The Bathroom is Repaired!!!

Oh my goodness, yes! If you'll remember around Thanksgiving, I told the sad tale of trouble in my one and only bathroom - water getting behind the tile and into the plaster. Les, my friend and contractor, came over last weekend to revive it. Since Thanksgiving, this is what the bathroom sort of looked like, with plastic duct-taped all around, to keep any more water from doing what it does best - slowly eating away at solid matter.

Les started demolition on Thursday 18 February and I came from work to a totally different room. Interestingly enough, while I knew I had the pink plastic tiles on the walls, Les thought he would find lath & plaster under the tiles. Not so much. What he found was basically strawboard, which is on the inside and outside walls. My brother John saw this when he repaired the floor in my bedroom a couple years ago - a very unique building material, in my humble opinion. Les hadn't seen anything like it before, but he dealt with it. Here's a look at the "demo bathroom." If you click on the picture and make it bigger, you might be able to see the outside wall of the strawboard.

I took the day off work on Friday (making for a nice 4-day weekend for me, since Monday was our President's Day holiday :) After some discussion on Friday morning, we made a trip to Home Depot to do some shopping. I had been all over the board on thinking about what I would do in the bathroom - how far I would go with the remodel. I toyed with the idea of taking the tub out and getting an actual old claw-foot tub, but I talked myself out of that; it would have necessitated a new floor overall, and then I'd have to figure out how to get behind the tub and clean around those feet...you can see the bathroom just isn't big enough for the classic view of a luxurious claw-foot tub in the middle of the room, with plenty of space all around - well, I don't have that. I did, however, decide I would do away with most of the pink tile, since all of it around the tub was going, and I like the look of wainscotting, and put that on the wall facing the sink and toilet. I thought I would have all the pink tile removed, but when I looked at the wall with the sink, medicine cabinet, toilet, cabinet above the toilet, I thought it would be a grand pain in the patootie for not much gain, and so I kept the pink tile there, as an homage to the original room. I shopped online and then in person for a premade tub surround kit, but my bath tub is 63" and the standard size for which tub surrounds are made is 60". I did find one that was 72" and could be cut down, but when I consulted with the expert at Home Depot, he advised against it based on the placement of the window (see first photo) - there is only 4" clearance between the corner and the window frame. Home Depot recommended what he called FRP for fiberglass reinforced plastic. It is white and relatively inexpensive and Les was amenable to using it. So after four days of hard labor, Les' work was done and I have a new and functional tub surround. Now of course, there are more pictures and if you'd like to see them, you can look at webshots: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/576808288QniFrH

Monday I painted the window frame and the wainscotting. Another interesting thing I learned was that the trim for the wainscotting and the quarter round trim on the floor is vinyl, not wood...I suppose you can still buy wood, but this was what was on offer with the FRP and it is what we bought. I'll let you know in a few years how I like it. I do love the wainscotting, though - it still gives a period look and it is white! I guess I'm just a freak about having the white in the bathroom cause it's such a small room, maybe 5' x 8' and it looks bigger somehow. Today I ironed the cloth outer shower curtain and put a new liner up. I'm getting ready for a nice soak in a little bit. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I still have to paint the few remaining walls but Les recommended waiting until it's a little bit warmer to do that. We are hovering in the mid- to upper-40s for the past few weeks and should be hitting 50 this week. We are thankful to the El Nino and/or Pineapple Express - whatever is bringing us a mild winter, with rain rather than snow. We sent that all to the east coast :) Of course, it has adversely affected the Olympics, but I guess that falls under the heading of "you pay your nickel and you take your chances." I understand that the next winter Olympics will be in Russia, so snow probably won't be an issue.
This is it for now. More later, and soon! J

We had some snow this week...

Not terribly much, but enough that it had to be shoveled. I think about 4-5 inches. On my first official day driving to work after getting the car Street-Legal. That would be Tuesday morning, 12/15. Here are a few piccies. Keilei enjoying the white stuff, after I've swept a path through to the patio and then on to the back gate.

Next we have Marley in the snow. (I know, I know, I thought the name changed into Zoey, but I'm kinda hanging with Marley - even though that is my brother's dog's name...I still like the Jacob Marley connections.)

And lastly we have wee Toby in his new raincoat (his friend Kip re-gifted it to him, as it was a bit too small for Kip) on Saturday - after the snow on Monday night/Tuesday, we had rain the rest of the week, and all the snow is now gone. Yippee!

So the fact that we got rain on top of snow is a deceiving kind of trick. For instance, on Wednesday morning when I looked out the back window, I saw it was wet, there were puddles, and in fact raindrops splashing in the puddles. Good, I think, wet, not snow. In my Earth Motherly fashion, I then went out to fill the heated birdbath so that (1) the birds would have a drink, and (2) the element wouldn't burn out from having a dry bowl. Well, the first two steps were fine, they are under the overhang on the porch. The third one was a doozy, and I would up 3 steps later on my bum on the ground. OUCH!!! Bruised tailbone for sure. So, water is good, except if it is over still-icy snow. Lessons learned.

Other than that, work continues apace, and I am trying to get ready for my Christmas Present trip to San Diego. My family bought me a plane ticket home, and I leave at 7:10 am on Christmas eve and return to Spokane about 9 pm on Monday 28 December. I am so excited to see them all, and meet my new grand-niece, Mckayla. It will be a wonderful visit, I know.

Sad news is that my neighbor, Gale, is in hospital. He was on his way to WalMart and collapsed just as he got in the door. He has a few medical issues and isn't all that good about going to the doctor, if at all, and so he has to get a few things straightened out and then he can come home. He is one of those rugged individualists who just doesn't like giving in to authority. Please spare a prayer for his health. Thank you.

I am thinking this is my last visit until after the holidays, so please enjoy yourselves with family and friends and all my best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and health in the New Year, The Auld Girl.

Correction to the Marley Post

See, something about living in the Inland Northwest morphed my memories regarding the Pontiac Catalina. For it seems that while Pappy Boyington is truly from around these parts, so much so that the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho airport was named after him, and that he did in fact spend some of his later years in and around Long Island, NY, it was NOT his car that I owned.

It turns out that with my brother's sharp-as-a-tack memory of all things WWII related, he pointed out to me that it was not maintenance receipts he found in the glove box of the Catalina, but receipts from the base liquor store, and it wasn't Pappy Boyington, but Col. Francis Gabreski, the highest scoring ace in the European Theater, who had been the previous owner of the vehicle.

Please accept this correction of the previously published errata. Thank you. The Auld Girl.

Introducing ... Marley!

"Marley was dead, dead as a doornail, in fact." And so was the van when I first saw it. And so I thought if I bought it, I would have a name for it: Marley. Now I really don't name my vehicles. Closest I've ever come was to occasionally talk to one, using the name Betsy, which my dad used to use. But the thought and the name came into my head, so I starting thinking of the blue van as Marley.

You may recall the unfortunate incident of Samhain (known to Muggles as Halloween) when a poor, unlucky person ran a red light as I was going through the intersection, and I crashed into her, thus totaling the 2-year old Honda CR-V I semi-owned. One of my friends who was in the car with me works at a retirement home and told me that one of their residents had recently died and his car was for sale. She told me it was a Plymouth Grand Voyager, and I was immediately interested. You may also recall that my previous vehicle was a Plymouth Voyager (not so grand, but well-loved by me all the same). I had driven the previous Voyager for 11 years until the transmission gave out and I decided it was time for a new car, rather than a couple thousand dollar repair bill.

On a fair, but cold, Sunday afternoon, I went to look at the van, which was covered in dust, inside and out, and thought it would do. I then proceeded to ask all the men-folk I knew what they thought about buying a vehicle that had been sitting for 3 years (since the license plates were dated August 2006). To a one, they said, go for it. Especially since The Nephew (the previous owner having had no children of his own) said he would be happy to get $1,000 for it. Well! That was right in my price range. Of course, I knew I would want to have a good deal of work done on it, to bring it up to speed. One of the men, my co-worker and carpooler, Mark, offered to go visit it with me and give it a jump and see what the engine sounded like, etc. So we did that after work one evening. Mark checked out the belts, hoses, and such things, and said they weren't terribly old and creaky, and he looked at the oil and transmission fluid which looked clean. When he started it up, the engine sounded good, no knocks or pings. He said the tires, which are Toyo brand, were very good, and he would buy it. (I must say, I was very lucky to find Mark as a carpool mate, since he has been very helpful, and most kind to do all the driving while I didn't have a car.)

With this endorsement, I called The Nephew and told him his car was sold and what should we do. Now starts a series of my lessons in patience. The Nephew surprised me by saying he was in hospital, and could I send him an email with my particulars. This I did. Since he was rather incapacitated, I gave it a week without hearing from him to contact him again. I thought since he asked for an email that he might have a laptop in hospital with him. Who knows these days? On my second phone call, he told me he was back at work and was "buried in work" and said something to the effect that he would have to get a bill of sale and send me "the papers." After several days of considering his statement, I began to suppose that he might be some kind of senior level person with his company and that it might be of assistance to him to find a bill of sale form on the internet and email it to him, being the helpful, secretarial type of person that I am.

Bingo! The next day he called me and asked if I could complete the bill of sale and fax it to him, and he would sign it and fax it back to me with the papers. Progress is being made. I couldn't get to the fax quick enough. Within an hour or two, we had exchanged faxes. It turns out that he didn't register the van in his name, but got some paperwork from the Department of Licensing (DOL) that indicated he was the lawful owner of the van and that there was no registration. I called DOL to find out if they would accept fax copies, which I highly doubted, and they said no, and in fact, along with original copies, they would need a copy of the death certificate. Argh! Something else that The Nephew would have to dig out and send to me, or worse, request another copy. I emailed him this latest request and also asked his address, to mail him the payment. I used priority mail and enclosed a return, postage paid, priority mail envelope for him to send me back the documents.

In the meantime, after I put the payment in the mail, and had a copy of the bill of sale, I felt justified in taking possession of Marley and getting it to a mechanic (recommended by Mark) and starting the revivication process. First, Mark suggested I buy a new battery and he would install it, as well as take his air compressor and inflate the semi-flat tires. We did that a week ago Saturday. On Monday after work, I picked Marley up, running like a top, after about $1,100 worth of work. It needed front brakes, a transmission pan & gaskets, complete tune-up, oil change, etc. So now I had a dirty, but running, van in my driveway :-)

After much internal fretting, I received the necessary documents on Thursday last. I called my boss to say I would be in late on Friday, since I had to take Marley to get an emissions check, and then go to DOL. It was a good thing that I checked the hours of the emissions station online, since they don't open until 9:00 am. Since I was thinking they'd be open at 8:00 am, I used the time to take Marley for a good car wash, cleaning inside and out, and a waxing. The Works. And so it was a shining, bright Marley that Mr. Murphy met when he walked into the picture. I went to the emissions check station and was told that since Marley had recently had work done on it, and more specifically, had had a dead battery for who knows how long, I would have to follow the manufacturer's recommendations for re-setting the internal computers. Emissions couldn't get any readings, and they need to get at least 3 out of the 5 possible.

So home I went, called Chrysler and found I would have to do 3 "Global Good Rides." This consists of starting from a cold engine, warming up (basically until the heater comes on), driving 10 miles, then completely cooling down the engine. Chrysler said it might take a couple of days, but I figured with outside temps no higher than 27F, I should be able to get it done that day and still get back to emissions and then to DOL before they closed at 5:30 pm. {Mind you, all this driving is being done on license tabs that clearly read "2006" if anyone cared to look. Now I Really Know what it is like to be in a "Catch 22" situation. I had to drive the car to get the emissions check to get the new license tabs...} After my first cool-down took more like two hours (I had thought an hour would suffice), it occurred that if I opened the hood of the car, it would cool down faster, and that pretty much worked. So after my three little trips, I set out for emissions at 4:00 pm. Got there, and Marley passed the emissions, but failed the gas cap test. So off I go to the nearest auto parts store, buy a gas cap they say will work, and get back and the technician tells me no-go - it has got to look like the cap that is on it. ARGH! (((patience))) Back to the store, get my money back, they don't have the "right" one. Go to the other store around the corner, they say I need to go to the dealer. By now it is about 4:55 pm and I have lost any opportunities with emissions, since they close at 5:00 pm. I call the dealer, they tell me yes, they have the "right" gas cap and they are open 8 am to Noon on Saturday or 7:30 am on Monday. Of course, I had to work on Saturday, we were having our biggest H1N1 flu shot clinic yet. {So, dast I admit that I drove to work, across State Lines, without license tabs on Saturday...mostly under cover of darkness, and pulling the Cloak of Invisibility over me and Marley...}

So...this morning, bright and early, Janet drove me the good little distance to the Chrysler dealership, I bought the gas cap, and we came home. I took the new gas cap to emissions, the technician beamed and said, "That's the one!" and put it on Marley and gave me a new certificate indicating that Marley would not be unduly polluting the air. Next stop, DOL. This one terrified me, since what with all the other setbacks, I was just afraid they would say I didn't have the right paperwork, a "t" wasn't crossed correctly, or an "i" was dotted the wrong way...can you say "bundle of nerves?" I walked into the office, was greeted by two bright young clerks and I asked who wanted to have some fun? The first young lady said she could help me, and asked how I was and I told her, well, you're going to tell me how I am...I told her I bought the van from an estate, and pulled out the paperwork and she said, that I seemed to have everything. She started putting things in the computer and said, you paid $1,000 for this van? To which I responded in the affirmative, and she said the computer was saying it was worth about $4,500 (of course the State would like to tax the highest number possible). I said, well, I had to have about $1,100 worth of work done on it and that changed everything! She asked if I had my receipts and I did, and she made a copy of them, and Bob's My Uncle! I had new license plates and valid tabs!!! I am street-legal! Yippeeeee! Oh, I had to give her $187 for taxes and license, a small price to pay for the smile on my face :0) And so, here is Marley, blessed by the sun:

Now, it bothered me a bit that I was naming my vehicle with a male name...Marley...even though I liked the genesis of the whole naming process. But all modes of transportation seem to be named for female entities, and so I did feel a bit of disconnect having a male name. If I was going to have a name, it should be sort of "right." Well, DOL has solved that dilemma for me, because my new license plates read:



960-ZOA - and so, DOL has re-christened HER as Zoey - now wasn't that providential? I couldn't be more pleased and happy to introduce you to Zoey, the van formerly, albeit briefly, known as Marley. Here's to many happy years of traveling.

So now let me tell you a little bit of trivia about me and cars. I have now owned two vehicles that were previously owned by WWII pilots. My brother James informed me that my 1963 Pontiac Catalina (a fine vehicle!) was formerly owned by Pappy Boyington, of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" squadron. He discovered this by nosing into some maintenance receipts that were in the glove box. Zoey's previous owner was a pilot in the European theater. I only know this because he left some personal paperwork in the van, and I cleared it out and left it for The Nephew to collect next time he is in town (he lives in Colorado). In one file was his military paperwork, along with photos of him, and planes I imagine he flew. There were both fighter planes and bombers. So I am sure that Zoey could tell some stories.

This is enough of the story of Zoey for now. All is well and every manner of well. Safe travels! The Auld Girl

Fruitcake Friday

Okay, so I'll bring dessert for Christmas Dinner! Be afraid, be very afraid... The Friday after Thanksgiving is typically Fruitcake Friday in the years when I decide to bake this delicious and much-maligned treat that is so wonderful to savor with a nice, restoring cup of tea, sometimes laced with a wee drop... I have always loved fruitcake and have made it since I was a teenager. This year I decided to go back to basics and make the first recipe I ever tried, in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. This is the dark fruitcake recipe. Here's a wee piccie of my treasures. They are ready to be wrapped in whiskey soaked cloth and put away in the wine cellar to mellow out for Christmas :0) It's hard to wait, but they are oh, so much better with the aging. And dinna fash, I willna be carting any to anyone unless there is a specific request. Don't you all shout out at once, now!!!

Other than that, I took some pictures of the pups, wanted to be sure to get a phto of Kip before he leaves. Which isn't until Monday, but you never know how things are going to go, and I was upstairs with the camera to capture the fruitcake, and took the opportunity:

I don't know what it is about the Yorkies (or maybe it's my camera) but I can't seem to get a good picture of them. Just so you know that this isn't just Toby in disguise, here is Toby:

And of course, we couldn't leave it with just Keilei's bum in the picture, so here's my girl:

Other than the obvious, I messed around in the bathroom some more. I put in the caulking and took out two more tiles and found another hole in the wall. I may end up having to have a new tub wall unit put in. I have a call in to Les to see what he thinks. He is in Montana for the holiday, helping his dad build his house out there, somewhere by Whitefish, I believe. So I will cover the tiles and we'll just have to be careful when we shower.

I also made a butternut squash soup for my Anam Cara gathering tomorrow. We'll hope the driving will be less eventful than the last time. Steffie is driving us out to Marjorie's so we should be fine. We had some rain last night and this morning, but tomorrow is supposed to be dry. It cleared up this afternoon and the sun shone and Janet and I took the doggies for a walk in the daytime for a change. It was nice to let Keilei and Toby run in the park a bit. I couldn't take Kip off his lead, since he is in a strange neighborhood and I couldn't risk him getting away. But he has one of those expando-leashes so he had a 15 foot range. I don't think he suffered too much.

This is it for now. Gotta go soak those fruitcakes! Hugs, The Auld Girl

Thanksgiving - How It's Done!

Okay, so I know there are those who thought !sacrilege! when I mentioned going to the Casino for Thanksgiving Dinner. But look at the artist's rendition of the new hotel wing, isn't it beautiful? (Okay, so I lost the picture of the casino. If you want to see it, go to http://www.northernquest.com/.) It will be open in early 2010. In the meantime, there is the Casino, restaurant, and convention center facility that is open and running. It's all located about 20 minutes away on the West Plains, close to where I used to work in Airway Heights, at Zak Designs. So close that we called the Casino Buffet the "Zak Cafeteria" as so many of the employees would go there for lunch on a regular basis. In any event, as I mentioned previously, the food is always fresh, and tasty and not loaded with sodium, as I find is the case with so many buffets. So away we went, and I started with a green salad and shrimp with cocktail sauce and some of the Asian broccoli that was listed as "broccolini" - and it was all good. After we had our starters, I went for the turkey and dressing with cranberry sauce, carmelized onions with steamed greens, and roasted winter squash. I finished it up with mincemeat pie for dessert. I enjoyed some Chardonnay with my meal while Janet had Burgundy (she favored the prime rib for her dinner). Janet's mom went traditional with the turkey dinner, too. We listened to music being played on the baby grand piano and took in all the people having a wonderful time ~ not cooking ~ on this lovely start to The Festive Season.

After our dinner, Janet wanted to walk around and look at the Casino a bit, so we did and we noticed there were lots of penny and nickel machines. So we decided to throw a few bucks away. We started with a dollar in a penny machine, and didn't get very far with that at all. So we wandered around some more, and thought we might chance another dollar or two and I found I was out of cash. While looking for the ATM machine, Janet said she'd spot me 20 dollars and I said okay, we can drive through a bank on the way home and I'll replenish my wallet. Well, we didn't have to do that. I saw the "Wheel Of Fortune" game and since I spend a few evenings with Vanna and Pat while I'm having dinner, I decided to play. Now, you know, these new video games have rules all their own, and I have absolutely no idea how you are supposed to figure them out. But this was a nickel game, so I felt okay in throwing away the money. Well, before I knew it, the machine was making lots of noise and giving me more "credits." Having no Real Idea what was going on, I just kept pushing buttons and getting more credits. Then a screen popped up and Pat and Vanna were Talking To Me!!! And I got to Play Wheel Of Fortune just like one of those lucky schmucks on TV. And somehow I Won even more credits. So I kept pushing buttons and winning credits until Janet was out of her money, and it was time to go. When I pushed the button to "cash out," I got a slip of paper that said I WON $613!!! Now, my friends and neighbors, THAT is how you have a great Thanksgiving Dinner!

But not so fast, I'm afraid. Earlier that same day, before going out to the Casino, I started on A Project. Seems some of the tiles around my bathtub/shower have been getting a little loose and I decided it was time to re-caulk them. So I started with scrubbing down the tiles really well and then decided to take out the caulk between the tub and the bottom of the tiles and "do the job right" by replacing that caulk too. In doing this, one of the tiles under the faucet seemed really loose, so I popped it off and it _was_ loose, and the wall in back of it was pretty much saturated. And there is a hole in the wall... So then, I thought, well, better look at those other tiles that seem loose, and I did, and I popped a few more off, and now my tub looks like this picture. More's the pity. As it turns out, Mel was just getting to the Casino with a group of friends as we were finishing our meal, and I told her about my findings on the bathroom tile project and she told me just cover it with plastic and call Les, and no showers until it gets fixed right. Nice that she has that confidence in me, right? But nicer still that she didn't think I could really do it myself. I mean, I probably can get the caulking done on the tiles that aren't saturated, but fixing the hole, that may be more than what I can reasonably do and still consider myself a good steward of this house. But, nice that the money was provided for the fix-it-up, no? Okay, enough for now, gotta get the pups for a walk while there's still a bit of twilight. Once again, Happy Turkey Day!

The Little Princess

So I completely blew it a couple of posts down when I showed the wee blankie I made for the wee "Peanut" and completely forgot to say that the wee "Peanut" turned out to be Mckayla Ann Bertsch who made her entrance on Thursday, October 29 and is just adorable, witness the accompanying picture. She was about 10 days past her official due date and I am told that accounts for her full head of hair and long finger nails. I know there is a sweet little picture of her somewhere, but it is not just to hand, so you get to see one of her first pictures, in the bassinette in hospital. Anyhow, I just can't wait to meet her in person and welcome her to the wonderful and wacky family, and tell her tales of her great-grandmama who is surely smiling down on her from Heaven. Mea culpa for forgetting her, may I never do it again!