Weekend

Friday - After work, I went home and got cracking (I need a new phrase for 'started an activity') priming the fireplace. After a few minutes, my plumber and general contractor showed up. The plumber fixed the leaky drain in the basement, hooked up the new clothes washer and partially installed the new dishwasher. I like Joe Merritt the plumber.

My contractor and his buddy started to install the new kitchen cabinets. Progress.

When installing the new cabinets, I decided to move the fridge to a different spot to make room for some more cabinets. Cabinets which I had not yet purchased. Since I didn't buy them yet, I headed out to the old Bargain Outlet with measurements in hand.

I grabbed the cabinets from the shelves, loaded them up on the rickety cart, and headed to the cash register. I paid using my debit card, which has the Patriots logo on it (I get a better interest rate on my savings account with the logo). The clerk noticed the logo and asked me if "Brady's gonna be ready for the season".

Another worker at the Bargain Outlet overheard this and asked, I'm not making this up, if I played for the Patriots. Here's the exchange:

Worker - "So, do you play for the Patriots?"

Me - *confused look* "What?"

Clerk - *Confused look*

Me - *realizing he's serious* "Yes. I'm here buying the cheapest cabinets I can find because I make millions of dollars playing for the Patriots."

Clerk - *cracking up*

Worker - "Well, I don't know. I heard you talking about Brady and thought you had some inside info."

Clerk - *still cracking up* "Yea."

You may not know me, but here's my info: I am 13 feet tall, 64 pounds and gangly to the power of 20. I couldn't even pass for a kicker, as my legs are about the width of those flexible poles you use to put up a small tent with. People are simultaneously awesome and terribly dumb.

I went back to the house with the cabinets and we installed them.

Saturday - I woke up and got to work. Amanda and I were having a reception-esque party at Dave & Busters for everyone that wasn't invited to Puerto Rico for our wedding. We had a lot to do.

We worked on sanding and priming the living room windows and trim. There were a few visits from her family at various points during the day, and we had to gather all kinds of crap to bring with us to the party (cakes, ps3, Rock Band drums, etc).

We didn't get all that much done house wise, but the party was fairly good. Video games, poor singing, Celtics game 7, pool, air hockey, etc. Everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves, so I guess that's good.

Sunday - Got up and started to do some laundry with the newly installed washing machine. Much better than going to a laundromat. Obviously.

We went out to breakfast with some friends that were driving back to NJ and got back to the house around noon. Amanda continued on the widow sanding (which she had been doing for a week or so) and I sanded some woodwork in the hallways. When the windows were finally done (hooray) we got to priming them.

During all of this, we were swapping out loads of laundry intermittently. Towards the end of the day, Amanda came upstairs and let me know that the carpet we put down there is soaking wet. Great. Instead of checking it out immediately, we went to dinner.

Post dinner, we taped off the windows for paint and we painted the widow trim, the baseboard and the mantle. A crisp semi-gloss white represents actual progress in an almost finished room. All that's left in the living room is paint on the ceiling and paint on the walls. That should be done this week. It's kind of exciting.

During the painting, I figured we should run a load of laundry and see what leaks. During the first rinse cycle, Amanda reported that a little bit of water bubbled up from the old drain pipe that the washer drain is connected to. During the next rinse cycle, I was down there watching and apparently, the second rinse uses a lot more water. A waterfall exploded from the drain pipe. Gallons of water rushed onto the floor and we had our answer to "what's leaking". Very good. I gave Joe a call and he'll hopefully fix this old plumbing problem before we have to wash more clothes. Sigh.

Ron - He still sucks.