Well here we are at the start of another beautiful summer weekend! Up here in Massachusetts we have a hot and humid weekend forecast.
I can not believe how quickly last week went, with my time off from the office. Dang, I wish the work week would go as quickly!
Today will be filled with outside projects for me. My poor dirty house will be getting a nice washing down. Power washing is a relatively easy project. You just stand there and point the water gun at different sections of the house. The trick is making sure that you are at the right distance, not to close to terrorize the poor finish, but close enough to make sure that the pressure is still strong enough. The toughest part will be dragging the power washer out of the basement! That is one tool that goes down into my smarter purchases. It cost me a little over $200.00 four years ago, and has really paid for itself.
The big trick for me will be making sure that I do not get stung by any bees. I have been stung twice in the years. What is really odd is that I do not disturb any nests, I've been stung just standing there. I'll be covering myself in deep woods off, hoping that will keep the critters away. I swear they know that I'm allergic, and that I have some type of bee attraction. I am very careful not to use any products that have a scent, to attract them. I swear I am dive bombed by the critters every time I walk outside.
We're stuck home waiting for a new landscaper to come give us estimates on two projects and hope he can take us on for weekly mowing, weeding, etc. The current landscaper is a surly, lazy, lying waste of money and I would never have hired him had it not been for his nephew, our former landscape guy, who merged his business with the uncle's. I've been doing battle with this guy for 2 summers now, and enough already.
Then it's the weekly grocery haul, Farmer's Market for veggies, and back home before the rain starts.
Today is going to be a lazy day, rainy outside, nothing planned!
Saw Joel Osteen last night, took 2 1/2 hours to get to the United Center, the worst time ever!
It was a good show, although he repeats alot of what I've heard before, music was awesome. Took Zach, Ed enjoyed it. But we left a little early because we could not tolerate that traffic again
Joel brought out his 75 year old mother that was diagnosed with liver cancer 26 years ago but she fought it! She spoke for a bit too
His wife talked as well, she was good but I hate her eyebrows! haha
We LOVE the Farmers' Market! It's actually a fun trip to the edge of Toronto on the west. Parking is good and it's authentic, not one of those shopping mall things where anyone can go set up shop. I get a kick out of the Amish booth that sells bread, pies and apple fritters. The one lady there is so bossy and nasty as people line up in front of her booth waiting for bacon on a bun next door. She comes around with her broom to shoo them away. I'm always in that line up too, lol. If ever I was tempted to buy one of her pies, her personality turned me off them. Just as well. (Not THAT kind of bacon, the stuff we call peameal bacon, and not that revolting crud that comes in an egg McMuffin either, the kind known as Canadian bacon in the USA, but not here. I don't think we can even buy "Canadian" bacon in Canada. Again, just as well, lol.)
Then there's the butter tart lady. OMG, to die for her tarts. You have to go on a diet of celery and water for three days after lunch at the market. If ever I can get my hands on my mother's butter tart recipe, I'll post it. Guaranteed you'd love them!
when I used to work downtown Chicago there was a farmers market right across the street from my building once a week. I used to love to buy the fresh stuff. There was also one in my old town, but can't seem to find one here! Crazy cuz we live in middle of farms!
I do grow my own tomatoes and cucumbers and ate some today, yum! my basil got attacked by beetles and looks awful, but it usually grows like a weed, so I think I'll just cut the plants down a bit
my cilantro never grows but all my neighbors tell me theirs take off like crazy.
My eggplant got eaten by rabbits and won't come back.
I just had the worst possible news from the landscape contractor, and not only did he tell us that we HAVE to d the waterproofing, all 47 feet of it at $100/ft, plus the jack-hammering fees of $1000, but that he only does BIG jobs for expensive houses, then proceeded to insult me by comparing my puny little job to the multimillion dollar homes in my parents' neighbourhood. Then he said that even though my gardeners are unreliable, lying, lazy and crappy workers, I should be grateful that I have anyone want to do the work at all, since HE knows, since he'd been at it for 35 years, that there's no money in it at all. That I get what I pay for. However, if I wanted to pay around $1000 a month, he'd come and do an up-lift a couple of times a year, keep the place looking fairly decent. Oh, and he called my patio a cheap job, really shoddy work.
I think sometimes that you and I are living in parallel universes... I can imagine how frustrated, and depressed you must be over this.
You try to get someone to do something around your home who isn't going to charge an arm and a leg, and then they either disappear on you, do a crappy job, or both! Then, you make the executive decision to contact someone whose credentials look a bit better, and they insult your former work, and quote you a ridiculous price.
I know...
Next week, I'm going to have to contact the landscaper who put in our patio, to tell him to come and dig it up. Fortunately, he's not out to gouge me, but still it's an expense that I never intended to see, and he still can't guarantee that it will solve our flooding issue.
On some days, I think that I must have lived a very evil former life, and am now paying for it!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
KaeEll, what a nasty, arrogant jerk! Please don't let the moron get you down. There are plenty of good, descent companies out there. I am a firm believer in karma, and that man has some nasty stuff coming his way. You have a beautiful home, and he is probably an idiot who lives in a box of an apartment, or in one of those big houses, going paycheck to paycheck.
I'm sorry to hear about your awful morning, I'm sending positive thoughts up to you!
Thanks, Moore and Tess. The contractor was an arrogant idiot, totally devoid of any manners. He did, maddeningly, manage to strike a few very sensitive chords with me.
I just couldn't sleep at 11 when we went to bed - I was up tearing at the sheets in half an hour, and here it is almost 3 a.m., still wide awake and fuming. Insults, no matter from whence they come, can be a sting that last for a while. I'm sure by the time morning rolls around, it will all be a bad memory.
It's raining, Will the drip edge work? Hope, hope, hope.....
KaeEll, there's hardly anything worse than some nasty person's ability to push buttons that you don't want to have pushed, and didn't even think were visible for that nasty person's fingers to find! That always hurts big-time...
If I were you, I'd regroup, and contact someone else. There's got to be some happy medium there in Toronto!
The arrogant idiot may have tried to convince you that no other landscaper will lower him/herself to touch your pitiful-little-beneath-him project, but that's simply evidence of a noncreative mind! I'll bet that there are some very talented landscapers who can do gorgeous stuff within a reasonable budget who are very much available to you. It's called thinking outside the box -- something Arrogant Idiot apparently can't do!
(Left out a word. Coffee apparently isn't working yet!)
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 12:04, 2008-07-20
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Good idea, Moore. My shopping expert friend that lives up in Bolton told me she'd send me the number of a very young and eager guy who just moved here from Saskatchewan and is looking for clients. Apparently he does amazing work, and since he's trying to build up a reputation for himself, works like a beaver and has reasonable rates.
That other guy can go where the sun don't shine. It took me a full 24 hours top get his insults from ringing in my ears, but it's all over now. A$$. I should have told him he'll meet the same people on his way down as he did on his way up, lol. His company, btw, is called Frank, The Lawn Barber, from a satellite bedroom community around here. Curses to him.
My shopping expert friend that lives up in Bolton told me she'd send me the number of a very young and eager guy who just moved here from Saskatchewan and is looking for clients.
Ain't friends great!??!
KaeEll wrote:
His company, btw, is called Frank, The Lawn Barber.
Sounds to me like Frank, The Lawn Barber needs to have himself a little enounter with Sweeney Todd...
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 14:14, 2008-07-20
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Hey guys. We got here late last night. But finally made it in. Had church early this morning and now i am exhausted. Jolene was up at 6 this morning because of course for her she is still on east coast time. I could have slept a couple more hours. Vinnie is griping about the long drive, I am a little irritated because he wouldn't let me drive. I told him I don't want to hear it.
