2/14/13

Happy Valentines Day!

John's card waiting for his arrival

John and I exchanged cards today.  Was funny that he purchased a heart shaped valentine cake and I had a cake baking in the oven when he arrived home from work tonight.  Oh well – you can never have enough cake in the house

Today we had KC Handyman make the improvements to the back stairs the city inspectors asked for.  John was at work, so it was up to me to deal with them.  Was pretty easy – went over what we wanted when they arrived, then inspected the job and wrote them a check when done.  It took them six and a half hours to complete the job.  Lots of little fussy details to deal with is my opinion.

Once the weather get warm enough will paint the new parts to match.  Online it says the temps need to be in the 50′s for a few days for latex paint to adhere properly.  Today it got into the upper 40′s, but is going to snow overnight and only be in the 20′s for the next few days.

New raisers, railings and lattice

Side view..

I’m not a bit fan of lattice, in general, but “It’s Just Fine”.  Thinking it will help keep leaves and debris out of the stairwell.  Hope the city inspectors like it.  It will be nice to have a railing on the stairs going down.  Now if we can just get siding and windows done.  Waiting to see how our taxes come out before we move forward with those projects.

Speaking of taxes, we meet with our tax lady at her office last night.  We drop off our folders of receipts and assorted tax crap.  I only worked in one state last year – something new.  Some refund money would be nice, but John suspects we will just break even.  Afterwards we dined out at the Rock Bottom Brewery.  I had their “Double IPA” – and it went straight to my head.  Glad John drove home, and that I did not wake up with a sore toe (gout).

John’s job is going well and he seems to enjoy it.  I’m not allowed to say anything else about it.

On Saturday morning I have a two and a half hour dog training session at the Animal Rescue League.  Will be good to have it out of the way.  Many of their volunteer opportunities specify you need to have both cat and dog training.  After the dog training I will probably stick around for a bit and pet/play/brush some of the lonely kitties.

John will be working on installing the replacement hard wired fire alarms in the apartments.  He did ours last week and said it was pretty easy – just loosen up some wire nuts, remove old detector and install new one.  The new models have both ionization and photo-electric sensors.  Then we will be ready for the city to re-inspect the place.  Big bad John says he wants to be present for that inspection.  :)

My ice skating lessons continue.  Last Monday it was quite windy and cold at the downtown rink for my lessons.  Was glad to be done after skating against the stiff breeze for an hour.  Purchased and installed a pair of yellow Happy Feet inserts for my figure skates to help with my arches getting sore.  They are making a big difference – my feet don’t hurt nearly as much.  This Sunday will have testing to see if I can advance to Adult 3, or if I stay in Adult 2. Not sure how it will go….  Believe I’m ready for Adult 3, but the instructor may think different…. Wanted to go skating downtown tonight, but being Valentines Day, it would be too busy for me to have room to practice.

Not much else going on.  Plan on playing Fallen Earth for awhile and have a piece of cake before heading to bed….  In Fallen Earth I’ve become a clothing designer – selling shirts, shoes and accessories for top dollar… it may be the apocalypse, but you still can be stylish…