It's that time again...

...Time for schoolwork to be due! And that means it's time for me to procrastinate by blogging. I have a short paper (very short - 2 pages) due on Monday. It's for my ethics class, which means it will require a lot of Deep Thought in order to come up with the finished two pages, and I don't feel very capable of Deep Thought right now. I also have a pile of reading to do...which I may work on a bit after I finish this. I have started approaching reading totally the wrong way: I do it when I don't want to do the work I actually have to complete for class. So I still feel like I'm accomplishing something, but I don't have to really do anything. The problem there is that nobody is grading me on my reading. But I'll get it done, because I always get everything done.

My ethics class is kind of crazy. I really like it because it's philosophical and interesting and there are a lot of gray areas to debate. Also, it seems nobody thinks marketers have any ethics at all, so it's nice to examine issues as a framework for convincing people that ethical marketing is actually possible. But we spend like the first hour to 90 minutes of each class discussing ethics-related stuff we've seen in the news, which is also interesting but can kind of drag when you've already worked a full day and eaten dinner in your car so you wouldn't be late for class. And the bookstore ordered a newer version of the textbook than the professor had, so our book doesn't match her syllabus at all. (She said all the info is the same, it's just in a different order, but it's confusing.) We never talk about the book in class, so I'm not entirely sure why I'm reading it. My research class is with the same professor and the lectures are heavily based on the book...so I don't think she's like anti-textbook or something. I do really like the professor, so that's good. But I'm having a hard time wrenching my brain between Deep Thought ethics and Grounded in Reality research. It requires two completely different thought processes. Also, neither one is as practical or immediately relevant to my job as my classes last semester, so it's hard to get as excited about them.

The last couple of weeks have been wacky. Hannah's birthday party was a week and a half ago, which was way fun but meant that I was getting ready to party and host 20 people at my house rather than do any work for school. And I took a day off work to get the house cleaned, so that meant I wasn't getting all my work done, either. It was worth it because Hannah had the best time, but it meant that the week after that was pretty...cranky.

Brock has had to work a lot of late hours lately because of the project he's on, which has been a little frustrating for all of us. And work sort of exploded for me, but I couldn't stay late because I either had class or Brock was working - and his working late was dictated by client deadlines, which sort of trumped me just needing to get things off my to-do list. Also, our plumbing got screwed up and it took more than a week to get it fixed because a) we were both super-busy and b) the plumbers didn't do a thorough job the first time they came. (Short version of the story: Plumbers came. Didn't find a blockage and told us to call the Village to check out the main line. Called the Village. Village was very attentive, came out right away, couldn't find a problem but flushed the line anyway. We still had a problem. Village checked the main line again. Couldn't find anything. Plumbers came out again yesterday. Turns out they hadn't checked our ENTIRE sewer line the last time, and - aha! - the blockage was in the part they hadn't checked. This cost a few hundred bucks, a great deal of stress and disgust. Good news is that it's fixed now, and after one more night of mopping with bleach, our basement should be okay. And we can freely run water again, which is good because the laundry was really getting out of control.)

This past weekend was one of my crankiest weekends in recent memory. I was just feeling overwhelmed and helpless to do anything about it. My funk lasted through about Monday afternoon...and was completely gone yesterday when the plumbing was officially fixed. I'm still feeling overwhelmed, but not as grumbly about it.

Oh...and here's another thing. I've been asking for a laptop at work for a couple of years, and they finally approved the request. So I get my new laptop next week, which is cool - but they won't let me have iTunes because it "isn't allowed because it's not work-related." (I have it on my computer now, but I think because my computer is so old, nobody realized I had the permissions to install anything myself.) I know I'm not an IT person and I couldn't possibly understand all the issues they face...but it's not like I'm asking for a stupid game or something. I just want to plug in my iPod and listen to music without running down my battery. I don't even want to put music on the computer! They did, at least, agree to install the software that lets me sync up my calendar with my phone, even though my phone isn't theirs. So I guess that's a small victory. Meh.

One more thing about the oven

Brock went to make dinner Wednesday night (chicken stir fry - yum!), and the middle burner wouldn't light. He's pretty sure all the burners worked when the oven was delivered.

Stupid oven. Good thing the new one comes tomorrow!

Admitting you made a mistake

We got a new oven a couple of weeks ago (the last of the appliances we had to replace after The Incident involving the installation of our new floor in June). Last night, I finally admitted to myself - and to Brock - that I hate it. I HATE IT.

The oven in question is a Premier 36-in. gas range. It replaced our dead Tappan 36-in. gas range because that model, when we went to replace it, had gone up in price $200 from when we bought it four years ago, and we had to buy a fridge, dryer, microwave and toaster all in the last four months. (I know toasters and microwaves aren't expensive, but it's the principle of the thing.) It just seemed like too much money. So we decided to try something new.

Did I mention I HATE IT?

It started at delivery: a weird, very faint gas smell emanating from the range. We had them come fix it, no problem. Also, the griddle cover that came with it was all beat-up and peeling, which was weird, so we called the store and asked them to send a replacement. No problem.

So, then we used the stove. The burners are really touchy, and there's not much room between High and Off. Hmm. Guess we can learn to deal with that.

Then we used the oven. It took more than 30 minutes for it to reach 350 degrees, which seemed a bit excessive. Also, the entire oven got so hot; I mean, you could very easily burn your hand on the outside of the door. This made us both very nervous about having Hannah even in the kitchen while we were cooking. We've always kept her away from the oven, anyway, but our old one didn't get hot on the outside, to the point where you thought it might start melting things nearby. Hmm. Pretty annoying.

Thursday night, I made taco casserole. I turned the oven on at 5:50. By 6:20, it hadn't reached the desired temperature yet. Hmm. Still annoying.

Yesterday, the replacement griddle cover came. It was just as beat-up and awful-looking as the first one. So I called the store again and told them the story. I talked to a nice guy in the parts department who ended up being the same person I talked to when I ordered the replacement. He said he had to call Premier to get it, and they said the peeling white stuff was actually just a cover. It was supposed to come off. I told him, "Okay, what's under the peeling white cover is silver. My oven is white. That makes absolutely no sense. Either this part doesn't come in white, which is stupid, or somebody is lying to you." He told me I should call Premier myself and explain the situation, that maybe they'd just shipped the wrong thing - twice (once with the oven, and once separately). He said they were probably closed for the weekend, but I tried the number he gave me anyway. It was a cell phone.

And that's when something snapped in my brain. I did not want this oven. I wanted this oven gone.

I called Brock at work (it was early evening, and he wasn't home yet) and told him what was going on, and how stupid it all was, and how I wished we'd just sucked it up and bought the other oven because I really didn't like this one. He said, "I wonder what their return policy is."

So I called the store back and asked. They said 30 days, and it didn't matter if you'd used the appliance.

I called Brock again. I said, "I'm still mad, and we can return this stupid oven and get a different one. Let's go tomorrow and do it." He said okay. I would have gone right then if I could (I'm one of those people who finally makes up her mind to do something and then can't stand waiting to do it), but Hannah needed dinner and it just wasn't practical.

Then I called my mom and complained about the oven some more. Brock came home. We called his mom and I complained about the oven even more. I really hate this oven. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - ever - and if anyone from Premier happens to get this on their Google blog alerts, I sincerely hope they think to question why they're even selling an oven that gets so hot on the outside it could send you to the emergency room if you weren't careful.

We bought our ovens - all three of them, now - from Abt Electronics. As much as I hate this Premier oven, I LOVE Abt. Everyone should go there and buy appliances. They have free, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies on Saturdays and Sundays. Their salespeople are helpful and know what they're talking about. They have a ridiculously huge selection of just about anything that plugs in. And today, when I walked up to the customer service counter and said, "We got this oven, and we're not very happy with it, and we want to exchange it for a different one," they didn't question me at all. Our original sales guy came back to help us and just said, "No problem, we'll get it taken care of." I didn't have to give a lengthy explanation (as I have here) about why I hate the oven. He just wrote, "Customer doesn't like oven" in the account notes, put in the order for our new oven, and handed us the receipt to take to the checkout. No questions asked. The best part was that the new-new oven was on sale, so we actually, in the long run, saved a couple hundred bucks by buying the wrong oven first, then going back to get this one. Hooray for Abt! Buy stuff there. They treat you right.

Our new-new oven is coming on Saturday. It's an exact replacement of our original one, so I anticipate being happy with it. And then, maybe, I'll make cookies. :)

Whose bright idea was this?

Oh, wait...it was mine. The bright idea I'm referring to was painting our bedroom blue with a striped wall four years ago when we moved into our house. Okay, actually, it was a supercool paint job, worthy of Trading Spaces, if I do say so myself. I really liked it a lot. And because Brock, Robin and I all worked on painting it at the time, it really didn't take very long to do.

But this summer, we got a really fab, new, chocolate brown microsuede duvet and awesome red sheets (keep your comments about red sheets to yourself; they rock and I don't care what you think about them). Chocolate brown and red don't go with medium blue, dark blue and green stripes. They just don't. And last weekend, I finally hit the critical point where I decided it was time to suck it up and paint the bedroom, as I'd been intending to do for months, so that, well, everything would match.

I took Halloween off from work so I could work on this project (I was planning to take the afternoon off, anyway, to take Hannah to the kids' Halloween party at Brock's office, so I just made a day of it). I actually kind of needed a mental health day, anyway, and there really is something therapeutic about being in the house ALONE (which I hardly ever am), with MY music cranked up really loud, doing something that requires absolutely no thought.

I went to Home Depot in the morning and picked a beautiful, medium beige-y kind of color called "oat cake." That may be my favorite paint name ever, just because it's fun to say and really sort of nonsensical. I have no idea what an oat cake looks like...but I guess it's the color of my bedroom. Anyway, picking up the paint and supplies went very smoothly. There was a really funny moment when a man asked the guy at the paint counter why they only carried white paint. I have no idea how you get to be in your 40s (which is about how old this guy looked) without knowing that paint colors have to be mixed. I tried not to laugh out loud.

Anyway, the reason I was kind of cursing the blue color (and the stripes) was because I was painting beige over it, which is significantly lighter. So I had to prime the whole room. By the time I finished that, it was time to get some lunch (almost 1:30 already) and then get ready to pick Hannah up from daycare. (I really enjoyed my Taco Supremes from Taco Bell, by the way.)

That meant I was putting the first coat of actual paint on at 8:30 Halloween night. I finished about 11:00. Brock and I slept on the couch since our bedroom 1) smelled like paint and 2) was covered in plastic drop cloths.

So I put the second coat of paint on Thursday night, starting about 8:00. Finished up at 10:30, decided two coats was enough, and cleaned up. I was done around 11:00 again. We slept on the couch again Thursday night.

So basically, I painted our room three times. However, it does look very pretty, and I like it a lot. It looks, somehow, more grown up than it did before - which I think is good, but also maybe a little sad. Like I'm too old for crazy stripes on my wall anymore. We're going to have to get some artwork, and I asked my mom to make us some red curtains, and then it will be perfect. If I had more energy, I'd take a picture and post it, but I don't really feel like it. *chuckle*

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our closet: thanks for being there, and for taking up a whole lot of space on one of the long walls, so that I wouldn't have to paint quite so much. I saved that wall for last all three times, and it was nice to have it go quickly.

I don't feel like painting anymore for awhile.