The dishwasher is running

My dad came over again last night to see if we could get the dishwasher settled into place under the counter. We finally got it in there and we ran a load last night. Everything seems to be okay, execpt it ran for a long time. It ran for about an hour and a half before we finally stopped it. They usually don't run that long, do they?


-- C.

It's a boy

We are having a boy.

Baby

Paula had an ultrasound yesterday afternoon and we found out "who it is" (whether it's a boy or a girl). But I ain't tellin' ya yet. Our parents were busy last night so we are going to dinner with them tonight to let them know. After that, we'll tell everyone else.

Paula had to drink four bottles of water before the appointment. I think she drank three before she felt like puking. She almost didn't make it past the parking lot. I tried not to laugh at her as we waited for 20 minutes. She kept staring eagerly at the bathroom door and doing a pee-pee dance. As if a growing baby doesn't put enough pressure on her bladder, all that extra water was almost too much.

Once the technician started the ultrasound Paula forget about her bladder, at least a little bit. The tech showed us the four-chambered heart beating away. We got a nice view of the spine, too. The tech pointed at one area and said it was the stomach, then pointed at two other circles and said those were kidneys. She could have been making it up for all I know. Everything looks good so far.

I tried very hard not to give away too much here, like using personal pronouns or describing the nickname we came up with. You'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Any guesses?


-- C.
PS: Paula had to pee about ten times during the next several hours after the appointment.

YLNIs "CEO Experience"

YLNI held a "CEO Experience" event at Joseph Decuis last night. They invited two CEOs to talk about their experience and answer questions about running a business. This was the second event and Patricia Miller, co-founder of Vera Bradley, and Dane Miller, co-founder of Biomet, were the guests. (There is no relation between the two speakers, despite having the same last name.)

One of the questions put to both speakers had to do with running large companies in the Midwest. Patricia Miller said it is difficult to find designers in this area, and it is sometimes difficult to convince good designers to come from New York to northeast Indiana.

Paula leaned over to me and whispered, "They probably ask which ocean it's next to," because when she was in NY many people didn't know where Indiana is.

I whispered back, jokingly, "They probably ask if there is a baseball stadium downtown, too."

After both speakers finished, the emcee thanked them and Joseph Decuis, and everyone else involved. She also pointed out that a rep from Hardball Capitol was in attendance. Turns out he was sitting *right* in front of me.

I don't think he heard my little comment though. That would have been an interesting faux pas.


The restaurant was very nice and both speakers were very interesting. [perhaps more on that later]

Speaking of "things you didn't know existed"

Regarding Dave's post, here's some thing I didn't know existed until recently. Also, they'd make a great gift for me (hint-hint):

Monty Python's Black Knight plush toy with removeble limbs!

Also, MP's electronic Killer Rabbit!


-- C.

"Only three connections"

By "only three connections" I was thinking water in, drain out, and electrical. I still blame Dave for making it sound like it would be a breeze. Hey, I have to vent somehow.

My brother was busy so my dad came over. We went to the hardware store and told the sales guy what we needed. He looked around and couldn't find the right piece. Instead, we ended up getting two more pieces that will make the connection we need.

I put the Teflon tape on the threads and started connecting all the bits, being careful to make sure it is all tight enough so it won't leak but not too tight to strip the screws. We got the incoming water line hooked up without much difficulty. The electrical and the drain hose were too short to connect without putting the new dishwasher in place. And that's where the trouble began again.

It's a tight fit side-to-side, and we couldn't take the counter top off all the way, just lift it about an inch out of the way. Plus there is about a quarter-inch of flooring in front of the space where the dishwasher is supposed to go. We push, and tug, and lift, and wiggle, and finally get it in place. But we find out we got it too far in. Now the balancing feet are on the base floor board, behind the quarter-inch wooden flooring. Whenever we tried to lift up the appliance the feet got caught underneath the flooring and we couldn't scoot it back out.

We struggled for quite a while trying to get it out, using pieces of wood to prop it up, and longer pieces of wood to lever it up higher. Finally I gave the go-ahead for Dad to take a screwdriver and hammer and just knock off a chuck on the flooring. It's back far enough no one will see it under the dishwasher.

We finally got it about where we want it. It's still a tight fit on the sides though. We tried to hook up the drain hose and realized the ring clamp has slipped down the existing hose and we couldn't reach it any more. We decided it's much better to run the the hardware store and spend a buck on a new clamp, rather than try to take the dishwasher out and hunt for the old clamp.

Connecting the drain hose was pretty easy, but the ground wire gave us problems. It's supposed to screw on to a plate connected to part of the frame, but the screw wouldn't go in. Either we got it cross-threaded or there were no threads to begin with. We finally muscled it into place.

By this time it's 9:30 PM. We turn the water back on and make sure there are no leaks, but everyone is tired and not wanting to do a test load. If something were to go wrong we'd be up all night.

Unfortunately we're busy tonight. We probably won't be able to do a test load until tomorrow night. I still have to adjust the balance feet and we may have to find a way to trim off some of the wooden counter on either side. But everything is connected and I think we're 90% of the way complete.

I'm still trying to decide if $120 would have been worth it to have them install. It would have been a lot easier for us if we had just a little bit more room to work with.


-- C.

I blame Dave

"Dishwashers are easy to install, there's just three connections."

Yeah. Right.

We ordered a dishwasher on Saturday since we found a store with a big sale. We wanted to avoid the installation fee of $120 so we told them we would pick it up ourselves. They said it would be here Sunday.

We show up Sunday and they can't find it. They blame it on the big sale and larger-than-normal demand. Oh well, no big deal. They said it should be here Monday, but call first just to make sure.

I called the next day and explained the situation. The warehouse guy looked around and said that our dishwasher was in. I drove over and picked it up, along with the install kit they provided, without any problem.

We got home and got the new one in the house before trying to remove the old one. I took the face-plate off the bottom of the old one and started trying to move it out. First I had to remove a bit of trim along the floor. No big deal. But it looks like the previous home owners put down about a quarter-inch of flooring after they had their dishwasher in place. There wasn't enough room above it to lift it up over the new flooring. I tried to raise the balancing feet, but couldn't get them high enough. Getting frustrated, I called my brother and invited him over for dinner.

He took a look at the situation and suggested lifting up the counter top to give us more room. That worked, but the old dishwasher still wasn't coming out. He got down on the floor, looked underneath, and found that it wasn't connected to a flex pipe, but to the copper pipe itself.

Okay, we get the dishwasher disconnected from the copper pipe and finally get the old one out of the way. Mike looks at the available connections and finds we still need a couple connectors. It's already after 8:30, so we're hoping there are still hardware stores open.

Our first stop, the neighborhood hardware store, is closed. By the time we get to the second choice it's just 9 o'clock and the front lights are off. We drive down the road to our third choice and see they still have lights on and still have a few customers inside. They didn't have the doors locked yet, so we cautiously entered the store and found the plumbing department.

Do you know how many options there are for pipe fittings? Too many. We found one that looked right and made our way to the register. After the nice lady rang us up, my brother remembered he wanted to get some Teflon tape. He asked if he could sprint back and get some. The nice lady said yes. My brother started heading back to get it and the cashier jokingly said, "That's not sprinting!"

Anyway, we get back home, and after several minutes of trying to get the pipe connected to the new hose, we realize we didn't get the right part after all. Of course, all the hardware stores are closed at this point, so we call it a night.

Tonight we'll take another crack at it. Hopefully we'll get it running.

If I have any questions and we don't get it installed and running before midnight, I'm calling you, Dave.


-- C.

Star-bellied sneech

So Paula and I are out at Jefferson Pointe, for a little walk, killing time. There's a woman and her daughter in front of us. The daughter must have been pre-teen. She puts her hair up in a ponytail and there's a tatoo on the back of her neck. I thought she looked awfully young for a tatto. And as I looked closer, the tatoo was a blue star. My first thought was that she was trying to be a star-bellied sneech. Is there some other reason for a blue star tatoo?

New recipe

Vanilla bean ice cream = good

Pure Maple Syrup = good

Pure Maple Syrup *ON* vanilla bean ice cream = Delicious!

Weekend - updated with a few more details

We had a great weekend. Thanks for the feedback from the emails. Here's what we ended up doing:

Friday night I surprised her with a carriage ride downtown. [It was a 30-minute slow ride through the downtown area. Fortunately the skies were clear. I got a lot of nice pictures of buildings, which I'll upload to flickr soon. It was quiet, peacful, and very relaxing.] Then we ate at Biagi's. [If you've been reading this blog you'll probably remember that's where we went on our first date, and where we ate the night I proposed.]

Saturday morning we had tea at the Dragon's Keep Cafe and stopped by the Orchard Gallery (featuring local artists). [They have some very creative and attractive pieces, but most of them are out of my price range. I like supporting local artists, but only if it's affordable. Paula did end up buying an anniversary present for me from here that had a reasonable price. Next time you're at our house, ask about it and I'll show you.] We planned to go to Cindy's Diner for lunch but it is closed for rennovations, so we went down the street to Toscani's for a pizza. [We didn't even know it was there, we just saw it on the carriage ride the night before. They have good pizza and soup and the waitress was very friendly.]

After that, we planned to go to Auburn to see the statues they have on display, but the downtown roads are blocked off for the auction. We stopped by my parents' lake cottage and visited with them, my brother, and my neice for a bit. [The ban on motor boats is still in place due to the flooding. We just sat around and visisted. Any day at the lake is a good day, even if the weather is bad.]

Sunday we had brunch then went to the Zoo and met my sister-in-law and her kids. After 4 hours walking through the whole zoo, we went home for a nap. That night we had dinner at Coney Island. I ordered one of their cheeseburgers which as just as delicious as their hotdogs.

Monday was spent at home, relaxing and making spaghetti for dinner. We used a recipe from my mom, which has to simmer for about 6 hours.

It was a fun weekend. If you haven't done it yet, I recommend the carriage ride through downtown. You get a nice view of the city that way.


-- C.