Wordless Wednesday - March 19, 2014

Currently feeling: hungry for Mexican

First Baseball Game

We survived our first baseball game! It almost didn't happen, since Luke was sick yesterday evening. We think something he ate didn't agree with him, because it was only one "incident," and he was fine by the time he woke up this morning. Play ball!



Fielding: played center, 3rd, and 1st. Stopped a grounder and tagged a runner out at 3rd.



Hitting: got a single in his only at bat, made it to 3rd on the next single and a fielding error. Picture above is a practice swing.



But this is him actually legging out his single. He had a big goofy grin on his face the whole time! So glad he is enjoying himself.



I, however, need to work on my manual focus skills with the camera. The fence was causing more trouble today with autofocus than it did at practice, even though I was sitting in essentially the same place. Maybe I'll get it figured out by the last game.
Currently feeling: play ball!

Erin and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Image Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos


Or week, as the case may be. In the last 8 days, I/we have:

• Learned of the death of a friend and attended his memorial service (a first for Luke)
• Had an incredibly frustrating week at work
• Discovered my father is having health problems (he is improving, but it was very scary for a few days)
• Found a cracked drain pipe causing a ceiling collapse in the basement bathroom
• Discovered mold due to said leaking drain pipe, which will be very expensive to clean
• Had my car booted today because I was in such a hurry to get the data crunched for a meeting that ended up getting moved to Monday that I forgot to pay for parking online when I got to my office
• Spent nearly 2 hours getting home from the time I got in the elevator to leave work, due to the delay from getting my car booted, waiting for the guy to show up and let me go, and some major traffic issues on the interstate
• Helped Luke through a round of vomiting tonight (the night before his first baseball game) while the water to the house was off for the plumbers to replace the water shut off valve (water was only off for about 15 minutes, but it just had to be the 15 minutes that he was throwing up)

Are we done yet? I know I am. In fact, I'm completely over March and ready to move on to April now, thanks.
Currently feeling: buried

Cracked Drain Pipe

This is the ceiling in our basement bathroom.

Why yes, it *is* in the floor. I'm glad you noticed that. ::sigh::

Our quarterly exterminator visit was early this afternoon. When he came up the stairs from the basement and said "I have some bad news, if you don't already know it," I was expecting something critter related. You know, termites (something we don't currently treat for; I know, I know) or a mouse infestation (we saw one several months ago, but nothings since; hope he was just passing through).

I was not expecting to hear, "you have a burst pipe in your basement bathroom ceiling." Excuse me?!!

I called my husband as I was going down the basement stairs. The leak didn't seem too bad, more of a trickle really; certainly not what I envisioned when he phrased it as a "burst pipe." There were small puddles and splashes of water on the floor, but not an inch or so of standing water like I anticipated. The exterminator helped me turn off the water to the house (or so we thought; more on that in a sec), though the dripping continued due to whatever the insulation had absorbed, I'm sure.

The ceiling had obviously pulled away only recently, and the sheet rock at the top was barely wet. Given that my craft closet is on one side of the bathroom (with all of my fabric, fibers, and charts!), and many boxed up mementos are on the other side, I am truly grateful that the water damage is confined to the bathroom only. The ceiling was intact but sagging and pulled away from the corner when the exterminator found it. The pictures above and below were taken after the plumber's inspection.



When the plumber finally rendered his verdict (much) later this evening, it turned out not to be an active leak at all. Instead, it was a cracked drain pipe leading from Luke's bathtub in the "jack and jill" bathroom directly above. Luke had just taken a shower Tuesday night, and that was probably the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back (or ceiling, as the case may be). That said, it has likely been leaking at least a little bit for some time, but it only just now got bad enough to affect the ceiling. (You can see a little bit of mold right in the corner in the above picture.) That means that the water damage and mold remediation will most likely be (substantially) more expensive than the actual plumbing repair. Joy. We'll get that estimate tomorrow. Thank goodness hubby was already scheduled to work from home tomorrow so the air conditioning inspection guy could come by. We are certainly doing our part to support the service industry this week. ::rolls eyes::

The plumbing work will take several hours and will be very loud, not something we wanted him to start at 9PM right under Luke's bedroom when it was already past his bedtime. He had had an emergency call come in as he was finishing up the estimate for us, someone with a real burst pipe pumping out gallons of water. Since it wasn't an active leak and we had the water turned back on to the house, it really worked out best for everyone (us and the people with the major leak) for him to come back the next day. We'll also have him replace the water shut off valve, since the old one we used only shut off about half the water flow. Thank goodness it wasn't an actual leak!

This will be the second time in less than 5 years that same basement bathroom wall and ceiling will have been replaced! Makes me think we'll just hold off on repairing the sheet rock until we go another 5 years without incident. It's not like we ever use that bathroom anyway.

It has been quite a crummy week! I refuse to ask what else can go wrong, because something will.

Currently feeling: sad and frustrated with this week

Wordless Wednesday - March 12, 2014

Currently feeling: like spring may finally come

First Baseball Practice

Instead of playing soccer this spring, Luke has requested to play baseball. We finally found a league that is close, affordable, and reasonable with their practice schedule (one night per week, not 3-4). Tonight was his first practice (first game will be Saturday), and he had a blast!


You'd never know he's never played baseball, would you?



He didn't really start "having a catch" with my husband until we signed him up back in February.



Sort-of looks like he knows what he's doing out there. And enjoying every minute!



Then it was time for hitting. I had no idea how this would go.



They hit off a pitching machine, not a child or coach, but he had only ever practiced with my husband pitching to him.



He made some decent contact, though he also missed a few.



Hmm, need to work on his stance some.



Oh, swing and a miss!



Sooo close! Given this is his first practice, I'm sure he will get better. First game is Saturday. Wish us luck!

Currently feeling: put me in coach, I'm ready to play!

Pat C

We lost a friend and neighbor this week. The C Family lives just a few houses down the road from us. Pat was the Cub Scout leader of the den a year ahead of Luke. We would see Pat, his wife S, and their son L at least once a month (sometimes more) at scout things. Luke and L also go to school together, though they are in different grades. (L is only 3 months older than Luke, though with the birthday cut off, L is a grade ahead.) I can't say that we were especially close with them, but we did see them frequently, and we (the parents and the kids) liked to chat when we did have reason to be in the same place at the same time. In fact, we discussed getting together for dinner "sometime in March" at the last Pack Meeting. The C's are the kind of people you could always call if you needed help, and we genuinely enjoyed their company and their friendship. So hard to believe that Pat is now gone. I am absolutely crushed for both S and L.


The Cub Scout Pack made a good showing at the memorial today. We had at least 15 boys in uniform, plus various den leaders. I was so pleased to see that it made S and L smile to see the rows of scouts as they walked in. Pat loved scouts and genuinely enjoyed teaching the boys and doing microphone commentary for the various contests. He was also very involved in various neighborhood activities; the annual Halloween Costume Contest just will not be the same without his hosting (and his corny jokes). If you have any good thoughts and prayers to spare, please send them to the C Family.

Currently feeling: very sad