How Many Laughed?

No, really--I want to know how many people laughed when I posted last night about my stove being fixed today and costing so little and all that. And WHY didn't you take the time to leave an itty-bitty comment warning me--reminding me--that things don't always (read: EVER) turn out the way I blindly expect them to turn out?!

So the repair guy came this morning... and my beautiful double oven doesn't need a new ignitor. Well, it MIGHT, but we don't know that yet. What we do know is that it needs new brains. The computer is all scrambled. When you plug it in it begins beeping and speaking French (no, really--lots of French words scroll across the screen) and it doesn't respond to any of the buttons. It's a strange thing, hope. What is that verse in Proverbs... "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." I hadn't thought of that verse until right now, but it's definitely what happened here today. HA! Before we bought this stove I called up a repair guy, told him I was going to look at a used double oven and wanted to know what the worst case scenario would be if it had major problems and needed fixed. He told me, asked how much we would be paying for the stove, and he and I both agreed that it would still be a worthy investment considering the value of the stove--it's a higher end model and it is, after all, a double oven. Well, I was all prepared for "the worst case scenario" and perfectly mentally prepared to be happy paying that much, knowing we'd still be getting a good deal all in all. But then yesterday I talked to the repair guy on the phone and he felt convinced all we needed was a new ignitor and it would be a cheap fix. Then we plugged the stove in today and it began speaking French and beeping sporadically and refusing to respond to any efforts to communicate with it. This was "the worst case scenario." So how come it was soooooo sad today--such a bummer--when I found out we'd have to pay what I was perfectly prepared to pay up until yesterday when my heart was filled with hope?! Because hope deferred maketh the heart sick, that's why! ~sigh~ Anyway...

I will have a functioning stove next week, Lord willing. The new brains will arrive on Monday or Tuesday and the guy will come and get us all hooked up and ready to cook--assuming we don't encounter any more unexpected kinks in the road between here and there. You know, the kind we've encountered with the carpet...

Home Depot is NOT performing very well in the customer service department, just so you know. All I want to do is give them a very large sum of money in return for their giving me a simple "stock carpet," the kind they're supposed to have available there at the store all the time. You'd think they'd be happy to facilitate such and arrangement, but they seem to have very little interest in it. I had my carpet guy all ready to start working tomorrow but it's tough to do much without carpet. I'll call again in the morning and hope to avoid slipping into the black hole of elevator music intermingled with the "Your call is very important to us... Please hold for the next available associate..." mumbo-jumbo. HA! At this point we're hoping to start working on the floors next Tuesday. I should back my expectations up to at least Thursday or Friday then, right??? ;-)

In other news, I began moving all of the junk out of the foyer today. That's where we've been keeping EVERYTHING--all of the paint and paint supplies and tools and ladders and shop-vac and all of the other equipment we are in need of during this project. I hauled most of it upstairs for the day we resume work up there, leaving only the items that we'll be needing in the remainder of our main level projects down here. I'm not finished yet, but I've got most everything cleared out and it feels great. :-)

That project led into another unexpected one: cleaning out the cabinets in the utility room. Those pretty red cabinets in there have been the catch-all for all sorts of miscellaneous items and it was driving me crazy. So Katie and I went and sorted through all of the mess, finally making sense of everything and finding the proper place for each item. ~aaaaahhh~ I love it when things have a proper place. :-)

This evening James and I were going to work on the kitchen ceiling (still needing to trim things out in there!), but he wasn't feeling all that great and suggested we take the evening and have a nice family night instead. We changed out of our grubbies and headed to Hoover. James had two Olive Garden gift cards so we made use of them and it was soooooo good. :-) Then we took the kids to the giant library down there and they had a fantastic time picking out new books. A stop at Krispy Kreme topped the evening off just right. :-) We enjoyed the rest of our evening too and didn't get home until nearly 10:00. Since then I've been finishing up on the utility room sort-through project (it's finally FINISHED and feels a thousand times better!) and pondering on the topic for my Band Meeting tomorrow night. I think I've got it down. :-) I love Band Meetings. I really should have them more often. ;-)