We had a fun-filled weekend. The kids are over-the-top excited with having Nana around and I am over the top excited that she is here because she keeps the kids occupied so John and I can do things like the dishes without interruption. I keep "forgetting" to turn on the baby monitor so for two nights in a row, I've also got sleeping done without interruption.
We invited my mother's brother and his wife over for dinner on Saturday. We call them Uncle Billy and Aunt Marilyn because those are their names. But my son Harry has another name for him: The Man. No matter how many times we told him his name, he just kept saying "Man" or "The Man."
On Sunday, because staying home in the air conditioning is SO overrated, we ventured out to the Queens Zoo. We chose this zoo because of it's shadiness and smaller size. We knew we could see all there was to see in a couple of hours, even if you venture into the petting zoo area.
This zoo has a great gimmick for the kids. When you enter the zoo they give you a red decoder card. Each animal has a plaque near their enclosure and in order to learn a fun fact about the animal, you hold the decoder up to the plaque. Sophie felt like a junior detective and Harry didn't really show much interest in it until Sophie wouldn't share her decoder. Then decoding the animal facts took on a great deal of importance to him. His appeals to Nana worked, and Nana gave him her decoder. When I asked him what was written on the plaque, Harry said "Welcome to our Home."
As usual, the house is falling apart now that we have a houseguest. It happens every time we spend copious amounts of time cleaning it in anticipation of a guest. Once an out-of-towner arrives, boom! Someone gets sick or something breaks, leaks or goes on the fritz (see also: the Flood of Christmas 2006). On Saturday, I happened to have Harry in my lap when I noticed blood in his ear. This is a most unusual spot to bleed from and we spent the rest of the weekend peering into his ear with a flashlight, whispering to him in the affected ear and wondering why the refrigerator just doesn't seem so cold. We turned up the thermostat but it didn't seem to do much. So last night, at 10pm, we decided to "quickly vacuum under the fridge." This turned into a one hour process complete with hosing down of the drip pan and removing one pound of a cat hair from the coils. This morning, we continued cleaning the cat hair from beneath the fridge and made an appointment with the pediatrician. Since they didn't have the same reaction I did upon hearing about the bleeding ear, I feel comfortable with his Wednesday at 1:30pm appointment. That will give my husband plenty of opportunites to keep snapping his finger in his ear and for me to continue barely whispering "want ice cream?" to see if the child can hear. (He can.)
At work I googled refrigerators and found out that a refrigerator can burst into flames if there is a buildup of pet hair on the coils. How was I to know that the motor's fan acts as a little vacuum, sucking up all manner of dust and debris into the netherworld of the kitchen? I'm not proud to say this, but judging from the amount we've pulled out so far, we should have burned to a crisp a long time ago.
We invited my mother's brother and his wife over for dinner on Saturday. We call them Uncle Billy and Aunt Marilyn because those are their names. But my son Harry has another name for him: The Man. No matter how many times we told him his name, he just kept saying "Man" or "The Man."
On Sunday, because staying home in the air conditioning is SO overrated, we ventured out to the Queens Zoo. We chose this zoo because of it's shadiness and smaller size. We knew we could see all there was to see in a couple of hours, even if you venture into the petting zoo area.
This zoo has a great gimmick for the kids. When you enter the zoo they give you a red decoder card. Each animal has a plaque near their enclosure and in order to learn a fun fact about the animal, you hold the decoder up to the plaque. Sophie felt like a junior detective and Harry didn't really show much interest in it until Sophie wouldn't share her decoder. Then decoding the animal facts took on a great deal of importance to him. His appeals to Nana worked, and Nana gave him her decoder. When I asked him what was written on the plaque, Harry said "Welcome to our Home."
As usual, the house is falling apart now that we have a houseguest. It happens every time we spend copious amounts of time cleaning it in anticipation of a guest. Once an out-of-towner arrives, boom! Someone gets sick or something breaks, leaks or goes on the fritz (see also: the Flood of Christmas 2006). On Saturday, I happened to have Harry in my lap when I noticed blood in his ear. This is a most unusual spot to bleed from and we spent the rest of the weekend peering into his ear with a flashlight, whispering to him in the affected ear and wondering why the refrigerator just doesn't seem so cold. We turned up the thermostat but it didn't seem to do much. So last night, at 10pm, we decided to "quickly vacuum under the fridge." This turned into a one hour process complete with hosing down of the drip pan and removing one pound of a cat hair from the coils. This morning, we continued cleaning the cat hair from beneath the fridge and made an appointment with the pediatrician. Since they didn't have the same reaction I did upon hearing about the bleeding ear, I feel comfortable with his Wednesday at 1:30pm appointment. That will give my husband plenty of opportunites to keep snapping his finger in his ear and for me to continue barely whispering "want ice cream?" to see if the child can hear. (He can.)
At work I googled refrigerators and found out that a refrigerator can burst into flames if there is a buildup of pet hair on the coils. How was I to know that the motor's fan acts as a little vacuum, sucking up all manner of dust and debris into the netherworld of the kitchen? I'm not proud to say this, but judging from the amount we've pulled out so far, we should have burned to a crisp a long time ago.
2 Comments:
Oh my! I had a refrigerator problem this past week also due to an animal (not a pet). I took something out of the freezer to defrost for dinner only to notice that it was already defrosted. I called a repairman in who found a dead mouse in the motor fan. He romoved the mouse and the fan, put in a new fan and $165 later left. The next day there was no change. We called him back and he said that it seems the compressor died too. He gave us back some of the money and we had to buy a new frige. Oh well, but this is your blog not mine. Tell mom I can't wait to see her. I hope Harry's ear is ok... maybe just a scratch.
CLEAN YOUR FRIDGE AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH!! Especially when you have pets! We don't want you burning down the house (God forbid) Hope Harry's ear is ok. Probably just a scratch. Hi Cheryl!
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