I'm inclined to say it was ducky.

Both of my nieces and the younger of my nephews are visiting my parents this week, and yesterday I took the day off work and Mom and the kids and I headed to Pittsburgh for the day.  Our drive was largely uneventful, barring a wee bit of a spat towards the end where Mom listened to the end of the directions rather than the whole thing and missed the middle bit, we were parked across the street from Station Square at 11:00 a.m.

We walked through the square and the kids looked at the river for a bit, then walked all the way down it, out the other side and across the street to the Monongahela Incline.  I'd ridden the Dusquene incline in my childhood, but not this one.  Mom of course, had ridden both as a Pittsburgh native.  Super Doughnut was a little nervous for some reason, but everyone enjoyed the ride to the top and the view from Mount Washington.  Then we had a discussion of which three rivers meet in Pittsburgh which ended with me asking the fare-taker if the third was the Allegheny or the Susquehanna.  For the record, the rivers are the Ohio, the Monongahela and the Allegheny.  Then we rode back down, had a nice lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then lined up for our tour.

The weather was absolutely perfect--warm and sunny but with a nice breeze.  We had an interesting and loud tour through the city, then hit the water.  Literally hit the water, because we took a Just Ducky amphibious tour!  For me, being on the water was the best part, water-loving critter that I am.  I think it was also my niece's best part, because she was one of the kids asked to steer the boat while the guide took a break and the captain talked.  Because she had purple rhinestones on her t-shirt, the captain called her "Captain Sparkle".

After the tour, we walked through the old train station which is now a fancy restaurant, and I forgot to ask Mom if it was still a station when she was a kid.  After some more not-fun with the GPS, we made it back to Mom and Dad's and then I headed home.

By some twist of luck, the first Just Ducky video I found features the same guide we had yesterday, so here's Carol:

Ahh, a nice big thunderstorm!

Nothing like one of those for scouring all the allergens out of my life!

My nose is trying to kill me, my nieces are here and my dad is giving me advice

Ah, yes, another horrible allergy attack.  AND payroll taxes.  yay.

But my brother brought the girls in to stay for a week at my parents' house before going to the lake and we had a nice lunch in Cleveland.

I've had an ungodly amount of antihistamines, but my dad told me to lay off.  Hah.  This from the man who pops ibuprofen like candy.

Hey, did you know wombats poop cubes?

Multiculturism at its best

...was what middle liddle brother said when I told him that I, an American female of mostly British descent and a German last name, was celebrating a French holiday with a day off and a Greek sandwich. :-)

Yesterday was my birthday, but since I'm *gasp* aging, I've decided to celebrate Bastille Day instead.  I did my nails up all fancy, and I got lots of neat presents from The Jay and The Sherri, and Mom and I went shopping.  I found five big grapefruit-scented candles for $1 each, plus birthday presents for my nieces, plus four new tops for me.  Then we went and had lunch at a local chain, and I had a wonderful gyro, followed by coming home to take a nap, and then getting up to feed the dog, eat dinner and make two loaves of dill bread to take to work.  Then I returned middle liddle brother's phone call and then called Mom and Dad picked up to say Happy Birthday Bastille Day.   Plus, Mira Grant's newest Rising short story was released, so I downloaded that.

Good food, presents, books, family and friends--what a perfect day!

Oh, and the dog didn't leave me any dead mice as presents, either. ;-)

Tears at 5 a.m.

Last night, I dreamt that Little Miss Piggie Pie had to go into the vet for something that would take all day and when I dropped her off, the staff asked if I wanted a loaner dog.  I said yes, and a tech came out with my beloved Bigfoot.  I spent a wonderful day with him, and when the vet hospital called to tell me LMPP was ready to be picked up, I said, "You know you're not getting Bigfoot back, right?"  The person on the phone said that was fine, it would only cost me a $45 adoption fee to keep him.

So I went and got LMPP and introduced her to Bigfoot, and had two wonderful dogs and you know how this is going to end, right?

And then I woke up.  And it SUCKED.  And I cried.

I am Jammies, hear me roar!

...or at least, hear me not whimpering like an abandoned puppy. I dealt with a hornets' nest over the back door to the breezeway all by myself last night, and today I took my shovel and flicked it off the siding in one swing.

Plus, lots of people at work loved the lemon pound cake I made for our triple baby shower yesterday.  Yup, three of my co-workers are spawning.  Thankfully, they are due in successive months and each works in a different area of the court, so the need for training and temporary replacements is not as difficult as it could have been.

My butterfly bushes are not completely lost--the branches are all dead, but new growth is sprouting at the base of several of them.  The miniature roses are goners, though. :-(

All in all, life continues at Casa de Jammies in a mostly serene fashion, except when Rooter ventures into the front yard and Little Miss Piggie Pie barks herself hoarse.

I have been very clever

...even if I do say so myself.  The sump pump is no longer running continuously, but it is still running, and I'm astonished by how much water must still be saturating the earth around my foundation!  Today I moved the lighter half of my houseplants outside, and since I didn't water them before I moved them, they were pretty dry.  I was just going to water them when I realized my garden hose is not hooked up to the spigot, but to the sump pump.

So after a moment of thought, I put the hose in a bucket, and emptied it into my houseplants when it filled.  It took three hours and three buckets to get them all, but I was pretty happy.  No wasted water, no wasted electricity, and happy plants.

Now to get the mulch down before the idiot landscapers mow down another lavender or daylily.

Alarums and excursions, the final chapter (I hope!)

Previously, on Curmudgeonette:

Our heroine's garage flooded and she went to work anyway.

Jammies took a day off to clean up the garage and it flooded again.

Then the basement flooded!

Jammies took another vacation day.

We join the story with our heroine discovering that her sump pump wasn't pumping, which was the cause of the flooded basement!

More alarums, more excursions

After driving out to Casa de Senior Jammies and getting a brush, the ozone generator and a squeegie, I came back and worked all day just clearing the garage.  I found at least one dead mouse and a ton of styrofoam peanuts.

Then it flooded again.

Then the basement flooded.

So here I am, taking another vacation day, using every rag in the house to try to mop up the water in the basement, bleaching the garage floor and thanking my lucky stars that I met a scrap metal dealer at court last week who is coming by to pick up all the metal I found whilst cleaning out the garage.  Goodbye, old lawnmower blades, rabbit ears and plant holders.

Now I just have to get the icky, sodden, dog-destroyed armchair out of the basement and wash another load of rags.

Alarums and excursions!

Yesterday was a fairly ordinary work day, even a pretty good work day.  I woke up early enough to be ready in time to leave the house and make a quick stop on the way in for Lemonheads and Raisinettes for my two co-workers who just finished school for the semester, and the day went pretty quickly.  I was pottering around at home last night when Little Miss Piggie Pie started whimpering a bit and then the city tornado sirens went off.

I was just debating whether or not to head for the basement when my dad called.  After asking me how I was, he asked if I was aware of the weather, and then proceeded to read me the entire text of the warning.  I promised him I would keep an eye on the dog and on the radar and went about my evening.  He told me to call him if a tornado was headed for Hudson because he was going to take a nap.  Typical Scary Bear, nothing gets in the way of a nap.

LMPP calmed down and went to sleep, so I went back to working on spreadsheets for Mom while outside it was storming to beat the band.  I took a break when the hail started.  It was so loud I knew what popcorn sounds like from the inside of the popper.  Then the hail stopped and the rain started again, and when I went to look at the lightning, I realized there was standing water in the driveway.

So at 9:30, I was outside in flip-flops and a rain poncho, wading through ankle-deep cold water trying to clear the grate on the driveway drain.  I succeeded, but too late to prevent the garage from flooding.  I came back inside, saw that the tornado warning was over and there was a flash flood warning, washed my feet, set up the coffee and went to bed.

This morning, the garage had a layer of mud and yuck all over the floor, lots of things moved around from the water and was in a general state of disarray.  Unfortunately, because today was call day, I had to go in.  I'll need to be, at minimum, in the hospital before I call off on call day--it's just too hard with only two people in the accounts department.

My drive in was complicated by a detour that meant I had to use the high-traffic route and included the sight of a whole bunch of downed trees and washed-out shoulders.  Lake Morley was full of water, with more dripping from the pipes.  I told my colleagues what had happened, explained that I'd like to take Wednesday off and got permission from the chief clerk to do so.  I then had to tell one of my fellow auditors that yes, I washed my feet after wading in dog-knows-what. :P

Call day was interesting.  For the first time in my experience, we had two people admit, albeit reluctantly, that they weren't just behind in their paperwork, they'd done things they shouldn't have with money that wasn't theirs.  Thankfully, the judge is more interested in helping them fix things than punishing them.

When I got home, the garage had started to stink (it was 90º F today!) and I called dad to make sure he and his couch weren't buried in the remains of my childhood home and to see if I could borrow a floor squeegie and the ionizer.  He was alive and well and said he'd leave everything where I can find it tomorrow morning without waking him.

A big thank you to all of the G+ friends who held my paw last night and sent me dry thoughts. <3 all="" nbsp="" ou="" p="" rock.="">

Somebody gets me!

Five days a week I park my car at the downtown parking garage closest to work.  I pay $65/month for the privilege, and consider it well spent when I don't have to slog through a polar vortex for more than two minutes.  However, I am wondering what the company that operates the garage is doing with my money (and everyone else's).

When it rains or snows heavily, all of the pipes carrying the water away from the flat roof leak and all of the drains back up.  Huge puddles form, great swathes of parking spaces are blocked off, and this spring, the lowest level of the garage had two feet of water in it for almost a week.  The only "maintenance" ABM seems to do is to put out "Wet Floor" signs convenient only for blocking more parking spaces.

Last Wednesday, I got out of my car and stepped right in a puddle.  Fortunately I keep my work shoes at work and I was wearing sneakers, but I was still ticked.  I thought about it all day, and at 4:00, I grabbed a sheet of paper out of the recycling bin and made a little sign.

Welcome to Lake Morley, Cabins and Fishing are in my handwriting.

I taped it on the door to Level 2 and went home.

On Friday night, as I got to the door, I saw that "Kiddie Pool", "High Dive" and "Canoes" had been added, each with their own unique arrows.  As long as it's up, I can start my day happy with the knowledge that even if I don't know them personally, someone in Akron shares my sense of humor.

Spring at Casa de Jammies

Lovely, lovely, slightly damp and gloomy spring!

Lots of pics after the jump. :-)

Omigoshomigoshomigosh!

Something incredibly cool and incredibly gross just happened!  Details after the jump for non-squeamish types.

Died suddenly, at home, 03/25/2014

Funeral services will be performed Friday, March 28, 2014, 7:00 a.m. by the City of Cuyahoga Falls Sanitation Department.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests gift cards to Bed, Bath and Beyond or Target.

R.I.P., Mr. Coffee.  You weren't even three years old and I took care of you--cleaned you regularly, washed your carafe, de-scaled you even though I only used RO-filtered water and 100% Columbian coffee.  Still, you left me on a workday morning when I really needed you.  If there's an afterlife for appliances, I hope you get eaten by a vicious waffle iron.

Brrrrrrrrr!

Yesterday afternoon, it was 50º and sunny.  Right now, it's 19º and there's an inch of snow on the ground.  Ohio weather is psychotic. :P

Today's menu: cranky with a side of I hate DST

One of my least favorite days of the year is the first work day after the ridiculousness that is "Spring Forward".  Seriously, Daylight Savings Time is stupid and harmful and I can complain about it for paragraphs, but I shall spare you.

Add in the fact that tomorrow is Call Day and I have a co-worker who didn't help me put together the list sniping at me over an omission and an attorney whining about how it doesn't fit in his schedule, then add in a brutal sinus headache on a pretty, sunshiny day, and you have a recipe for a grim day.

Right now I am thinking that I'm not going to mend the hem on my blue pants, just tape up the ripped stitches and fix them later.  Maybe next weekend.

Grrrr.

Random factoids

Yes, another list, because I lack the brainpower for narrative structure.

1.  I have my first chest cold in quite a number of years, and it's as horrible as I remember.  I left work early on Thursday, called off on Friday, and had a holiday today, so a long rough weekend.

2.  Little Miss Piggie Pie had her annual pincushion appointment this morning, and had to be muzzled for snapping at Dr. Bob despite a handful of Bil-Jac treats.  The good news is she's finally gained some weight, and he thinks she's perfect at 54 pounds.  She got more treats when we stopped at Pet Supplies Plus to get dog food--I hope she doesn't think that kind of treatment is going to last! ;-)

3.  On the way home today, I passed by the repair shop owned by the guy who bought my Saturn.  Norm is a 17 year-old Saturn SW1, with no luxury options and 118,000 miles, and the guy who paid me $600 is asking $3195.  Good luck, Mr. Lotsaballs!

4.  My taxes are done and I am getting a teensy refund, which will go straight to the Cleveland Clinic to pay my portion of the bill for my MRI.

5.  There is a blizzard going on outside right now, and even with a racking cough and lizard-rough dry skin from taking a zillion hot showers, it's nice to look at it.  I do like snow, and I'm trying to store up some cold for when I'm miserable in August.

"You don't really believe that, do you?"

...is what one of my co-workers said when I announced that I thought that Little Miss was possessed.

Well, no, I don't really truly deep-down believe it, but she's been showing a couple of weird Littlefoot behaviors over the past few days, like raiding the stash of cotton balls and chewing them up before spitting them out on the living room floor, and licking the kitchen floor.

Oh well, at least she wasn't possessed by Bigfoot, and therefore able to open the refrigerator door!

His name is Edgar, and he is not a Stupid Useless Vehicle

He's a station wagon on steroids. :-D

A Nightly Contest

Ever since I read about Simple Dog on Hyperbole and a Half, I've thought that Little Miss Piggie Pie has a great deal in common with Simple Dog.  For one thing, they look alike.  For another, LMPP failed the canine IQ test as well, and finally, she does quiver when she wants me to be happy.

Where they differ, however, is in stubbornness.  For the last week, LMPP has decided that she no longer wishes to sleep at the foot of the bed.  The top of the bed, on top of my pillow, is clearly her ordained place in the world, and she makes every effort to take it.

When I go to bed, I pull back the covers and before I can even sit down, LMPP has jumped up and curled up on my pillow, foregoing any of the turn-in-circles nonsense that would waste time.  So I yell at her to get down, she does, and then she jumps right back up again.

Last night, and for as long as it takes for her to learn (meaning possibly forever), I closed the bedroom door in her face and didn't reopen it until I was safely in bed.

Oh, btw, buy Allie's book so she'll write another one!  It's really good.