Today I packed a steak and some scalloped potatoes that we had left over from dinner for my work lunch. Our department moved to the other side of the building on Friday, so all my stuff was still in boxes. I could have sworn that I packed my fork in one of said boxes, but alas, I could not find it...damn. I was shocked, however, to find that I had accumulated five spoons and a butter knife.



So there I am, sawing through my delicious steak with a dull-as-all-hell butter knife and a spoon because I'm too lazy to walk (or even ride the elevator) up to the 3rd floor to scrounge up a fork. Needless to say, I ate alone in my cubicle to hide my shame.

I know it's probably the most overused word of the day, but I don't really think there is any way to describe what we are witnessing today. It is truly the dawn of a new era...

Our water heater (which is in a small closet in the garage) developed a leak over the last few weeks, so yesterday we decided to finally call it in to the home warranty company before anything exploded. They dispatched The Secret Service Plumbing Company to our house today. The guy actually has a bachelor's degree in physics and was pursuing his masters when he decided that he really didn't like being a physicist and dropped out to become a plumber -- go figure.



Anyway, the water heater tank had a small rupture that was only going to get bigger, so it was a good thing we called. He connected a drain hose to the drain plug and was proceeding to drain the tank so that he could replace it when not one, but two valves decided to fail, meaning that water came gushing out all over the poor guy and into the garage. We got the situation under control by turning the water off at the main cut-off. Phew. He moseyed over to pick up a new water heater and is installing it as we speak.

Needless to say, I'm glad this whole explosion of water happened while the plumber was here.

Remember the 100 Push Up Challenge that I wrote about back in October 2008? Well, Selina and I fell off that wagon some time ago. I think we got maybe halfway through the second week before we forgot all about our little workout routine. Maybe it had something to do with Selina getting laid off from LIM two weeks after we started...who knows.

In any case, Selina and I decided that we needed to get back with the program -- we're both feeling a little pudgy after eating all that fantastic holiday food. We just completed Week 1 tonight and will be starting Week 2 on Monday. Let's see how long we can stick to it.

One of my technicians was attending training in Madison, Wisconsin this past week while actual temperatures were in the negative teens (wind chill was -25 and below). He got back into Austin late last night told me that the training class was stopped the first day so that someone could come in and warn them about the dangers of going outside with exposed skin. He even said that someone demonstrated how cold it was outside by throwing water into the air and watching as it turned to snowflakes before it hit the ground.

Holy space heaters, Batman!

Selina and I started off the new year by doing a little home improvement. On Friday we decided to replace about three feet of the flower bed next to the back door with some paving stones. We did this because the water faucet was right above the flower bed and every time we turned it on, it made a muddy mess. I also tended to crush the plants with the water hose each time I tried watering the grass. So bye-bye flower bed, hello paving stones.



On Saturday I decided to fix some of the stairs leading to the 2nd floor. A few of the front edges were starting to get very loose and I was beginning to worry about one of them completely coming off and cause an accident, so I fixed 5 of the worst ones. I'm not exactly sure what they originally used, but it looked like they used wood filler instead of a good glue and the nails weren't actually holding into anything. A tube of Liquid Nails and some well-placed finishing nails fixed those 5...I'll start tackling the other 10 steps later.

Out with the old, in with the new...