Pipes

The plumber arrived. Had me running up and down the stairs multiple times, flushing both of the upstairs toilets. Perhaps I should have requested the plumber on-call today with the best hearing? 'Cuz this guy didn't have good hearing. He heard what I heard - once. Then wasn't sure what to do. Changed out the innards of the toilet tank. Took the connector off and ran the water out from the wall to confirm the noise wasn't from there. It appears it's the pipes in the wall, that have (we hope) just loosened from their 'brace' and are now rattling a bit every time the toilet is flushed. Seems logical. But I still worry. This house has had plumbing problems and so I constantly look for issues: noises, signs of leaking water, etc. So far, it's just a sound. We are taking a wait and see approach. It was $85 less the $10 coupon from the last time they were here. Oh well. We'll get another $10 coupon in the mail shortly. When the office called to be sure he'd arrived, I said yes - and she said 'was everything satisfactory?' I said 'yes, though I'm not sure he knows what the issue is - so we're sort of waiting to see if anything else happens. Hopefully, nothing will.

So, I've been incredibly productive, since I was basically trapped in the house. So far, I've:

Caught up on correspondence. Including sending in the $4 winning Power Ball ticket from our trip to Arizona. This is actually (confessing now) the 2nd time I've sent it in - 'cuz apparently, the first time I sent it in, I sent the non-winning ticket. Got a nice letter on really nice stationary to thank me for playing the Arizona Lottery and to advise my ticket was not a winner. THIS ticket most definitely is.

Also advised the pool guy that December will be the last month we pay for our pastor's pool service - something we did when he and his family first moved here. But we're cutting back....

Sent a notice to the music store that December will be B.'s last month of lessons. It's getting harder and harder for him to wedge in lessons with work, school and social life. And he hasn't had his drums out for ages. It's $120 a month we can use elsewhere - like our savings account.

Put our Netflix membership on hold for three months. Will either cancel all together or go to the $5/month option - we currently pay $18/month, which means we can have three movies out at a time. But I have a very hard time keeping track of all those movies - especially the ones the kids want me to get. They'd rather just go to Blockbuster anyway - and it's torture for them to order a movie from Netflix and have to wait to get it. So we'll probably stop that expense also.

Cleaned out the three 'desk' drawers in the kitchen. Basically three junk drawers. One is sort of 'hardware' stuff and keys - we call it the key drawer. The other two are an assortment of stuff - take out menus, pens, pencils, pictures. Oh, and dozens of the 'Box Tops for Education', which I carefully sorted out. Some were expired. Those that aren't are sitting here next to me waiting to be neatly trimmed. Then those that are expiring at the end of December will go into a special envelope. I'll take all of them to school with me on Monday and dole them out among the schools that collect them. At 10 cents each, it really does add up - and the kids could use the money for anything. I've been saving them for years. Time to start taking them in more often so they don't expire.

Also, we will not bring another colored pencil into this house! There must be three boxes of pencils in one of the drawers. I sorted them out, put them in a pencil tray and will insist that we do not need more pencils. Or erasers. Regular pencils. Pens. Rubber bands. Staples. Etc. I also found some cute pics that I'll try to scan and post shortly. Memories....

Cleaned out the catalog cupboard - more and more arrive daily (it's the shopping season, you know) so I try to eliminate duplicates.

Tidied up outside a teeny bit. Tossed some old dog toys and various other items that were just lingering around. It's starting to look like rain is imminent so I wanted to pick things up a bit before we get the wet weather starting. Also watered the indoor plants. They needed it. I tend to forget once the weather gets cooler.

I haven't had the TV on all day -

Since I was trapped here all day, I have a gazillion errands to run tomorrow - which means J. will be running them. I have to work a bit tomorrow - it's too big of a report to leave to the last minute and I don't want to end up working all weekend. Though as I type that, I think 'well maybe working Fri, Sat & Sun would be better.' But friends are also working tomorrow (at other districts) and it's nice to have help for questions, etc. So I'll have to think about that. I know this: it will get done. It's always time consuming and frantic but it's get done.

Just had my dinner - made a big pot of pinto beans for burritos, etc. I couldn't wait - they are en route but stuck in traffic. So I ate without them. Time to feed Chloe who is frantic with hunger. She's been wanting to eat earlier and earlier lately - she starts whining for food at around 3. Getting her to wait until between 4 and 5 takes nerves of steel. Silly puppy. She's most definitely NOT starving, as evidenced by her sausage like proportions.

Think I might bake some ginger cookies. Hungry for something sweet.