Hooray for Summer

School is out for the summer and I can't tell you how happy I am about that! I am ready for some serious play time and some serious BEACH time.

The coonhound has had three OFF-LEASH hikes this week and she has done really well. She has chased a few quail and lizards, but she has come back immediately when I hit the button. So far I have only let her off leash at times and places where I've been pretty sure that we wouldn't run into too many other people, but if she continues to do well we will see how she does with some distractions.

Appliance Nightmare

As posted earlier, I admit to having broken the door of my own washing machine in an attempt to get my shoes out after a button got stuck in the pump and the stupid thing wouldn't drain. I thought that my washer was covered under my home warranty, but after three days of calling when I finally got through to National Home Protection I was told that my policy did not cover the washing machine. I was so frustrated and angry that I said, "So what DOES my policy cover?" She started naming off appliances and then she came to the garage door opener. I didn't realize that my policy covered the garage door opener, and mine doesn't work, so I said, "Then send someone out to look at my garage door opener." She asked, "What's wrong with it?" "IT'S BROKEN" I replied. She gave me a claim number and told me to call Northern Utah Garage Doors. When the technician came out to my house he told me that the circuit board was dead, and they no longer made those circuit boards, so it would have to be replaced. I said, "Great, my home warranty should cover that." He told me that he would need authorization from the home warranty company before they could replace it. Four days later he called me back and said that they had been trying to reach National Home Protection for four days and no one ever answered their calls or returned their messages. I tried for another two days and got the same result, so I finally filed a greivance with my credit card company to stop payment on my policy, and I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Upon checking the company out with the BBB I found that they are a very shady company and they have had numerous complaints about them, so it doesn't look like they will be replacing my garage door opener or anything else.

Back to the washer, when the guy from Dan's Maytag came out and removed the button he asked for a down payment of $200 on the estimated $420 repair. I paid the money and he told me that it would probably take a week for them to get the parts in and then they would call to schedule a repair time. After a week and a half had passed I decided to call and see what the situation was. The dispatcher that I talked to said that she would look into it and call me back. Several hours later she called to tell me that one of the parts was not due in until June 6th (they wouldn't guarantee to have it by June 6th, that's just when it was due in). This was on May 17th. I told her that I had already been without a washer for 2 weeks and I couldn't wait another 3 weeks to get my washer repaired. She told me that she would check with the factory and see if they could send a part. I called back the next day to see what was happening and spoke with the manager. He told me that it would take them a couple of days to contact the factory and I told him that if the repair couldn't happen within a week I wanted my money back. He told me that a refund would require "company authorization" and I hung up angry. The next day I received a call from the dispatcher who said that Maytag policy is that they will not pull a part from the factory floor that is available through a supplier (even if it is back ordered), so I would be stuck waiting until June 6th. I again demanded my money back, and this time when she put me through to the manager he was very courteous and agreed to send me a check immediately. I went out last weekend and bought a new GE washer. It is NOT a front loader! It is their new high efficiency top loader, and so far I am liking it. After a $50 rebate from Questar it will have cost me only $30 more than repairing the old washer.

Mishap

I put a 3 foot wire fence around my flower bed in my back yard in order to keep the dog out. This evening I went to plant a couple of tomatoes since my first two tomatoes died. Instead of unhooking an opening in the fence I decided to just squish it down and hop over it. Somehow in the midst of doing that I fell backwards, cut my left leg to shreds on the wire, punctured my right palm, and nearly impaled myself in the back with a 2 foot metal stake that holds my tomato trellis in place. As I was lying in my flower bed unable to move my back hurt the worst. At the moment I don't feel anything on my back at all, but my leg is throbbing. I have yet to peek under my shirt to see what kind of bruising I may have. The picture doesn't do justice to how much blood was involved, since the cuts do reach all the way around to the other side of my leg. Next time I will unhook the opening and walk through.

Odds and Ends

I have been getting my allergy shots for 3 weeks now. I go in twice a week and get four injections each time. The injections to my right arm are not causing me any problems, but the injections to my left arm are. Apparently the culprit is Tree Mix B, which contains the mountain cedar allergen. It burns going in and for the first 24 hours after an injection I have 2 hot, hard lumps on my arm. After that it bruises, and the injection sites appear to be scarring. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end. I have 3 more weeks on this schedule and then they will start extending the time between injections. Eventually I think I will only have to go in once every three months.

Shady is progressing with her training. Some days she is good, and some days she is bad. She doesn't ever bark at the neighbors anymore, which makes me happy. I have taken her over to the high school football field twice now to work with her off-leash. Of course she is always good while we are there. She barely leaves my side. Once we are back on the sidewalks or on the trail it is another story entirely.

On another note, Mom and I have booked a trip to Cozumel next month. We will be staying at the Wyndham from June 11th to the 16th. It can't come soon enough for me.

I have spent most of my day working on the yard. I bought three flats of flowers last weekend and when I got them all in the ground today I realized that I needed about another flat, so those will have to go in another day. Ever since I bought this house I have been in a rut with my annuals. I always get 2 flats of dahlias and 2 flats of snapdragons. I decided to be adventurous this year and go with something new.


Here we have my front flower bed. In the middle I have planted stock, then there is a ring of fading tulips, then petunias on the outside. When the tulips are done I will replace them with yellow and red snapdragons.

These little guys are verbena. They are really tiny right now, but after I finished planting them I noticed that the tag said to space them 15 inches apart. I space them about 4 inches apart. We will see how they turn out.

The purple and orange flowers are violas, the star-shaped red flowers are nicotaina, and then there are some snapdragons in the back. The ones with no blooms will be red zinnias and the tall stalks in the back are gladiolas.

Here I have some more petunias and snap dragons to fill in my front bed, and some dianthus that will go in my park strip. I am hoping that the dianthus will come back every year.

When these flowers started to come up I had no idea what they were. I had forgotten that Grandma gave me these bulbs last fall. I don't remember what they are called, but I love them. Thanks Grandma!

I also planted tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and cayenne peppers for salsa. I would like to learn how to can salsa this fall. I am kicking myself for giving away those canning supplies when dad died. Eventually I am hoping that my peach tree produces enough fruit for canning as well.

Washer Repair

So the appliance repair man came by this morning and pulled a button out of the pump in my washing machine. It is a large, navy blue button with the words 'American Eagle' stamped on it. The funny thing is that I have never owned a single item of clothing from American Eagle. I was telling Jamie about it and she got excited and said that it is a button that goes to a coat Stephanie gave her last year. Somehow that button has been floating around in the inner guts of my washing machine for at least a year now before getting stuck in the pump.

If I hadn't broken the door it would have been a cheap and easy repair job. As it is, it will take them at least another week to order the parts and the entire job will end up costing me $400. I still feel like the satisfaction of beating the crap out of my washing machine was worth it.

Frustration

I went walking with Shady over at Denise's barn today and got my shoes all muddy. When I came home I threw them in the washing machine, and a couple of hourse later I realized that the washing machine was beeping at me. It is one of these stupid front-loading Maytag Neptunes, and the code on the display said that it was not able to drain or spin. Because there is water in the washer, the door was locked and I was unable to get it open. Since those are my only pair of athletic shoes, and since I have to walk my coonhound every day, I pried the door open to get my shoes out and I broke the door. I have home insurance that covers appliances, but of course the 24 hour telephone service center is closed for upgrades. Any bets on how long it takes them to send someone out to look at the stupid thing? Any guesses on how much it is going to cost me to fix the door? Since I broke that on purpose I'm sure it isn't covered!

My Salvation / Steph & Brian's Wedding

Okay, this is kind of an awkward post with two very separate subjects.

First of all, my salvation has come in the form of an electric collar with remote control. After just one lesson my dog is a completely different animal. There is no pulling and very little barking on our walks. My dog actually heels beautifully. We still have some issues to work through but I am so glad that I invested the money.

Secondly, Steph and Brian had a lovely ceremony on Friday. It was short and sweet and the family went out for burgers afterwards. This is my kind of dream wedding. I didn't get very many good pictures, so I hope that someone else will post some soon.

They were married in the Ivy Lane Reception Center in Ogden. It was a beautiful building but I didn't get any shots of the outside. This is a picture was taken standing in the main hall looking towards the back entrance.

Here we have our lovely flower girls, Ashlyn, Grace and Ava.

During the ceremony the flower girls took their job very seriously. After all of the rose petals had been thrown Grace dropped down to the floor and started blowing them towards Brian and Stephanie. Ava picked up handfulls and threw them with violent intensity. I was laughing so hard at them that I could hardly pay attention to the ceremony.

I didn't get any good pictures of Steph and Brian. I know that some of my sisters did, so they had better post them soon!