Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Where are we going?

I don't want this to turn into a blog about fiscal challenges with living in a recessive world but I am quickly coming to a conclusion and I want to save the juicy parts for tomorrow.  More research is pending.  
And before you think I am an all fast food eating freak of nature let me stress that this is an unusual eating pattern for me.  The central A/C has been out at the house for a few months.  Last month when the temperature hit high I bought a small window unit for the baby's room so there would be at least a little respite from the heat.  It averages about 15 degrees higher in the house than the temperature outside.  You can't open the window  because the "breeze" is hot too and only serves to bring more hot air into the situation.  I am telling you if I had a balloon right now . . . 
My point is, if I were to turn on the oven or the stove right now we'd be seriously hurting.  So for the time being we are only picking up foods that can be unfrozen in the microwave and served through a window.  I am learning so much that I never wanted to think about when it came to fast food.  Did you know, for instance, that if you order a double cheese burger you will be charged differently than if you specifically ask for the double off the dollar menu?  What's the difference?  Apparently - pickles or some other such rediculousness.  The difference money wise is more than a dollar.  If you are like me and already on a tight budget guess what, your belt just got a little tighter.

Enough about that.  Part of dealing with excessively high temperatures is finding creative ways to stay out of the heat, especially when you have a 1 yr old in tow.  There isn't hardly anywhere you can go in this city without spending money.  You go to the mall at the very least you are shelling out a few dollars cash for the play area that instead of fun stuff to climb on is now populated with 75 cent kiddie rides.  Thank you to the mom who sued on that one.  You'll probably be out some money for food too for reasons previously discussed.  The blessing is that 1 year olds don't tend to eat a whole lot and would prefer to eat off your plate and not their own so you are probably only going to buy one meal.  The health benefit is that you reduced your portion size and had to eat slower to accomodate your child.  The health non-benefit is, well, have  you ever seen any food at the mall that isn't dripping with grease or filled to the brim with sugar?  Of course that part will be true no matter where you go.  And don't make the mistake of walking in the end of the mall with the Build-A-Bear workshop.  Even babies can appreciate the fun of making your own friend, they do not however, understand why you have to leave the store with out their new pal.  I have a particularly agreeable child and even she threw a fit when we had to leave.

When it is 105 in the middle of the day you can hit the spray park or the parkpark only early in the morning before things start to heat up.  We went Saturday and surprisingly there were a number of adults there who were not there for the equipment or the exercise route.  Let me just say I am surprised, even at 7:30 am that I was not propositioned nor offered anything.  Someone call the non emergency number for 911 and get the officers right on that.

Once it started heating up and X was finished with the swing and playing in the dirt we headed back to the house for a little bit.  The baby hit her morning nap a bit early but I was ok with that.  She didn't sleep long but it was long enough.  We had to go to Home Depot and pick up some things that we'd been putting off for a long time.  We also had to find out the price and dimensions of the fence panels they sell.  In a previous post I explain the corner cutting building plan that is going to cost me a little bit of unexpected money.  Roughly $35 a panel and I will only need two panels, two 4x4 posts and some concrete  which reminds me I need to make a call to a guy about a thing.

Then we headed over to pick up the rest of the baby's diaper supply from her granny's house.  I could explain but that would take longer than I am already taking.  They have some decent a/c.  Then we went back to the house, ate and worked up a couple of those projects.  One was trying to fix the door bell.  Which I thought was an excellent idea until I realized that door bell button isn't attached to a chime . . . anywhere.  Leaves me wondering if this was another victim fallen to the do it yourself rennovator I bought the place from.  I am going to keep the button though because if that silly chime is in the attic I can have the electrician (Fred) help me find it and fix it while he is up there caring for some other things that need attention.  Can you say open junction box.

I had to return the light switches though because as it turns out it wasn't a switch problem for the porch light after all.  (Also a long explanation.)  So back to Home Depot.  So not loving their return policy or their self check out isle.  We get back to the house in time for the baby to have a well deserved snack and nap.  By the time she was up again it had already started cooling off outside and I was trying to create an inside breeze to alleviate the heat in the house.  It was working, mostly.  

Saturday night is when I realized the baby is about to sprout some more teeth.  She has it rough with those.  She doesn't know quite what to do about them.  They make her absolutely miserable and in the heat it's even worse.   She doesn't throw tantrums normally but I am letting her attitude slide for the most part for now because I realize it's tough being 15 months old.

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