Lots to do

So I am home on vacation today!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and I seem to be running aroun in circlea with a million things to do and not getting anything done. I am already wondering what I can put off till another day.

Dave is all packed and ready to go, but I still have a few more days till I leave and I plan on making horrible use of them. It feels like this week has seemed endless and I was planning on talking about a million things here today but you would all be bored to death.

So off I am to enjoy a cloudless day in my house, as we try and dry out from all this rain.

The SUN!!!

The sun is out!!!!!!!!! I am very excited!

We are supposed to get some sunshine this morning followed by thunderstorms this afternoon and tomorrow. At the very least we are getting a break. Last night was not bad, no cleaning up necessary, although I am sure I could have found something to clean I decided against it.

Dave made a wonderful meal of salmon and zuchinnin for us. I know I haven't said this before but he is by far the best cook I have ever met. I never need to go out to eat for good food all I need is Dave. Now, more impressively the zuchinnins are from our garden. Yeez, they are BIG! We will have so many of them in the next few weeks I am sure I will be giving some away, so let me know if you want some.

We head out this weekend to St. Simons Island, were hopefully we will get some rest and some quality time with the Lynch family. Dave has already asked his mom to make a nice southern dish for, ohhh what am I in for?

The woman with the shop VAC

So my saga of water continues...
After another rainy day here, I left work and had to try 5 different routes to get home. All of them seemed to have been flooded, destroyed or trees were down.

I got home and got Toby and Brutus outside for a run, or should I say swim. After that it was all business. Now, I am going to add that Dave is lucky, I do not mind getting my hands dirty or working on stuff that would normally be stereotyped as "manly". I crawled into our crawl space and started on the shop vac, to suck water out. I call it the wet vac, why is it called a shop vac? It just sucks water shouldn't it be called a water vac...

After about 2 hours of working diligently at it, I got annoyed the more water I sucked out the more water that came out. It was getting ridiculous, so I gave up and we had some tomato and mozarella for dinner. Enough is enough!

We proceeded to check everything around the house and called it a night. At this point if the rain keeps up, I am attaching the shop vac to Brutus and making him do it.

I wish I had pictures but I do not, as my digital camera is at Merci's house, otherwise you could have laughed at me sitting in the crawl space begging for mice, snakes and anything else that could be down there to please not come out and say hello...

Water, water everywhere!

I am glad to be dry for once this afternoon. As many of you know this area had torrential downpours this weekend. Well as my weekend was winding down yesterday, Sunday afternoon, Dave and I sat relaxing in the family room. We can hear the rain pounding on the roof and it is heavy! Both dogs have been scared all weekend since it has been thundering and lightining non-stop. So we both decide to check the gutters and walk around the house before relaxing some more. "Well let me finish this stuff in the laundry room for a second" I say. Ok, so we gather ourselves and decide to head out the back door. We open the sliding door to the sunroom and alas our river begins. The sunroom has a couple of inches of water so we SCREAM and continue to walk over to the pool, which has now become the back yard, it is all flooded. We run for the drains to make sure thye are not clogged and no they are not clogged so we start pumping water out of the pool, when suddenly Dave yells "Go check the crawl space" Ha, why me, but I do as I am told to find that it is raining in the crawl space.

Dave used to hide a plastic Christmas penguin in the entrance to the crawl space, so when you opened the door you would be scared. Now I could see the penguin floating all the way on the other side of the crawl space, and literally water rushing in through the wall....
So we calm down and call our neighbors Ralph and Sue, which I may add it has not been the first time they have gotten us out of a jam. I run over to their house to grap the motors that will eventually pump water out for us, but in the meantime... I run across a floded road and up their very muddy hill, where I almost lost my shoe. I knock on their door and suddenly realize I have lost my glasses, so I scramble to my knees and start looking in the grass for them. Now I must explain there were about 2" of water above the grass and it was pitch black except for the ocassional lightning, so I am not sure what I am thinking at this point. Sue, not only laughs at me but manages to pull out a flashlight and find my glasses.

We run back to our house aremed with shop vac and pumping motor (who knows what these things are). We manage to get one working on the pool and another one in the basement. Now, most people would ask why not use the back washing in the pool, well cause NOTHING is simple in our house, and I had realized long ago that our former owner was a moron to say the least. So no we can't use the backwashing because it will only backwash to what used to be the pond/fountain, which no longer exists. I will get this fixed now, or it will drive me bananas.

After a very long night and a hard laugh Dave and I have managed to clean up half of the mess, the other half will have to be done tonight. Yet, as we wait for more rain, we will make sure the house does not become a swimming pool.

More later...

Grumpyness Galore

So I apologize for not posting much, but I have been GRUMPY, yes I admit to it. I think I was overly tired and developed a very nice continuous headache that would not go away for days. But alas, it is gone...

We had horrible thunderstorms here last night. We are very glad it rained heavily as we are at -5 for the amount fo rain we need. You can tell just by looking at our dead grass, even with me having spent days fixing the sprinklers and actually getting them to run every other day. That is another story in itself. I will have to explain later or when I finish my nice patching job.

So here I am at work and I wonder what makes people think that we as designers can create a miracle or turn back the clock. I walked in to a frenzy, there is this proposal due today, the courier is going to pick it up at 11:45am, however it is 10:55am and we still have not approved and printed it. So let me tell you we are in trouble, but how in the world are we supposed to get it done... STOP writing and approve, maybe we will have a shot at this. The wonders of my life as a graphic designer...

I do promise to write more, as I get to update all of you on my wedding plans, etc. etc.

Back in the working world

So it was nice to go to Puerto Rico this weekend. I will have to post pictures later.
I got to see my nephew Pedro Ignacio, who amazes me every time I see him, he just grows up sooo fast. He has somewhat learned that I am titi Elaine, hopefully it will stick instead of the girls or her.

It was a very nice father's day. We spent some quality time with the family.

Almost the weekend

So today I get to pack as I am going to Puerto Rico tomorrow morning to visit my dad for father's day. I am excited, but I am also exhausted from a pretty annoying week at work, so I am not sure which one I am more happy about. Not getting up at 5:30am for bootcamp, or just going to the beach for a few days... I guess both!
Even better is the fact that I get to see Pedro Ignacio, my nephew. I don't get to see him very often, but at 4 years old he is starting to realize that he has 2 aunts, and not one who calls and makes him talk to her on the phone. I can't wait to play with him and just enjoy the fact that I get to see him. It does amaze me how fast he has grown.

On another note, I am meeting at lunch with a friend who has done/worked for Windjammer cruises and I will get all the information I need to plan our wedding. Yes, Dave and I are on option # 175 for wedding plans and this one I hope sticks. I will admit it has been a little frustrating to not know, when, where or anything else about my own wedding. it has been mostly my fault, as this has been an emotional rollercoaster. I love Dave and I could not think of spending the rest of my life with anyone else, so I am happy he has been patient and supportive in my wedding emotial trauma. So wish me luck!

Welcome

Hello all!
I am going to attempt to start this blog and see how it works out.

A little about me:
I am currently a graphic designer at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I live in Great Falls, Virginia.I am the proud owner of 2 dogs, a mutt and a lab. Currently engaged to the love of my life Dave.