It's One Thing Or The Other

When we stuck the for sale by owner sign in the yard a few weeks ago, before we list with a Realtor, we knew we still had a few things to do to the house before it was ready to show. The sign was meant more as "coming soon" to let folks know the house was going on the market. We then got busy and cleaned the house out and got rid of all the extra unnecessary furniture and other items we had since we had just combined two households, not to mention the children are now grown and one is on her own and the other is off at college.

One of the biggest problems was a leak somewhere in the fireplace that had ruined the upstairs drywall in the bonus room and then ran down to stain the popcorn ceiling in the downstairs great room in the finished basement area.

We had the Fireplace Dr's come out and they replaced some rusted out things in the fireplace and patched up things up there. I'm not sure what they did but when we had the next rain it seemed to have worked. No more dripping or leaks. Sooooooo...

We got the painter/drywall guy out here. He spend 4 or 5 days here putting new drywall in upstairs, painting and repopcorning the ceiling then he repaired the main floor ceiling stain then he repaired the downstairs ceiling. Two thousand dollars later we thought everything was repaired.

Then it rained again.

And the leaking started back! We held our breath as we watch the downstairs ceiling. Luckily, no damage but we had to get somebody back out to find and fix the leak once and for all. The Murph called some other company who sent a guy out late one day last week who looked at it gave us an estimate and said he'd be back the next day. We waited two days but he didn't show up.

Finally, someone from his company showed up day before yesterday after the Murph made several calls. He took one look and said it's a lot more complicated than what the first guy said and it would cost more and they couldn't do it that day but they would be back Friday (today - and they are still a no show as I'm writing this).

That's wasn't good because as anyone who lives in Birmingham knows we had monsoon level rains yesterday. The roof guys did agree to put a tarp on the roof/fireplace Wednesday at the Murph's urging. The Murph wasn't going to let them leave without doing something to stop any leaks since we knew it was going to rain yesterday.

So right now we have a bright blue huge tarp on the roof. It might as well be a bright red flag to potential buyers as they drive past the house. Probably as fast as they can!

It seems like the more things we fix around here, the more other things that were working fine have decided to not work anymore. We've already had to replace a toilet that decided out of the blue to just stop working. Then there were the shower doors that the maids broke with their thorough cleaning job and the outside door that was pulled off the hinges by the carpet cleaning guy. And then there's the vendors that just don't show up.

We were suppose to move last week, but know we've committed to staying here till the first of May to try to get everything repaired and hopefully find a buyer before we leave. We've spent more money to put the house on the MLS so we'll see what happens. Hopefully, we'll find a buyer soon so we don't have to list with a Realtor, which is nuts because I am a Realtor. I just have my license inactive right now because I don't know where we'll end up.

Also, the cat was recently diagnosed with heart disease and has another vet appointment next week to check his blood/kidney levels since he's on a diuretic. He can't be left alone at either place as we move back and forth (we were going to move in two trips and take half the cats and leave the other until we come back) because I have to give him medicine. I also want to have his meds under control by the time we take him to the new place. He's on Atenolol for his heart as well as Lasix, half a pill of each in the morning and 1/4 of Atenolol at night. Try halving one of those already tiny pills! The vet tech was nice enough to do if for me for now, but I still have to halve the halve of Atenolol for his night time dose.

Our plans have kind of changed a little for the moment. Delayed is probably a better word to describe our situation.

As you are driving down the main street in our subdivision toward the house you can't help but notice the bright blue tarp over the roof. I tried to reasure the Murph that it's really not that noticeable. Well, maybe just a little bit, but not too bad.

At least it doesn't leak right now.

Black And White

Black and white is my favorite fashion trend for Spring 2013. It's easy for me since I'm always wearing black or white when I'm not wearing pink. This white dress actually incorporates two other Spring trends - the peplum and the sheer cutouts. I wasn't sure I would like the peplum trend, but I do. This reminds me of some outfits I had back in the late 80's.

 I have always loved a black and white bedding color scheme. I got these several years ago at Target.

A close up of the sheer cut out and the peplum.

 Of course, Phantom's black and white coat is right on trend for Spring!

The black and white canvas arrangement of our wedding photos.

Ol' Blue Eyes himself in black and white.

Dress: Victoria's Secret (here);  Shoes: Bebe (old); watch: (old, but similar here)

He Thinks I Killed His Brother And Stuck Him In a Box

I can't help but notice that Ed's fondness of me has gone steadily downhill since his brother, Boo died last year. I can't help but notice the stink eyes that Ed's been giving me. He never wants to cuddle anymore. If I come over to the couch where he's sleeping, he promptly gets up and runs away. He hates it when I put my feet near him. He only tolerates me during feeding time, but that's about it. I never see him giving anyone else the stink eye or running away. He's usually a very loving cat.

I've come to the conclusion that he thinks I was the one who killed his brother and stuck him in a box in the upstairs bedroom. I thought I was helping Ed say good bye to Boo by lifting the lid that one time so he could say his goodbyes. Ed had been wandering around looking for Boo, so I thought that by, you know, showing him that Boo was gone, it would help him. Then when I took the box with Boo outside the next day and we buried it in the backyard, Ed probably thinks I was covering up the "evidence."

The Murph thinks Ed is just pissed off because I brought my two little bastard cats into his domain and they bite and scratch him, but I'm not so sure. Seems like Ed always tries to be friends with them but I just keep getting the stink eye.

And let me just clarify that Boo died of natural causes! He was old! I swear!

Okay, I may have stuck him in the box, but I didn't kill him. So stop giving me the stink eye!

5K Run For Autism

I haven't done very many 5k races the past several years, but now it seems like I'm making up for it. I did the Rumpshaker 5k for colon cancer last Saturday, 5k for autism today in honor of the Boy and next Saturday there's the 5k for Transverse Myelitis, a spinal cord disease that our friend, D's son was diagnosed with a couple of years ago.

I hadn't planned on running as hard as I did last Saturday because my legs have been sore most of the week and I didn't think it would be a good idea. That was a good thing because it was freezing this morning and I don't run well in cold weather and the course wasn't clearly marked so half the runners missed the little .2 (?) mile loop and half the runners did it. It was all for a good cause so I really didn't care what my time was anyway and it didn't change the order of my age group since me and the second place girl both missed the added loop and the third place person was my friend L, who did the loop but was about a minute behind us on the course before the loop. Our times would have been about a minute slower, but the order we came in would have been the same.

It didn't matter. I'm not even sure if they gave out awards to the top winners anyway. I think this is the first year they did the 5k. In the past they just did the 2 mile walk. The most important thing is the fundraising. I'm not sure how much money was raised, but I hope it was a lot.

I'm really glad my friend L decided to do the race too. I wish more people had participated in the 5k. There were far more people doing the 2 mile walk than the 5k.

This is one cool DJ! I loved his hat.

Great Bar-B-Q although it was too early for me to eat something that heavy. Jim N Nicks is one of my favorites. I did grab a cup of coffee though!

Next weekend is the same. I'm doing the 5k for the cause more than to race. I do hope the course is marked better though!

L and I ran another 3 miles after the 5k for a total of 6 miles. Then I did 40 minutes on the spin bike at the gym. No, I didn't ride my tri bike. At least not today. Probably a good thing considering my asthma.

It got much warmer and ended up being a warm, beautiful, yet pollen filled day. The yellow stuff is thick on the cars and probably in my lungs too. Even the cats are sneezing!

Been There Done That

Today I finally pulled my triathlon bike out, dusted it off, oiled the chain and changed the wheels to get it ready to ride.

This weekend?

Maybe!

I haven't been on the bike since the Alabama Coastal triathlon (Here) last September so it still had the racing wheels on it. I changed them out and aired them up and now the poor neglected bike is ready to ride.

Since September I've been either on the exercise bike at the gym or on my bike trainer at home. I don't like riding outside in weather under 75 degrees F, or in the rain, or on bad air days so I don't mind the indoor training at all. In the past when I was a little more obsessive about training I rode in the rain, in the freezing cold, in the dark at 5a.m. and in the dark at 7p.m and on days when air was so bad I coughed for days afterwards.

I don't do that anymore. Been there, done that!

I will say, however, that for the first time since training for Ironman Canada 2010 that I'm actually motivated and excited about getting back out on the roads. With all this indoor training I've been doing for two years, I am fully caught up on reading my stack of People magazines, I've seen an embarrassing number of episodes of Hoarders and Toddlers and Tiaras and I know more about Kim and Kourtney's taking of Miami than any normal person should.

It's time to take it outside before I lose my tentative grip on reality.

And I love to bike! Really, I do! I just don't love the traffic or the distracted drivers or the lack of adequate bike trails/lanes in this city. There's some folks around here that just don't like cyclists taking up space on their roads not one bit and they're not afraid to let you know it.

And I'm not just talking about my brother.

I use to ride with the bike club, now the triathlon club every Tuesday night during the spring and summer. I rarely missed a Tuesday night ride ever and if I did I felt bad. Nowadays, I rarely make it to a Tuesday night ride and I never regret it. Last year I did make it to a couple of Wednesday night rides at Oak Mountain State Park with a group of cyclists that's a little less competitive than the Tuesday night group and really enjoyed the more laid back ride.

When I showed up for the first ride, someone asked me where I'd been riding because I guess nobody had seen me out riding in awhile. I didn't no how to answer because there was where I had been riding. It was my first ride since Santa Rosa Triathlon (Here) seven months earlier and the only reason I was out riding that evening was because I had signed up to do a race that weekend and I wanted to make sure I could still ride without training wheels.

That was last year. This year it's going to different. This year I'm riding my bike and not just during races. I don't know when I'll add swim training to my schedule, but I am biking. There was a time back in the day when I actually got up and was at the Y as soon as they opened so I could swim a mile before work. For extra motivation to make sure I got up to swim, I would sleep in my swim suit. When 4:30 am rolled around, I woke up ready to go.

I don't know who that person was but I can almost promise I will NEVER do that again. Been there done that! And it was insane!!

I'll swim once or twice before the races I do this summer to make sure I still can. In the meantime, I'll do "dry land" training and no sleeping in swim suits!

Just So You Know If You Didn't Already...

Add caption

I thought I'd better get this in before April 3 rolls around and then it would be too late. Just for the record I did NOT wear blue today, not because I don't believe in and support autism awareness, but because blue really isn't my best color. I am, however, wearing pink. The Murph wouldn't let me put blue light bulbs outside either so we are not going blue anywhere outside either. The Murph does have a blue shirt on that says Jazz pure cool. We will pretend he's autism aware!

Sorry!

Poor Murph has become more autism aware over the past two plus years since we've been together than he ever thought he would be. (or wanted to be!) After being around the Boy for those years he jokes with me that autistic people are hard to be around. He doesn't like it! I explained to him that the Boy is only one example and not all autistic people are like the Boy. The Boy really isn't that bad most of the time. Just difficult some of the time and those times can usually be prevented if we plan ahead of time for them.

Our version of light up the blue

The Murph still has some awareness coming to him!

The Murph told me not to forget to mention the 5k run for autism I am doing this weekend. I will probably wear pink then too. Coincidentally, the autism society is doing the walk/ run here in Birmingham on the same day as where the Boy goes to school. I told him about the race and suggested he do it, but he wasn't convinced.

The Boy may or may not be wearing blue today for autism awareness, but no matter what color he's wearing, I just hope it is clean and wrinkle free.  Okay, forget wrinkle free. If it's just clean I will be a happy mom. Even when he was living at home with me, he didn't make it to school with wrinkle free clothing. Neither one of us did because I don't iron. It's a hazard for me to handle anything that gets that hot.

My refusal to iron my ex-husband's dress shirts is one of the reasons we are divorced.

Now I hope you become as aware of autism as we are! It's all fun really!

April's New Cat Yoga Pose and Phantom's Diagnosis

The Murph turned the calendar page today to April and a new kitty yoga pose. This pose is called Lord of the Dance. There's no way I can do this one without falling over or seriously doing some bodily injury so I'll stick with the "safer" yoga poses. The Murph got a good laugh when he flipped the calendar and saw it. I think Mr. March kitty was funnier though. This cat sort of looks like Cadence.

On a sadder note, Phantom's cardiologist appointment was today to find out the condition of his heart and why he suddenly developed a heart murmur. The vet did an echo cardiogram on him. Phantom did really great and was purring most of the visit. The vet diagnosed him with heart disease. Looks like he didn't have a heart worm after all.

He has mild to moderate hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which is a thickening of the heart wall. He has to take Atenolol, a beta blocker and continue on Lasix, his diuretic. Prognosis is fair. She said some cats  get better, some get worse and some stay the same with the medication. It is usually genetic, but Phantom is still overweight even though he's lost 5 pounds since he got sick a couple of months ago with all the vomiting. He is a big cat too. I'm cutting back even more on his food intake. He's a beggar when it comes to table food and he loves cookies. He's been known to steal them if he can get his paws on them. But no more!

Hopefully he will be one of the ones who get better! I gave him half of a pill tonight and tomorrow he will take another half and some Lasix. He was very glad to get back home and not left behind at the vet. I carried him in my arms since he didn't want to be in the carrier. The minute I brought his carrier inside after we got home he ran downstairs and hid! Ed and Cadence started playing on it and going inside it.

Poor Phantom! He's had enough vet visits!