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Hanging out with the roommistresses

whenever I start blogging, I hear Bridget Jones' voice in my head....

alcohol - 3 glasses of wine (not bad for a Friday night), cigarettes - 0 (v.g. - easy, really considering that I don't smoke), weight - lost 2 pounds! (strict egg sandwich diet is really paying off!)

Stayed up late last night chatting with my roommistresses on the patio. It was fun - just like my old res days hanging out with my girlfriends except now we actually have money to buy wine with corks!

b-bye egg sandwiches

okay I think I am now tired of egg sandwiches. Besides I now have a new roommate who cooks wonderful things like homemade vegtable soup and Iranian omlettes and shares them with me :-)

Not sure how that guy ate kraft dinner for one year straight. I got tired of egg sandwiches after 8 days and egg sandwiches are much better than kd!

egg sandwiches

Since Rob left one week ago I have 19 egg fried sandwiches, 2 Ikea hotdogs, a bag of carrots and some yogurts. I figure that egg sandwiches (with salsa) are pretty healthy as they cross three different food groups. They are also inexpensive (about .50 per sandwich), tasty, hot, and quick to make. I wonder if I will ever get tired of them?

Wasn't there a guy who ate kraft dinner three times a day for a month?

girl takes on lawn - girl wins

lawn
Originally uploaded by ~chill~.

Unsuspecting son of neighbour wanders over into my yard looking for a key to his fathers house. While you are here, I say. Can I ask you a quick question about lawn mowers?

The neighbours son and his friend were able to show me how to attach the bag to the front lawn mower ( so it does belong to this mower after all!) and how to start and stop the mower (you have to hold the handle down when starting it and then let it go to stop the mower).

The back mower was a bit more challenging. They figured out that the line for the clutch was too loose so that clutch would not disengage and lower the blade when I pressed the blade bar. They didnt have time to fix it but with at one lawn mower working, I could at least get started.

I went back to the front of the house and miraculously got the mower started and actually began mowing the lawn! It stalled on the way up a hill and I couldnt get it started again. I screamed start you f***ing thing!“ which seemed to be the magic words as it started up once again, only to stall at few minutes later. I kept trying to restart it, screaming the magic words which no longer appeared to be magic. I tried my hardest to restart it... oh about 20 times¦ and eventually realized that it was out of gas. Got the gas can out of the shed, only to find it empty. Where to get gas? A gas station appears to be a likely option yet I have never seen anyone filling up a jerry can at a gas station. Perhaps it is more appropriate to buy gas at home depo or a gardening shop? I called in another lifeline (to quote my roommate) and asked a neighbour two doors down for help. Not only did he tell me where to get gas but was able to figure out why the back lawn mower wasnt working properly. It was not damaged at all! I was just wasnt engaging the blade bar button at the right time! ( BEFORE pushing the blade bar forward.

In the end I was able to successfully operate both lawn mowers and cut the grass in both the front and back yards. My arms are sore trying to start the mowers a million times over, from pushing the manual mower up the hills and being dragged around the back yard by the power mower. It was a steep learning curve but now I know more about mowers than if someone just showed me how to use them. I realize that my troubleshooting skills are good, I just dont persist long enough. Also each problem solved provides you with more information to solve future problems.

Tomorrow I take on the weed wacker!

girl takes on lawn - lawn wins

The lawn was getting quite long and my (male) roommate wasn't able to do it this weekend. So I thought that I better figure it out

Step one - get extremely heavy automatic lawn mower out of shed. Not done well - but successful. It landed with a bit of a thud not sure how I will get it back in but will worry about that later.

Step two - get lawn mower started. Not successful. I tried and tried but could not get it going. Placed three calls to mom for support. Seemed to be doing everything right, but still nothing. Either I am weaker than I thought or lawn mower was damaged on way out of shed.

Step three - Abandon back lawn move to front lawn (there is a manual lawn mower out front as it is too difficult to get the move the power mower down the stairs to the front of the house)If I can get this mower going, I will know that in fact I am not weak, the other one is just broken.

Step four - attach bag to front lawn mower. Not successful. We bought this mower used just before my husband left. The bag must belong to different lawn mower.

Step five - try to start lawn mower without bag. Not successful.

Step six - give up and rebuild self-esteem in more familiar space - the mall

Oh No!

oh no! This has never happened before. What to do? First I asked my (male) roommate. He looked at the fallen rosebush and made some recomendations but was on his way out and could not help. Then I called my neighbours. They came over right away and offered some suggestions but could not help me fix it until Monday. Then I called my grandpa-in-law (a retired carpender) and he was able to come over today and help me get the rosebush back up.

I told this story to my (female) roomate and she said "What! You used up three lifelines to solve one problem!" I guess I will need to be more strategic about asking for help!

you can build it with a butter knife

Before my husband left we ordered a futon for my new roommate who is moving in tomorrow. Because the futon would be delivered after my husband left and because it came disassembled, I asked "is it easy to build" "You could build it with a butter knife", the futon man assured me. Now suggesting that the futon could be built with a butter knife does not imply that it is easy to build rather it implies that only simple tools are needed to build the thing. I did not point out this discrepancy.

I thought that I might be able to pay the delivery men extra to build the futon but when they dropped it off in my foyer and I asked them to move it upstairs they looked like they would rather die. So asking them to build it was out of the question. I would have to build it myself.

Bob the Builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder
Yes, we can!

I painstakingly followed the directions, knowing that one mistake could be costly. Some of the steps were difficult to do with only one person but I thought of my grandmother who always comes up with a unique way to accomplish tasks despite her arthritic hands. (For example she uses her stomach to push a snow shovel because she can't do it with her hands). When I needed to keep a plank level and suspended, I balanced one end on a pile of books so that I could attach the other end of the plank.

I did so well until I got to the final step, step five. No matter how hard I tired I couldn't attach the two parts of the futon as depicted in the image. It just was not physically possible. I tried attaching the pieces in another way which worked to some extent but the the futon would not open. Stupid step five.

When my (male) room mate got home I asked him for help. He agreed that what I was trying to do was not possible. "But it said to do it like this in the directions" I said. "The directions are always wrong" he said matter of factly and proceeded to defy the directions and fix the problem.

This situation reminded me of Jim Gee's description of training phase in Tomb Raider. The professor gives Laura Croft instructions to remain on the path; however by defying instructions, players can earn the maximum points. I think that guys learn early in life that rules are not only made to be broken but that it can be advantageous to ignore the rules. I would suck at Tomb Raider.

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