After the water leak was fixed, we ripped out the cabinets to clean out the mildew. Gross. We also found the hidden pineapple wallpaper that matched our lovely pineapple tiles. Puke.

In June, the second half of the deconstruction began. The desk was removed as was the sheet rock. Electrical was run. Studs were leveled. Green rock was hung. Taping, floating, sanding, floating... This weekend: sanding, texturizing, painting... And we laid the rest of the floor boards!!! All that's left is to sand down some uneven edges, touch up the paint, paint and install the door trim, and paint and install the base board and quarter round. It's beautiful!!!

3000x1883

3000x1798

We've had her for 6 weeks now I think... which puts her at around 11 weeks old. She has more energy than she knows what to do with, so she bites, chews, jumps on, pounces on, and climbs everything in sight. The other cats don't seem to want to "play" with her yet (at least when we're in the house). I don't blame them. Getting bit isn't fun. But she's a super cute kitty and when she's calm, she's the sweetest little cat.

Today marks the end of my contract as a Java developer at my client. I'll still be working for the same client but I start a new contract as a J2EE infrastructure engineer in a different department. It's a nice way to move on, I guess. I'll still be working with people I work around now, but I'll just take on an entirely different role. Well, that's not true. For the last six months or so, my role as a developer turned into more of an infrastructure and QA role. It's an interesting change. Coming from the development world and going through a taxing environment build-out and implementation, I think I'll fit right in.

My news anchor shot... Hahaha!

Yes, I did it. I finally got my promotion to Senior Consultant. My presentation went very well. Seven slides in an hour with plenty of Q&A in between. I wasn't stressing about it at all, as my gut told me that I would get it. My day started at 5:00AM!!! Those who know me know that's quite an accomplishment in itself. HAHAHA!!! I left at 6:00 to make my 30 mile drive to the office. It was very strange leaving the house before dawn. Traffic wasn't bad at all and I made it to the office by 6:30. Made my first quick cup of coffee for the day (Brazilian Nut) but only had a couple sips before I headed for the conference room. An hour later, I left the room for a couple minutes while they decided. It was apparently an easy yes. They gave me a ton of compliments and told me how much they appreciate all my hard work and dedication, especially with our Java practice.

Yay!

I'm not going to bore you with the frustrations of work. Work is work.

My thumb is still numb. I did read a bit online about cryotherapy and what to expect. One site mentioned that the numbness may stay anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months depending on the nerve damage!!! The skin on my thumb started to dry up a bit and crack so I've been putting on lotion daily. Just tonight, the blister started to shrink and I'm not sure if it's due to the cold, dry air or what. My entire thumb has been stiff since last Monday. Some days it throbs and hurts, some days it's just extra sensitive to the touch. The half of the thumb closest to the frozen area is the only place that's numb. Argh... I don't want to ever do this again.

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007: 9:00AM

Taking Monkey to the vet to get her checked out. :-(

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007: 1:00PM

Dentist.

Thursday, November 8th, 2007: 7:00AM-8:00AM

Promotion Review Board Presentation. Yes, I'm wearing a suit. It's the first suit I've purchased...the first suit I've ever worn. Black with tiny white pinstripes about an inch apart over a red satin long sleeve button up shirt. Nice. I'll be heading to the office after my presentation so my co-workers will see me all dressed up for just a bit.

Friday, November 9th, 2007: 4:00PM

Heading to DFW to catch a flight to SFO for the weekend. Will's going to pick me up at the airport and we'll drive north to Little River. I've never been to Northern California (that I know of) so this should be a great trip!!! Especially this time of the year. I laughed out loud when I read the forecast for this weekend. The day I fly in, the highs drops into the 50s and it starts to rain. The day after I fly out, it goes back up to the 60s and the rain stops. Last night, I picked up a water-proof windbreaker shell thingy and a thin long sleeve silky thermal from Dick's Sporting Goods. Part of the plan is to go see the giant redwoods. Hopefully it won't be cold AND rainy, but I'll be a bit more prepared now.

Thursday, August 16th, 2007: 7:00AM

We woke to water dripping through the kitchen ceiling by the back door. We immediately turned the a/c off as we assumed this was another a/c issue similar to our previous leak from the upstairs air handler (that's another story). We contacted AHS, our home warranty company, to request service. AirWise was dispatched. Even after having the a/c turned off all day, water continued to drip from the ceiling.

Sunday, August 19th, 2007: Around 3:00PM

Still no word from AirWise. We turned off water to the house to replace faulty faucet stems in the upstairs shower. The water drips slowed and even appeared to cease after a while. After replacing the stems between 7 and 8:00PM that evening, we turned the water to the house back on. The water drips began within the hour. We ended up turning the a/c back on as we then assumed that it was strictly a plumbing issue. Why would the leak not stop if the a/c was turned off for 4 days?

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Still no word from AirWise. Contacted AHS to request a plumber.

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007: 6:00PM

AHS-contracted plumber (Angel Plumbing) says he doesn't think it's a plumbing leak as the leak detecting triangle on the water meter was not visibly moving. We asked about the possibility of a leak at a sweat joint. The plumber said those are very rare and told us that he suspects the water is an a/c problem. I'm sure he would rather confirm that it's not a plumbing issue before cutting into the sheet rock. The service request is transferred to AirWise, who is now expected to be at the house on Saturday.

Friday, August 24th, 2007:

The a/c guy blows out the drain pipe thinking the water is overflowing from a clog. He leaves, telling us that the water will take a while to drain out of the ceiling. The water continues to drip through the evening and into the next week. We contacted AHS again to let them know that the leak still exists and to dispatch AirWise again. They're scheduled to come back on September 4th to replace a separate air handler, so they'll look at it then.

Monday, September 3rd, 2007:

We're both frustrated that the leak continues. When we woke up this morning, we found that it spread to more locations: from the plenum ceiling, inside the cabinet, along the tiles behind the desk, etc. I'm very frustrated. Our walls are damaged, the cabinets and desk are damaged, the baseboards around the desk are damaged, and who knows what else is. We're collecting about a gallon of water in 8 hours or less. We decide to go ahead and cut into the sheet rock to start some troubleshooting ourselves. We first cut a 3"x3" square to get an idea of what's behind the wall. The sheet rock is totally saturated...it's like clay. We can see a pool of water and pipes galore, but no visible drips or wet pipes.

We cut the hole a little bigger to fit the wet vac hose to try to stop the immediate dripping and prevent further damage. After removing most of the standing water, we notice a little puddle movement as if the water was sizzling. You can see the ripples in the photo on the left. Look just in front of the horizontal 2x4 at the reflection of the pvc pipe. After some feeling around, Will felt a fine mist hitting his hand. We cut the hole just a bit bigger so we could see further up, and bingo! There's a very fine spray shooting out of a welded joint of copper tubing! To temporarily reroute water, we hung a funnel by a wire coat hanger from a 2x4, attached to a 4' piece of plastic tubing, which drains into a 5 gallon bucket sitting on the desk. It works, we don't have to empty pails or cups for the time being, and it's allowing the sheet rock to start the drying process. Angel Plumbing should be out again tomorrow (hopefully) to repair the pipe. Our claim is being assigned to an adjuster tomorrow morning and hopefully soon we'll get an idea of the extent of the damage. It sucks, but I'm glad we decided to dig into the wall ourselves.

Thursday, September 6th, 2007:

The plumber replaced the leaky pipe and left us with an even larger hole in the sheet rock. No worries, as that entire piece of wall will have to be replaced. The sheet rock has already started to dry out nicely in the few days we had our funnel contraption set up. I started to remove paint from the cabinets to let the wood dry out. We have a little bit of mildew on the trim between the wall and the cabinets, but overall, not bad.

Friday, September 7th, 2007:

Our insurance adjustor surveyed the damage, ran some numbers, and cut us a check for repairs. Yay!

I was rear ended at a red light a few weeks ago while it was raining. My bumper cover was cracked, but overall, my car didn't look that bad. The other wasn't so lucky. So, last Wednesday, we dropped the Golf off at Craig's Collision Center for repairs, hoping to get it back by Friday. This was under the assumption that only the bumper cover was damaged.

Rental car #1: Black 2007 GMC Envoy

Definitely larger than my little Golf. I wasn't expecting anything this substantial. It rode like a large car, had a surprising turning radius, and was a nice height for me as far as ground to seat height. It was a little strange to not have to really sit down to get in the car. Two days later, a screw managed to find its way into one of the tires.
After finding out that the spare was the wrong size, Enterprise wanted to swap out the vehicles. Also that day, I called Craig's to check the status of my car, and found out that there was a little more damage than just the bumper cover. The shock absorbers were spent, reinforcement bar was damaged, and the rear body panel dented. Craig's quoted me either Monday or Tuesday before repairs were finished. Friday evening, we drove home from Grapevine with another rental...

Rental car #2: White 2006 Toyota 4Runner SR5

Now this is a rather fun ride, though it's much larger than the Envoy. Three rows of seating instead of two, as if I need that much room. The last row of seats folds apart from the center toward the side windows making enough space for at least three large ceramic pots and a number of potted plants. Hehehe... Mo went shopping this past weekend! Not as tight of a turning radius. It rides more like a truck, so nice and bouncy. I didn't like how loose the steering wheel felt as each little bump slightly tugged the wheel back and forth. With a rather responsive wheel, I felt like the vehicle was all over the lane at times. The gas and brake pedals were uber-sensitive, so the initial drive home from Grapevine was rather jerky. Ha! But it accelerates much faster than I thought it every would. This truck is fun!

So, on Tuesday, I call Craig's to again check the status of my Golf. They're in the process of reassembling the car, but it probably will not be ready by closing time. They estimate Wednesday. Wednesday before I leave work, I call again and it's ready. Will leaves work, scoops me up, and we're on our way to swap cars back. We get to Craig's, take a quick look at the new bumper cover and immediately notice that it's not seated properly on the left half and there are a couple small spots missing paint. So...we exchange keys once again and drove home in the 4Runner. They said they would make it right and I really hope they do. I don't think their average customer is as picky as we are. But if you're going to do the job and get paid for it, do it right the first time.

These are the colors of our master suite. Bedroom walls are Blueberry Buckle with Heritage as the step ceiling. The hallway between the bedroom and the bath is the Smokey Slate as is the back wall of the tub area. The rest of the bathroom is a color similar to Shimmer. Found a nice color from Olympia (Balsam) and had it color matched for Behr. I'm planning on doing a light coat of an opalescent gold on top of the Smokey Slate by the bath. Looks good on my cardboard test. I painted most of the weekend since it rained straight through, but I still have a ton left to do.

Yes, it has been too long since my last post. Oh well. I've done a few things since then.

I'm working on a site migration...again. I have all my story content moved over to the dev site. I have a temporary theme in place while I either look for one that better suits me or make one myself. I like my current theme, which is my modification of the Empire theme, appropriately titled Empiress.

The gallery is in limbo as I need to find one (that I like) that will plug in nicely to Drupal. The task of moving pictures between galleries will be a nightmare.

Speaking of the gallery, I uploaded a couple new photos into the new Plants 2007 gallery. Before tonight's storms, I noticed a red iris blooming in the back yard. I honestly can't remember if it's a Japanese Iris or a Louisiana Iris. I'll have to dig through my notes later. I remember buying the rhisomes years ago, but I don't remember it ever blooming. So, while I still had enough light, I grabbed a few shots of it and a few other new plants in the back yard.

We're sloooooooooowly getting ready for a housewarming party. I don't think it can really be considered much of a housewarming party anymore though. Nine months after moving in is a little past warm. Regardless, we're planning on a get-together.

I finished painting my office. Once I remember to take pictures when I have good light, I'll add them to the Home gallery. I love it...surprisingly. I thought I would never have a lavender/violet room, but now I do. I also thought I would never have a yellow room, but I do now as well. It's a sexy set of colors, I think. After literally hours of searching for a replacement light for the office, I decided to use what I currently have, but spray the gold-colored metal framing silver. It's sprayed, it looks nice, now I just have to mount it back to the ceiling.

I found a perfect Guinness plaque for the coffee/Guinness bar. Again, need better light for better photos. It works well with the green walls, black counter, and dark brown cabinets. Excellent score.

Balcony replacement is on the horizon. Ideas of deck replacement or extensions have surfaced... I'm lost in outdoor furniture ideas. Pergolas. Outdoor blinds. Kitchen remodeling / cabinet refinishing. Percolators. Electric can openers. Cat beds. Wrapping paper. Filaments? FedEx? Orange Oil!?! Exoskeletons??? *poof*