Rutabaga Dreams

Emma:  Pregnant mommies are very easily irritated but also can be very kind. (as I told her she could have a Jelly Belly)

Hmm…  I suppose she has a point, but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it!

Scene:  At the property, Gregory walking towards the car and Mom loading stuff into the front passenger seat.

Gregory:  Gregory drive.  Gregory drive.

Mom:  Hmm?  (Pulling her head out of the car)  What’s that, Gregory?

Gregory:  Gregory drive.

Mom:  Where are you going to drive?

Gregory: (gesturing up the driveway)  Up hill.

Mom:  What are you going to drive?

Gregory: (Pauses for a moment) Mommy’s car.  Drive Mommy’s car.  (Walks over to driver’s door and pats it)  Open door?  Open door?  (Pauses a moment, deep in thought, then says decisively) Need Mommy’s keys.  Have Mommy’s keys?  Need Mommy’s keys.

Mom:  Um, Gregory, you need to be a lot bigger to drive.  Would you like to sit in the seat and take a look?

Gregory:  Tank.  (which is how he says yes - I think it is an abbrivation of Thank you)

Mom:  (lifting him in the seat)  See, you need to reach the pedals down there and look out the window up there.

Gregory:  Oh, car too big.  Too big, too big.  Mommy drive.  (He starts to scramble out of the seat)  Gregory sit in Gregory’s seat.

I find this whole exchange quite fascinating.  What exactly made him think he’d be able to drive?  He certainly was able to think it all through once he got started, but what started him off?  I find toddlers so incredibly interesting!

Dealing with lighting under Title 24 is a royal pain.  It wouldn’t be so bad if we were doing your typical construction, with stud walls and drop ceilings throughout…  but with the upstairs sub-floor exposed to the downstairs it becomes particularly challenging.  Compounding the problem is the lack of products available that meet the Title 24 requirements.  I mentioned in the last post that we’d like to do some track lighting in the kitchen, but the only track lighting that meets Title 24 that I’ve been able to find is amazingly expensive - like $100 - $300 per light head, not to mention the cost of the track and the rest of the system.  There is almost nothing available in this class, and what is available seems to be meant more for commercial use rather than residential.  Title 24 also specifies that you cannot use any fixture with a medium (i.e. regular light bulb) base and have that qualify in the kitchen, bathroom, utility room, or garage.  (Well, in areas other than the kitchen it can be used, but only if you install an expensive and only sort of functional motion sensor as well) Any fixture with a medium size base is allowed in other areas, but only if it is on a dimmer switch.   You cannot take a regular fixture, add a compact florescent, and go on your way…  no, you must use more expensive fixtures and bulbs in order to satisfy the bureaucrats.

The annoying thing is that I agree overall with what they are trying to do.  Minimizing energy usage is not a bad thing, but their one size fits all implementation is a pain to work within and I resent being dictated at.  In another couple years this will all probably be easier, as the industry catches up with the requirements (and as more states adopt these regulations, broading the market) but in the meantime it is an expensive pain in the neck.  Not that I think it is necessarily a good thing that more states hang this around the necks of their citizens, but at least it will give the market more of a reason to develop products that fulfill this new need.

At this point I think we’ll probably hang some sort of semi-flush pendant light over the sink (meaning that is hangs from the ceiling, but doesn’t come down very far, and hangs from a rod instead of a chain) and probably do two of those hung from beams in the kitchen area, lining up with the two fixtures over the table.  When we do a kitchen island, these fixtures will be over it, and in the meantime they will function as general kitchen light.  I’m not entirely sure that we need them for that purpose, but having the electrical already in place when we do put in an island will certainly be helpful.

Ever since we began camping on the property last July, I’ve been using disposable diapers.  I had bought a big box at Costco shortly before we moved into our apartment, but now that box is running low and I need to make a decision.  I used cloth diapers all the way through with Emma, and I used them exclusively with Gregory up until we lost our laundry facilities.  Now that we have a washer and dryer again (yay!) I really have no excuse not to go back to cloth…  other than sheer and utter laziness.  The bag of cloth diapers has been staring at me reproachfully for the past month or so, and today I finally decided to try to do cloth again.  I got out the diaper pail liner, got the cloth diaper all laid out, and put it on Gregory this morning when I was dressing him.  He was not pleased.  I hadn’t considered that he might have an opinion on this!  He’s settled into it somewhat at this point, but he still pulls at it occasionally and says “under pants, take off under pants!”  I’m curious to see how this works out.  Will I give into laziness and buy another box of disposables?  Will Gregory refuse to wear a cloth diaper?  Will we get the toddler potty out of storage and give that a try?

Words Gregory knows at age two that his sister did not:

-  Chocolate!

-  Jelly Belly, Jelly Belly!

- Tell Momma *sniffle sniffle*  (generally when this happens he comes up to me, says “tell momma” a couple of times, then I give him a kiss and he goes back to whatever they were doing.  He hasn’t quite figured out what he’s supposed to tell me, but apparently what we’re currently doing is enough)

Well, it was a productive day for Matt at least.  He finished fixing the well (yes, it is a good idea to examine the project fully before going out and buying the stuff to fix it - it generally saves that annoying second trip where you go back to get the things you should have gotten in the first place)  but now it is fixed and curing, and tomorrow he’ll turn it back on, test it and so long as it works (which of course it will!), he’ll insulate it.  He also finished the wall in the master bedroom, built a half wall on the landing, and added blocking along the stairs.

I spent the morning reading, cleaning, and napping, (more the 1st and 3rd, *ahem*) then went to the property after lunch with the kids.  Matt and I discussed lighting (a very tricky subject, especially when you have an exposed sub-floor downstairs and SIP walls) and I spent the rest of the afternoon perusing lighting catalogs.  I think I have a good deal of it nailed down at this point, but I’m still missing an important piece.  Thanks to Title 24 (CA energy efficiency requirements for construction), I need to see if I can find florescent track lights.  I didn’t find any in the catalogs I have, but I’m going to do some searching online to see what I can find.  I’m hoping they’ve figured out how to make them, otherwise we’ll have to figure out another solution for the sink area in the kitchen.

While Matt and I worked on our various projects, the kids played outside and had a lovely time.  It was a clear, reasonably warm day - the first we’ve been able to take advantage of at the property for a good long while.  It was great to see them ranging all over the property again, visiting their old haunts and taking up their old games.  Most of the snow from last week has melted off at this point, but there’s still enough in patches for the kids to play in it.  It isn’t as boggy as I thought it would be either because the most prone areas are still covered in snow, which helps a great deal.  I imagine it will be worse once all the snow melts off.

Matt is making popcorn now and we’re going to watch a movie (some action thing in case you’re wondering - which is probably not so much up my alley, but I figured I would give it a try), so I best wrap up this rambling and not particularly interesting post. 

I find the whole blog spam thing amazing. Can you believe that my little blog that gets almost no traffic has received 168,586 blog comments since June of last year? Thanks to Akismet though, I don’t have to do anything about them other than click a button once in awhile to delete them all.

I do wonder though - there must be some point to blog spam and it must work for the spammers… otherwise, wouldn’t they just stop?

This morning Matt happened to go up near our main electrical panel in order to get something.  When he was up there, he noticed that the meter was moving at a fairly decent rate, especially considering only the trailer would have been drawing any power right then.  He flipped the breaker for the well and the meter stopped moving.  He then went up to investigate the well and found that the pipe had burst between the pump and the shut-off valve.  Matt bought the parts today and went up there after dinner to fix it.  We have no idea how long it has been leaking, and we are dreading our next electrical bill!

Apparently there is a downside to having electrical service after all…

Emma:  Ok Gregory, listen - four plus two equals…

Gregory:  Amen!

Emma:  No, Gregory, this isn’t a prayer!  Listen four plus…

Gregory (throwing his arms in the air):  AMEN!!  Baby Jesus!  God!

Emma (sighs mightily):  Gregory!!

Matt and I were looking at a Kohler catalog last night when he came across this piece of advice:

When planning your shower fixtures, be sure to visualize your ideal shower experience.

We both laughed at that, but in the shower just now I started thinking about this and how differently I “visualize my shower experience” compared to where the creators of the catalog are trying to lead the reader.  I really don’t need multiple sprays, steam generators, shower massagers etc, etc, that are apparently all the vogue these days.  Really, all I’m looking for is a shower that’s available when I’d like to use it, enough water pressure to rinse my hair without taking 10 minutes, hot water that lasts long enough to wash my hair and shave my legs, and an empty floor devoid of any little people (Fisher-Price or living) under my feet.  Not infrequently this is more than I can ask for (particularly the last part - thankfully the other parts are quite easy to fulfill, now that we live in an apartment), but really, what more could I possibly require?