March 08, 2011
Happy International Women's Day
My all time favourite most empowering song that I play or listen to when ever I feel hard done by or just having a bad day. Thank you Amy Sky and Maya Angelou
March 01, 2011
Adventures in how to buy a washing machine
The saga of the new washing machine. The machine in the basement has been there since 1992. It had a good run, but the spinning thingy died and after paying Sears $100 to walk into my house, I was told, "ya can pay $250 to replace the transmission - transmission? really? in a washing machine? - but I'd say kill 'er now and get yourself one of them nice new front load babies! "
As usual.... *just* as you start to feel in control of the money and getting the bills paid and perhaps start thinking about the new car.... washing machines die! So I kicked the thing, reminded RJ to get her wet clothes out of it and hit the road to Sears.
Front loads. Very sexy. Especially in red. Far too expensive for what I needed these days. I am not doing laundry for a family of 4 or 5 - no hockey gear, no vast amounts of anything except for the 14 loads that RJ seems to do weekly. So I got a high efficiency HE top load energy star thing instead. Slippery sales guy told me to come back on the weekend when they would be on sale. I think about it. Do I have enough undies and clothes to last to at least another week given delivery times? Seems like a good idea to save a few dollars. So back I went on the weekend.
And guess what?
The damn machine was NOT on sale. AND it costs an extra twenty bucks to have them take away the old girl too. CHA -CHING! But probably worth it. So add that one in too.
I roll my eyes, slippery sales guy apologizes profusely and says he can't believe it's not on sale because every other piece of machinery on the floor is discounted at least $50 to $100. Yeah... no point in buying a lottery ticket that day either I figure.
Then we have the usual "we deliver between 8 AM - 6 PM and every Saturday is booked for the next 6 weeks." I have two vacation days and 30 sick days on balance. So of course I discovered I had eye disease today and couldn't see myself going into work.
It helps that A) I have been fighting a cold for about a week, so that came in handy, and B) I am in competition for a new job and need to stay home to prepare a 20 minute presentation as part of the interview process. Oh and VNN just called to ask if the machine was delivered and did I want to come over for lunch and "something?" I instead have suggested a nice walk in the sunny temperate weather today - it's 32 F and gorgeous out there! Then I will return home and get to work on the presentation, but .... I am digressing.
So... Sears delivery guy called and said, "if you want us to take away the old machine you have to make sure the hoses are unscrewed from the taps and are ready to go."
OK. AS my friend Mag Ruffman has said, "how hard can that be?"
Well. As I tried to turn the taps off - one kept squirting me, regardless of which way I turned it, and the other one, just didn't move. Great. NOW what? I did what any girl would do in my situation. I called the HH - my Hunky Handyman- and asked him for a plan B.
Oh and did I mention that RJ had left all her clothes in there? Now that was a nice not quite smelly mess.... I dumped them on the ground and figure she can deal with them. Won't be my problem. heh heh heh.
"Turn off the water to the house," HH said. I've never done that before - virgin fixer upper that I am - so I did as he suggested - and followed the cold water pipe from the hot water tank through the basement ceiling to the thingy where the gauge is for the water and there ya go! Water turned off. Hoses removed from the taps - with a tad more squirting and leakage and bob's your uncle... ready and waiting for the delivery and removal lads.
The machine is too cold to plug in and run right away, so I am going to wait a tad - get my presentation started - before attempting to attach the hose to the stand pipe and the hoses to that taps. So water is staying turned off for now. That might be part two of this saga.
In between all this, I hooked up speakers to the cheapie mini sound system I bought second hand from a guy at work. XSU took the other one, but left me all the CDs. I really need to get into the 21st century and get an ipod and dock player.
As usual.... *just* as you start to feel in control of the money and getting the bills paid and perhaps start thinking about the new car.... washing machines die! So I kicked the thing, reminded RJ to get her wet clothes out of it and hit the road to Sears.
Front loads. Very sexy. Especially in red. Far too expensive for what I needed these days. I am not doing laundry for a family of 4 or 5 - no hockey gear, no vast amounts of anything except for the 14 loads that RJ seems to do weekly. So I got a high efficiency HE top load energy star thing instead. Slippery sales guy told me to come back on the weekend when they would be on sale. I think about it. Do I have enough undies and clothes to last to at least another week given delivery times? Seems like a good idea to save a few dollars. So back I went on the weekend.
And guess what?
The damn machine was NOT on sale. AND it costs an extra twenty bucks to have them take away the old girl too. CHA -CHING! But probably worth it. So add that one in too.
I roll my eyes, slippery sales guy apologizes profusely and says he can't believe it's not on sale because every other piece of machinery on the floor is discounted at least $50 to $100. Yeah... no point in buying a lottery ticket that day either I figure.
Then we have the usual "we deliver between 8 AM - 6 PM and every Saturday is booked for the next 6 weeks." I have two vacation days and 30 sick days on balance. So of course I discovered I had eye disease today and couldn't see myself going into work.
It helps that A) I have been fighting a cold for about a week, so that came in handy, and B) I am in competition for a new job and need to stay home to prepare a 20 minute presentation as part of the interview process. Oh and VNN just called to ask if the machine was delivered and did I want to come over for lunch and "something?" I instead have suggested a nice walk in the sunny temperate weather today - it's 32 F and gorgeous out there! Then I will return home and get to work on the presentation, but .... I am digressing.
So... Sears delivery guy called and said, "if you want us to take away the old machine you have to make sure the hoses are unscrewed from the taps and are ready to go."
OK. AS my friend Mag Ruffman has said, "how hard can that be?"
Well. As I tried to turn the taps off - one kept squirting me, regardless of which way I turned it, and the other one, just didn't move. Great. NOW what? I did what any girl would do in my situation. I called the HH - my Hunky Handyman- and asked him for a plan B.
Oh and did I mention that RJ had left all her clothes in there? Now that was a nice not quite smelly mess.... I dumped them on the ground and figure she can deal with them. Won't be my problem. heh heh heh.
"Turn off the water to the house," HH said. I've never done that before - virgin fixer upper that I am - so I did as he suggested - and followed the cold water pipe from the hot water tank through the basement ceiling to the thingy where the gauge is for the water and there ya go! Water turned off. Hoses removed from the taps - with a tad more squirting and leakage and bob's your uncle... ready and waiting for the delivery and removal lads.
The machine is too cold to plug in and run right away, so I am going to wait a tad - get my presentation started - before attempting to attach the hose to the stand pipe and the hoses to that taps. So water is staying turned off for now. That might be part two of this saga.
In between all this, I hooked up speakers to the cheapie mini sound system I bought second hand from a guy at work. XSU took the other one, but left me all the CDs. I really need to get into the 21st century and get an ipod and dock player.
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