Leak Update

The builder's guy arrived on Monday an hour ahead of schedule - which was totally OK.  The good news is there was no water in the crawl space and no water in the wall.  When the baseboard was pulled off, there was no moisture.  The bad news is that means it's coming from the shower - just a little at a time and it soaks into the baseboard which is causing the mottling.  This shower had a 'guard strip' on the bottom of the door when we moved in - but it kept coming off.  After multiple repairs - because every time it was replaced it came off again shortly after - the shower company said it was OK to leave it off.  So it's possible a small amount of water is on the floor during use.  

I will (from now on) be very careful and put a small dry cloth on the floor near the edge of the shower where the baseboard is mottling.  The builder's guy took the piece of baseboard and will cut a new one and seal the entire piece by doing paint everywhere - even on the edges - which should help prevent the baseboard from absorbing water. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we head to Atlantis for another weekend - this one our anniversary celebration.  33 years on Saturday - Atlantis Steakhouse reservations for 5PM.  It will be fun.  Fingers crossed for good luck.  

I am anxious today because H. is supposed to hear from a sober living house he applied to.  He did a phone interview yesterday and felt pretty confident - and he said he would let us know as soon as he hears.  The counselor he's working with is in training all day and told H. she'd check messages on her breaks and lunch - so I'm hoping she just hasn't had a chance to check messages yet.  It's hard feeling anxious about all this stuff - but it is what it is.  I was relieved when he told us the amount per week for him to stay at the house - an amount we can do with no problem (blessed and grateful) - though the logistics will be interesting.  They want a money order so I'll be trekking to the bank or WalMart to get them.

Had a much needed catch-up call with my friend C. last night - felt so good to laugh a lot.  

This morning, we saw a herd of deer coming down from the hill onto the golf course up the tees from us.  Our neighbors had told us last week they say them - and we were so happy they finally ventured somewhere we could see them, too. We also have tons of Robins finding worms just on the golf course side of our fence.  They've been hanging out for a few days and are getting big and fat from eating so many worms.  The moisture we've had this winter is really going to make the Spring bloom crazy.  Can't wait! 

J. and I ventured out to the yard yesterday and did about 30 minutes of clean-up.  Picking up twigs and leaves and moving rocks to their usual location.  Felt wonderful to be outside and have the yard clear of snow for the first time in months.  It was chilly and windy but lovely to be enjoying the yard again.  We have a lot of work to do but it's OK - we'll chunk it up into small bursts and everything will get done.  

Huge wind gusts today - just had one that was close to 30 MPH.  It sounds like a jet engine and then you realize it's ground level and it's wind.  Wild day.  Even had some snow falling briefly but not cold enough to stick long.  Which is good 'cuz we're a little tired of snow.

What a Weekend

J.'s Blackjack Tournament was a Saturday event with a Friday 'swipe' of his players card to get into the (new) wildcard drawings for the semi-finals and finals.  We decided a few weeks ago to go ahead and get a room for Friday and Saturday night so we had a place to be in the event weather was a factor.

Weather was beautiful - but we still had the room.  Our plan when we left the house together on Friday was to go to the room to use the facilities and make it look like we were there nightly.  That's what we were doing. 

I was at Dragonlink all afternoon and. J. mentioned (from the room) that this was not our 'normal' suite.  This was one of the newly remodeled Concierge tower suites - a suite/room that our host M. had tried repeatedly to get us access to.  It never happened - we were never disappointed because the suite we had was always nice - but not top shelf like the tower suites.  When I realized that we were in a Tower suite, I told J. 'oh my gosh, we have to stay.  We can't miss it.'  I gave the always sweet, helpful and wonderful husband a list of things he needed to go get so we could stay.  Clothes, his bi-pap machine, pillows, etc. .  The last thing I texted was two nights of my medications and supplements which were already sorted in the cupboard above our microwave.  

He forgot the meds - which was OK.  I survived.  I took Pepto Bismol chewables for antacid - the only thing the gift shop had - and my tongue is black (side effect) but they helped.  

We had so much fun.  Friday was epic on the win side and we headed to dinner with me having more than doubled my money.  3 handpays Friday.  There were 3 handpays on Saturday too but as always, wins become play.  It was a blast of a weekend.  AND J. placed 4th in the tournament and won $4,000 in chip play!  Woot woot!!  He's well funded for Blackjack for a bit and will do his usual 'magic' of turning freeplay into real money!  There were close to 150 players in the tournament so to be 4th - making it through 3 rounds of play - is pretty amazing.  HE IS AMAZING! 

Our new host is attentive and has such a wonderful, positive vibe.  When she checked our reservation and saw our 'usual' suite, she worked her magic and secured us the epic room.  She's wonderful.

Now....we loved the room.  Really.  Beautiful decor, kitchen with ice machine, stocked beverage refrigerator, 2 bedrooms each with full bath including a steam shower and a bidet/toilet.  Probably three times the square footage of my first apartment.  Huge, absolutely huge. Views for miles and automatic blackout curtains and sheers.  Push "Good Morning" button and the shades open.  Push "Good Night" and they close.  Lights controlled by 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' buttons by the front doors to each room.  Truly, truly fun.  But we don't spend much time in our room, usually.  And no matter how fancy, updated and luxurious the decor is, we never sleep great in hotel beds.  Ever.  First night wasn't too bad but the 2nd night had me so sore, it was painful to rollover.  So...that's why we don't stay overnight that often.

Here's a pic of the living room.  

And another.

 

We had planned an anniversary 'Lalapalooza' for this coming Wednesday - our anniversary is next Saturday, the 25th - but we made the mid-week reservation because it's so much calmer than a weekend.  But we decided last night that we weren't really feeling like we wanted another hotel night in a few nights.  So we cancelled - we're going to use our Lalapalooza anniversary funding to make some trips to various casinos on Th/Fri/Sat/Sun next week.  We'll have a lot of fun and spread our play around a bit.  And of course, Atlantis will be on our list.

On the drive home (in rain, by the way), J. mentioned 'we need to clean out your closet' - the builder's guy is coming around 11AM tomorrow to get started on figuring out what's happening with my bathroom.  I said 'why in the world do we need to do the closet'?  'Because the access to the crawlspace on that side of the house is in your closet back in the corner'.  Oh my goodness!  And we also have to empty and pack up things on my TV stand so they can access the wall from the bedroom side as well as the bathroom side.  

This is going to be fun.  (Not).  

In other news - adding stress and drama to the days - H. is within 9 days of being released.  He has phone interviews scheduled with two sober living houses and we are doing some research on the locations of the two homes.  The thing about Houston is nothing is easy.  I do think I've located some info on public transit that might help him a smidge - but we'll have to see.  Mostly, we all keep reminding ourselves that at least for now, the most important thing is him finding a safe place to be.  A place with other individuals putting their sobriety first.  The two homes are Oxford Houses (oxfordhouse.org) - a long-standing, self-run (by the residents themselves) group of individuals renting available space to ensure they are in a place with other people committed to not using drugs or alcohol ever.  Any 'use' is an immediate 'you are out'. 

After he gets into a house, we'll work on figuring out all the 'what next' steps.  It's hard to do all this thousands of miles away - but we'll figure it out. 

OK - I really need to get unpacked and start working on my closet and the TV stand.  This is going to be a very busy week.  

Leakage

Not sure I've mentioned this here yet - guess I could do a search - but oh well.  Content is content so here goes.  

For many months, there has been a 'mottled' section of my baseboard along my bathroom floor next to the shower.  The builder's customer service guy has come out a couple times - and he recently came out for the continued floor issues and we asked him to look at the baseboard issue again.  He didn't seem concerned.  

I marked where the mottling was when we first had him come check - and was able to prove that the mottling is spreading.  

We finally just sent a picture of the issue to the owner of the construction company who built the house - the always amazing Sam - and he wrote back very quickly 'that looks like water damage - I would like to come by to look at it'.  He was just here and is pulling our house specs to provide very specific details to the customer service guy and will have him 'crawl' the house - going underneath to see if he sees water.  And also pulling off the baseboard in the bathroom and the baseboard opposite behind the TV cabinetry in the room.  It will be a lot of work but we're glad they are doing it because we're pretty sure there's a teeny, tiny leak somewhere in the wall - and 2.75 years of shower use has created enough moisture to wreck a baseboard.  It's very likely wet within the wall and they will be knocking holes in the wall in strategic places to find the leak.  After they 'crawl' the house to search for water on the ground.

I'm worried there's mold (and so is the builder) but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  

We're heading into a long, fun weekend of Atlantis - J. has a blackjack tournament tomorrow.  He plays at 11AM and normally, he would know if he has a chance of making the semi-final round - but the always changing things up Atlantis folks have added a twist.  If players swipe their players cards today, they will get an automatic entry into two wild card entries for the semi-final and final rounds.  Ingenious, right?  'Cuz now instead of leaving if we know J. won't be in the semi-finals, we'll have to hang out all day until the semi-final wildcard drawing at 3:45 and then the final wildcard drawing an hour later.  THEN if he doesn't get in, we'll head home.  They clearly are upping their game on keeping people in the casino as long as possible! 

Today, we'll do the swipe, play a bit (5x comp day so that's nice) and go to Peppermill to play there a bit as well.  It won't be a long day today but tomorrow definitely will.  We got a room for two nights mainly because we were feeling like 'there will always be snow - forever' - I don't think we'll stay over but I never say never.  We are definitely staying over next Wednesday for our pre-anniversary Lalapalooza.  I'm really looking forward to it!  

The weather is blue skies and sun and the snow melt happened fast.  We have zero snow in the front yard and just a bit in the back.  It's so wonderful to see the ground!  And the sky!!  Woot woot!  

Guess that's it for now - will get this posted.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wild, Wild Weather

We continue to ride a wild, wild weather period.  The freeway between Carson and Reno was closed quite a bit and even when not officially closed, chains and/or snow tires were required most of last week.  We upgraded my tires last Fall but they still aren't technically snow tires.  

We've been snowed in a lot and we both feel it.

Yesterday, the guy who owns the huge bulldozer/digger (used to create the pad for the houses under construction) took the digger all around our loop.  He moved snow onto the only vacant lot in our neighborhood and created quite a pile.  We ended up with a lot of snow piled up at the end of our driveway which took some shoveling (by J. and our neighbor T.) to remove so we could get the car out.  When J. said 'we might have trouble getting out of the driveway at this point', I was skeptical - how bad could it be?  But it was a pretty high berm at the driveway's edge so safer to remove it vs. trying to drive over it.

Today, I ended up changing the cat grooming appointment we had scheduled for this Thursday to mid-April.  They have a 24 hour cancellation notice and when I called to express concerns about 'what if we can't get there on Thursday', we decided the best thing to do was move the appointment out.  

It's too bad we have to wait another six weeks - Muf really, REALLY needs a trim - but we've had so many events and planned trips to Reno that we've needed to cancel or change, better to just make the change and eliminate the worry about it. All will be well.  I will give Muf a good brushing using the cat grooming vac and that will help.  I hope.  

I've got a huge Walmart grocery order waiting in the cart - I get gift cards as a casino perk so I'm hoping we can hold off until I pick up the cards later this month.  

It's now Wednesday and we've had snow all morning.  I trekked to the kitchen for another cup of coffee and declared 'I am grumpy'.  J. said 'I won't say anything' but I'm pretty sure the words 'how can I tell?' might have been on the tip of his tongue.  I'm just tired of snow.  Wait.  Really?  I'm not tired of snow as much as I'm tired of relying on forecasts constantly to make plans only to have the forecasts be wrong and I'm disappointed yet again.  We're not sure if we can get to Reno at all this weekend?  Guess we'll see. 

I had some good slot play days earlier this week and the wins inevitably lead to looking forward (even more) to playing again soon.  Weather thwarting my plans constantly is hard. 

I kicked myself into high gear and tackled finishing our taxes.  I'm ready to e-file today and our refund should be here in a couple weeks.  Glad to have that done and off the list.  

There's a bit of sun now which is welcome!  I can see pavement on the street again so we got snow but nothing super heavy.  Thank goodness!  Maybe we can go for a drive!

Host Change

We braved the potential weather on Sunday and drove to Reno to go to Atlantis.  Sunday will likely be a weekly thing since they changed my free play days - and added 3x comps on Sunday which is nice.  

As we entered the Washoe Valley, I could see blowing snow - just a bit - from the median onto the freeway.  That is what happened in January, 2022 when we ended up getting stuck for hours and routed back to Reno.  I told J. 'that's a bit concerning' but it wasn't snowing and there wasn't snow expected so we figured it would be OK.   

I told J. 'we'll just go, play a wee bit, have brunch, say goodbye to our (retiring) host Mary and head home'.  Easy peasy. 

Only....I won $2200 within the first five minutes of play (yes, really) and things just took off from there.  Ended up playing into the afternoon often with Mary joining me to chat.  It was an epic day of wins!  Really awesome.  Two hand pays and three Majors on Dragonlink.  That's a great day! (Yes, I have pics - lots - but I feel unsure about posting them so I won't). 

We left around 3PM and as soon as we got on the freeway, we saw the electronic signs saying that the freeway was closed in the Washoe Valley.  I immediately thought 'oh no - it's like last year'.  But it wasn't.  Not quite.  Old 395 was open so we exited the freeway and headed south via that route and it wasn't too bad.  There were a couple places that were super icy but we passed them easily.  NDOT did a great job - had snow plows on Old 395 in full force to ensure we could get through.  

We made it home (phew!) shortly before more snow began to fall.  We saw pics on our local Carson news web page with lots of cars spinning out in the Washoe Valley - 16 incidents reported.  Yikes!

Yesterday, the freeway was closed between Carson City & Reno - which hasn't happened before since we moved here.  Blizzard conditions - strong winds, blowing/falling snow and all expected to continue for a long time.  Wild.  No point in sugarcoating it with 'chains required' (which also keeps us home 'cuz we have cables but we avoid using them at all costs - even if it means we stay home and miss things in Reno). 

It's Wednesday morning now and our cleaning ladies and I agreed that them coming today was not a great idea.  We have A LOT of standing snow in the streets and I worry about them unloading and trekking across ice and snow.  The main cleaning lady is young but her helper might be her mother?  And I was pretty worried about a slip and fall.  I texted her - and she said 'I was about to write you, too'.  So we cancelled today and will see them in 3 weeks - that will get us back our our usual every other week schedule.  

I am strangely motivated to clean my own house this week so yay for that.  We can do it!  

I hear the comforting sound of T.'s snow blower starting to clear our corner of the world and have a fresh cup of steaming hot coffee to warm me up.  

It's going to be a great day.