Tool Time

A few weeks ago, my darling boy yanked the kitchen phone's cord, which connected to the wall via a plastic connection in a metal frame (made for a wall-mount phone) ; the plastic did not resist the boy tugging on it with all of his almost 30 pounds and a piece of plastic holding the cord in the socket snapped off. And the phone wouldn't stay plugged in without a small quantity of packing tape.

So...I went to ACE Hardware, home of the helpful hardware man, who must've been on a coffee break and was replaced by the idiot, pimply-faced adolescent hardware man wannabe who pointed me to a $5.98 replacement - not an exact copy the part (which I dutifully brought along in my Teutonic "I want one JUST LIKE THIS" mode). Once home, with screwdriver in hand, I found that the nitwit had steered me to a connector with SIX wires and in the wall was FOUR wires, so once all was said and done, screwed and connected, there was still no dial tone. May his face remain a festering topographical map of the Rocky Mountains well into his twenties.

So...a few more days go by, and Micah and I went to Home Depot on our Monday shopping rounds. I wanted the above-mentioned thing for the phone and a winder-up thingy for the garden hose, which had been sitting on our front walk like a trip-and-fall lawsuit waiting to happen. This time I found a phone wall receptacle, manufactured by GE, which definitely brings good things to life because the packaging was transparent so I could easily see that there was a red wire, a green wire, a yellow wire, and a black wire - all for the bargain price of $4.99. We went home and the screwdriver came back out and lo and behold, the phone works. I am so proud of myself, therefore I'll keep the story of how much I hate the Self-Checkout at Home Depot and the bad words that I said over what was an amazingly slow and time-consuming pain in the rear of a process to myself.

So...Micah's tab is now one toilet and one phone receptacle, so his first five years or so of allowance is basically a big IOU. His tab stands at about $500+. Plus time lost for two ER visits.

Photos to follow - I've go to put them on the computer first. Another day, I am done. I brought the kids' medical charts home tonight to put their immunization histories into their medical records - now I just need to find my immunization history and fill in all the dates and shots.

Happy Anniversary, Micah!

Wednesday was the one year anniversary of when we met Micah in person and were granted 24 hour custody by Hubei Province, followed the next day by the one-year anniversary of his actual adoption. Fesitivities were rather sparse Chez Us - Nancy came for two hours to work with Micah. She's replacing Ela whose due date is Monday, so we'll be waiting for word on when Elzby makes her entrance into the world. Thursday Micah was back at Lisa's while I was at work.

Micah's sitter, Lisa, has another child in her care who has a smaller version of Micah's Buh-Buh (bunny bear, given to Thea by Lori and Jamie but never loved by Thea as much as her white tigers). I have been wanting to find a back-up Buh-Buh for awhile, and Lisa called the other mom to find out where she bought it. And there is was on Amazon, just sitting there waiting for me to buy it . In pink and in blue. Bunny Bear is a bear wearing a hooded track suit with rabbit ears. Obviously designed by someone having some sort of cross-dressing animal fetish. Micah has since discovered that the manufacturer has cut costs by not having the track suit come off - and he was sorely disappointed at this and still can't figure out why the blue bunny bear can't get nekkid.

Thea marked the occasion - or some day right around the anniversary - by telling me that it was time for Micah to find a new family. Sorry, dear daughter, but despite his occasional naughtiness, I've sort of gotten used to having the little pest around.

Happenings and other miscellany

1. Thea lost her first tooth on Monday, June 30 while at Oma's. It had been loose for about six days. It was a slightly traumatic event, for both of us - for Thea because it bled a little bit and came out somewhat unexpectedly and for me because she's not even five yet. The tooth fairy had to be contacted so that she could delay her visit until we were back in Princeton the following night. (I was attending the AANP conference through the 1st.) She got the Tooth Fairy's 1st tooth bonus of $5. Future teeth will be compensate at the regular rate of $1 each (4x the quarter that Mommy used to receive. . . )

2. AANP - what a great conference! I have to thank my mother a thousand times since she made it possible for me to attend What a great birthday gift. And aside from the registration fee, my mother, who took on babysitting both children for the last two days of the event. Both kids were on their good behavior on day #1, but one who shall remain nameless acted up a bit on day #2. (And my money was on Micah giving her grief, and he actually was the better of the two. . . ) And I got lots of CME credits so things should go smoothly for renewal of my NP certification - smoothly other than coughing up $400 or so for the privilege of renewing for another five years in addition to paying for whatever classes I have to take for the CMEs. What a racket.

3. Micah's assessment from the speech therapist was that he has all the appropriate sounds for a two-year old and his expressive language is in the 21-month range, so he's made some amazing progress considering that his initial assessment last August put him in the six to nine month range.

4. After 45 minutes on the phone with a computer geek for our EMR software, my laptop for work finally works at home. Doesn't sound like much of a big deal, but it gives me access to medical records and the ability to send prescriptions electronically while on call. Of course I was on call from the 4th through this morning and the laptop was here all weekend waiting for me to have time without someone trying to interrupt. What a pain in the butt - and all this work so I can work at home on days that I am not in the office, oh rapture.

5. The box from the new stove has been refashioned into a house, a project started last Friday and continuing through the weekend. Yesterday Thea and I went to Michael's to buy paint, spray paint and tempera, to spruce up the drab brown. It's architectural style is more shack/out-house than Architectural Digest, but Thea is quite taken with it. This afternoon we made a paper fireplace to put inside, but I am getting attitude from the homeowner because the glue stick didn't do a great job in getting the project to adhere to the walls. If she can work this much attitude at four, I am dreading fourteen. This semi-artistic monstrosity, too large to fit through the front door or the door to the garage, is now sitting on the landing, listing to one side - I've got to come up with some way to shore up the one side with the door cut into it.