as they come up and not once everything is done.  I guess I have to have more faith that everything is going to go as planned.

Work has been frantic, between the move to my new office, the move of the lab downstairs, the conference coming up on June 1st, and the hybrid online course evaluations for spring closing and for summer starting.  I’ve had my hands full and being off on Friday and Monday didn’t help.

Yesterday was the first real day in my new office.  Once the walls got done with the IdeaPaint I moved my computer, my files, and my pictures downstairs.  I rearranged my office furniture the way I wanted it and got everything set up.  The only thing is that I’m still using the sit down desk that was in the office and not my new GeekDesk, which is still sitting in three cartons in the lab.  I think I’ll try to put it together on Friday, although at Alan’s suggestion I did put in a work order.  We’ll see who gets to it first.  But I had to get my desk set up, albeit temporarily, so I could make the move and get to work.  I like my new office.

The ultimatum was set down, get the washer and dryer done before I go away or forget it.  It didn’t get done, and I didn’t go where I expected to be going (but that is going to have to be a different post) and when I came back I had to start getting quotes from plumbers.  I got three quotes (all of which were 4x what the original jerk was going to charge, but at least I now know why) and finally decided on Windheim Plumbing and Heating in Nutley.  All three of my quotes were fairly close to the same, the difference came down to gut feeling and that Tom (Windheim) emailed me a detailed written quote that laid out exactly what they were going to do.  That wasn’t the sole reason, he also was the lowest price, but it was important to me that he offered (I didn’t have to ask) to provide a quote in writing AND to email it to me. You’d think that wasn’t such a big thing, email and web presences, but in the trades it is sometimes.

When all three plumbers were going through what the job would entail they noticed that there was an issue with the brand new hot water heater (which was installed by the same ass who jerked me around with the washing machine and dryer).  Tom suggested I contact a chimney company as the problem needed to be addressed – separate from the washer and dryer, but it needed to get taken care of.  He even suggested someone he had worked with and was reputable.  We talked about the bad, and deservedly so, reputation chimney companies had but Tom assured me that American Chimney was different.  He as right.

Doug from American Chimney came to do an estimate on the work that might need to get done but to aslo do a primary inspection on the chimney.  When I bought the house my home inspector suggested a chimney company come in to look it over but the two I had come in were clearly from that “bad” pool, so I never followed through.  Douglas, from American Chimney was patient, he explained what had apparently happened in the past, went through what the options were, encouraged me to “do my homework” and not only get other prices if I wanted but to also check him out on Angie’s List and the BBB (which I did). 45 reviews and American Chimney has a A rating on Angie’s List – the best of all the chimney people I saw listed.  Between that and the fact that they are doing more, and costing less, than the quote I got nearly two years ago, and Tom had recommended then, that closed the deal.

When does this all get rolling? Wednesday.  Yup, tomorrow.  Windheim starts on the washer and dryer in the morning, since its a completely new run of pipes it should take the better part of two days (there were some other complicating factors like existing 1 1/2″ pipes where there should have been 2″, etc), American Chimney will also get their work done tomorrow and my electrician (also, coincidently, named Doug) will be here on Friday, I believe (if not Saturday).

Also on Friday I’m having Tom remove a house trap from my sewer line (inside the house).  Apparently, houses of a certain age, and in certain areas, put a trap in the sewer line, just like the kind you’d find under your sink.  Its no longer necessary and, in fact, is probably causing problems elsewhere that I won’t go into.

It appears as if all this work will get done before the weekend, so if all goes as planned, which I’ve learned NOT to expect with getting this particular job done, by the weekend I’ll have an washing machine and dryer, fixed hot water heater, fixed chimney including a new (full, this time) liner, and no more house trap (including the huge black air pipe obstructing part of my basement).  We’ll see.

I didn’t realize this was going to happen so quickly.  My uncle had proposed a game, a pool, to guess what the time and date would be that I put my first load of laundry that I washed in my own washing machine into the dryer for the first time.  Since the work is going to start today, there’s no time to let folks know about the pool.  If you want to guess, and put it into comments here, that’s cool – we could have some fun with it, but I won’t have time to organize the pool the way I had first thought.  This, to me, is a good thing.  I’ve been waiting a long time for this, and a number of challenges have presented themselves so far along the way.  If this is finally getting done this go’round, I’ll be happier that its done than to have the betting pool.

When I first bought my wonderful home a little under 2 years ago there was a 20+ year old stacked washer and dryer in the basement.  I have an excellent full basement that has a summer kitchen in it – so I was lucky enough to buy a house with two full sets of appliances.  The basement has a refrigerator, stove/oven, and sink.  These appliances, along with the stacked washer and dryer, were on the right-hand side of the basement along with a bathroom that includes a shower.

The dryer gave out within the first few months.  I looked into having it fixed but the cost was prohibitive.  I continued to use the washing machine but only did a size load that could hang on an indoor dryer.  Anything else, meaning anything over-sized, I went to the laundromat or did it when I visited Jessica’s or my mom.

The washing machine started to leak in January so I decided to replace the unit.  But I had no intention on replacing this stacked unit with another stacked unit.  First off, I didn’t want a stacked unit so the replacement could not go where the original was.  I didn’t want it to go there anyway because a) it was in the summer kitchen and b) it was right next to the main electrical panel.  Don’t ask.  Second, I wanted to move it out of that area and over to the side of the basement where my hot water heater and furnace were.

The thing that initially stopped me from doing this quickly was a HUMUNGOUS old filter that was full of sand (and rocks we came to find out).  I needed to  have this removed and it was no easy job.  I was trying to do all this during the course of the semester, which consists of full time work all day, school 3-4 days a week (going into the city) and the homework.  This, coupled with being unable to reach or meet with most contractors over the weekend spelled it not getting done quickly.

Finally, the filter was removed and, in the meantime, I was knee-deep in comparing different washing machines and dryers.  I wasn’t planning on buying the bottom of the line units and there were so many options that I went on a full scale hunt.  It took me a while but I finally decided on Samsung washing machine but the accompanying dryer did not stand the in-store smell test so well.  I decided on a whirlpool.  I never checked the size of the unit, it didn’t even dawn on my to do it.  But, when I got home and was doing research on the dryer (I had only done my research on the washing machine thinking if it was good the dryer had to be good too – not true!).  The dryer was too wide to fit into the house.

I went back to the store the next day and got a refund for the dryer and bought an LG dryer instead.  They hadn’t been delivered so it wasn’t a problem.  As it turns out, both the washing machine and dryer I selected were the top rated units by Consumer Reports at the time (I checked online, so it was up-to-date).  The units got delivered on April 2nd, the day before my birthday.

The plumber I had been using told me there would be no problem connecting the units where I wanted to and quoted me a few hundred dollars to do the job (note the foreshadowing here).  I get the units delivered and there is one things after another that got in the way of the plumber coming over to do the install. First, he was away, then, we couldn’t get our schedules together.  Finally, I decided to have a cement slab put in so the units would be off the ground (in case of water problems, I’m on the crest of a hill, so its really unlikely, but not impossible) and to provide a better gravity flow for the out water.

The slab got poured but then the plumber disappeared. I set a date for him to do the work, he couldn’t make it, etc.. So I finally said that if it wasn’t done before I was supposed to go to Brasil that he wasn’t going to do the work.  Needless to say, it didn’t get done.

Wow – I’m way over 750 words so I guess you’re going to have to wait for tomorrow to hear the rest of the story and about the upcoming First Tumble Pool.

Although I was in the travel business for more than a dozen years I think one of the reasons I was even attracted to that line of work was because my parents were active travelers and I got to travel from the time I was very young.

My parents loved to travel and they did so until it just became too difficult for me dad (he had Parkinson’s complicated with back problems so it just became too painful for him to travel).  When my dad passed away one of the things mom wanted to start doing again was to travel.  We’ve been to Paris, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, a Caribbean cruise to 5 islands, and most recently to Hawaii.

The cruise is an interesting story.  We were considering two different itineraries – the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.  After narrowing it down to four ships mom decided she just wanted a warm weather beachy kind of trip, so we went with a Royal Caribbean ship out of San Juan.  A nice compromise – sunny beachy weather for her and a good number of islands for me (I get bored just sitting around doing nothing).  A bonus was of the four islands we were going to see, neither of us had been to three of them.

The Friday during our vacation we heard about a Costa ship that sank off the coast of Italy.  I recognized the name and came to the quick realization that it was, in fact, one of the ships we had considered.  If mom hadn’t decided on warm beach weather we would have been on the Costa Concordia that sank.  How different our lives would have been but for that one somewhat small decision.

My mom is really my hero.  For the first part of my childhood she stayed home and raised us but once my younger sister got old enough mom went back to work.  Over the time of her second career (the first being a mom) she has work as: an assistant to a vice president at Nabisco, a circulation manager for a financial magazine, and in a law office.  I believe she could do anything she puts her mind to and would be really good at it.  Her ability to adapt to different work situations and be effective in each of them is astounding and topped only by the fact that everyone likes her.  She becomes everyone’s mom.

Yup, thats my mom – everyone’s mom.  Growing up, my mom was the mom that everyone called Mom.  We always hung out at my house (I’d wager because of all the cookies that were in the house, as my mom was working at Nabisco at the time).  I’d like to think it was less about the food and more about the warm, welcoming atmosphere my parents made for my friends.  And this was in great part from my mom as my dad worked long hours.

Mom is truly an amazing woman.  My dad died very unexpectedly.  Mom was shocked, we all were, but mom became the strength for the whole family, just when we thought we’d need to be the strength for her.  She didn’t miss a beat.  That’s not to say she didn’t mourn, of course she did, and does, I can’t image what it must be like for her sometimes.  And although sometimes the grief slips through little cracks, she’s recognized that life changes and sometimes presents unpleasant things but that we need to forge on, moving forward.

I also think she knows that that’s the attitude my dad would have wanted from her.  No sitting and staring at empty chairs or torturing oneself over things that can’t be controlled.  Mom has taken on new challenges, learned to do new things, been to see places in the world she had only dreamed of ever seeing, and stood as a pillar of strength – an brilliant shining example of how to be a positive force in people’s lives.

I’ve only scratched the surface here of how lucky I feel. I don’t need a special day to let mom know that I love her and I make sure to take every opportunity I can to let her know in some way. For me, ever day is Mother’s Day when it comes to my mom.

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