Updates

I just glanced over my blog and realized I need to do some follow ups from earlier posts. The over all picture is that things have been a bit nuts around here lately. So what else is new?

The bird? Stella the Starling? I let her go. And so far I have not found any starling feathers in the yard. I hope she made it. However, Jacques brought me a sparrow on Sunday evening.

The raccoons? (yes. plural.) They have been acting like they are training for Cirque du Soleil up there today and it can't just be one of them. So I searched online about how to get rid of them and they said, "if there are raccoons in the attic - DON'T TRAP THEM! It could be the mother that gets trapped and then you have babies in the attic and all kinds of madness happens then. Call a professional!" Okay - so that is on the list for tomorrow. Although I think I heard someone say on a Car Talk once that they just played the radio in the attic and the raccoons left. Worth a try.

The UPenn book? Finished! Handed it over yesterday. Glad that is off my shoulders. That's only taken four years to complete (not my fault). It better not take that long to get paid.

PECO. Blasted Peco. Well - this is a saga.
On Wednesday I decided to call and find out what in the heck was going on and see if I could straighten things out. The first person I talked to was UNhelpful. I tried to explain the problem, she just read back the problem she had on her screen - refused to listen to me. She got frustrated after I told her the same story three times (because she told me the same baloney three times) and passed me on to Customer service. Finally progress. The lady I talked to listened! We got some things cleared up and Peco was supposed to come on Thursday evening to work on the whole she-bang.
Even though I was here all Thursday evening - I forgot about it. And I wouldn't have missed them if they would have showed up.

Friday morning, 9am, this was happening on the sidewalk in front of my house. A backhoe was pounding into the cement. No one bothered to knock on my door or ring the bell to see if I was home. . . they just waited until Katie B. showed up and told her they needed to talk to me. Now - understand - I'm in a panic because I'm supposed to leave for Seattle at 1pm. Do I have hotel reservations? no. Do I have car rental? no. Am I packed? not really. Am I still in my PJs? yes. So I've got to get the hotel and car done before they shut the electricity off - which could happen any minute seeing as how they were in such a communicative mood. Thank goodness Katie was patient and let me take care of that. When I walked her out I talked to the guys and because none of them would come near me, (???) I had to shout to the whole neighborhood that I was leaving for the weekend in a few hours and they had to be done by noon.
Now - they were done by noon but not before they dug up my brickwork. And then of course, something went wrong when they went into the basement and they had to come back. They came back today and fixed the issue. Fine. Good. Kudos to them. I guess the biggest question is: Are we done now? Do they still have to send someone out to check my meters? And when in the heck are they going to put the bricks back??? Because I was promised they would.

Yes - I had to catch a plane at 3pm - so leave for airport at 1pm, wanted peco guys gone so I could shower in peace. I went to Seattle for Rachael's bridal shower. The inbound airplane flew right past Mt. Rainier at sunset. The mountain was higher than the plane and covered in snow. Since the sun was setting all of the snow was magenta.
The shower was beautiful - lots of fun. We started drinking coconut Margarita's at 1 - and didn't stop. It was a lot of coconut margaritas. It was great to see Rachael and all of her family, Ben and meeting his family. I'm really looking forward to the wedding.

The Phone? Is still great! I took lots of great pictures in Seattle. Too bad I haven't had time to sit down and figure out how to get the pictures off of the phone yet. But I will...

The bathroom? Has been ignored.

Moving back down stairs? Is sort of happening piece meal.

And finally Hybrid Book Conference and Fair??? THIS WEEKEND!!! AH! Everyone I've talked with is frantically trying to finish things up. This includes yours truly:I got Perennial in my fancy finishing press. Lookit that: 2x4s, long screws and pushpins - presto! A functional thingy for under $10. I still want to finish it, tomorrow, plus get a few other things done. If only there were more time - or - if only I weren't "Last Minute Lucy."