Before we got new furniture the cat had claimed the glider in the corner as her own and spent most of her time sprawled out in it. After we got the new furniture we moved the glider back to our room and the cat hasn't looked at it since. She spent about a week pacing around the room looking lost and would fall asleep in the middle of the floor. Poor cat. Made me feel bad. That's also when she started spending a lot of time laying like this...

Which didn't help the kids at all when they were trying to prove to Hayden, our sitter, that this was our cat named Pickles and not our really goofy looking dog named Freckles. (The nickname has totally stuck and now she's our "goofy dog.") Anyways...she spent about two weeks sleeping on the floor before she found herself a new throne.

The only time she doesn't sleep in this chair is when the sun is shining on the floor next to the entertainment center. Or when the kids are sitting in it. And unlike her previous throne the location of the chair doesn't seem to matter. It cracks me up when I come in the living room to find this chair in the middle of the room with a cat sleeping in it.

I was really surprised to see how much they green screen ordinary city scenes.

This ad bothers me...

This guy does nothing to make me want to go back to school. Will I have to meet him if I go back?

Is he going to kill me in the parking lot? Does he target Moms? Is that his MO?

What was the thought process here?

Since I've had a few people mention to me that they were following the saga of the dishwasher I thought I'd give you guys the full story. Maybe it'll come in handy next time...

For starters, on Christmas Eve (right after we went crazy-go-nuts about Christmas baking) our dishwasher gave up the ghost. It was a sucky dishwasher from the beginning, so although we were annoyed, we weren't surprised. Anyways, our appliances and kitchen implements like to break around Christmas time, like that time when the breadmaker caught on fire.

The only symptom we had was no lights or reactions of any kind to button presses. Also, it was filled with water that wouldn't drain. I tried taking it apart to see if something obvious was the problem, but no dice. A lamp proved to us that the plugs worked fine, and inspection of the junction box led me to believe that the problem had nothing to do with electricity, just the control panel. To prevent smells I shopvac'ed out the water and we started doing some research on new dishwashers. We eliminated repairing it as based on internet research it seemed that first, we'd pay somebody $150 just to figure out what the problem was, and then we'd pay another $150 for a new panel, if that was the problem. Cheaper than a new dishwasher, but remember, we didn't like this one to begin with.

We tried to pick a new dishwasher by looking at Consumer Reports, Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Sears' websites. It was nearly impossible to settle on a dishwasher by using those sites. They all had reviews and ratings and customer reviews and they all disagreed. One dishwasher would have 4 stars at one site, then 1 star at another. There was no consistency, or any way to weed out obvious idiots (the way you can for reviews on computer hardware). So we just went to Lowes.

The guy working there knew lots about all the dishwashers, we asked him a bunch of questions about probably a half-dozen of them. In the end we got one that wasn't one of his favorites, but he did say it was a nice one and that people were buying it at a good clip. For us it had the right blend of features and internal layout that we were looking for.

We got a Frigidaire Gallery model there, price-matched to Best Buy, and it came with a mail-in rebate, too.

That night I disconnected the old dishwasher completely so that they would take it away when we got the new one delivered. Not too big of a deal, just a screwdriver and a 5/8" wrench were all that was needed. Getting the new dishwasher installed didn't have to be too much work than getting it out, so here's my tips if you find yourself in the same position. First, don't go nuts with the teflon tape. More than one layer will make it difficult to tighten the joints enough to prevent leaks. Second, your dishwasher input line is probably a "flexible" copper tube, which works great if both dishwashers have their input in EXACTLY the same place and both have the same requirements for where the tube can wander below and behind the dishwasher. I tried and tried to bend it enough in the right places to work with the new dishwasher, but it was a total pain and I ended up kinking the tube eventually. I recommend you save yourself the hassle and buy the flexible stainless steel hose. So much less work, and the results are perfect in no time flat. Third, on the end of the drain hose, there is a rubber cap that shrinks in steps from 1" to 3/4" to 5/8". You get to cut it off to fit just right over whatever your old drain hose was attached to. I cut it at 3/4" originally and it slid on nicely and I tightened on the worm clamp until I couldn't tug it off. Leaked all over the place. So then I disconnected it, cut it at 5/8" and really had to force it over the end of the tube and tightened the clamp again. The results were much much better. Fourth, when you turn on the water and the power to test out the dishwasher, and it leaks from the input line and then from the drain line when you hurriedly cancel the run, turn that water back off again. You'll appreciate it when you start taking the source line off that it doesn't spray hot water all over you.

Other than that it was a piece of cake. It's level, installed, extremely quiet, and washes the dishes so clean you can eat off of them (believe it or not). While I wouldn't recommend sabotaging any working dishwashers, this was enough of a boost in quality of life (mostly due to the silence) that I don't even miss the money. Well, only a little.

It's a boy, due sometime in May.

Dear New Cat,

Thank you for not making us buy billion dollar, hypoallergenic, organic duck and pea cat food from the vet. We really appreciate your willingness to eat Purina, which we get coupons for.

While we're on the subject of thanks we also appreciate your managing to keep your nasty cat boogers in your nose instead of spraying them all over everything from the doorknobs down.

Our only requests would be that, one: you find some time to work on poop-burying a little bit as we would greatly appreciate it and, two: you quit jumping on the dresser to bat change onto the floor each morning at approximately 5am.

For the time being your position is secure and we look forward to our next evaluation in approximately 6 months at which time your ability to adjust to a new monster in the house will be discussed.

Sincerely,

The Management

8 years ago I married a really cute guy I had met about 7 months earlier and from there suffered with him through 6 semesters of impoverished student-hood. It still amazes that me that after only 5 days of dating we both just knew that we had found “the one.” We’ve brought 4, almost, beautiful dreams to life together in the midst of 3 moves and 2 full engine replacements.

And to this day he’s still the 1 thing that I know I could never do without.

I finally managed to post a new newsletter. It covers a whopping eight months worth of happenings around here. Hopefully this late newsletter thing doesn't get to be a tradition...

Near my desk there are a couple of soda machines, one Coke and one Pepsi. They're pretty much the same, both about the same age, same number of selections. There is one difference though (aside from the brand of the drinks inside), the Pepsi machine just shows the price, while the Coke machine cycles between the price, Ice Cold Coca Cola, and the temperature of the drinks.

Showing the temperature sounds like a good idea, but I wonder if it really gets them as many sales as they'd like.

Too often I go to buy a soda and the Coke machine will say the temperature is 41 degrees or 39 degrees. When I see that I switch and pick something from the Pepsi machine. For all I know the Pepsi machine is 30 degrees or 50 degrees or who knows what, but I know the other one is warmer than "Ice Cold" so I pick a Pepsi product. To be fair though, sometimes I might be in the mood for something from the Pepsi machine and I'll see that the temperature in the Coke machine is an even 30 degrees. Then I'll switch to the Coke machine in hopes of scoring a slushy soda. It never is slushy, but what if, right? But seeing 32 or lower in the temp seems to be far less common than 38 or higher.

In my opinion, the temperature drives away more sales than it brings in (at least when it comes to my money), even though I recognize that the Pepsi machine may be just as warm. At least the Pepsi machine isn't proving to me that it's warm. It's sad too, because is 38 really warm as far as drinks go? I've got no idea if I can tell the difference between 32 and 38 degrees, and I've got no idea if the temperature is accurate. Maybe the sodas nearest to the bottom are ice cold, and the newest ones at the top are still warmish, but will cool down soon. The average could be 41, but that might not have any bearing on the drink that I'll get when I press the button.

These are the things I think about when I'm about to pick a soda. I recognize that I'm probably over-thinking something so incredibly trivial. But why give data if we're not supposed to analyze it, right?