Pauly the swan is a dick

Two weekends ago on Sunday it was a gorgeous day that warranted a longer than  usual walk. We strolled from our house for about three hours wandering through greenways, checking out swans and eventually visiting Zack and Chrissy. I took this as an opportunity to take the dog's yearly photo and it's a good thing I did because if I hadn't had my camera with me, I would have missed Pauly...the pissed off swan. 

But that's getting ahead of myself. First and foremost, the pups in all their splendor at age 7:

 With Masi turning 7 on Feb. 14th, the pups are all the same age again. Everyone is fit and happy and mostly healthy. Hopefully this next year brings fewer seizures and hopefully no emergency vet trips. 

After getting provisions at Trader Joe's, we cut through the parking lot to a greenway around an itty bitty lake that is guarded by Pauly, the swan.

At first I was take aback, I'd never seen a swan in person and by God they're huge! There were Canadian Geese around him that he dwarfed. 

   

Eventually we moved on from the staring contest to continue on our long walk. Little did we know, we had perturbed Pauly enough to "chase" us. It was pretty hilarious. 

Here he is trying to look aggressive. Mind you, we have three dogs with us that would have loved a swan snack. 

"I am not beautiful, I am fierce! Fear me! Rawr...I mean...QUACK!..or is it squawk..."

He eventually stopped chasing us - until our return trip - at which point he resumed his "aggressive floating". 

For being so big and majestic, swans sure are dicks. 

Liz 

Divide and Conquer

The Hubs and I have this method of attacking chores and to-do lists...we call it Divide and Conquer. When you've got a big ass house to clean or maintain and not a lot of time to do it, it works wonders. Typically it's house chores but more often than not, it's projects too. This time, we had two appliances to install and not a lot of time to do it.

It all started, as things with us often do, with a trip to Lowes. We wanted a new range hood as ours had broken about a year ago, it was finally time. There's not a ton of choices for range hoods anymore since over the range microwaves have taken their place in many homes but we were able to find a good deal on this guy. 

I went ahead and gave this obstacle to Steven. 

We were lucky enough to finally find a deal on a dishwasher. We were even luckier that it's a Samsung model and therefore matches our range! This may seem silly but for some even sillier reason, when you sell a house, it makes a difference to people if your appliance brands match...silly people. 

I may have been delusional but I thought the dishwasher was a task made for me. So I took this one. 

The kitchen started off clean. Here's Steven removing the old busted range hood.

And here's our old dishwasher before it came out of the cabinets. Why did we feel the need to replace it since it was technically working? Well, every time you opened the door, it'd try to fall out of the hole and we'd get at least 2 glasses per wash that had food grime on them. Yum. It was time for it to go. Unfortunately  it was full of dishes so this is when the kitchen became a war zone. Shit everywhere. 

Upon removing the old range hood Steven discovered the previous owners left us a bit of the past on the walls. We were nice enough to leave it there for the next owners as well. 

Wiggling this thing out of the cabinet was a study in patience. 

I'd get it a little farther only to see  that it was ripping the linoleum. So I'd have to push it back in and try again. Again and again. 

Finally it gave to. At which point I discovered old mouse crap and a huge hole that finally explains random slug sightings. I did my best to patch things up with duct tape. 

Lots of cursing and struggling ensued. The new range hood landed on Steven's head a couples times and I got bloody knuckles from the pipes under the sink. But eventually, both new appliances were in their places. 

It's pretty sweet to have a light above the range again. Not to mention a venting hood that actually works. 

And now our entire kitchen is stainless steel. WOO! On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most difficult, I'd say replacing these two appliances is about a 5. I only give it that high of a difficulty rating because you have to deal with the wiring. Regardless I'm adding this to my list of things I'll never pay someone to do for me. 

High-five to the Awesomely Domesticated Team!

Liz 

P.S. You know you're domesticated when new appliances get you excited.