Its a habit

How do you know when you’ve officially made going to the gym a habit?  No, it isn't when your body wakes up at 4:39 just in time for you to watch the numbers on your clock flip to 4:40, when the alarm goes off.  It’s not when your evening routine involves laying out the next morning’s workout clothes while you are brushing your teeth.  You know it has become a habit when the people at the gym’s front desk greet you by name when you walk through the door. 

I made it especially hard for them since I don’t go by my first name, which is printed on my card ID card that they scan every time I enter the building.  After over 4 months, we are now welcomed by name when we walk through the door at 5:05 am (mon-fri).  This is nice, but it is also bad.  If one of us shows up without the other, we are questioned about where the other is.  If we take a day off, we are asked where we were yesterday.  When I took last week off because of my sore side, I was welcomed back this Monday.  The CFO hasn't been able to roll herself out of bed this week and every morning I have been asked where she is.

The CFO hosted the neighborhood Bunko game last Thursday, which meant that we were scrambling to make sure the house was extra clean for the guests.  This group of 20 ladies goes to a different house every month, so the CFO wanted to put on a good showing.  Since the game required 5 tables, we ended up moving most of the furniture out of the living room to make room for three tables.  I was not going to stick around for this hen-fest, so I rounded up some friends and we went out for dinner and then bowling. 

Before I left, I switched on the AC to cool down the house prior to the invasion.  I heard the compressor outside cycling on and off, but it was only running for a few seconds and then shutting off.  It didn't sound right, so I went out to investigate and saw that the fan wasn’t turning on with the compressor like it should.  I went back in the house, switched off the ac and told the CFO to open the windows because the AC wasn’t working.  We had a service visit on Monday and evidently a group of field mice decided the compressor unit outside would be a great place to spend the winter.  The little bastards couldn’t leave well enough alone and they chewed through 3 wires inside the unit, which cut the power to the fan.  Too bad they didn't get zapped when they did it.  I am now researching ways to keep this from happening again… oh the joys of living on the edge of a field.

Our vacuum also died during the preparation for the event, one of the ends of the spinning brush broke off, causing the brush tube to grind up a bunch of the slot where the end should have been.  The vacuum spit out more plastic bits than it was able to suck up.  I bought that one when I graduated from college, so it is almost 14 years old.  We are now in the market for a new vacuum, if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.  The catch is that the CFO doesn’t want a ‘bagless’ unit, she doesn’t want to see all the dirt (and her hair) swirling around inside the vacuum.  This seriously limits our options, as a majority of them seem to be bagless these days.

We went out and looked for vacuums at several stores and while we were at Lowes looking at vacuums, we took a detour and walked through the plant section.  We ended up finding an oak tree that was 40% off, so we got that.  We have been needing to plant an oak because every house in the neighborhood is supposed to have one (there is a grove of oaks in our common area and they wanted oaks planted throughout the neighborhood).  We also checked out the clearance rack and the CFO spotted a couple pretty spireas that were marked down from $17 to $5.  They have pinkish red blooms on them, so she was immediately drawn to them.  There is always a hidden gem on the clearance rack!  While owning a truck would be nice, we have perfected the art of hauling trees in the accord.  Slide the pot into a trashbag  to catch any soil that falls out (I always keep a few in the spare tire), and slide the tree into the trunk pot first.  Grab some bungee cords (always kept with the trash bags) to tie the tree so it won’t slide around and pull the trunk lid down with another cord.  We don’t need no stinking truck.

I spent a good bit of time outside over the weekend, continuing my battle against the dandelions, cutting the grass and working on our fountain.  I finally got it pretty level, added water and plugged it in.  It doesn't make as much noise as I would have liked, but it is a nice addition to the garden.  We really need to decide on brick or stone for the patio, I'm tired of it being gravel!  We  "free perennial with purchase" coupons for three different local nurseries, we will be cashing those in this weekend to get plants to put around the fountain.