It started with a phone call. M and I were out to dinner at Four Green Fields, and my phone rang. I let it go to voicemail, then later on ducked into the bathroom to listen to the voicemail. I perched on the toilet in the dingy restroom, listening to my message, then I got a photo message. I clicked OK to view it, briefly glimpsed a picture of my sister's car with a big dent in it, and somehow my phone leaped out of my hands.

In slow motion, the phone arced from my hands to the floor, where there was a drain in the floor. The cover to the drain sat next to the hole. The phone dropped directly into the hole. I stared at my hands, wondering how that had just happened.

At first I assumed the phone was lost forever. But when I stood up and looked into the hole, I saw that in fact it was a dry pipe that went down a few feet then took a right-angled turn. My phone was wedged in the turn, in view.

It was in sight, so it was retrievable after all! I rolled up my sleeve, plunged my arm in almost to my elbow, and stretched. Wiggling my fingers, I couldn't even feel it. It was a deep hole.

Embarrassed, I realized I'd need to ask for help. "What I really need," I thought to myself, "is somebody with skinnier arms." It didn't look all that far away, I just couldn't reach my arm in far enough.

I returned to the table and explained to M, "We have a situation." He suggested I talk to our waitress. I didn't think her arms were skinny enough either. There was another waitress I'd seen with really skinny arms, but I started with our own waitress.

When I, very red-faced, explained what had happened, she grabbed somebody who was sitting at the bar and smoking. "I need you," she said. I later realized he was probably the owner or manager. As the three of us walked to the ladies' room, she and I agreed that we needed skinny arms. We both spotted the small thin waitress simultaneously, and she recruited her to our task.

The skinny-armed waitress tried, but couldn't reach it. The manager took a look, and said the pipe was a lot deeper than we realized. "Can we try a broom, or something long?" The manager then grabbed another guy who'd just come in, telling me that his handyman could fix anything. He grabbed a few tools and went in.

I waited outside in the hallway with my waitress, because the bathroom had gotten crowded. "Do you want a drink," she asked me. I said no, because I was hoping we'd have my phone retrieved any second.

Then the handyman then came out and said he was going next door to the dollar store to see if he could buy something that would help, and left the building.

The owner returned with a coat hanger. "Where'd he go?" We said the dollar store, and he said, "I don't want to retrieve it while he's gone, he'd be disappointed." I convinced him that it'd be okay to try, and he unbent the coat hanger to turn it into a long wire with a hook on the end.

He started fishing around in the hole, with me watching. The engineer in me was itching to shove him aside and try it myself, and I was sure that a better solution would be to bend the coat hanger in half, and have two smaller hooks reaching under the phone (for better stability). However it was his bathroom and his hole, and he seemed sure it would work, so I left him to it.

At this point a customer came in wanting to use the bathroom, so we all cleared out to give her privacy. The owner told me that in 29 years, this had never happened before. Then he congratulated me and shook my hand. Beaming with pretend pride, I went back to my table to report the current status to M.

He shook his head as I described the situation, laughing at my dilemma, and I laughed too. It's certainly one of the stranger things that's ever happened to my phone!

The handyman reappeared, and our waitress came by and said, "He's got a little net."

I went back into the bathroom to check on the status. The handyman was kneeling at the hole, with a long strange bamboo-like pole that had a net on the end of it - probably for aquariums or something. He had a flashlight in his other hand, and was trying to fish the phone out. My waitress and I observed for awhile, and she asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, I've got it," he told her, a little impatient. "Go wait tables."

"This is my table," she told him. I laughed. "Anyway I offered them a drink, and they said they didn't need anything."

"Maybe you'd better bring us another round after all," I said, beginning to realize this would take awhile. The phone was clearly retrievable, but we needed to find the right combination of improvised tools to get it out of the stupid pipe.

I sat down at the table, and gave M the latest status. "Also I've ordered us more drinks." He brightened at that, but pronounced himself still befuddled by the whole situation. I shrugged... the whole thing was rather absurd.

We sat and drank for awhile, then I popped back into the bathroom to check how things were going. The handyman had the net in one hand, pole-end pointing in the hole, and the coat-hanger in his other hand. He also had a flashlight propped so it was pointing down the hole. "I got it halfway up," he told me, "but then it fell again. We're almost there though."

A cook walked in and said, "Here, I've got something for you!" He slid a pair of salad tongs across the floor to the handyman. I was excited by them, I thought that if I reached my arm in as far as it would go, holding the tongs, I could probably reach it and pull it out. He said it'd still be too far for me to reach. I then tried to suggest my idea of bending the coat hanger in half, but he was too focused on his almost-working solution, so I didn't press it.

At one point he finally got the phone hooked, and he eased it up. It was just inches from the top of the hole. I crouched behind him, offering to reach around and see if I could grab it with my fingers. "What I need you to do," he told me, "is grab it with the pliers."

"The pliers, are you sure?" He insisted, so I reached around and grabbed the pliers. There was only room for my one hand, and they wouldn't open wide enough to go around the phone. Then it dropped down again. We both let out exasperated sighs.

At this point two very drunk nurses barged into the bathroom, nearly running us both over. He asked if they'd mind if he continued doing maintenance with the stall door closed. They didn't, so he closed his stall and they each went into a stall on either side of him. I wasn't able to help then, and they were loud and obnoxious, so I went back to my table.

M and I sat, sipping our drinks, shaking our heads over the whole ridiculous saga. Then the cook poked his head out and said, "He got it, come get your phone!"

I sprang up, and the cook explained that he'd gotten it up to the top again, and this time the cook had reached in with his hand and grabbed it before it fell again. Hooray!

I walked into the bathroom, and the handyman was drying the phone off with a paper towel. "Here, I've cleaned it for you." There was dirt all over the floor that had been scraped off the pipe during the extraction process, and the phone had been covered with dirt. I blinked at him. Had he just washed my phone in the sink??

I didn't ask though, because at this point, what difference did it make? The phone was clearly wet, whether there had been some moisture in the bottom of the pipe after all, or whether he had decided to put it under running water for me. I bundled it up in a paper towel and took it back to my table.

The poor phone's screen was lit up, and it was vibrating. Non-stop vibrating... not good. Also it kept rebooting. I pulled the battery out, wrapped up all the pieces, and put it in my pocket. Functional or not, at least it was with me again!

We thanked the handyman several times, and he said ruefully, "It's okay. Sadly, believe it or not, this is actually my job."

Afterword: I left the battery out and let the phone dry out all night. This morning I took an old toothbrush to it and scrubbed out all the dirt I could find. It's now booting up fine, and mostly working. I can do texts and internet, and I can make calls, but I can't hear through the earpiece. I have to put it on speaker phone to hear. The screen has a blotch on it, which is probably moisture somewhere inside that I can't access (I've tried). It makes the wrong noises, and the notification light isn't working. However all the major functionality works. I'll have to decide in a couple of days, once it dries out more and I clean it more thoroughly, if it works well enough or not. I've been lusting after a Palm Pre for months now, but my contract with ATT doesn't run out for 10 more months. Decisions, decisions!

More when I figure out what's wrong with my card reader....
( Read more... )

I'm getting over a cold, and I've been a bit lonely recently. M is out at "deer kamp" this week. Things aren't going great for the mighty hunter thus far. Apparently pleasant weather is not good for deer hunting. Deer are not, it turns out, like me. They don't think to themselves, "Oooh, what a lovely day, I think I'll go for a bit of a stroll." Cold weather gets deer moving more.

Basically this means that M and I have both been doing a fair amount of reading. I've been doing it dressed in fleece jammies, curled up on a couch, and he's been doing it dressed in bright orange canvas, curled up in a deer blind.

I would think that I'm winning, except for the fact that I went to work today, and he's on vacation. Also I have a cold, and he doesn't. Oh well... I'm slowly getting over my cold, and he'll be back to cook dinner for us on wednesday, and I'm looking forward to it!

In the meantime, I finally had another house showing yesterday. I made him do the "sell this house" dance with me on the phone. ("Wait," he said, "I need to go deeper into the woods so nobody sees me." But then he danced with enthusiasm.)

Along with doing the "sell this house" dance, I made cookies. This has been the first showing for which I've had enough warning and enough free time to dart out to the grocery, buy some cookie dough, and put it into the oven before the showing. I left a little plate of fresh-baked cookies on the table for the potential buyers, and the place smelled nicely of baking.

The dancing and cookies combined seem to have helped! Nothing's been sold yet, but at least I got my first positive feedback. About half the viewers haven't given any feedback at all. The other half have had some complaint or another. Yesterday's person expressed some interest, and the buyer's agent said the house showed great. The only downside is that it was the person's first day out, so they aren't ready to commit to anything until they've seen more.

So who knows. I'm not capable of not getting my hopes up (I just finished looking at more houses for sale in Northville), and I'm sure I'll be feeling despondent about the whole thing again soon, but realistically anything could happen. I don't know when they are hoping to buy, or what they're looking for, or anything. Still... positive feedback is definitely encouraging!

Thursday my PODS comes back, and I begin Step One (of about a zillion steps) of the process of moving into M's house. Sure would be nice if the house sells first, but we're doing this thing anyway!

Tags: dating, health, house

I think we found a petty good solution.

It is November, and with each passing day it becomes less likely that my house will sell this year. This year's first-time home buyer tax credit officially ends with the end of this month. Also, although some sales do happen in the winter (I bought this house in December!), December and January are historically the slowest months in real estate.
( lots of rambling )

Tags: house

Friday M and I went to a Halloween party at K's. An excellent evening was had by all. It was raining off and on, and there was a bonfire. Fortunately there was enough "off" to the rain that I could enjoy the fire. I was inspired to create an extremely simple costume idea for the two of us: we went as a Physician Assistant and a Java Developer.



The costumes puzzled some people, and I suspect several people didn't think we were in costume at all. But some people found it amusing, myself included, and that's all that matters.

Also, there was a woman there who was doing henna tattoos on anyone who wanted one. I'd never had one before. At first I didn't want one, because I was afraid I'd mess it up with my long sleeves. But once I saw how pretty every else's was, I decided to go for it anyway.



It's fading today, but still pretty.

Tags: holidays

A giggle for a Monday morning....

In a couple of weeks I am going to "Prom For Adults", a charity event. I have a great vintage dress, but need to accessorize it. I think I have the right earrings, but the necklace I'd picked out seems way too bland. I need something splashier somehow, I think. Then I need to think about shoes! I could wear my silver ones, or hunt for something more fitting.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

It's been a manic-depressive couple of months for me. Not in the actual bipolar sense, I should hasten to add -- just in the older sense, of whirling from manically happy to depressed on an unpredictable and daily basis.

The good stuff is very good. My job is challenging and rewarding, and I like the people I work with. My relationship makes me very happy. M remains sweet, funny, and somebody I want to keep around in my life. I want to spend more time with him -- and therein lies the problem.

The depressing part is just how hard that is, to spend more time together. Specifically, to move in together. It's weird, really. I mean so many people do this stuff all the time, and they make it look so easy. Fall in love, move in, do other things, sometimes all within the space of months!

For us, the challenge of consolidating from two houses to one seems almost insurmountable. I thought we had a plan figured out, beginning with putting my house on the market. But here it is nearing the end of October and although many have looked at it, nobody has made an offer on my house. Not even a bad one, let alone a good one! The market here is awful right now. I've lost hope; I don't think it will sell this year. I'm still going through the motions of fixing it up every morning in case there is a showing, but I don't really expect anyone else to come. (although I still wish they would.)

It makes me so sad. How can we get to the place we really want to be, which is a third yet-unseen house that will comfortably accommodate both of us, if we can't even sell the house we thought would be easiest to sell? It also makes me sad because we have both waited so long, looking for each other. I wish it could be easier, now that we're found. I want to move on to the next step, move forward in this relationship, see where it leads.

I realize I don't have to sell my house to do that, and we're starting to investigate other options, but it sure would have been easier if I could.

Tags: dating, house

I was at M's house, hanging out in the kitchen area. He was cooking something. I got a call on my cell from a doctor. Not a doctor I knew, but my phone identified the doctor's name for some reason.

"We got the biopsy results on those moles," she said, "and there is some bad news. The biopsy shows a combination of a Strep virus and skin cancer."

I was startled and more than a little horrified that there could be nastiness growing in my face. She reassured me that chemotherapy was not required, and outlined a complicated program which involved (among other things) heat, electrolysis, scraping, and ozone. I wordlessly took notes on a piece of scrap paper.

I was frightened and upset, trying to communicate the news to M while getting additional information out of the doctor on the phone. "How bad is it, how long will it take?"

As the conversation concluded, I started getting confused. Wait, I had those moles removed from my face over two years ago. Why were they only being biopsied now?

Later that night we went to sleep after agonizing over my situation. I woke up when his alarm went off, got up on one elbow so I could see him, and said, "I keep hoping it was just a bad dream."

"I can see how you'd feel that way," he agreed, getting out of bed. But we both looked to the left side of the bed where the sheet of paper with my hand-written notes and his suggestions lay. The physical evidence of the evening's news was still there. He went to start getting ready for work, and I closed my eyes again.

I woke up when his alarm went off, and he got out of bed. I looked to the left side of the bed where the sheet of paper with my hand-written notes and his suggestions lay.

It wasn't there.

"I think I was having a bad dream," I said. He looked at me in the dark. "I woke up, and I told you I wished it had all been a bad dream, and you said you understood why I'd want that, but it was real.

"But that didn't happen, right? You didn't say that?"

"No, that didn't happen. You don't have to worry," he added, puzzled in his sleepiness. "I love you, now try to go back to sleep."

Last weekend my sister visited, and she and I and M all went for a 40 mile bike ride. We did an old classic, the Blue Water Ramble. Due to the threatening weather, we didn't go into Canada, but it was still a great ride. It was my first official Team Alpaca ride I attended all year! (no Tour de Troit this year for me, alas) Kinda sad, seeing as how it's fall now....



Now I'm torn as to what to do this weekend. M and Sis have both left town. I'd like to ride again. There are two interesting-looking bike rides saturday, one in Brighton (Tour Livingston) and one in Warren (Breast Cancer Ride). I sent out a few emails, but I haven't found anybody else interested in riding this weekend yet. I'm leaning toward the Warren one, since it's closer to home and for a good cause.

Anybody interested in doing some Team Alpaca riding? You don't have to be a current memeber; anybody who rides a bike with me is automatically a Team Alpacian. I know there's a con going on that weekend too. I might swing by. Anybody I know going to be at the con?

Tags: biking, conclave

We got home from vacation to cold weather and rain. I'm of mixed minds on this: I'm soooo pleased that it didn't happen during vacation, but honestly -- isn't returning back to everyday life after vacation difficult enough? Why does God have to throw in rain and cold also?

I turned my heat on this evening when I got home from work. (and it's only september?!) I only tweaked it up a few degrees, but feeling that hot air come out of the vent sure felt nice.

At work I got a prize! Every month a couple of "Difference Maker" awards are given out. The award entails a gift bag with a balloon to be given to you by your executive (CIO in my case), a certificate, a leather portfolio, a couple of cute office supplies, and (here is the best part, especially since it's cold and rainy now) a parking space! My parking space will be labeled with my name, and it will be right in front of the building. I get to use it for the month of October.

It's a neat program, one that I didn't really know about previously since I'm new. (It's also kind of cool to have won it, since I'm new.) It defers lots of honor and recognition, you feel special for a month, and everybody knows you are special, but it doesn't require much in the way of financial investment.

The guys on the other side of the wall said they could feel the heat radiating from my embarrassed blush, alerting them to some sort of business award being bestowed. I was so pleased, but I turned bright red when embarrassed.

In other news, far less good news, I have decided to take the plunge and reduce the price on my house. If you are looking for anybody who wants the best little house in Royal Oak, and wants to spend under 120000, send them to me.

Today while leaving the grocery store, I saw a Saturn Ion in the parking lot. A Quad Coupe, just like mine, only in black. Admiring the car, I noticed the license plate: GEEKGRL. That was one of the names I was considering, back when I was picking out my customized plate! I didn't get it because it was taken. Apparently, by a neighbor of mine, oddly enough. I have a soulmate: she shops at my grocery, drives the same model car as me, and got the license plate name I had contemplated -- one fairly similar to the one I settled on.... Nifty!

Yesterday was wineries. The day before was Boots, Boats, and Bikes. Today, we ride around some lakes!

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/mi/glen-arbor/1202937370

I'm happy today because a couple of (very cool) friends of mine had a garage sale, and managed to sell some of my unwanted stuff. Not a ton was sold, but even more was given away to people who will hopefully use and appreciate it. Also I have somebody from Craigslist checking out a leather coat I've been trying to sell, and hopefully that'll sell tomorrow also. Hooray for decluttering, and hooray for having some gas money for my vacation!

Speaking of which, I'm going on vacation friday! M and I are going for a week-long driving vacation exploring Northern Michigan. Hooray for vacation! It's been a crazy year. I really need a mental break from stuff, and hopefully this will be it. We are going to Grayling, Mackinac Island, Tahquamenon Falls, Glen Arbor, and the Leelanau Peninsula. We are taking our bikes, and going hiking, and visiting wineries, and all kinds of nice stuff.

Sadly, my fancy new knee brace still hasn't arrived in the mail yet, and I'm worried I won't have it before we leave. I was hoping it would make hiking more comfortable. I'm not sure how my knee will feel about hiking without a brace. I might feel fine, but it might be painful - especially if I do lots of hiking, which would be my preference. I like outdoorsy stuff like that. But it might still arrive: it still has two days. Hopefully!

Either way, I'm going on vacation, that that'll be great. Also, last night M and I buried a statue of St Joseph in my yard, upside down, facing the house. Also my realtor has scheduled an open house for sunday. I figure those two things combined will cause me to be faxing some Offer-Accepting paperwork to my realtor while on vacation. It's a nice theory, right? That I'd come home to a sold house? That'd be a nice mental break indeed!

A girl can dream... right?

Tags: house, vacation

Over the weekend, I made an incredibly short trip to Chicago. I left at 9am saturday morning, and was back in town by 9pm sunday night. During that time I drove five hours, saw my parents, heard stories and saw photos of their vacation, walked to the zoo, enjoyed a home-cooked meal, hung out with my sister, rode fifty-nine miles on my bicycle, and drove another five hours. Whew!

The zoo was amusing. My parents live very near the Lincoln Park Zoo, a free zoo run by the city. It's a nice place to walk, so often when I visit we'll stroll over. There is an alpaca exhibit, but every single time I've gone there, it's been empty.

I'd begun to believe it was a conspiracy. I've looked many times, and never once seen an alpaca there - I think they put the sign up just to tease me. Either there were no alpacas, or the alpacas were intentionally hiding from me.

Not saturday though! For the first time, I walked up and there was a fuzzy white alpaca near the wall. It glanced over and froze. Clearly I'd not been expected at this time. Another furry head popped up, and an alpaca who had been lying down behind a tree looked at me. They looked at one another. The gig was up, they'd been made. There was no longer any reason to hide or pretend they didn't exist.

At this point, apparently the alpacas decided it was okay to show themselves to me. A total of six alpacas came strolling out from behind a wall! I was stunned, but pleased.



Sunday morning was the Boulevard Tour. My sister and I have been hoping all summer to get in a bike ride or two together, and we hadn't succeeded until now. It's challenging, since we live in different states. But we met in Chicago and finally went for a ride together. Our mom joined us too.

It was fun! It's the farthest I've gone this year, and I could feel it. I had about 45 comfortable miles in me, it turns out. Unfortunately I had to ride a total of 59 to get home. The last ones were pretty exhausting, but I still made it. I was proud. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride, and the scenary was lovely.

My mom and me in front of the skyline and lake.


I'd forgotten my clip-in bike shoes, so I borrowed my sister's clip-in sandals. I wasn't used to them, and they were harder to clip out of the pedals than my own shoes. Still, something is better than nothing! I did have one embarrassing incident though: we were all stopped at a light, some of the group started to go, and I started also. Then somebody saw a car coming and stopped fast. I had just clipped my shoe in (which is odd, because I don't usually clip so fast), and couldn't get it out on time. I stopped with my feet still in the pedals, and the bike tipped right over. Ouch! I have a mildly skinned elbow, a sore knee, a bruised ego, and an impressive purple lump on my butt.

Oh well, it was still a beautiful ride. An exhausting weekend, but worthwhile, and I'm so glad I made the time for it!

Tags: alpaca, biking, family, travel

My boyfriend works in a hospital. He's like Turk, only in vanilla. Sometimes he tells me that he has really crazy and busy days. I'm sure it can be stressful at times, but I still persist in believing that they go something like this:

This is me in my new nigh-impossible-to-photograph geeky shirt. (If you can't make it out, that's the ghostbusters car.)

I just ordered and was fitted for a custom-made orthopedic knee brace, an "unloader" which is supposed to shift my weight from the cartiledge-free side of the knee to the undamaged side. I'm dubious, because it looks big and bulky. Also, won't it be uncomfortable having my knee pushed to the side? But I'm trying it anyway, because I do find walking on this exposed bone to be fairly uncomfortable too.

On the plus side, I selected metalic purple for the color, so I'm a little excited about that!

nobody has made me an offer on my house yet, which is frustrating. But I hope it will happen soon....

Who uses Mint.com? Do you like it? Who knows anything about it?

In other news, five people will look at my house this week. So far nobody's wanted to buy it, but I'm very pleased with the number of people looking!

In still other news, I am now the tech lead on my project at work, so that's pretty cool.

And I think I'm popping over to Chicago this weekend. Wish the weather would be better; it'd be fun to go to the beach.

Yesterday my colleague entertained us with the following oral recitation. It's apparently from Fritz the Cat, though I'd never heard it before. He did it well, and we were inspired to stand and applaud.

I've been up and down the four
corners of this big old world.
I've seen it all!
I've done it all!
I've fought many a good man,
laid many a good woman.
I've had riches and fame
and adventure.
Stood face to face with danger
and death countless times.
I've tasted life
to the fullest...
and still my soul cries out...
in this hungry, tortured,
wrecked quest, "More!"

Tags: quotes