Snow and Ice

That is what is predicted for Dallas today. The temperature is 33 this
morning with a high predicted to be 36 degrees. If the temperature
remains above freezing, the snow won't last long. However, the
temperature is supposed to be 24 by tomorrow morning. When I checked
Weather.com and looked at the Doppler radar, I saw something that I
never saw down in Beaumont. There is a big pink and white area moving
toward Dallas that represents ice and snow.

I turned the fireplace on for less than ten minutes this morning while
I was brewing my cup of coffee. It worked fine. I am afraid to leave
it on long enough to really test the venting system. I dread the
thought of talking to the fireplace company people again. They are not
my favorites.

I got an automated call from Sears delivery service yesterday evening.
The new washing machine will be delivered between 1:45 and 3:45 this
afternoon. I consider myself very fortunate to be getting the new
machine. I read the posting from a woman in St. Louis who has the same
washer. She had hers less than three weeks and started having
problems. The service tech replaced the computer with a used one from
his truck. She then got the F51 error and had the same problems than I
do. Sears has outsourced their service to a company called A&E in some
parts of the company. That is who she is dealing with. I think the
service tech. that came to my house works directly for Sears. I hope
it stays that way.

I did not hear from my realtor or the title company yesterday so I am
assuming that the closing on the Beaumont house will take place today.
I called the Beaumont utilities and asked them to take them out of my
name today. The buyer had already contacted the gas and electric
companies. He had not called the City of Beaumont Water Department.
The fire policy will be cancelled tomorrow. The Texas Windstorm
representative said I would have to sign a form and send it to them
before they could cancel the windstorm policy. They faxed me the form.
I signed the form and got a neighbor to witness it. I will fax it back
to them as soon as I hear the closing has taken place.

The memory card from Best Buy for my new Palm PDA arrived in Dallas
and is scheduled to be delivered to me today. It will be tomorrow
before I can finish installing the rest of the software on the card.

I went to the grocery store and stocked up yesterday morning so I do
not have to go out in the bad weather. Tomorrow is supposed to be
sunny and warm up to 49. That will allow me to go out and get the
closing papers notarized and overnight them back to Beaumont. The
title company said they will wire the money to my bank. That is what I
am really anticipating.

A Day I Have Been Waiting For

Tomorrow is closing day on my Beaumont house. This morning I am going
to call the water, gas and electric utilities and tell them to take
the utilities out of my name on Thursday. I also have to make two
calls to cancel insurance policies. There is the homeowners policy and
the Texas Windstorm policy. The FEMA flood insurance expired on
November 22. I did not renew that policy because I knew the sale was
getting close and the extended weather report for Beaumont looked
good.

I made arrangements with the title company for them to overnight the
closing papers to me. I will probably get them on Friday. I looked at
the weather report this morning and Dallas may get two inches of snow
tomorrow. I cannot remember the last time I saw an accumulation of
snow. I think it must be back in the 80's. I hope by Friday when I
have to go out and get the closing papers notarized and find a FedEx
office that the snow is cleared off the streets. I think I will call
the Frisco Lakes sales office this morning and see if someone there is
a notary who can notarize my papers. I was planning on taking them to
a branch of my bank, but I could walk to the Frisco Lakes sales office
if I had to.

I still feel exhausted because of the experience I went through
yesterday with the washing machine. What I thought was going to be a
simple repair turned into something so major.

I plan on testing the fireplace tomorrow when the weather turns cold.
I hope I am not setting myself up for more suffering.

After I make my phone calls this morning I am going to get out of the
house and do grocery shopping before the bad weather arrives this
afternoon. I have a narrow window to get resupplied.

Happy Ending But It Was A Disaster

The Sears repairman finally showed up this morning. I told him
about the F51 error on the washer and also that the tub was full of
water to the top when it finally shut down. He did not like the sound
of the full tub of water. He said he owned the same machine, and it
should not do that. He checked on the causes of the F51 error. He
tilted the machine backward and disassembled the parts around the
rotor on the bottom of the machine. He said the offending part was not
snapped in completely. He asked me if I had some clothes to wash so he
could test it.

I ran and grabbed some towels. It was about half the number I usually
wash as a load of towels. He had me add detergent and start the wash
cycle. He stood there and watched. It wasn't long before he came up
with a very technical explanation for what was wrong with the washer.
He said, "this machine is sick in the head." He asked for my sales
receipt.

This is where it really got bad. He said if I was with in 90 days of
the purchase, Sears would replace the machine with a new one. I bought
the machine on June 30, but it was not delivered until September 9. He
said the counter started on June 30. He said he would order a new
computer for the machine, UPS would deliver it, and when I received
the computer to call and schedule an appointment for it to be
installed. He packed up his tools and was ready to head out. I asked
if I could continue to use the machine until the computer arrived. He
said yes but stay close to the machine. He said the water might over
flow. I objected to his leaving before the cycle completed. He stopped
the wash cycle and started it on a second rinse cycle and left. I
nervously watched. It got through the rinse and drained the water.
Then the machine became unbalanced. The lid was locked and I could not
open it to rearrange the towels. I kept pressing the stop button and
eventually the lid unlocked. The towels were sopping wet. My towels
are very thick and heavy. I rang out as much water as I could and put
them in the dryer.

The repairman told me to call the store where I bought the machine to
see if they could do anything about replacing the washer. I tried to
call the appliance department of the Beaumont store. No one answered
and the battery on my cell phone needed to be charged.

Right then the Beaumont realtor called and said she was emailing a
document that I needed to print out, sign and fax back to her
immediately. I stopped everything to handle the document. Under normal
conditions I think I would have been crying by then. I must have been
in a state of shock.

I went ahead and finished my lunch and then went down to cry on my
neighbors shoulder. When I came back home, the cell phone battery was
charged. I got through to the Beaumont Sears appliance department. I
got a salesman named Mark. I think he is the same man I first talked
to way back in March when I first started shopping for my new
appliances. He really knew all the details on the machine. I told him
what had happened. I gave him the sales receipt number. He said I was
within the one year warranty and was entitled to a new machine. He
said he did not know where the repairman got the 90 day business. He
ordered my new machine, and it will be delivered on Thursday.

Sears front loading Kenmore Elite machines are more expensive than the
top loading Elite Oasis, but still I have spent a lot of money on
these machines. It just makes me feel sick to think that I have bought
trouble plagued machines. I am hoping the new washer will be trouble
free. I usually do not buy service warranties, but I am thinking it
might be a good idea to get the extended policies on these machines.

Hurry Up and Wait

Time got away from me this morning. Sears sent an automated call last
night saying their repairman would be here between 8 AM and 12 noon
today. All of a sudden I realized it was 7:30 this morning, and I had
not had my bath. I rushed and got ready. Now I am waiting.

The tile setter just left. He came back and removed the wood frame he
used to hold the tile in place while it dried. This man is from
Russia. He did very nice work. I cannot tell that the tile was removed
and replaced. I wish all of the repairmen who have been here were as
competent as he is.

My new Krups toaster was delivered by UPS yesterday afternoon. It has
lots of buttons and a LCD display. It is not as difficult to
understand as I thought it would be. It is rather nice that it has a
way to defrost frozen bread and then toast in one step. The first time
I toasted a slice of bread, it let off a terrible odor that permeated
through the house. I tried again this morning and there was no odor at
all.

UPS finally updated the tracking information on the SD memory card for
my new Palm and are projecting Thursday as the delivery date. The new
Palm Desktop software has some strange quirks. I do not know if they
are bugs or if it just works differently from the version I had been
using. The Bluetooth connection between the cell phone and the Palm is
working great. I have had to make several calls to Beaumont and being
able to dial from the Palm has been a big help. I got rid of the AT&T
unlimited long distance service and am now using my cell phone for
long distance.

Yesterday I talked to the title company in Beaumont. They told me they
would email the closing documents to me. I would have to print them
and then get them notarized and overnight them back to Beaumont. I
started thinking that many of the pages would be legal size documents.
I do not have legal size paper on hand. In order to print legal size
documents I have to use a manual tray on my printer. The more I
thought the less I wanted to struggle with the printing. I called the
title company and asked them to overnight the documents to me. It may
delay my getting my money by one day, but I just don't want a hassle.

Since I have been trapped in the house while waiting for repairman I
have been doing more online shopping. L.L. Bean added some new sale
items. I ordered a stripped oxford cloth shirt and a knit long sleeve
polo. I lost weight two years ago. I bought a few new clothes last
year. I bought slightly larger sizes than I needed because I did not
believe I could keep the weight off. Well, I have managed to avoid
adding the pounds back so now I am buying the proper size. I get free
shipping and free monogramming with the L.L. Bean Visa card and also
get 3 percent of the purchase price back as coupons to use on future
purchases. All I need anymore are casual clothes.

Another Problem

Now it is my new Kenmore Elite Oasis washing machine. I washed a load
of towels and the wash cycle seemed to be taking forever, and the
machine was making unusual noises. Finally the machine went into the
rinse cycle and finished. I then washed a very small load on the
delicate/hand wash cycle. The machine continued to make strange noises.
The machine was on the rinse cycle and stopped completely. The display
showed F51. I looked at the manual and followed the procedure. The
machine was full of water to the top. Normally the machine adds just
enough water to cover the clothes. When the machine finally stopped,
it did drain the water and the lid unlocked. My clothes were dripping
water.

I called Sears repair service. I was relieved that I was transferred
to a human being without too long a journey through the menu. She said
that F51 meant a communication failure between the motor and the
controller. She scheduled a service call for Tuesday morning. I did a
Google search on Oasis and F51. There was a message in the Laundry
Room forum from someone with the same error. There was also a reply
from someone who most likely was a Sears service tech. He said that a
part probably was not fully snapped into place during assembly. He
said it was a simple fix.

On Saturday morning a neighbor came over for a visit. I turned the
fireplace on for a few minutes while I had a witness. The fireplace
worked, but I did not leave it on long enough for the limit switch to
heat. Yesterday my next door neighbors came over. I again turned the
fireplace on for a few minutes. The air conditioning was also on, and
it did not seem appropriate to have the fireplace on. A cold wave is
supposed to arrive mid week. My neighbors said they would come back
and stay while I tried to run the fireplace for 45 minutes. Since the
fireplace tech. implied the problem was in my head I am going to have
witnesses if it fails again. The tile setter is supposed to be here
this morning to replace the tiles that were removed last week.

I checked the UPS tracking information and my new toaster that I
ordered from Amazon.com is at the DFW airport. It is supposed to be
delivered today. The new Palm TX is doing fine. I will be glad when
the memory card arrives so I can go ahead and finish installing the
rest of the applications.

My New Palm

FedEx delivered the new Palm TX around 10:30 yesterday morning. I was
glad I did not have to sit around all day and wait for it. The package
required my signature. I had to charge the battery for three hours
before I could use it. I was happy to see the power cable and hot sync
cables were separate, and there is no power brick. The Sony Clie had
an awkward tangle of power and sync cables and power brick all
connected together. The only thing that was better about the Sony was
it covered a worldwide range of voltages. The Palm is only good in the
U.S. If I want to take it to Europe, I will have to buy a travel
charger kit.

I had printed out the instructions on how to upgrade from an older
Palm handheld from the tech. support site. There was no mention of the
Sony Clie. Sony used the Palm Desktop software, but they added some
modifications. I could not find anything about uninstaling the Sony
version of the Palm Desktop. I emailed Palm tech. support and asked if
it was necessary to uninstall the old desktop. The automated response
said they would reply within 12 hours.

Impatience got the better of me. I went ahead and installed the new
software without uninstalling the old version. The install process
found the Sony folders and installed itself into the old Sony folders.
I had carefully renamed the backup folder so old applications would
not be installed on the new Palm. The software installed successfully.
I then installed the new version of Documents to Go from the CD.

The Palm handheld appeared to be fine after I synced it. My calendar,
address book, to do and memos all transferred without problem. I found
one problem. When I tried to add the Excel spreadsheets and Word
documents that I had on the Sony, Documents to Go said the documents
already existed, and I could not add the documents back. I had the
documents on a memory stick in the Sony. I think Documents to Go tried
to transfer the documents to the memory card in the new Palm. Since I
do not have a memory card for the new Palm, it was not able to
transfer them. When the SD memory card arrives, this problem may fix
itself. I renamed one spreadsheet and was able to transfer it to the
internal memory in the Palm.. I received a tracking number from Best
Buy for the SD card. I should have it by the end of the week.

I then set up the Palm to connect to my WiFi network. That was fairly
simple. I checked out the little browser called Blazer. It worked
without problems and seemed rather straight forward. The Sony was WiFi
enabled and had a NetFront browser which crashed frequently. When WiFi
was enabled on the Sony, the battery drained rapidly. The Palm does
not seem to have that problem.

I then set up my AT&T email account on the VersaMail email software. I
was able to receive a test message, but it would not allow me to send
email. I kept getting an error message that referred me to a SBC
Global support site. I checked the information and was unable to
resolve the problem. I then called AT&T tech support. The rep. was
very good. He knew what the problem was. I had to go to the advanced
setting and check a box for authentication. After I did that, I was
able to send messages.

I then got my Motorola Razr cell phone, read the manual and turned on
Bluetooth. I read the Palm manual on how to enable a Bluetooth
connection. The Palm had a script for V3 Motorola phones. It did not
have the word "Razr" in the list. I chose V3 and the Palm and Razr
recognized each other. I was able to click on a phone number in my
Palm address list, and it dialed a phone number. The Palm also has a
dialer which is big and bright. It also allows you to create text
messages on the Palm and send them to the cell phone. I really like
this. The little letters on the Razr are almost impossible for me to
see. Motorola did a terrible job of designing the address book for the
Razr. I have had the cell phone for almost a year and have stored very
few phone numbers. I always looked them up in the PDA and then dialed.
Now I can click on the number in the PDA, and it will dial the phone.

After I did all of that, I checked my email. There was a response from
Palm tech. support that said I would have to uninstall the Sony
software before installing the new Palm Desktop. They said Sony used a
different method of encryption and referred me to a Sony tech support
site. Maybe at some point I will find a problem, but so far everything
seems to be all right. I have one memo that I had marked private on
the old Sony. I checked the new Palm and found that the memo was there
but no longer required a password to view it. I need to read the
manual to refresh my memory on how to enable the security feature.

Black Friday

If you went out and fought the crowds at 5 AM this morning, I hope you
found all the bargains you sought. You didn't see me there. I did
check a couple of Black Friday websites yesterday. I saw that Circuit
City has Sandisk 2 gb SD memory cards for $29.99. I followed the link
to the website, and the page said the price was $99.99. I went back to
the Black Friday site and found that Best Buy had the same $29.99
price. I followed this link and the price was $29.99 with free
shipping. The offer was for online only. I ordered one.

The new Palm TX that I ordered uses the SD memory cards. My old Sony
Clie used memory sticks. My Nikon camera uses CF cards. Naturally I am
forced to buy something I did not have, but I am glad that I found a
bargain.

I resisted the temptation to turn the fireplace on yesterday. It was
really too warm to use it. The pilot light is still lit. I will wait
until Monday when repair people are available before I try it again.
The tile setter is supposed to be here early Monday morning.

AT&T had my monthly bill posted online this morning. I could not
believe it. It was low. All the charges and services seemed to be
correct.Dish Network charged $99 to move the dish, but then on the
next line there was a $99 credit. I ran and got my credit card out of
my purse. I thought I better pay the bill before they change their
minds and decide to charge more. I had really dreaded seeing the AT&T
bill. I just could not stand to go through another round with their
customer service.

I have a couch potato day planned. A&E network is having a CSI Miami
marathon today. I did not watch the early years of that program.
Lately I have been watching it, and the show is growing on me. I plan
to watch a few of the shows today.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is the day to step back from the problems associated with moving
and realize that I have so much to be thankful for. It has been a
stressful year, but I have accomplished so much. The new house is
really nice. The last of the new house bugs are close to being
remedied. The sale of the Beaumont house is on track for closing next
week. I have remained healthy and have several new friends. Soon I
will be able to delete all the weather sites from my Internet Explorer
favorites list that give hurricane tracking information.

I hope the people who have read my blog and sent me encouraging
messages have a wonderful day.

Bad News

This morning when I got up I turned the fireplace wall switch on. The
flames did not ignite. I had not touched it since yesterday morning
when I had turned it on for approximately ten minutes. A man came and
replaced the drywall that had been torn out the previous day, and
Meagan arranged for the tile setter to come out on Monday. Either the
wall switch has gone bad, which I doubt; or the limit switch has
tripped again which indicates a venting problem. The pilot light is
lit. I thought I smelled gas but have changed my mind about that. I
was so upset I was shaking. It was 5 AM. I left a voice mail message
on Meagan's phone. I hope she can get someone out today. I am uneasy
about having the gas flowing over the holiday. If worse comes to worse
I will call the gas company and ask them to shut the gas to the
fireplace off.

My Sony Clie PDA battery is getting worse. I did a little more reading
of forums and reviews regarding the Dell PDA with the Windows Mobile
operating system. I read about how to convert Palm files to Windows. I
found that Dell has plans to drop out of the PDA market. Also the
process for converting Palm data to Windows sounded more complicated
than my tired brain is ready to tackle. A year ago I had decided I
wanted a Palm TX. Palm has not updated their models in the past year.
The PDA market is declining because people are switching to smart
phones. Palm is concentrating on their Treo line of cellphones with
PDA functions. I do not want to pay the high price the cell phone
carriers are charging for the data plans. I decided to go ahead and
buy the Palm TX. It is cheaper than the Dell PDA. I ordered the Palm
TX from Buydig.com. I have seen good comments about them for over two
years. Yesterday afternoon I got an email from them that they had
shipped and sent me a FedEx tracking number. It is scheduled for
Saturday delivery. I am going to call FedEx and ask them to attach my
directions to the tracking number so the package will not spend days
touring the streets of the Dallas area. The Palm TX should last for a
couple of years.

I went to the Frisco Lakes developers meeting yesterday afternoon.
Very few people attended the meeting. Homeowners were notified of the
meeting via the website and email. Either the meeting was too close to
the holiday or people are not checking the website and email. Anyway I
got very little new information. I was able to drive back home before
dark.

I Am Still Here

I am still very uneasy about the fireplace. The pilot light is lit.
This morning I turned on the flames when I first got up and was in the
kitchen. It worked normally. There is a carbon monoxide detector
installed in the ceiling near the fireplace. It has not alarmed. I
have a plug-in CO detector that I brought from Beaumont. I had it
plugged in the hall bathroom near the front of the house. This morning
I decided to move it to my bedroom. I plugged it in an outlet that is
close to the bedroom door and near the fireplace. This detector stores
its highest reading. It showed 8 ppm. I had never seen anything but 0
in the past. It makes me wonder if it were a real reading or if the
detector was damaged during the move.

I hope all the repairs can be completed to the sheetrock and tile
today so I can move on. There is a Frisco Lakes developer's meeting
for just homeowners today. They are holding it at a local school. I
think it will be dark by the time the meeting ends. I am not looking
forward to driving around unfamiliar streets after dark. My closest
neighbors are out of town and depending on me to tell them the details
of the meeting.

My new toaster is coming from Harrisburg, PA. The estimated delivery
date is next Monday. The Thanksgiving holiday must be slowing UPS
deliveries. I am going to have to do more online shopping. My Sony PDA
which uses the Palm operating system has developed a battery problem.
The battery will not hold a charge. I have been using Palm-based PDA's
for seven years. It is an extension of my brain, and I cannot get
along without one. I started looking at new models yesterday and have
decided it is time to make the switch to the Windows Mobile operating
system. I did not want to buy any computer devices until Window Vista
ships, but I have no choice. I decided that the Dell Axim 51V meets my
requirements. It has a good display and also has a removable battery.
The Sony PDA battery cannot be replaced by the user. Sony dropped out
of the PDA market in 2004 a month or two after I made my purchase.

I checked a website that has advance information on the Black Friday
sales. They have the ads for Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA and the
office supply stores such as OfficeMax. I did not see any PDA's
listed. I am going to wait until Friday. I hope Dell has some
promotional offers then.

Better

At last the fireplace operates, but it has been very painful to reach
this point. After the tile was removed I could clearly see that the
vent pipe was disconnected. Removing the tile was not the end of the
destruction. They then had to take a saw and cut out a section of the
wood fireplace frame behind the sheetrock and tile so they could
insert the new section of pipe. I went to the other side of the house
so I did not have to watch.

Finally the new pipe was in place. They turned the gas back on. The
fireplace burned for 30 minutes without the limit switch tripping. At
that point the technician shut it off and put the new logs in place.
He turned the flame back on, and it went for another 15 minutes. I am
thankful that the limit switch did what it was supposed to because the
fireplace definitely had a severe safety issue. I am also glad that I
finally saw the cause of the problem. I felt like I was being given a
line of double talk on the previous visits.

Now the repair of the tile is going to be a two-step process. At 8:30
tomorrow morning someone will be here to repair the sheetrock. That
will have to dry, and then the tile setter will put the tile back in
place. In addition there will be a visit from a painter to paint the
new section of pipe in the roof vent plus paint the new cleanout pipe
plug brick red on the Fisco Lakes Drive side of the house.

Oh Good Grief!!!

There are three of them here right now from the fireplace company. Now
they are telling me the vent pipe is broken or disconnected where it
makes a 90 degree turn right in the fireplace in my living room. They
are going to have to remove tile to get at the pipe. I am so upset.

The one man man was supposed to be here before twelve this morning. I
waited until twelve and then started calling. He had other
emergencies. I thought the vent pipe was fixed, and he was going to
replace the control valve and put the logs in the fireplace. When he
came in, I told him I wanted to stay here with the fireplace burning
for twenty minutes before he left to make sure the limit switch was
not going to trip. He said he could not do that. I told him if that
limit switch tripped and the pilot light was on he would be able to
hear me screaming wherever his next job is.

Then the semi-English speaking superintendent who was here on Friday
afternoon came to the door. He is the one who looked up in the
fireplace and could tell there was a problem with the pipe. They are
in there destroying the tile now. A third non-English speaker also
arrived and joined the melee.

They called Meagan, and she is supposed to be scheduling the repair of
the tile. I cannot bear to watch the destruction. Well, the tile is
out. It came out smoothly. There is definitely a disconnect in the
vent right above the fire. It is not in the elbow. The fireplace was
set in place before the drywall was installed. I think the
disconnected pipe is the result of insufficient supervision on the
job.

The semi-English speaking superintendent is the sharpest one of the
bunch and is doing most of the work. Some day I will look back on this
and laugh, but right now I feel like I would like to throw up.

Today, Tomorrow, Etc.

What I hope is going to be the last round with the fireplace company
will take place today. If all goes well, I will be able to put this
bad experience with the fireplace behind me. I am keeping the
thermostat set at 72 degrees. When I first get up in the morning, the
house feels slightly chilly. It is all right when I start to move
around, but I think it will be nice to able to turn on the fireplace
for a short time in the early morning.

Amazon.com sent me a tracking number for the new toaster yesterday
evening. They are using UPS this time. The UPS tracking site shows
that they have received information to pick up the package. Neither
the package origin nor the estimated delivery date are shown yet. If
the toaster is coming from the same stock point as my can opener did,
I may get the toaster tomorrow.

Before I moved I put a formula in my spreadsheet to calculate the
number of days until I moved into the new house. I forgot about the
formula and noticed this morning that it said -73. It is still
counting, but now shows a negative number. It was ten weeks on
Saturday since I moved. It would be awful to have to repeat the past
ten weeks.

I hard boiled more eggs yesterday afternoon. I accomplished the task
with much less trepidation than I had the first time I used the gas
cooktop. The water came to a boil in a considerably shorter time than
it would have on the old electric range. I don't buy eggs very often
because of all the negative information about their high cholesterol
that has been in the news over the past decade. However, I do like
hard boiled eggs as a snack once in a while.

Tomorrow I will get the final estimate on the repairs that the
inspection report on the Beaumont house requires. Then my realtor will
negotiate with the buyer. I am hoping to get through the process
without too much difficulty. This is the last major obstacle that I am
still facing.

Northing Is Simple Any More

I have written before about how I am over whelmed with all the
technology in my new house and new appliances. Yesterday I added to
the complexity of my life. When I first moved away from home, my
mother gave me the toaster that had belonged to my grandmother. My
mother had bought it for my grandmother shortly before shed passed
away. It was a good toaster and never quit working. I bought a toaster
oven and stopped using the two-slice toaster. I eventually gave the
toaster to Goodwill. I never have liked the toast the toaster oven
produces.

After years of suffering with the toaster oven, I decided I needed a
two-slice toaster. I looked in Consumer Reports and found the
top-rated toaster was made by Cuisinart. I looked on Amazon.com and
found the Cuisinart toaster, but it said the toaster was no longer
available. I checked the Cuisinart website and could not find the
top-rated model. I then started searching for the next to top model
which is made by Krups. This model is still in production. I read the
reviews on Amazon.com, and there were a few complaints. This model is
a FEM2. I then looked at the Krups website and found their best
two-slice toaster is a FEM3. I checked Pricegrabber.com for the lowest
price. Amazon.com had the best price. I then placed the order with
Amazon.com.

This morning. I was looking at the Krups website again and saw that
the manual for the toaster is available in PDF format. I downloaded
the file and started looking at the instructions. This toaster has an
LCD panel. It takes a PhD to figure out all the settings. The panel
even counts down the seconds until the toast is ready. It
automatically centers the bread in the slots. Whatever happened to the
old toasters that you drop the bread in and push a lever?

I had been following the progress of my last package from L.L. Bean. I
did not email FedEx with the directions to my house this time. The
package was put on the delivery van on Thursday morning. I waited all
day for the delivery. It did not arrive. On Friday morning the
tracking site said "Incorrect Address", but it was out for delivery
again. It was not delivered. Yesterday morning the tracking site again
said "Incorrect Address." The estimated delivery date had been changed
to November 21. I called L.L. Bean customer service and told them what
was happening. I said I had received three previous orders from them
since I had moved but had emailed FedEx with directions each time. The
customer service rep. said I should call FedEx. She said they are
available on Saturday but not on Sunday or Monday.

I called FedEx and explained what was happening. The FedEx
representative asked me for my phone number and was able to find my
email with the directions. He said he would relay the directions. A
little later I checked the tracking information, and it again said
"Out for delivery". Around 5:15 yesterday evening the doorbell rang,
and at last my package was delivered.The package was in good shape. I
was afraid it would be all torn apart with all the extra travel. I
hope my new toaster has a better trip. When you use Amazon.com's free
shipping, you never know how the order will be shipped.

On Thursday the clock man brought my old New England Clock Co. clock
back to me. He had put a new mechanism in the clock. He even replaced
the second hand with a red one like the clock originally had. It has
been keeping perfect time. While he was here I asked him if he thought
he could fix the Seiko mantel clock. He checked it and said he might
be able to fix it. He said he would take it and take a look at it. He
said he would not hurt it and there would be no charge if he is not
able to fix it. I hope he can fix it. It is much simpler to have him
pick up the clock and bring it back to me rather than shipping it to
Seiko's repair service for an estimate.

Yesterday Del Webb had a tour of the amenity center which is scheduled
to open in January. The indoor swimming pool is huge. They are in the
process of digging the hole for the outdoor pool. I noticed the clock
has finally been installed in the tower on the building. I wonder if
it will have chimes--probably not, but that would be an interesting
feature. I was a little disappointed in the computer facility and the
space allowed for the library, but overall the facility is going to
be very nice.

Dilemma

Pulte must have contacted the right people at CoServ. Yesterday
morning when I returned from my grocery shopping I had a voice message
from a women in the gas operations department of CoServ. I called, and
she said she would have someone come to my home between 8:30 and 11:30
this morning to check the gas pressure outside and inside at my
appliances. While I am waiting I pulled out the fireplace owner's
manual and read that the maximum allowable natural gas inlet pressure
to the fireplace is 10.5 inches water column. The Lennox
representative measured 8.6 gas inlet pressure to my fireplace and
said this was too high. I began to wonder which is correct--the manual
or the man. I called Meagan and left her a message. I then called the
fireplace company and finally talked to a man who said he would
contact Lennox and get an answer.

The CoServ technician came out. He said he was the one who installed
the gas meter on my house. This man was very knowledgeable and
professional. He put his gauge on the downside of the regulator. It
was just a trifle over the four ounces of pressure that is their spec.
He did reduce the pressure probably less than a tenth of an ounce. He
disconnected the meter from the house and gave the house what he said
was a five minutes leak test. I think he tested for closer to ten
minutes. I watched the gauge. The pressure did not change. He had
opened the inlet valve to the fireplace and the control valve that is
supposed to be blown during the test. He said his gauge would detect a
minute leak. The pressure did not change. He reconnected the meter,
closed the fireplace valves, checked the cooktop to remove any air
that might have entered the pipes, turned the heater back on and went
into the attic to check that the heater was operating properly. I was
very impressed with his work and am satisfied that the CoServ gas
supply is within specifications.

I called the fireplace company again and told them the gas pressure
had been reduced. The man I talked to said men were scheduled to come
out and replace the fireplace vent pipe in the attic. After lunch two
men who spoke practically no English arrived. I was not sure they
understood what they were supposed to do. They went up in the roof and
the attic. When they were finished, I understood the one man to say
that they found nothing wrong in the attic. I went out in back and
looked at the vent pipe. It was painted gray and now there is a bright
shiny metal section. I tried to tell them that was unacceptable and
that it did not conform to Frisco Lakes strict visual standards. I got
no where with them. I called Meagan and left a message. I also called
the fireplace company. The man I wanted to talk to was not available.
I was really upset.

In the meantime my nice neighbor who injured herself trying to move a
piece of heavy furniture called. She asked me if I could find
information on the Internet on how she should apply for a handicapped
parking permit. I found the application form on the Texas Department
of Transportation website and printed it out for her. I ran over to
her house with it. Of course, I missed calls from Meagan and the
fireplace company. Anyway when I listened to their messages they said
an English speaking superintendent from the fireplace company would be
out later this afternoon to inspect the work and explain to me what
had been done.

The superintendent just left. He spoke English but just barely. He
went up in the attic and came down and told me the pipe had been
replaced. I showed him the bright shiny metal on the external vent
pipe. He took a picture of it and said they would get that painted. I
don't know what to think. On Monday the man who sets up the logs, and
who will replace the supposedly leaking valve will come back. I am
going to make him stay here a minimum of twenty minutes after the
fireplace is turned on to make sure the the limit switch does not trip
again.

My bedroom is right behind the fireplace. As I walk out the door of my
bedroom, I walk right past the fireplace. I started thinking if that
fireplace ever started a house fire I would be trapped in the bedroom.
I have decided I am going to put a hammer in my night stand so I can
break a window and get out of here in case of an emergency.

In addition to the problems I am having with the new house, there is
much activity with my house in Beaumont. I am not going to say any
more about Beaumont, but I am praying that by this time next week I
will have some very good news to report.

Better

Things improved yesterday afternoon. The plumber came back and
repaired the broken clean out pipe on the side of the house. A man
from the heating and air conditioning company came and reattached the
vent pipe to the roof in the attic. He put straps at the top of the
pipe. It was strapped before, but in a place that could not support
the weight of the pipe.

When Meagan called, she said she had contacted Pulte's land manager
who coordinates with CoServe. He will attempt to get the gas pressure
issue resolved. The Lennox representative told me the house they had
visited earlier in the day on Tuesday in Denton that also had a
damaged valve was a Pulte home and the gas utility was CoServ. Pulte
probably has a significant number of houses with the Lennox fireplaces
that will develop problems if the gas pressure is too high.

The clock man called and said he had repaired my old clock made by the
New England Clock Co. He said it has kept perfect time for three days.
He will bring it back to me this afternoon. I still have not filled
out the form for the Seiko mantel clock or made any attempt to package
it. It is on my list.

I am expecting another package from L.L. Bean today. Getting packages
from UPS and FedEx has become routine. The Dillards delivery truck
found its way here without any assistance from me. One of these days
all of the transition problems into the new house are going to be
resolved, and I can settle into a normal living pattern.

The high winds have finally died down. Yesterday was really an awful
day. This morning I have to go out and do my grocery shopping. It is
cold this morning. I can tolerate the cold if there is no wind.

Curio Cabinet and The Wind

No, the wind has not blown down the curio cabinet, but it has blown
down one of the live oak trees in front of my neighbors house. It it
has been the next tree it would have hit the neighbors' RV. They
returned on Monday with the RV and have been frantically working to
unload it. The strict Frisco Lakes rules allow them to keep the RV in
front of their home for 48 hours. They had lived in the RV for two
years and have a great deal to move into the house. The wind is making
it a much more difficult job.

Today is trash and watering day. Trash containers have been blown over
up and down the street. There is paper caught in one of my trees that
is going to be difficult for me to remove. It started to rain. Two
weeks ago it rained on a Wednesday. Wednesday is the only day that we
are allowed to water.

I worked all morning on cleaning the glass and mirrors in the curio
cabinet and then unpacked my figurines. I decided to take a picture of
the cabinet. I forgot about the mirror in the back of the cabinet; and
as a result, I am in the picture. Look closely.

Update

I wrote most of this yesterday afternoon, and Gmail must be having
problems again because on Wednesday morning it still has not posted.
There are new developments which I am adding and will attempt to post
the updated version.

Just when I thought the last of the new house bugs were going to be
fixed, things have taken a turn for the worse. Yesterday morning I saw
a big ant hill at the edge of the patio. I grabbed my bag of ant
killer granules and poured some on it. I decided to walk around the
yard to see if there were any more. When I got to the west side of the
house I saw the end of a pipe with a cap on it on the ground. I looked
and saw that the PVC pipe that is the clean out pipe for the tub and
shower drain had broken off. I don't know how it can be fixed. I
stuffed a steel wool pad in the pipe to keep mice from moving in and
put this on my list.

The technician from the fireplace company came with the factory rep.
from Lennox. They started checking out the vent piping and controls on
the fireplace. They went up in the attic. I poked my head up in the
attic and one of the men showed me a pipe that had become detached
from the roof. It is the pipe from the vent fan in the master bath.
Then they went up on the roof to check out the fireplace vent. The
vent piping had been bent during construction and the gas flow is
restricted. They will have to come back and replace the vent piping.
Then they started checking out the gas controls on the fireplace. They
found my inlet gas pressure is too high. They said the gas company
needs to lower the pressure to my house. I immediately called CoServ.
We were put on hold numerous times while the office person talked to
the service department. They refused to lower the pressure. The Lennox
man then called Meagan. She is supposed to have a plumber come and
adjust the pressure. Then they determined the high pressure had blown
out a valve in the fireplace and it was leaking gas. It was not safe
to operate the fireplace with the valve in that condition. I am glad I
insisted the pilot light be shut off and everything turned off.

Meagan just called. She already has the plumber lined up to come out
this afternoon. Pulte is doing their best to make things right. I just
wish there had been fewer things to fix.

Dillards is supposed to be here sometime within the next two hours. I
hope that my curio cabinet does not bring more problems.

Wednesday morning:

The plumber showed up shortly after Meagan called. When he came in I
explained the situation. He told me he was not allowed to adjust the
regulator at the gas meter. I thought that was going to be the
situation. He thought he could adjust the regulator on the fireplace.
I explained to him that the inlet gas pressure was higher than the
regulator was supposed to handle and that the fireplace valve was
broken and not safe to operate. I told him the Lennox factory rep. had
said the gas flow to my cooktop is too high. The plumber went over to
the cooktop and turned on the burners. He agreed that the flame height
seemed to be too high when the burners were on the high setting. He
said he would like to check with my neighbor. We went two houses down.
He went in and checked their cooktop. He then went to a new house that
is not occupied and checked the gas. He then went and talked with
Meagan. He came back and said Pulte was going to have to get involved
with CoServ. He also said he could repair the broken cleanout pipe on
the side of the house without removing bricks and mortar. I was
relieved to hear this. I am caught in the middle of a stand off
because the fireplace company will not repair the fireplace until the
gas pressure is reduced and the gas company seems to be the only one
who can do this, and so far they are refusing. If the Lennox rep. is
correct there will be more damaged valves around here. My house has a
unique three-sided fireplaces. Most of the models have more
traditional appearing fireplaces.

Before the plumber left Dillards' truck arrived with the curio
cabinet. I like the cabinet. The cherry wood blends well with my Ethan
Allen furniture. The size is just right where it is placed. The
delivery men were very careful while the set the cabinet up. It has
five shelves which had to be put in the cabinet. Its glass and mirrors
need to be cleaned. I will do that this morning, and then unpack my
figurines.

Last night I noted on Weather.com that Dallas was under a high wind
warning starting at midnight and going until 6 PM on Wednesday. I woke
up during the night and heard the wind. When I got up, I went out on
the front porch and saw that the settee had blown off the porch. This
is the second time this has happened. Beaumont did not have wind like
this unless it came with a hurricane. The settee was not hurt. I will
have to remember to put it in the garage if I see another wind
warning. This morning local news says Dallas is getting wind gusts up
to 45 mph. There are delays of over five hours for flights at DFW. The
TV also said that three to four thousand people are without power.

Today

The fireplace company is scheduled to come out today and put the
correct logs in my fireplace. Yesterday when they called, they told me
that a representative from Lennox, the manufacturer of the fireplace,
will be with their technician. The Lennox rep. will be able to trouble
shoot the venting issues. I was relieved to hear this because I know
that the fireplace has a more serious problem than incorrect logs.
Cooler weather is predicted. It will be nice to be able to turn on the
fireplace early in the morning to remove the chill.

This afternoon Dillards will deliver the curio cabinet. I hope it
arrives in good shape, I am a little apprehensive about the cabinet
since I have not actually seen one. I picked it out from a picture on
the Internet. I did see some other cabinets made by Pulaski at the
furniture store in Frisco Square. They seemed to be very well made.

WiFi Print Server

Back in Beaumont I used a DLink router with a built-in print server.
This allowed me to move around the house with my notebook computer and
print without having a cable attached to my computer. AT&T supplied a
router for their DSL service, and I cannot use the old router with the
print server. I had to attach my printer to the computer with a cable.
I searched for a WiFi print server and found one made by Linksys that
is expensive and has bad reviews. Also it did not have the old
parallel port connector that I need.I searched the DLink website and
did not find what I needed when I first moved in the house. Yesterday
I searched on Amazon.com and found a DLink WiFi print server that has
a parallel port plus two USB ports. It is affordable and has decent
reviews. I decided I am going to wait until after Windows Vista ships
on January 30 before buying the print server. I want to make sure
DLink adds support for the new operating system.

Developing Bad Habits

I am having a problem. Back in Beaumont I had my recliner chair in the
room I called the library. I would sit in my recliner when I was
reading and was very comfortable. I did not have a television in that
room. Things are different in the new house. I put the recliner in the
study and also have a television right in front of the recliner. I
cannot sit in that chair with the TV on for more than twenty minutes
without falling asleep. I find myself going through the programs on
the DVR and trying to find the part where I fell asleep so I can see
the end of shows.

On Friday the sales lady from Dillards called and told me the curio
cabinet has arrived. She said they would deliver it on Tuesday. That
is two weeks earlier than they had estimated. Yesterday Dillards
delivery service called to tell me they would deliver between 2 and 4
PM on Tuesday. I told them the usual about the brand new street in a
brand new subdivision. I said I had only seen my street on the 2007
Mapsco maps. She said they were equipped with that book and would be
able to find my house. That Mapsco book is a wonderful thing. It is
too bad that not all cities have them.

On Friday the GE technician looked at all my GE kitchen appliances. He
turned on all the burners on the gas cooktop. They all worked.
Yesterday morning I decided to use the cooktop for the first time. I
turned on the burner and the gas did not ignite. I tried a second
time, and I could hear the gas flow and smell the gas, but again it
did not ignite. I rushed and opened the patio door to let fresh air in
and turned on the vent hood. I grabbed a phone and my PDA and started
looking for the GE Answer Line. Before I made the call I turned the
lock lever back and forth. Then I turned on a burner and the gas
ignited. I went ahead and put a saucepan with water on and waited for
the water to boil. I do think the water came to a boil much quicker
than with the electric range. I hard boiled six eggs. I also think it
was easier to adjust the temperature so the water just simmered while
the eggs cooked.

Update

The last few days I have had trouble getting my blog articles posted.
I am using Gmail to compose and send the articles. Until the last week
it had worked well. Now there is a lag of several hours before the
articles are posted. I get impatient and send the article a second
time. Several times I have gone back to the blog and had to delete
duplicate postings.

Yesterday the GE technician came and replaced the glass in my oven
door. The package that was delivered earlier in the week contained the
new cartridge that was composed of three glass panes in a frame. He
took the door off the oven and went outside and replaced the cartridge
in order to keep from spreading the remaining glass particles around
my kitchen. He was a very nice man.

Last week when the glass exploded I wrapped my frozen pizza in foil
and put it back in the freezer. It had not gone in the oven. It was
sitting on a pizza pan on the counter. I was a little worried that it
might have thawed too much. Anyway I cooked the pizza in the oven and
had it for lunch. It was very good, and I am feeling very well this
morning.

My next-door neighbors returned from Puerto Rico a couple of days ago.
They are leaving for about ten days to go to Indiana to visit a
daughter today. Then they will come back to Frisco Lakes for a few
weeks before returning to Puerto Rico. They went on a cruise to
Greece, Turkey and Egypt before going to back to Puerto Rico. They
heard about an Egyptian exhibit that is starting a tour in the United
States. Its first stop is going to be the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort
Worth. They invited me to go with them when they return. I talked them
into going there on DART, the Dallas light rail train. It connects to
a Fort Worth train at Union Station. Then there is a ten minute bus
ride to the museum. I love to explore public transportation systems. I
hope my neighbors do not suffer too much.

This past week has been very warm, and I have had to run the air
conditioner. A cold wave arrived yesterday. If my fireplace were
operable, I would have turned it on this morning. I talked to Meagan
yesterday, and she will be following up on the fireplace repair next
week.

Catch Up

Yesterday was a busy day. I went to the beauty shop on Main St. in
downtown Frisco and got my hair cut. Then I went to the IKEA store and
had their 99 cent breakfast. I decided I would visit the IKEA store
for their breakfast after my haircuts because the timing works out
right.

After breakfast, I went back home and UPS delivered the smaller shoes
from Shoebuy.com. I was doubly pleased. One with the early delivery
from UPS, and two that the this pair of shoes fits properly.

I capitulated and called Dish Network and asked that they move the
dish to comply with the community association's ultimatum. I did not
want to do this, I think it is ridiculous and unreasonable; but I
decided it was best to get it over with and try to forget. BUT I know
I will not be able to forget, and I will celebrate the day when the
homeowners finally take control of the community association. I hope
the first order of business will be to oust the management company.
The installer from Dish Network was not happy with the situation, but
he was very polite and professional and complied with the guidelines
to the best of his ability.

The plumber came later in the afternoon to check out why there was no
hot water to the hall bathroom tub. He knew immediately what the
problem was when he walked in. He asked me if I had another bath. When
I said yes, he asked if I had tried the hot water before the previous
day. I said no. He told me the Moen valve has a cartridge that is
supposed to float back and forth to control the mixing of hot and cold
water. He said if the water is not turned on for some time the
cartridge can freeze. He said sometimes just a tap can free the
cartridge; and if that did not work, he would replace the cartridge.
He tapped and nothing happened. He disassembled the valve and showed
me how the cartridge works. He put in a new cartridge, and there is
now hot water for the hall bathroom tub. I am going to put a reminder
to in my PDA to turn on the hot water at that tub every couple of
weeks.

After lunch when I opened the door there was a package propped against
the wall. I looked at it and it was from GE. It had been delivered by
FedEx. It was addressed with my name and street address, but it had
Plano, TX 75023 on it. I though FedEx is really getting good to sort
things out and deliver to Frisco. I thought the package probably
contained the glass for my oven door. I called Meagan to confirm. She
said that was the way GE operates. They send parts and then the
technician comes to install. He will be here tomorrow.

I have an old clock made by New England Clock Co. Apparently they are
no longer in business. I broke the clock by accidentally hitting the
hands while I was cleaning. The clock has sentimental value for me. I
called the man who set up my grandfather clock and asked him if he
could repair the clock. He thinks he can and he is going to come and
pick up the clock this afternoon.

I have a Seiko mantel clock. It was knocked off the mantel back in
Beaumont during one of those terrible storms. The whole house shook. I
heard a crash. A picture above the mantel fell and knocked the clock
to the floor and damaged the mechanism. I found the Seiko USA website
and emailed them. They sent me a form and instructions for sending it
to their service center for an estimate. I have plenty of bubble wrap
but do not have a suitable box to send it in. I think I will take it
to the UPS store and let them package it for me.

I could probably get new clocks for less money that it will cost to
repair my two old clocks, but I am getting to a point in life where I
have an attachment to my old things that have been with me for so many
years.

Something Went Right, But....

This morning I drove down to the Plano Medical Center for my mammogram
at HealthSouth. There was dense fog this morning, and it was a little
frightening to go out on FM 423 when I could not see clearly, but I
encountered no problems. The medical center is quite large and has
many buildings. I could not find Building D and had to go in another
building and ask for directions. Building D had plenty of ground level
parking. I filled out the stack of paper and was called in by the
technologist close to my appointment time. The technologist told me
they had received my films from the Beaumont HealthSouth. I was very
relieved to hear that. It can be a real hassle to get medical records
transferred.

Yesterday the fireplace company called and said they were not going to
come out until they received the correct logs for my fireplace. The
woman told me they think the incorrect logs are causing the venting
problem and causing the limit switch to trip. I am having a very
difficult time understanding that, but all I can do is wait for the
logs. The logs are supposed to arrive on Monday. If the problem
continues with the correct logs, they will hear plenty from me.

I found a new problem today. I had not run any water into the hall
bathtub. I turned the water valve on to the mid position and let the
water run for some time. The water did not get warm. I turned the
valve clear to the left which is the total hot water position. To my
amazement the water cut off. I hate to think about what might be
wrong. I called Meagan. She wanted to leave this until my 90 day walk
through since she said It was not an emergency because I had another
bathtub. I told her I was tired of the difficult climb into the
whirlpool tub and wanted to try out the hall bathroom tub. She agreed
to call a plumber. She called back shortly and said the plumber would
be in the area tomorrow and would be out in the afternoon.

I had a little visit with one of the neighbors across the street.
They, too, have had a comparable number of problems with their house;
but they are not the same ones that I have had. The good thing is that
everyone says Pulte/Del Webb is doing their best to correct the
problems.

Nice Day

Yesterday and today Frisco has received some badly needed rain. My
attitude toward rain has really changed since I moved here. Now I am
grateful for every drop that falls instead of gritting my teeth and
hoping the streets would not flood this time. Last night my NOAA
weather radio alarmed with a flash flood warning for Collin County.
When I unpacked the radio I looked up the codes for Collin and Denton
Counties on the NOAA website and programmed my radio. Ever since the
display has been saying "Check Manual." The weather service is
supposed to send out test signals every week. In Beaumont the signals
seemed to be sent out every other week. During the week in between the
display would say "Check Manual." I was wondering if I had done
something wrong. I must have done everything right since the alert was
received last night. This morning I checked the display and it said
"Weather Alert On." I have concluded the problem is the weather
service up here does not send out the test signals.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a house blessing for a lady that I met
the day after I moved in. She lives across Frisco Lakes Dr. from me.
She is a member of a local Episcopal church. I had never attended a
house blessing before. It was a very nice service. The priest blessed
each room in the house. A group from her church and quite a few people
from Frisco Lakes were there. I thought the blessing was a very nice
thing to do.

I have a heavy cotton tunic sweater. I decided to be brave and wash
and dry it in my new washer and drier. That sweater when wet would
have been enough to throw my old Maytag washer off balance and cause
it to heave itself across the room. The new Oasis machine had no
problem with the big heavy wet lump. I have a sweater drying rack that
I assemble and lay across the bathtub. It is difficult to assemble and
often comes apart and falls in the tub. This time I decided to try the
rack that came with my clothes dryer. It allows you to place something
on the rack so that it lies flat and is not tumbled. It worked very
well and my sweater looked much better than when dried slowly on a
rack over the bathtub. The sweater is so heavy it takes more than two
days to dry without the heat. My first washer and drier were Kenmores.
The drier had a similar rack. Maytag did not have that feature. It is
a good feature, and I am glad my new drier has the rack. I am sure I
will use it frequently.

Today the company that installed the fireplace is supposed to send
someone out to trouble shoot the fireplace. I hope the problem can be
solved today. I just do not like having to have things fixed and
having repair people come in my house. I want some tranquility.

Saturday Morning

This morning I unpacked the last box that contained crystal, washed
everything and put it away. It was relief to get the last of the
crystal out of the boxes. All the bubble wrap that I bought at Sam's
did what it was supposed to do. As I sat on on the living room floor
and unwrapped each piece, I thought about how I sat on the living room
floor in Beaumont last spring and summer and wrapped each piece. I
still have to go back and wash the big pieces of crystal that I have
sitting around the house. I unpacked those pieces first and did not
wash them.

I have been cleaning the kitchen each day. I still need to double
check the oven for any remaining pieces of glass. The oven has an
awful burnt smell in it. I wonder if it has more problems than just
the glass. A technician from GE called yesterday and said he was
ordering the glass for the door. Apparently he will replace just the
glass instead of the whole door. I am going to insist that he stay
here while the oven heats to 400 degrees to make sure it is working
properly.

This week I have made a couple of trips down to The Colony. I went
back to the Wal-Mart at the corner of 121 and 423. I got a better
impression of it than I did during my first visit. I like the one on
Ohio Dr. much better since it has gasoline pumps and is adjacent to
Sam's.

This morning I went back to The Colony and found the post office. It
is over five miles one way to the post office, but it is closer than
the Frisco post office. I really miss the convenience of having
everything so close to my house as I had in Beaumont, but one can't
have everything. There are not too many other things in Beaumont that
I miss.

Update

I am keeping to my self-imposed schedule and unpacking one box of
crystal each day. I did that this morning. I washed, dried and placed
the last of the stemware that goes in the china cabinet in place. I
have one more box of crystal that contains tumblers and champagne
flutes to put away elsewhere.

Yesterday there was a little excitement in my life. People are
laughing at me for not turning on the cooktop or oven after almost two
months in the house. I went to the grocery store and bought a frozen
pizza and some baking potatoes. I wanted to test the oven and try the
convection features of both the microwave and wall oven. I decided to
have the pizza for lunch. I read the manual and learned that I should
press the pad labeled, "Bake" and enter the desired temperature on the
numeric keypad. I entered 400. My neighbor had complained that her
oven takes a long time to reach temperature. I started watching the
clock. After twelve minutes my oven was right at 320 when I heard a
loud pop. It sounded like an explosion and scared me silly. I noticed
the glass in the oven looked strange. I ran over and turn it off and
opened the door. The inner glass panel had shattered. It looked like
one of those defective rear car window that you sometimes see that has
broken into thousands of pieces. I was very glad that GE used the same
type of safety glass in the oven.

I called Meagan and told her what happened. She said she would contact
GE. I let the oven cool down and tried to figure out how to clean up
the shattered glass. I could not close the oven door until the loose
glass was removed. I did not want to vacuum glass with my good
household vacuums. I have a shop vacuum, but its hoses and tools are
still in the boxes in the garage. Even my dust pan and whisk broom are
still packed in the garage boxes.. I called Meagan and asked her if
she could send someone over with appropriate cleaning tools. She said
she had what was needed and would be over. I wrapped my pizza in foil
and put it in the freezer. Meagan came over, and we cleaned up the
mess.

Later Meagan emailed and said she had contacted GE. They will bring me
a new door a week from today. I thought there was probably a small
crack in the glass that caused the problem, but GE told Meagan that
the panel was probably installed with the wrong side facing the oven.
Meagan said a supervisor from the company that installed the fireplace
will be out on Monday to try and determine exactly why the fireplace
keeps going out. I hope the oven door and fireplace are the last of
the new house bugs. I want to finish the unpacking and put the move
out of my mind.

Fireplace & Shoes

I am plodding a long. A technician from Williams Insulation came to
check out the fireplace today. He took one look at the fireplace and
said the wrong logs were in it. He said he wished he had a picture to
show his bosses. I got out my camera and took a picture and printed it
for him. He then cleaned the glass inside and out. He thought it was
really bad the way the fireplace had been left. Then he found the
control panel is bent and so is the cover panel. He said he would get new ones for me. He said the limit switched probably tripped because it was new. He showed me where the limit switch was and how to reset it. He left the fireplace turned on. About a minute after he went out the door the flames went out.

I ran outside, and he was still there. He came back in. He called his office. They told him to change the limit switch. He did that. Then the flames died out a couple of times while he watched. The next theory is that the vent to the roof is blocked. This man said someone else would have to check out the vent. He left. I called Meagan and told her what happened, She assured me that they would get it fixed.

Last Thursday I sent the shoes I had bought online from Shoebuy.com back to them. I have been watching the UPS tracking information. The
package was delivered to them yesterday. Yesterday afternoon I was surprised to get an email from Shoebuy.com acknowledging that they had received the returned shoes, and they had already processed a refund to my credit card. I thought that was amazing that they acted so quickly. I think that is the fastest service I have ever had on a return. To top that, two hours later I go an email from them that said they were processing the order for the half-size smaller shoes.

Wednesday

For once I was right. No trick or treaters came to my door last night
so I did not have to suffer the humiliation of not having any candy on
hand. Now there is no left over candy to rot my teeth and make me fat.

Now I am waiting for Meagan and the fireplace installer to show up to
make repairs. I hope the problem is something obvious and does not
take long to repair. It is cooler this morning, and I am ready to use
the fireplace.

Daylight savings time pulled another gotcha on me this morning. The
lawn sprinklers ran at 7:30 AM instead of 8:30. That made me guilty of
illegal watering. There is supposed to be no watering between 5 AM and
8 AM. When I looked out, I saw the people across the street also
forgot to change the time on their sprinkler controller. Yesterday I
finally changed my watch and the clock in the car. I was thinking that
my VCR's automatically adjust for daylight savings time. I bet they
will be all fouled up next year when the daylight savings time period
is lengthened. I still have not connected a VCR to a television or
even decided if I am going to keep them.

I unpacked one more box of china and crystal this morning and washed
and dried everything without incident. All of the china is put away.
The Waterford hocks came out of this box. I think they are the most
expensive stems in my collection. It was a relief to get them put
away. I have three boxes with more Waterford crystal. I decided it is
best to unpack and wash the contents of only one box a day. If I
get rushed, tired or distracted that is when accidents happen.

I finally got a phone book from AT&T yesterday. It is the white pages.
I see that was published June, 2006. That must be when the Dallas
phone books are sent out. If I had not raised a fuss, I probably would
not have got a book until next summer. I asked for both the while and
yellow pages. I really need the yellow pages. I just cannot seem to
find the information I need at yellowpages.com like I can from a paper
book.