Cindy and Greg

This entire year we have had nothing but a flurry, until yesterday, April 7, 2007. We actually had about 1.5 inches of snow if you can believe it. It was even enough to cause a tree branch to fall on some wires and for us to lose power for couple of hours. You can seem some pictures of the snow (and some tulips trying to live through the storm) in our new Google Picasa Gallery. But here is a preview:

Share on Facebook

Today Cindy and I planned to do work around the house. On my list was to paint the upstairs hallway “Almond Oil” from the Eddie Bauer collection at Lowes. Cindy was going to work on cleaning the house (bless her heart). Around 10a, we hear the noise of a lawn mower…we look at the calendar and then look outside. Our neighbors with the perfect lawn have started already. They mulched (new word for the day) yesterday and then mowed the lawn this morning. Good lord, it is only March 11.

We have been preparing to have the downstairs air conditioning unit replaced, so tomorrow Andrew from A.D. Wiggins Mechanical will be coming over to replace our builder quality 2.5 ton (that sounds like a lot) dual fuel heat pump system with a brand new shiny Armstrong 2.5 ton dual fuel heat pump. Doesn’t sound very interesting does it? Nope, not interesting, but will be helpful come summer time here in Williamsburg.

Anyway, happy Sunday!

Share on Facebook

At the start of the Cowboys/Redskins game, Cindy asked about the fireplace…so we have lit the fireplace for the first time this year…let it get cold

Share on Facebook

This is the view outside of our front door…yes, that is our mailbox.

Share on Facebook

On Friday morning around 8:30am we felt the wrath of Tropical Storm Ernesto. Our power went out. Not a big deal, power goes out every once and a while for a little bit. It gave me a chance to move some machines over to our data center, as I had been planning to do for weeks. By the time I got back from the data center, Ernesto was in full force. I called Mom to let her know everything was fine and just as the call connected the power went on. I started to power everything up to start working again and just as it all came back up, the power went off again, this time we were not as lucky. Cindy and I never realized how much we depended on power. We sat around that afternoon (her office closed) and talked for a little bit before she started to read and I fell asleep reading MacWorld. I was bored to tears, so I ran to the data center to check in with the real world while Cindy took her turn napping. I brought back McDonalds for dinner. If you happen to be in Williamsburg, stay away from the McDonalds on Route 5 in the Farm Fresh plaza, it was perhaps the most painful experience I have ever had with “fast” food, baring a Taco Bell incident we won’t go into detail about. From the minute they took my order, to the time I drove away it was literally, 20 minutes. Anyway…

We woke up Saturday morning and the power was still out we decided to go out for the day and do a little window shopping. We stopped over at my office which had power for a little bit and then headed to dinner at Sal’s by Victor. We planned on going home, grabbing our cell phone chargers (since my phone was dead and Cindy’s was on its way to dying) and heading back to my office and watching a movie on the big screen. When we pulled into the commuity, we quickly realized the generators were not humming and then we saw the outside lights on at the house…it was almost as if God himself said let there be light.

36 hours without power has driven us to look for a generator. Who knew that you could order a 15,000 watt generator from Amazon with free shipping? On the agenda for Tuesday is to call about getting a generator for the house. Wish us luck…:)

Share on Facebook

Yesterday was the end to long drawn out saga. The weekend we moved into our house here in Williamsburg, we replaced all the appliances with some stainless steel ones. When asked if we wanted to them to remove our old appliances we said no. I had the bright idea of donating the appliances we didn’t need anymore. The Lowes guys suggested it would be hard to donate the dishwasher for whatever reason, so we had them take that away. We moved the old fridge into the garage as a party fridge. So all that was left was the stove. Well, I dutifully called all the local charities, no one would take a stove. We finally had someone local who wanted it, but never showed up or called the day they were suppose to pick it up. I gave up trying to be nice and put it on CraigsList for $150 bucks, nada. Finally I put it on CraigsList for free and we had like 5 people want it. The first person to email me was offered the stove. We arranged a time for her to come down to pick it up. I gave her directions, my cell phone number and waited for them to show up on Sunday morning. Time went by, no one showed up…I got a phone call, they were lost in Williamsburg. Okay, fair enough, I have been lost in Williamsburg before, I know how that feels. I gave them directions from where they were to the house and waited…..the phone rang again, they were still lost, so fine I gave them directions from their new location and patiently waited for them. After 3 more phones calls my patience was running a bit thin. I had offered on phone call #2 to come meet them if they stayed where they were and then they could follow me back to the house, but no no, they said they would find it.

Anyway, 7 months, 20+ phone calls, countless emails, and about 5 phone calls for directions, the old stove is finally out of the garage.

Why is it so hard to make a donation? I just wanted someone to be able to use the stove…I wasn’t looking for a tax deductible receipt…just a family who needed a stove.

Share on Facebook

Our neighbor just put in a little patio and ordered new patio furniture. This morning when we put Tucker out, this is what we saw…Levi had picked up the lounge, dragged it out into the yard and was swinging it around. We tried to distract Levi with a tennis ball, since what dog doesn’t like a good tennis ball, but he wasn’t having any of it. Cindy went to the fence to have a heart to heart with Levi, advising him he needs to be good or he might find himself without a home. But, this morning, we saw the same thing…poor little guy might wind up having his biscuts packed if he isn’t careful.

Share on Facebook