And Wii'll have fun, fun, fun...

That is my cat. He's not the brightest bulb. He moved from his napping position the comfy couch to position himself half-on/half-off a box in the floor while we played with our latest toy-- the Nintendo Wii. For no reason either Paul or I could see. We don't try to understand; we merely accept. I'm not a video game person at all but the Wii is wicked fun. After three days, I am a Wii bowling champ. Too bad that doesn't translate into actual bowling skills.

While the Wii is primarily about fun for us, we soon discovered it's secondary purpose--to drive the cat crazy with our bursts of activity and general gaiety. Of course, general gaiety in and of itself is enough to annoy my cat. This is just a more entertaining way to do it.

Day 2 in the A/C switch or "But I'm totally fine with them cutting a hole in the roof"

Yesterday was more of the "fun" part of the switch to the refrigerated air, what with crane and all the hoopla and the "Hey, look at your lovely new condenser and your new high-efficency furnace."

Today, it's more about, "Hey, can we drill a hole in the side of your house for this big pipe? Oh, and then we're going to drill a few more holes in your walls because we can."

Today, we're discovering all the downsides to installing something in the house that wasn't here before. There are all kinds of pipes and wires that have to be added and holes being drilled to accomodate these pipes and wires. The workers are doing a great job of keeping everything neat and the pipes and wires are concealed as well as possible in plastic casing. Most of it is in the garage so it's not a huge deal. And then came the request to drill a hole in the side of the house. Something about the way the new, totally rockin' 2-stage furnace vents makes it unable to use the same vent as the previous furnace. Actually, the new furnace could use the same vent as the old furnace if we don't mind tearing up the wall in Paul's nook to get to it. That didn't seem like a very viable option to anyone. Option #2 was they would drill a hole in the side of the house for the 6-inch PVC pipe with the funky vent cap on it that would protrude 8 inches from the side of the house. My frustration level was pretty high when I called Paul with that tidbit of news. We're already concerned that the placement of the new condenser unit will draw the ire of our HOA, which is very strict with making homeowners adher to the C&C for the development and we didn't exactly get their permission before we started this project. When I mentioned the new PVC vent to Paul, he was worried about that upsetting the HOA with that as well. I was just concerned about how ugly eight inches of PVC pipe would be sticking out of the side of my house (even though the A/C guy, who is all of 20, was so nice to add "But we'll definitely paint it for you!").

Paul came to the rescue with Option #3--vent it out the roof. (Oh, sure--it seems so obvious now.) It means some extra feet of PVC pipe in the garage that will partially block one of the glass block windows there. That I can live with much easier than pipe protruding from the side of my house. I think we have one more day of A/C work--I know the cat will be thrilled when it's completed. He slinked in to the guest room while I was doing some work in there and is now refusing to come out from under the bed. Typically he's not allowed in that room but I decided that one time wouldn't hurt. Especially after he hissed and did the low, gutteral meow that indicates he'd just prefer to stay where he is. That pretty much sealed the deal.

Update @ 5:00: The workers finished up for the day a little after 4:00. When I went outside to move my car back into the garage, this little guy was bumping his way around the garage. I was a little antsy about getting it out of the garage both because I didn't want the possibility of a dead hummingbird and because, quite honestly, I'm a little freaked out by hummingbirds. They're spastic and you never know where they're going to go and they just flit around too fast.

But I braved the hummingbird long enough to get a few pictures. Here Zippy, as I named him, is in front of some of our new wires and pipes and things (happily, the PVC pipe didn't have to be in front of the glass blocks). I kept trying to convince him that the best way out of the garage was not through the ceiling but Zippy was very persistent in trying. And a super-zoom of Zippy resting on the garage door opener, hopefully rethinking his ceiling plan.
After a stressful 45 minutes for both of us (I had to keep checking every few minutes because I'm obsessive like that), Zippy finally found it's way out of the garage and I quickly shut the door.

This is probably legal in New Mexico

Normally I wouldn't post anyone's license plate but I think I'm safe in doing so this time. I snapped this picture with my camera phone on my way home from the gym. That "license plate" is a piece of cardboard with some writing on it stating the date of application for a tag (almost a month ago).

That's one sure-fire way to thwart any tickets earned by the red-light cameras.

How I spent (the second week) of my summer vacation

1. I went to Amarillo to help Amy paint her master bedroom, do a few little projects there, and entertain her children. Amy chose a great paint color called "Linen" which is a nice taupe color--not too gray, not too tan (and not at all like my house paint, Amy--apparently, I'm color-blind as to what color I've been living with for 2 years). It looks wonderful with the new bedding she picked out. Then, in a burst of creativity, we created a "no-sew" headboard for her bed. Batting, fabric, quarter-inch plywood, and the staple gun (with a whole bunch of staples). I didn't have my camera but maybe she'll pass along a few pictures of the finished project.

I also created a new game with 20-month-old Benjamin. I was playing with him and "dropping him on his head" (holding him upside down and touching his head to the floor). I would tell him to "give me your feet" and he'd lie down and put his legs up in the air so I could pick him up by the ankles. A few times, he'd do it unprompted--just lie down in front of me with his feet up. I know he'll have forgotten about this little game the next time I see him but it was fun while it lasted.

2. I drove home in fierce wind yesterday with gusts of 50+ mph between Amarillo and Albuquerque. Outside one town, I saw an RV that had rolled a few times and was lying on its side 100 feet or so off the road. Thankfully most drivers were being smart and trucks weren't speeding so it wasn't too bad. Just had to hang on and drive. But I had to be home so I could hang out at the house today because...

3. Paul's parents were super-generous last year for his birthday and gave us money to upgrade from evaporative air (a.k.a. the swamp cooler) to refrigerated air. And today, we're getting the new air conditioner. Of course, it's cooler today so there's really no need to even turn it on once it's hooked up. We decided to upgrade our furnace at this time (that's the new one near the ladder; our old one is in the right of the picture). We now have a 2-stage furnace which I'm not entirely sure what it does or why it's fantastic but it was recommended by both my brother who does HVAC work and the sales rep. from the A/C company. But come winter we'll be rocking the 2-stage furnace.

That's it--our new air conditioner. I have to admit I was expecting something a little more, I dunno, more. I don't think I knew what an A/C is supposed to look like. I don't think I didn't realize that the condenser unit wasn't the actual air conditioner. I swear I don't know why I've been allowed to own a house for seven years.
Now for the fun part--the crane came to remove the swamp unit and place the new condenser on the roof. Here they're hooking up the condenser to the crane.
The new unit being lowered into place--when we'd done the remodel, we left this strip of roof so we'd have easier access to the 2nd story and the swamp cooler. It was also the perfect size for the new condenser. Who knew?
The really fun part--swinging the old unit down. It's wasn't too windy during this part but it did get to swinging. And it brought out several neighbors to inspect what was happening.
4. Dance lesson #2 tonight.

dancing, dancing, DANCING!

I wouldn't say that we are quite in the category of dancing machines but you can definitely watch us get down, watch us get down as we do, do, do our thing on the scene.

(Just a little Jackson 5 humor for you. Feel free to practice your Robot now because that song will probably be stuck in your head all day.)

Yesterday's dance lesson was deemed a success by all parties involved (which would be me, Paul, and Ben, the very patient instructor). I stepped in the bathroom for a minute before our lesson started and came out to find Paul chatting with the owner of the dance studio. Actually, the owner was chatting; Paul was willing me to pee faster. You see, the owner of the dance studio is a close talker. And he was closely trying to engage Paul in conversation. Why were Paul and I taking dance lessons? Wedding? Dinner/dance? Going out dancing? What types of dances did we want to learn? Have you done this before? Do you like country-western dance? The look of relief on Paul's face when I finally emerged was priceless--he should always look so happy to see me.

Lesson #1: we covered the basic box step, a box waltz, the Texas two-step, the jitterbug, and the merengue.

1. We aren't that bad but definitely are "beginners." Not surprisingly, I'm more "advanced" than Paul which really just means I didn't have to look at my feet the whole time like Paul. And a lot of the dancing I did growing up? Apparently, it's not so technically correct. Fun, but not quite right.

2. Growing up, I (along with my sisters and friends) made fun of various Okies we knew because of the way they did the two-step. Lo and behold, they were actually doing the "Texas Two-Step" rather than the "Progressive Two-Step" which is what I grew up doing. So they weren't wrong; just doing something else. But they're still Okies and I'm sure we'll find something else to use to make fun of them about.

3. There's actually a name for when I start leading when we're dancing. It's called "back-leading"--Paul called it "Carrie, stop pulling to the right already." It was really bad when we were working on the jitterbug. I blame that on the fact that my sister Amy and I would always jitterbug together as kids and I was always the the "boy" when we'd dance. But, just as I've learned in life and am trying to apply to all areas including dance lessons, I don't always have to be in charge.

4. The merengue is probably the easiest dance known to man. March in place with little steps, wiggle hips as desired, turn and spin as you are able. Even Paul and I--the two whitest people on the planet--looked like we knew what we were doing and that we had a little of the Latin in us while doing this dance.

5. Much to my chagrin, dips, twirls, and spins were not covered in the first lesson. Ben, the very patient instructor, said we should try to make it around the floor a few times correctly before we covered that.

Maybe next week.