Friday, October 13, 2006

House Inspection

We had our house inspection today. We are currently T minus 2 weeks and counting for the closing on the house....and we're so totally excited!

We've packed some more, and once we started pulling all the pictures and things down off the walls to pack them, I couldn't help but cry. We really do love this house, it's so homey and warm, and we have so many great memories here. Not to mention how much work we've put into it. But, we must move on, and we'll make more memories at our new house! But still, it's hard to leave this one, no matter how excited we are about the new one.

The new house is looking great! It's basically finished, but we had to go around with blue painter's tape to mark all the places that need paint touch up, any nicks in the sheet rock, chips in the tile, places where they need to caulk better. All-in-all, it's pretty minor stuff, and the house is looking great. I thought it was kinda funny that we were so closely scrutinizing the new house, when the house we live in now is 25 years old and so very far from perfect. But, we're paying a lot of money for the new house, and we want it to be as perfect as it can be!

Juan took off work today because we had the walk-through, and we had originally planned to go camping this weekend. It's going to be the perfect weekend for it, but we decided not to, with the upcoming move and all. Thought we might be a little too stressed if we were gone this weekend.

Paul's asleep right now, and Juan went to the police station to get a copy of the police report from my collision with the bicyclist. I'm very interested to see what the report says. I sent in the ticket saying 'not guilty' and now I'm scheduled for an appearance docket with the prosecutor to see if the case can be resolved without going to trial. We'll see. But, we need that police report to make sure that we know everything the state knows. Funny, the violation on the ticket says "Backed not in safely" and now the "official" violation is "Illegal backing." Apparently, when you look, and there's no one there, it's still illegal to back out of your driveway. Also, it's apparently okay to ride a bike and not watch where you're going. So, I guess the moral of the story is to never back out of your driveway, and if you're riding a bike, you really don't have to pay attention to what you're doing.

My appearance docket is scheduled for Tuesday, October 24th at 9:30. Between now and then, we need to get a sworn statement from the bicyclist, get pictures showing the blocked view from our driveway, and prepare our case. Hopefully, the prosecutor will drop the charges, but if not, I'm not sure what we'll do. We may just pay the ticket so that we don't have to deal with it anymore. I'm also not sure if I can take defensive driving or not, but if I can, I may do that to get the ticket dismissed. We'll see.

That's the update around here...fun times!

Friday, October 06, 2006

Water feature

We have a new water feature in our master bathroom. It's flowing from the tub spout. And we can't turn it off. The cold water valve is stuck open. Isn't that lovely?

We called our landlord at 7:10 this morning. He lives in California, so I guess that would make it 5:10 AM for him? Anyway, there's a plumber coming, hopefully, soon. He said that as soon as he got himself put together and his cats fed he'd be over here. (his words, not mine) Thankfully, we don't own the house anymore! Sometimes renting is better!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Are you kidding me?!?!

Saturday night, right before our friends came over with their new baby, I went out to get the mail. I walked out the mailbox, grabbed the mail, and saw that there was something from the police department addressed to me. I thought "oh good, he sent me a copy of the police report." Wrong.

It was a citation. That's right. A ticket. Wonder what the violation was? The cop (I prefer the term 'officer,' but in this case, I would rather use the more demeaning term, 'cop') wrote in the "Violation A" box: "Backed not in Safely." What the hell does that mean? It made me so mad, I just dissolved into tears. I couldn't believe that he had the gall to send me a ticket when the bicyclist wasn't paying attention and HIT ME! Not to mention that we did absolutely everything we could to help him, get him to the hospital, keep his bike for him...everything we could do, we did. And I got the ticket. I was so mad. I still am.

Needless to say, we're going to contest it, and I've already sent in the ticket with the "NOT GUILTY" box checked and signed. We'll see what happens now. As if I need one more thing to stress about right now.

And about my knee, I've gone to the dr, he drained it, and took 75 cc's of bloody fluid off of the joint. He said that if he tried to drain his knee, he would be lucky to get 1 cc of fluid off of it. My knee had 75 times the amount of fluid it should have on it. He said that he expected the fluid to be yellowy-clear, and that the fact that it was bloody meant it had been injured, and recently, like within the last week. But it's been swollen like this for about 6 weeks, and a little less swollen for 6 weeks prior to that. So the dr. ordered an MRI and x-rays, and sent the fluid to the lab for testing.

That was Monday. I had my MRI and x-rays today. So far the lab tests are coming back negative for bacteria growth, which is good. The dr. said that he thought my problem was probably due to the surgery I had 6 years ago on the same knee, but he can't be sure until he sees the MRI. I'm going in Monday to find out what that says, and at that visit he said he would probably want to drain it again and then give me a cortizone shot to help with the inflamation. Of course, this would happen right before we move into a two-story house.

We're just three weeks away now from closing! We're very excited, but also stressed, because we have an entire house to pack and a little guy who thinks he's a big help, but really isn't. Somehow we'll get it all done...at least that's what I keep telling myself.

This too shall pass....isn't that what they say?

Friday, September 29, 2006

When bicycles and cars collide...


See this picture? That's what Juan's car looks like after yesterday morning...when a bicyclist and I collided.

Here's the story:

My knee has been swollen for 3 months...it's now roughly the size of a softball. I had made an appointment with my old orthopedic surgeon to have it looked at finally. My appointment was at 8:45. Juan stayed home for the morning from work to watch Paul so I could go to my appointment.

So at 8:15 I went out to Juan's car, which was parked behind our camper in the driveway. I put it the car in reverse, look both ways to make sure it's clear, and back out slowly. I get about 1/2 - 3/4 of the way out of the driveway, and look again over my right shoulder and SLAM! - a bicycle and mans body hit the car about 1/2 way down the passenger side.

OH MY GOD! Did that just happen? I put the car in 1st, and pull it back in the driveway, get out and the guy is sitting on the curb across the street holding his jaw with his left hand, bleeding. His bike is in the middle of the street. I grab is bike and put it in our yard, and then run over to see how badly he's hurt. He says his chin is busted, and he's sure he's broken his right wrist. He asked me to get his cell phone to call his wife, so I search through the bags on his bike and find that, call his poor wife and tell her that we've had a collision. The bicyclist kept telling me that he was sorry, that it was his fault because he wasn't paying attention. He said that he was messing with a light on the back of his bike and wasn't looking up, otherwise he would have had time to stop.

In the meantime, Juan has come out because he heard the wreck. He asks if the man (named Lee) wants us to call 911 or take him to the nearby (5 mins away) hospital. Lee says to please take him to the hospital, so Juan brings him a towel and an ice pack, and off they go.

Once Juan got back from the hospital, we decided that we had probably better call to get a police report. So I called 311, and the officer came to take our statement. He was SUCH an asshole. I told him what happened, and his first comment to me was "Well did you look?" with a total "you're such a stupid blonde, woman driver" attitude I wanted to slap him. (I didn't, of course.) I said "Yes I looked!" Anyway, the whole time he was there he acted like we were total criminals and I sped out of the driveway to purposely hit the bicyclist. So then he left to go get Lee's statement at the hospital.

Later that day I was out talking to my neighbor across the street, and Lee and his wife pull up. They told me that Lee had a compound fracture in his wrist and had to go into surgery to have it set and have pins put in. Poor guy. He also had 9 stitches in his chin. His wife took the bike, and they went home.

But wait...there's more to come.....

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Just beachy...

Ahhh....the beach. Beautiful sand, crashing waves, relaxed atmosphere....and quarreling, picking, bickering in-laws.

Not to say that our trip was horrible. It wasn't. We had a really nice time. Paul did surprisingly well on both the plane ride down and the trip in general. He wasn't too keen on the beach, but he did love the pool at the hotel. His sleep wasn't great...but kind of cute.

I think Paul wakes up most nights, plays with some of the toys in his crib, and then goes back to sleep. Well, when he woke up in the hotel, in the pack and play, right next to us in the bed, he thought it was great! He patted us, started saying "Dadeee!" over and over, and threw his pacifiers, and other toys in his crib at us. He ended up staying up about 1 1/2 hrs that night, and woke up the other nights for shorter and shorter periods of time. So, under the circumstances, Paul slept pretty well.

I, on the other hand, did not sleep well the entire trip. I'm not used to sleeping in the same room as Paul, and his noises as he slept and moved around kept me from sleeping well. The bed was actually better than I expected, but still, every morning my back was killing me. And, on top of it all, most mornings, Paul was up before 7 AM.

Paul also started saying "cracker" while we were at the beach. Monday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch, Paul got the Goldfish crackers off the table, brought them to me and said "cwa-kur." I thought at first that I didn't hear him right, but everyone else heard cracker, too. Since then, he's said it on request, and for most food items that he wants. It's awfully cute.

Then there were the the in-laws. Oh, the list of complaints is long...Here's the short list: 1. We ate out almost every meal. 2. They bickered constantly. 3. We were always trying to hurry them up, whether to leave to go eat, or to hurry up and eat because Paul was about to lose it in the highchair. Those were the big complaints...the small ones...Tina couldn't stop squeezing Paul's cheeks, she says the same thing about him over and over ("Ay, que chulo, que chulo. Ay, que chulo! Cositas lindas, cositas lindas!"). That's just annoying.

The worst was the constant quibbling, arguing, about ABSOLUTLY NOTHING! One of them would be telling a story and the other would start disagreeing about some minute detail that didn't matter at all! It made me (and Juan, too) completely crazy!!!

Oh well, we made it, and were sooooo happy to be home. In fact, Paul completely lost it on the way home and had a total melt down. But, once we got home, he just played quietly until bedtime. He seemed to be really happy to be home and in familiar surroundings.

Nice to go, but nicer to come home. We're all glad to be home.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Rabies Update

I called Animal Control Monday morning to see if they had results from the decapitated skunk. The skunk tested NEGATIVE FOR RABIES!!!!! YEA!!!! So, now we're totally in the clear as far as the skunk incident goes, and we're clear to go to the beach!! Yea!

I'm a little nervous about the beach trip. I'm not sure how Paul's going to do on the plane ride, but at least the flight is short, just one hour. Juan's parents have a time-share in South Texas, so we're going to fly down and stay with them on the beach! I know Paul will love the beach...playing in the sand and waves. But, I'm not sure how he's going to do with his naps and sleeping at night. We're going to take his pack 'n play for him to sleep in...I hope it goes well. We'll see. I'm sure I'll have lots to write about after we get back...Juan's parent's always give me lots of material. I love them to death, but they make me crazy!

Monday, September 04, 2006

More house updates



They installed the tile backsplash in the kitchen, and the HVAC, A/C compressor and A/C vents.