Spending spree, beat up by a pressure washer, cat deja vu

Saturday morning I was out on the mower bright and early at 8am.  I wanted to get the mowing out of the way first thing so the rest of the day would be clear for other projects.  I penciled this weekend as lanai cleaning weekend since Ali’s brother is coming down this week and the pool cage had copious amounts of scuzz on the frame.  This project never goes quickly or easily so I wanted the mowing out of the way.

After mowing  we ate lunch and ran out for some shopping errands, the type of shopping I like. We first stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond.  We picked up two replacement chaise lounges.  Originally I was considering buying replacement slings for the old chairs but the cost difference between doing that and just buying new chairs was slim enough that it didn’t make sense when you factored in the labor required to replace the sling.  The BB&B 20% off coupon came in handy.  I put the old chairs out front on Saturday for the pack rats to claim.  I was surprised they lasted until Sunday afternoon.

 The second stop was Best Buy.  Ali said she wanted to get a scanner to scan our old photos into digital format.  It seems stand alone scanners are a dying breed nowadays, Best Buy didn’t have a single one.  Instead we wound up buying an Epson NX510 multi-fuction device.  It prints, scans and has built in Wi-Fi to connect to the network wirelessly.  We will probably hardly ever use the thing to actually print which is just as well with the ridiculous prices for ink cartridges.  It does however have some great functions as a scanner.  I can scan to email, scan to pdf or scan to a jpg all over the network.  It will allow me to do some operations that I used to be relegated to doing only at work.  It also will let us give our old multi-function fax HP printer to mom.

After Best Buy we headed to the AT&T store.  For a long time we have been talking about replacing Ali’s Treo with an Iphone.  Since we were in a money spending mode we decided to finally get that done as well.  Initially I thought we could take advantage of the new 3GS coming out by getting an older 3G for $99.  Well when I told Ali the 3GS had a better camera that could shoot video she said she would prefer to get the latest and greatest instead.  After a short wait until a rep got free, the process was extremely fast and easy.  I already knew exactly what we wanted to do and our sales guy was able to process the order and have us out of there in 10 minutes or so.  Ali had a lot of fun over the weekend setting up and playing with her new toy.  The Iphone actually is a better fit for her job as there are a number of medical/dietary apps for the device which will make her job easier.

Saturday afternoon turned rather rainy so I had to postpone the lanai cleaning until Sunday. Saturday evening we went over to our friends house.  They have two young boys that are very cute.  We don’t get to see them nearly as often as we would like.  We always have a good time when we get together so hopefully we can make an effort to do it more often.  We brought the dogs along since the boys really like interacting with them.  For the first time ever I saw Sadie back away from a kid when the youngest let out some loud shrieks.  Things calmed down after the initial excitement.  We didn’t leave their place till after 11.  I collapsed into bed when we got home, I was exhausted.

Once again I pulled myself out of bed early on Sunday, I knew I had another day of hard work ahead of me.  Pressure washing the pool cage is a pain in the ass, plain and simple.  It requires 4 or 5 hours of tedious labor blasting dirt, mildew and algae from both the pool cage and the pool deck,  a few inches at a time.  It definitely was not a good way to rest my forearms that have been starting to feel like the tendinitis is returning.  When you clean the overhead sections of the cage you look like you just took a shower in a waterfall.  The end result always feels worth it though, it makes the area almost feel brand new.

While I was pressure washing I discovered that there actually was a section of the screen ripped out that Sadie could have escaped through.  My initial thought was she caused the rip by trying to forcibly jam herself through.  On closer inspection I think the corner was loose because of the rubber spline drying up.  I noticed that in most of the corners in sections we never replaced the spline had contracted to the point where the last few inches before the corner had no spline in them making it very easy for the corner to push out.

So of course I needed to address the screen problem, else the dogs would not be allowed out on the lanai until I did.  Ali had also found another section that had a small tear in it that was added to the repair list.  After spending 5 hours on the deck the last thing I felt like doing was replacing screening.

I thought I had enough left over supplies from the last screening project to perform the repair.  I replaced the first section but then came up about 5 inches short for the second section, requiring an impromptu trip to Home Depot.  Both sections that were damaged were by the ground which introduced a new set of challenges.  We have multiple rose bushes planted along the pool cage.  Trying to work around these was not much fun.  I came out of the repair with various bloody spots from the thorns.

Thankfully while I was out working on the pool cage Ali handled all of the inside cleaning duties.  By the time I was done with all of the work I was beat up mentally and physically.

Over the weekend Spook once again stopped eating.  This morning I gave her a few pieces of lunch meat which she ate but once again I noticed she was in severe pain while trying to chew.  She eventually ran away.  So obviously there is still a problem in her mouth.  She will be going back to the vet today, joy oh joy.

The Mike Vick outrage seems to have died down.  It seems that after initial uproar by many people, including myself, a wait and see attitude has been adopted by most.  So far I like what I have heard from Vick, Andy Reid and Jeffrey Lurie.  I have the 60 minutes interview with Vick on my Iphone which I plane to listen to.  Vick has one shot to make this work, it seems that he is aware of the high wire he is walking.  Let’s see how he does.

My uncle posted this link in Facebook.  Damn this is a funny, funny, site.