Appraised

So we got a call from the bank asking that we schedule our appraisal for the refinance.  I asked Ali on Friday to call and schedule it so it could be fit into one of her days off.  I was surprised when she called me later in the day to let me know that the appraiser was going to be showing up at 10 am Saturday morning.  She thought it would be good if we were both there.

Friday night Ali was saying how she was looking forward to sleeping in Saturday.  Saturday morning she wasn’t very happy when she saw me putting on my work outside clothes at 8am.  She asked what I was doing,  I told her I had to go outside and get the grass mowed, it looked like hell.  For whatever reason it hadn’t clicked in Ali’s head that when you get your house appraised you want it looking NICE.  The yard had tons of weeds shooting up and the inside of the house was a bit of a mess too from the Sadie tornado.  Ali acted annoyed that I thought the house needed look good.  I didn’t have time to explain it to her so I just went outside and started mowing.

Ali unhappily got up and picked up the inside and then finished off the mowing while I weed whacked.  The guy showed up a little early while I was still weed whacking.  So I came around to the front all covered in grass clippings and let him in.  He was a talker, he talked my ear off for quite awhile.  I was as receptive and engaging as I could stomach since I knew the number this guy produces has a lot to do with the success of the refinancing. He quickly said that the house looked fine, he just had to take some pictures and some measurements.  He mentioned how busy they have been between refinancing and foreclosures.

After the guy left I went back outside to try to finish up any outside duties.  After we ate lunch Ali went back to try to take a nap while I decided to wash the Tacoma and Camry.  Unfortunately Ali was woken up by the phone a few times.  She wasn’t happy.

We went out to dinner Saturday evening with our former neighbor and his partner.  We hadn’t seen them in quite awhile.  I was feeling super tired on my way there so I drove through a Dunkin Donuts to pick up a medium coffee.  By the time we got to the restaurant I only had drank maybe a 10th of it.  Instead of wasting a perfectly good cup of coffee, I told Ali I would just take it inside with me.  Ali said that was rude but after some back and forth chatter she said “whatever” .  So into the restaurant I went with my DD cup in tow.  The waitress saw my cup and thought it was odd but I explained I simply was trying to wake up a bit.  I drank it quickly and left the empty cup on the table.

Everyone else at the table was drinking alcohol, I just drank caffeine.  I followed up my DD coffee with diet coke and then finished off with another cup of coffee with desert.  It was a nice meal and it was good to catch up with our ex-neighbor.  If things go as planned we will be getting back together sooner rather than later.

Before we went to bed Saturday night I stopped in horror in the kitchen when I saw a small brown object on the tile.  Yep it was cat shit.  Evidently Spook had a hanger that didn’t decide to drop off until she made it to the kitchen.  What a pleasant way to end our day.

Just when I was singing the praises of Sadie being good she had another relapse.  She was digging/chewing at the wall under the front window again.  Again I brought her out to the area, pointed to the damage as I used my stern NO voice.  She cowered and slinked away.

Sunday morning I was up early outside with the spreader.  I bought some weed and feed that is specifically supposed to control the dollar weed that is infesting certain areas of our yard.  The instructions said to spread it early in the morning when the grass is still wet so the stuff can stick to the leaves of the weed.  When I went into the shed to get the spreader I saw that I had a partial bag of some other weed and feed that I used before.  It had a weird pink color now for some reason but I figured I could just mix it in with the new stuff.  

I poured the old stuff in and then poured the new stuff on top of it.  I started pushing and hardly anything was coming out.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that the old stuff was causing the problem.  It was somewhat sticky and was clogging the opening where the stuff is supposed to fall out of.  So I had to dump the contents of the spreader into a bucket.  At first I tried to just mix it up by hand and put it right back in.  I had the same problem.   So I dumped the spreader again and refilled it with just the new weed and feed.  The new stuff spread just fine but it didn’t take me long to empty the spreader.  Well I didn’t want to waste half of the 50 pound bag so I put the mixture of old and new back in.

I discovered that the only way I could get the sticky mixture to drop was to adjust the opening nearly all the way open.  I hurried around the yard spreading the remains as well as I could.  They recommend you wear long pants, boots, eye protection and a mask when spreading the stuff, it’s not exactly good for you.  Well I was doing it in shorts and crocs.  I had the stuff on my hands, in my crocs and stuck to my feet.  When I was done there was a little bit of the mixture in the spreader.  I turned the spreader over to dump the remains.  When I did it left a pile of weed and feed on the ground.  Well that’s no good, I thought to myself, so I stuck my hand down and tried to flatten out the pile by swiping it back and forth.  Smart, I wound up throwing some weed and feed up into my left eye.

My eye started to burn a bit.  I tried to rub the shit out of my eye with the back of my hand.  I was thoroughly annoyed.  Eventually when I got back inside I washed it with a wet paper towel and later rinsed it with eye drops.  I still can see so I guess I did no permanent damage.

I kept myself busy while Ali was at spin class.  I had to do some work on a server at work which took quite awhile.  Once Ali got back I took my new road bike out for a quick trip to E’s to pick up the Sunday paper.  Mom had called and told me there were a lot of good coupons in it.  The ride went ok.  I didn’t try to push it like I did the first time speed-wise.  I had to go out onto to the main road, Immokalee Road to get there. 

 Immokalee has a bike lane on both sides which is nice.  Unfortunately you are still at the mercy of asshole drivers.  Some idiot driving a tractor trailer got the 1 fingered salute from me when he passed me with his wheels right on the white line, a foot or two away from me.  I kept that finger out there for a good long time, hoping he would see it and stop so I could really lay into him.  The bike rode well although it feels like it could still use some adjustment in the gear train.  I also need to get real pedals.  I’m not ready to dive into the bike shoes that lock onto the pedals yet.  The toe cage pedals that came with the bike are very uncomfortable. 

After my ride I was pretty warm so I decided to jump into the pool.  The water temp was up to 78-79 degrees, much too cold for Ali but fine for a normal human being.  After the first 30 seconds the water felt just fine.  As soon as I hit the water Sadie was right there ready to play her pool splash game. The game is simple.  I swim from one side of the pool to the other.  Sadie races to meet me there.  If I stick my hands up on pool deck she tries to nip at them.  So instead I slam my hands into the water which soaks her with water.  She finds the game incredibly fun for some reason.  By the time we were done she needed a towel as much as I did.

We caught up on a lot of Tivo over the weekend.  One of the things we watched was the series finale of ER.  It’s hard to believe that ER has been on for 15 years.  It was one of the few non-reality based shows that we both have watched for a long time.  ER has been a fantastic show filled to the brim with interesting characters and compelling story telling.  The show probably has made my eyes moist more than any other show in my lifetime.  I think my favorite characters of all are Dr Greene and Dr Carter.  They were quiet, inspirational leaders.  The type of people I would hope to be.  It was sad to realize it was all at an end.  The final episode was a good show as you would expect.  They put a nice little ribbon on what has been a gift of tv excellence for a decade and a half.  So long ER.