Author: Doris

Tired.

There are two types of tired and stressed out.  The first kind – the terrible kind – comes from things out of your control.  You get downsized, someone gets sick, your kid is having serious troubles in school, you get your heart broken.  When this kind of tired and stressed out comes your way, you can only try to surrender your way through it.  The second, more desirable tired and stressed out, comes all from your own doing.  You decided it would be a good idea to make a three tiered fondant cake for your kid’s birthday and now you find yourself elbow deep in powdered suger at 2am. Or that you could stay up late three nights in a row laughing with friends and getting buzzed and wonder why that one particular work thing fell short of your boss’s expectation and now you have to redo the whole thing which will take days.  So I’m squarely in the 2nd type of tired and stressed out.  I’m happy life is so full and on the other hand, I’m a little touchy to hang out with.  Yowza.

Kiki’s in town, so on Saturday we headed to DC to hang out with Louisa and June.  Here we are at the Capitol Hill Bookstore.  It was a dusty, creaky used bookstore in an expensive neighborhood with a kind yet grumpy proprietor operating the cash register.  I had to buy a book, because how can I not support just an endeavor? – Wolf Hall.  I bought it before I realized it was about Henry the 8th and that it has a character list that spans 4 single-spaced pages.

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June is 93 years old/young and we had a nice time visiting the Eastern Market to buy groceries.

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Later that night we went to Christine’s 50th birthday party.  Dance par-tay!!!  Nothing more fun than watching a bunch of middle-aged people dance to Britney’s pop songs.

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Be warned…

Garage Door Opening 4 Digits Code

Our garage door opening has problem recently.  It accepts 4 digits code occasionally.  I always can replace it with a new one.  Or, push it many times with a “hit and miss” mentality.  But, after careful thinking with many trials.  I kind of figured out which digits lost their sensitive in its electric board inside.

Accordingly, I selected digits that still work fine without sensitive problems.  Using those digits to create the 4 digits code, guess what, it works like a champ without the expense of buying a new.  Feel pretty good for myself on this one, at least for today, I think 🙂

To Bellingham, WA & Back in12+delta Hours

After our college classmate, friend and his wife at Bellingham, WA called us several times about the installation of their new motion sensor lights before they leave their house for the Winter next Monday (10/5), Mom and I decided to take a trip there this morning at ~ 6:30 AM to see ourselves. Initially, we planned to stay there one night.

We all agree with the core issues: 1) no ground wire and 2) what to do with the extra red wire coming from the wall – the new sensor lights has only three wires, black, white and green.

Upon arrival at 11:00 AM and after brunch, we started to work on the lights together.  We installed a new ground wire directly from nearby light and figured out the function of the red wire.  Everything was ready and the motion sensor lights were successfully replaced, installed and tested around 2:00 PM.

At that time, Mom and I decided to drive right back because they are extremely busy.  The whole house needs to be winterized and they need to pack also.  We finally arrived at home around 7:00 PM.  It really is a busy day and with a lot of fun too, I think.

Btw, Mom would like to make a modification on one of her closets in the Master Bedroom.  I will work on it today (Sunday, 10/4).

Recovery.

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Jeremy’s work cookie competition is back in full swing.  After two years, Jeremy won his round!  The cinnamon round.  This year, he was the most busy, and the least concerned about his cookie.   His are the ones with icing.  Teaches one not to overthink…  And he doesn’t even really like cinnamon.

Tuesday.

I am suffering from some sort of weird allergy thing.  During the day, my ears are clogged, I can’t hear anything and I can feel the congestion behind my Eustachian tubes.  I feel kind of lousy.  And then, magically, at 4:30 pm, it clears up and I feel great.  I’m suppose to be a morning person and not a night person!

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Vince went to Court of Honor tonight and he didn’t want to go because he thought he wouldn’t get any badges, but he did get a few.  The coveted one was the Ironman award for working an insane number of hours for the fair.

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And Donald’s generosity is shared again when I gave Keyla my old iPhone 5.  That iPhone 5, Donald gave to me when he upgraded.  Keyla was absolutely thrilled.  Now we joke that Keyla has a better phone than Jeremy or Vince.  Both the boys love their Androids.  And, truth be told, I would have an Android as well if it weren’t for Donald.  I wouldn’t pay the extra premium for an Apple.

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Walk Way Along the Addition

Mom started a new project – walkway along the addition.  This time, we decided to built it on the cheap.  All the materials are left-over(s) or defected ones which are 70% off the marked price.  This wood is always painted with a purple strip.  But after cutting and choosing, it is as good as a new one, especially with a piece only 36″ (standard walkway width) long.  
When defected material runs out, I will stop building and waiting for the those materials show up in the store again.
For safety, I curtained off this area with a red tape (3rd picture) to remind Mom that this is an area with un-even surface (picture two) which may pose tripping hazard.

25th high school reunion.

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I went to my high school 25th reunion on Saturday night.  I saw many old friends, a ton who are still local and I’m embarrased to say that I haven’t seen them since the last reunion.  Lana drove me and we arrived right on time – early birds.  I was thinking about the previous reunions that I’d gone to, the 10th and the 20th, but this one was the funnest of them all.  I think I’m more relaxed these days or maybe I just drank more this time or something.  I’m willing to talk to anyone about anything.  So I talked about gestational pregnancies, tiger parenting, summer camps, autism, vineyards, parents, running for political office and then lots of goofy stuff.

Abe flew in from California for the reunion and he brought his whole family and he really wanted to meet Jeremy and the kids, so we invited him over to Sunday night dinner.

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The kids seemed to get along – there was a lot of wrestling and later, we did set up a small fire on the deck to burn stuff.

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We also had Leah and Avery staying at the house, so they were there too at Sunday night dinner where we talked a lot about gluten.

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And my great acheivement of the week:  I fixed the dryer by myself!  Sunday morning, we were both exhausted and had already apologized in advance to each other for any lack-of-sleep snappish behavior, when Jeremy lamented that he was out of clothes and did I think I could fix the dryer that morning because he didn’t think he had any more clothes he could wear to work.  He was at the point of wanting to string up a zig-zag clothes line up and down our stairwell.  I suggested we just keep buying new underwear which I think is a classic solution.   For the repair, I get extra points beacuse I didn’t have to buy anything new.  Just the internets and a star shaped screwdriver that I already own.

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