End of the Long Weekend

I took Friday off work and thankfully do not work in a place that is open on Thanksgiving, so I got a four day weekend. Of course, when I am away from the office, stuff breaks. Got my first phone call at 7:30 AM on Friday. Thankfully, that was an easy one. Got the next one at 9:30 AM. One of the 2 ladies had a family emergency and needed to leave. The other was already scheduled to leave at noon. That was also my last call of the day, so I figured whatever happened could be handled after the weekend. It can be. I'm busy but not any more than can be handled.

The weekend was good overall. Thanksgiving with my family was lovely. We gorged on lunch at about 11:30 then grazed all through the afternoon while playing games and laughing. I'm thankful for my family and that we aren't such gluttons the rest of the year. I kept glancing over to where Granddad always sat. It looked empty even when someone else was there, but that was alright in a way. It won't ever feel that his place is filled, but it being empty isn't really a bad thing. Of course I miss him, but I will see him again.

Thursday night, we hosted friends at our house. No one ate since we had all stuffed ourselves at lunch. We just spent time together. My friends are family too. One couple was in from out of town and brought Christmas presents since they won't be back at that time. We shared pictures and caught up on goings on from being apart. They must be pretty special since I actually scrubbed the bathroom in preparation for their arrival.

We did not get up before the crack of dawn on Friday to shop. That would drive me to homicide. My 7:30 call actually woke me up. I didn't get out of bed even then. We did shop a little in the afternoon, and surprisingly, the mall did not make me wish I was carrying my pocket flask. We were supposed to go camping Friday night, but our camping friends chickened out on us due to the cold. Guess we will have to wait to use the new tent. Instead, we had them over to our house. This time I mopped the kitchen floor. (I think I'm going to plan more get-togethers, it's doing wonders for my house.) We grilled shrimp and salmon. My brother-in-law and his wife made guacamole, and the other couple brought spinach and artichoke dip. We laughed and drank and watched Spinal Tap.

Saturday, we got to do one of those things that only homeowners get to do. We repaired our fourth slab leak. While watching the movie the previous night, it began to sprinkle on one guest's head. One of the hot water lines was leaking into the floor vents. Since there was very hot water there, it made our house warm and nicely humid. Unfortunately, since it was so cold outside, it caused condensation on the ceiling around the return vents. And so after we showered in the morning, we cut off the hot water supply and I began to clean up the mess. You gain some unusual talents as a home owner. My newest one is the proper way to mop a popcorn ceiling. It must be done in a blotting motion so as not to strip the popcorn and 30 year old paint. In case you ever need to do it. I also got to employ another strangely useful talent gained during a previous slab leak. I can stick my hand through the vent in the bottom of the kitchen cabinets and cut off a pipe very near the ground. It's rather painful, but it can be done. I did it before when the leak was from the utility closet to the kitchen sink in the cold water line. Same process for the hot. In case you ever need to know, it is possible to shove half inch pex through the original three-quarter inch copper lines. It's difficult and causes the husband to blurt expletives, but it will work and is much cheaper than having a plumber take a jack hammer to your foundation. thankfully, the kitchen and utility closet share a wall, so we ran this line above ground. Still generates some expletives but not as many. Now we have hot water again and dry vents.

Sunday, we decided to go to an earlier service so that we could have lunch with our Sunday school class. They are always a fun group. When we got home from lunch, we decided that we had such great momentum going on the house that we would just keep going. So I scrubbed the shower, bathtub, and the cook top in the kitchen. Trust me, all of these were major jobs. We are not exactly great housekeepers. Hubby sorted through the living room. This was also a major job. He got the living room clean enough to put up the Christmas tree.

It's Monday and back to our regularly scheduled program. It's good to be back, but I sure could've used more weekend.