New Furnace Day!!!!

If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is probably worth a million.  So here's the longest blog entry I've ever done.

Here's a video blog I recorded with the kids as the furnace gang was finishing up the install:

And here are some before and during shots:



And here's a tour of my house now that I filmed featuring my new furnace and air conditioning system:

So there you have it.  Two million three thousand and eighty-two words, including this sentence.

"Just do a summary of the day"

My husband has decided that I should do a blog post every day like Natalie and I have been neglecting my blog of late, so I'm going to try.  So my to-do list will now include:

editing my book
querying that book to agents and/or publishers
outlining the next book
looking after the offspring
doing some minor household chores (only enough to ensure that everyone is fed and clothed)
and...wait for it...writing a blog post every day

So a summary of the day:

First the furnace guy (whose name is Terry) came over and crunched some numbers and got us to sign stuff.  Highly exciting.

Next we decided to see a movie with the kids.  Rango was out, and it isn't every day that there's a flick appropriate for the kids is in theatres.  Not that I'd say that Rango was completely appropriate, but they weren't bored.  You've probably seen the preview, Johnny Depp is a chameleon who winds up in the desert in a western town populated by various desert creatures, lots of gun fighting and stuff you'd expect from a western along with some stuff you'd never expect like a lizard with breasts and hair.  It was a good movie, with spectacularly detailed animation.  William says his favourite part was "all the guns."  My favourite part was the rattlesnake who had a gun built into his tail.

I lost the battle for popcorn soon after we arrived at the theatre, we had just had lunch and I thought snacks weren't necessary, but it became immediately obvious that both kids were going to freak out otherwise.  William also whined that the movie wasn't 3D. Who are these spoiled children?

Anyway, when we got home Morty the Jackapoo went crazy as usual and I felt sort of guilty that I hadn't walked him for a few days.  William screamed halfway to the park.  First because he didn't want to go and then because I wouldn't put his mittens on him (he fought me when I tried).  I can never get him to do any anger-coping deep-breathing techniques they teach us at the Early Years, but they help me all right.  When we finally got to the playground, both kids had fun playing on the swings and stomping around in the icy muck.  Although poor Jadzia fell in the frigid water at least three times.  Finally her pants were so soaked we had to go home.

Then Adam organized the crawlspace in preparation for the upcoming furnacing, while I made a dinner consisting of shrimp, green beans, and leftover spaghetti.  The kids went to bed early, it being daylight savings time and all, and I read the end of the book I was reading, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, which I'm going to go ahead and recommend.  It's a steam punk, which I'm normally not that into, but it has strong characters, particularly female characters, and it has zombies (but not cheesey zombies) and is generally a fun read.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have just enough time before bed to watch an episode or two of the Big Bang Theory.

The Great Furnace Search

When we moved in 3 years ago, I noticed a service sticker on the large metal box in the basement which was dated 1978.  It still works, but I have to assume that there have been some advances in heating and cooling since Trudeau was prime minister.  For this and other reasons too boring to get into, Adam and I have decided to upgrade our furnace and air conditioner.

So anyway, we had four companies come in to do an estimate.  That means four different people came into our home, looked at our furnace, pitched, told us that we had to act quickly to take advantage of government rebates, and left.  Noone seemed excessively slimey, or gave us wildly exorbitant prices.

I started to write a more detailed account of each visit, but the result was too tedious for words.  I sucked too much of our time on this endeavour, and I don't want to waste yours.   One would say that their products were the best, and another would say that all furnaces are the same and it's the installation that matters.  One would talk more about warranties and another would blather on about how long they'd been in business. 

In the end it was between two companies that we got a good feeling about (but who really knows). Anyway, they seemed like upstanding citizens and they both sold furnaces with fancy controls.  So we got them in and forced them to fight to the death.  It was hard work setting up the arena in the back yard, what with all the snow and mud.  Also finding a company that sells lirpas wasn't easy, but with such a big purchase we felt it was important to do our due diligence. One of the furnace salesmen injected himself with a trioxide compound to fake his own death.  I don't know why he did that, but it was good for us because nobody really died and there was no need to explain to the cops why there was corpse with a lirpa sticking out of his chest in our backyard. 

Anyway, the victor is coming in at 9 am tomorrow to begin the furnacing process.

Sexist Furnace Man

We're having our furnace serviced today. Nothing wrong with it but we have some sort of a plan that includes a yearly look-see. Anyway, he keeps telling me that I can "get my husband" to do stuff . I can get my husband to turn off the humidifier; I can get my husband to install a new filter.

For the humidifier, he even showed me where the switch was, then said to tell my husband to switch it to "winter" in winter and "summer" in summer. "Or I could just do it," said I. He just stared blankly, my point obviously not registering.

It's clear from the state of our filter that both myself and my husband are furnace novices, but I'm sure I could buy a filter and install it myself. I'm not that pink! (Of course, knowing that I can do it means I don't have to prove it to anyone, so I'll ask my husband to handle it).

Okay, so I am a little bit pink. But Furnace Man doesn't know me. I could be the most handy girl ever. I could fix Harleys in my spare time and go base-jumping with the boys. I had two kids. I'm probably tougher than he is!