Look up...waaaaay up...and I'll call Rusty.

I'm wondering how many times a person can strike their heads w/o causing irreparable damage?  I've taken 2 pretty good hits to the head these past few weeks....and unlike Sidney Crosby and those other hockey heroes, mine were caused by inanimate objects...usually 2 x 6 's.  It's really a no win situation...when I walk around looking down, so as not to trip over anything in my path or get my feet caught up in compressor hoses, extension cords and the like....I end up hitting my head on the planks on top of scaffolding.  When I'm looking up to beware of the scaffolding....you guessed it....I trip over the compressor hoses and extension cords.  It's only a matter of time until I do some real damage...and if I actually see Rusty, Jerome the giraffe, or the Friendly Giant, I'll know for sure that I've got a concussion!!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Discovered something new while "surfing" for a room in Sydney for after our cruise.  It's called AirBnb and can be found at http://www.airbnb.com/.  What it is, basically, is a kijiji-type website for ad hoc B 'n B's.  If you've got a room to spare, or are looking for a room, you can advertise/find it here.  Now mind you...these aren't "rated" accommodations...and you might be "buying a pig in a poke" (as my mother says), but there is an element to the website for reviews so you can see what those that have stayed at any given accommodation are saying....if, indeed the review was in fact written by someone who did stay there....skeptical, you say??  Only a healthy reticence, I reply....but I'm always open to trying something "new" ...well, I'm sometimes open to trying something new...okay, okay...I'm not always open to trying something new, but thought I'd put it out there for those of you that are!!!!

The little extras

There's very little "going the extra mile" anymore.  Everything that you get only comes through heavy negotiation. This all came to a head with our recent purchase of plumbing fixtures...to the tune of $6500.  Due to the size of the tubs and showers, we need them delivered before the gyp rock goes up...now, the truck can't hold all three items...this requires 2 deliveries..."and you do know that delivery is $35".  My high school math tells me that 2 trips at $35 equals...one pissed off Katrina.  At what point do businesses decide your purchase warrants "that little extra"?  Kier had to have a 'go round' with Sears when we ordered $5000+ worth of appliances from them, but they eventually did relent and will provide the delivery free.  The windows and doors...same thing...under threat of us going to a competitor, the company provided free delivery.   Why does it always have to be a battle??  What's wrong with offering it up when a customer spends multiple thousands of $$??  OMG!!  The only time in our recent past that we were successful without having to 'come to blows', was with our cruise booking....I noticed the price dropped 2 weeks after we paid the deposit, so I called my TA, advised her that the price was now advertised at around $400/person less than we booked at and very timidly asking if there was anything we could do??  Now, she could have said no (cause it was easier than checking)...or she could have got a reduction to the exact amount that I'd seen...but no...she came back with a price that was even further reduced than what we'd seen advertised.  Hey...she went 'the extra mile'...by the way, thanks Karen!!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  I'm a sucker for cute...okay...I didn't just learn this today...it's been an ongoing problem...but what brought it to the forefront was that Extra Gum commercial on tv.  I just love that little donut, coffee cup, onion and garlic.  When they jump out of the taxi and little donut falls down in a puddle, gets back up and shakes himself off...I smile every time.  When coffee cup goes into a room with the big gum pack, turns on the light and the whitening from the package blinds him, and he runs into the camera with his big toothy smile (the one that borders on grimace...but, hey, when you're a coffee cup, what can you expect??)...brings a grin to my face.   But it all started with that first commercial I saw...where they follow the fellow up the flight of stairs as he goes to meet his date...little donut, being a bit awkwardly shaped for his wee small legs (can't be easy when you're as wide as you are tall!!), can't make the top step so coffee cup, garlic and onion all help pull him up and they all get inside the apartment before the door shuts.  Almost brings a tear to my eye (cause I love happy endings too!!).  And don't get me going on little Salty....when he'd stand outside the kitchen window and watch the families eating the reduced sodium Knorr Sidedishes and he'd cry little grains of salt...not a wonder he eventually ran away...and poor Pepper, out hanging the Missing Salty posters looking everywhere for his best buddy...I hope Salty gets found soon...I know, I know....I'm a LOSER!!!!  Can't help it....SUCKER for cute!!

Well, well, well....three holes in the ground...but we only need ONE...with water in it!!

In anticipation of the arrival of the well drillers, I decided to break out the ole divining rod and start searching for the best spot to drill...

Looking for water

                 

I think this is the spot!

Coincidentally enough, myself and the well drillers both decided on the same spot!!  Cross everything that we strike a vein soon!!  But being that we've had a couple of strikes against us today... we'll just wait and see.  "What's gone wrong?" you ask?  Well, our windows and doors arrived today and are all in good shape save for one small crease in one of the window frames.  No biggy, we said.  Then as we got looking at the doors more closely...we see that we some how ordered our front door to open the opposite way than what we wanted.  Not terribly bad...just going to be a bit ...well...different.  Then, I hit myself in the head with a 2 x 6 x 14...(thanks Kents for all the help in your lumber yard....NOT!!)  So will we hit water today?  If you're a believer in 'bad things happen in 3's' then we're due...we've already had our 3 bad things today.  Time for a good thing....how about a gusher!!!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Deep dish pizza, the deep blue sea, a profound thought from a deep thinker...all are pleasing...let's hope that we can soon add 'a deep well' to that list....as long as it doesn't require really deep pockets to pay the bill!!

I'm not a somebody...yet...

Today we received our new phone books....we don't have a phone at the moment....or doors and windows, for that matter...but we have a phone book.  Needless to say, without a phone, the odds weren't good that we'd find our name in the book.  So, there was no dancing around the yard here with me waving the phone book like Navin Johnson (Steve Martin's "The Jerk") yelling "I'm somebody now".   Maybe next year...

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Things always sort themselves out with time.  We've been trying to capitalize on all purchases throughout our house building process, by using our credit cards to accumulate travel points.  Ever since the foundation has been poured, we've been trying to sort the bill out between the company that supplies the concrete and the company that pours the concrete...the supplier takes Visa, the pourer does not.  After many, many phone calls, I just decided to sit back and wait.  And sure enough, the pourer arrived here today with 2 invoices all separated for ease of payment...  I guess when they know there are thousands of dollars on the line, you can count on THEM to get it sorted out for YOU.

What an odd place to put a roof!!

Hmmm, that's an odd place to put a roof...is it a hut for pygmies or a small house for garden gnomes??

Oh, there it goes...

Now that looks about right!!

Wow...that's a nice wee little house you've got under that GIGANTIC roof...and beside that HUGE garage !!!


WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  There has to be a use for all the leftover Tyvek that is floating around our site...and I think I have it...just wait 'till Christmas and you'll see what I've come up with!  Well, that is, if you're on my gift list!   ;)

Important tips for using a port-a-potty

1.  Try to "go" only early or late in the day...when it's not stinkin' hot...so the potty won't be stinkin' too!

2.  Always pack your own toilet paper...cause you just never know if there will be any inside.

3.  When you've completed your "business", put the toilet seat cover down BEFORE you pull up your pants...this prevents that ole condition known by the latin name "dropus of cell phonus down the hole-us".  (Don't laugh...it has happened...but thankfully NOT to me!!)

4.  ABSOLUTELY DO NOT...never, ever, ever...look in the hole...I made that mistake on the first trip.....eeewwww yuk!

And most importantly...

5.  Hope you have friends that will supply you with access to their "perm-a- potty"!!  (Thanks Sue and Mike!!)

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  The ringer on my cell phone IS loud enough...well, certainly loud enough to wake me from a sound sleep...which it did... this morning.

To Da Dump, To Da Dump, To Da Dump Dump Dump

You know things are bad when the highlight of your day is your first trip to the dump!  And with this heat wave, a little rain shower yesterday was quite welcome.  When the builders had to step down for a while until the rain passed, we headed to Grand Bay and got rid of a bunch of crap.  It was alot less costly than we had believed.  Today is the roof.  Trusses just delivered....only 1 broken...I guess that's a good thing?? (The only 1 part!).  Still no kitchen...we can't seem to find one that is a) to our liking, and b) within our price range.  We've just got to get over this wanting steak when we're on a baloney budget!!  If we wait much longer, it'll be too late to GET a kitchen before the house is completed.  They take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks, depending on all sorts of factors.  Oh well, like my cousin Ferne so eloquently put..."they have come a long way in Coleman stoves". 

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  "There's a fuss when your truss is busted"....try saying that 5 times!!

A first for everything

Kier and I spent the last three days doing something we thought we'd never do....screw...in public... Okay, okay get your minds out of the gutter!!! We screwed the flooring down in the new house.  It meant for alot of crawling around on hands and knees, but we saved ourselves several hours of labour charges. 

In my free time, when I'm not busy "gopher-ing" for the builders, I've booked a couple of excursions for our Australia trip.  I got our Elephant Safari booked for Bali (the absolute top of my list of things I wanted to do on this cruise - and yes, Denise, I will send you a photo).  The second "must see" is the Valley of the Giants near Denmark, Australia where you do a "tree top walk".  That has been arranged through someone in our "roll call". We're not planning on being "excursion fanatics" like some others in our on-line group who have something planned for every port.  Aside from the atrocious cost of these excursions, we like to have some time to explore on our own time/terms...so we've decided to keep our excursions down to 3 or 4.  We figure that's reasonable on a 28 day cruise with 13 ports of call.  I've got leads on the last 2 I'm going to book, but haven't finalized them as yet.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  I actually learned on Saturday when Kier and I bought new appliances at Sears that he is waaaayyy more lucky than I am.  We waited for the "scratch and save" event as the salesman said we would be able to get a bit more off the prices.  Unlike the scratch cards of years ago, you no longer scratch a percentage off big ticket items, but simply $20, $40, $80, or if you're really lucky, $100.  Well, on Saturday when we presented ourselves at Sears, and finalized the 6 appliances we were buying, we proceeded to EACH scratch 6 cards, and the 6 best of the 12 would be applied to the price of our purchases.  (pretty good deal extended to us by our salesman!!)  Well, I proceeded to scratch $20, $20, $20, $20, and then wow...$40....before my last $20.  I was certainly not going to put Sears out of business with my savings!  Kier, however, had a bit more luck....he started with $20...but then went up to $40, followed by a $100 and then an $80 and finished off with 2 more $20's.  All in all, we saved an extra $300 off our appliances, allowing us to be within $200 of our budget!  Needless to say, after that display, Kier will be doing ALL the lottery ticket purchases from here on in!!

Membership in the PKKA

It should be no surprise to any of you, that after my exemplary performance "knocking knobs" the other day, that I have now been invited to sit on the executive of the Professional Knob Knockers Association.  It is indeed a great honour to be considered for such a prestigious position when I am so new in the business.   I've given consideration, also, to how this may impact all the other positions I currently hold.  Bonnie, I can assure you and Lorie that this will not impact my duties as head of security of the MMC.  Should at any time my new duties infringe upon the expectations of the MMC board of directors, I will certainly step down from the PKKA.  I take my role and responsibilities with the MMC very seriously.  Perhaps my loyalty may be rewarded??? ;)

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the MMC and are asking "What the heck is that?"...it is a very secret society...need to know basis...by invitation only...all I can say...enough said... ;)

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:   One's imagination can certainly run wild when performing repetitive and mundane chores...like carrying lumber from point A to point B, over, and over, and over again...or is it just exhaustion setting in??  The upside of this chore...I should have "Michelle Obama arms" in 4-6 weeks.

Like a 3rd tit on the work site

So its not been an illustrious first day on the work site for me...I've picked up the wrong staples for the staple gun at Kents, and then I lost the cell phone in the yard.  Fortunately I found it...moments before the excavator buried it under a ton of dirt...and now I'm off to Kents for another supply run...if I get this order wrong, it'll be my 3rd strike...I may just be OUT...banned from the work site and labeled more a hindrance than a help!!  But I think I'll get it right this time....just like when I was a kid going to the store for my mother...this time I got a note from my builder ;)

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Just checking out a "roll call", which for you non-cruisers is a site where fellow passengers can exchange e-mails and info about excursions, etc, and I learned a very interesting detail.  The Princess cruise ship we are on in September is based in Australia.  And for anyone that's traveled to Australia, you'll remember that tipping is a no-no there.  So, six months ago Princess initiated a "no tipping" policy on the ship.  As some of you may know, tipping on most cruise ships is obligatory, and some will even bill your on-board account to ensure you do tip.  Tips can run you around $15/passenger/day, so for Kier and I on a 28 day cruise....this new policy will save us BIG!!

Unemployed Knob Knockers Looking for Work

LOOKING FOR WORK

Highly skilled "knob knockers" and "knob hole pluggers" looking for work.  Available as soon as current project is completed (hopefully by September).  Prefer to work in sunny weather with average temperatures.  Not good on extremely hot days or in terrential rain.  Salary negotiable.  Will work for Aeroplan Miles.

Photo enclosed to prove abilities.  Current bosses extremely pleased with work performed.

                             

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:   I guess I was more spoiled than I thought with the cushy desk job I have been doing for the past several years.  A full day of heavy labour and I was totally exhausted and hurting all over.  Kier and I have decided that "knob knocking" is the absolute worst part of building a house!!

The girl who cried wolf

Once upon a time there was a little girl who claimed she was building a new house.  (Okay, that's a stretch...she's not so little, at all.)  She told everyone that she was going to have a new house to live in, and it would be ready by the first of September.  She got quotes from all kinds of people for all kinds of things.  There were quotes for kitchens, quotes for vanities, quotes for cement...you name it, she had many, many quotes.  And then came time for construction, but every day she had a new excuse.  First she claimed they hadn't excavated.  Then she said they were waiting on footings to be poured.  The day after that she was waiting for the foundation.  And finally, after the foundation was poured, she arrived home yet again.  "What is the excuse today?", her mother asked.  "Well, today they haven't stripped the forms around the foundation and Kent's haven't delivered the supplies to start".  Every day there seems to be a new excuse for why she hasn't started to build her new house....is there really a new house???  Or is she just the girl who cried wolf??

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  When you have to rely on others, YOU are only as good as THEIR word.

What a difference a day makes

Surprisingly enough, when I got up early Saturday morning, I was able to book a vacant room at the Travelodge in Bangor.  Not the Taj Mahal, by any stretch, although I think the Travelodge is run by the same family!!  Anyway, it was a place to sleep and allowed us to take advantage of all the cheaper prices for some of our new house needs.  We cleaned up on hardware for the doors (knobs and such), and found some nice bathroom hardware, a mirror, and the like.  It was still worth it for us to pay the gas and the requisite Canadian tax to both find some things that were a) different, and b) cheaper.  Just to give you an idea....a light fixture that we found at the Home Depot in Bangor was on sale for $39.99....but as per our luck, they were out of stock.  No problem, we thought, we'll get one from the HD in Saint John...how much more could it be??  Maybe $59...possibly $79...nope...no where's near....they are available through HD in Canada for the whopping price of $119.47....'splain that to me, huh...can you...I think NOT!  Oh well, we'll be back down again, before the house is completed.  And aside from the shopping, we also enjoyed a little visit to...you guessed it....Hollywood Slots.  Still don't know what was going on in Bangor that caused every hotel to be booked solid....apparently it was some concert at Bass Park (or Auditorium, not sure which)....all the night manager at the hotel could tell us was that it was "someone from New York"...okay....that narrows it down...

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Obviously more people than me are unimpressed with NB's license plate slogan.  When I got home today I read yesterday's paper about how they were looking for a new slogan....(vindicated again!!)....hmmmm, what can I come up with...something catchy....yet translatable.....leave it with me!

We have liftoff................................. (Happy Anniversary Mike and Sue!)

Oh, and I don't mean the Atlantis, although I think it had it's liftoff today as well.  As important as that is....I'm more excited about our liftoff in the form of the foundation of our house being poured today.  It will sit for the weekend and then we get started on Monday a.m.  It has been a long and busy week of taking one step forward and two steps back.  For every purchase we made, we've ended up making a return because we found a better deal....or worse, we found the deal we thought we had was no deal at all.  That seems to be more the norm so far.  Thankfully, we have the time to be doing all this running around.   And it will all pay off in the end with savings.  And how many quotes can a person get on a kitchen??  We're on our third...and hopefully, last.  But other than that, we're full steam ahead.   With 2 days of "down time" we had hoped to head to Bangor for the night tomorrow and do a bit of shopping at Lowe's.  It's just a fabulous home building and DIY store.  The prices are fabulous, and for things like mirrors, blinds, small bathroom hardware, etc., they would be ideal.  Who would have thought that you couldn't get a reservation in all of Bangor with only 1 day's advance notice??  And we're not brave enough to head down and hope for the best...we did that once before...ended up staying at the old Stacy's Country Inn...only it's not Stacy's any longer...and it was scary...and by scary....I mean reallllllyyyyy dirty...Kier and I both slept with our clothes on and ON TOP of the blankets...yech!  I would have welcomed Stacy and his gassy smelling hands....even they would have been cleaner....

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Building a house makes for boring blogging!!

Going nowhere fast

Well here we are revving up our engines to start building, but weather and tradespeople are hindering our progress.  We are still waiting on the foundation getting poured to get started with the construction.  We've been running around town, often to the same places again and again.  I'm sure the employees at Kent's know us to see now!  I keep telling myself that it's all necessary...we're getting all the leg work done so that when we get started we'll have no interruptions.  Cross everything!!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  You would have think I would have noticed this when I picked up our new NB license plates the other day....but it took driving around town for the past few days to really take note.  What is it with this slogan on our license plate??  "Be...in this place"...I mean really....was that something the inmates came up with when they were banging away on the metal plates with their hammers??  Oh, I don't suppose the plates are made that way any longer!!  So that would mean they must have hired some consulting firm to create a panel of NB'ers to determine what would illicit that 'warm and fuzzy' feeling for both residents and tourists.  But really....is that the best they could come up with??  As my favourite comedian Ron White (no relation) would say "You can't fix stupid"!!!

Jones'en for some Coke....or Pepsi!!

The first day of a new job is not the best time to try to kick a bad habit.  I'm giving up Coke and/or Pepsi....AGAIN!  I've done it many times before and it's always tough the first few days to get over that caffeine craving.  I usually start by cutting back....you know, limiting myself to one glass a day...and then, poof...go cold turkey.  My head is starting to ache and I just NEED a drink of something caffeinated...but I'm going to resist temptation.

Brian and his partner
pouring the "footings"

Because of the poor weather, we didn't get much "site work" done today at the house.  In fact, they are just now getting the "footings" poured.  No, I don't know what "footings" are, but I do know they have something to do with the foundation.  We did make good use of our time, though, as we got several things ordered/picked out, so now, if we could just get on with the construction....

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  People are more than willing to help other people who don't know what they're doing.  It really is amazing how much patient people can display...from the workers at Kent's who explain everything we need to do and when we need to do it, to the people at Canada Post who are helping me get my new mailbox keys to the superbox near our house.  I always thought that customer service was dead...or at least dying a slow, painful death....but, I'm happy to admit that on this subject, I might have been wrong!  And for once, that's a good thing!!!

And a big thank you to my new neighbour, whoever you are, that doesn't have a secure wireless internet!!!!

Happy Canada Day, eh!!!

Can you believe it??  Here we are at the first of July and the past 4 days have flown since I left Antigonish for the final time.  It was an odd feeling to see the storage facility door dropping on all of our worldly possessions.  Especially when you couldn't see too much of them....they were packed into the unit so tightly!  Thank god I had the foresight to "upsize" the unit from a 10 x 25 to a 10 x 30 at the very last minute! 

It's been a busy few days, but we've gotten ALOT accomplished.  Thanks to Sue, (the BEST customer service person at Service NB...no, it's not just a rumour....it's TRUE!!), we're now sporting NB plates on our vehicles, have new NB DL's, and will be getting our new Medicare cards in the mail.  No small feat to get all that accomplished in a very short time....on a Thursday before a holiday weekend, no less!!  We followed that up with finalizing the purchase of our lot and are now the proud owners of Lot #92 on Runnymede Drive.  Anybody got a tent??

We're spending the weekend getting things organized and ready to start our new summer job....building a house!  We start at 8 a.m. Monday morning.  I was just getting used to the relaxed "sleeping in" life of a retiree...but no longer!!  Come Monday morning we'll be hearing the bugle blow and the loud yell of "up and at 'em you lazy wasted piece of skin!!"....oops, that was just a flashback to old Depot days!  It shouldn't be THAT bad....I hope!

Today we spent some time sealing the driveway at Mom's place.  I extended the invitation to Will and Kate, as I've heard they like to "muck in" and learn these simple "commoner" tasks....but alas, the invite was a bit too late, and as much as they'd have liked to come, they just couldn't get out of a little thing called Canada Day on Parliament Hill...oh well, their loss!!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Work, even in small doses, is tiring!  I can't wait to see how I feel after a full day on Monday.  It's been a long time since I've had a labourer's job....hey wait, I've NEVER had one!!  It just may be a looooonnngg summer!!!