This is Joe's Fault

Friday, January 26, 2007

Happy Australia Day!

Good onya, mate! Happy Aussie Day!

Grab a Foster's and a barbied shrimp and watch out for crocs, ya bastard! Rent a Yahoo Serious movie (there's only one that I'm aware of), practice your "That's not a knife, this is a knife" line on strangers, and generally Celebrate what's great!

But just remember, watch out for roos!

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Residential Enemy No. 1

So, this week cute boyfriend and I officially became home owners. What's that you say? "But Alanis, you've had the house since August!" This is true gentle reader, but it was really only this past Sunday is when it actually began to feel like we owned a house.

Why? Well, it's because that's the day we discovered the boiler that heats the house was leaking irreparably, and we would have to pay upwards of $4,000 CDN to get it replaced.

Ahhhh, now that's home ownin'!

Although, it isn't like this expense came as a big surprise. The boiler was almost forty years old, we knew it would be going soon. We just were hoping it would last at least ONE more winter before we had to replace it.

Just how old was the boiler? Well, when the guy came two weeks ago to replace a part that cost us $250 in labour to fix HAHAHA he had to write down the serial number on the invoice. He didn't have much writing to do. The serial number on the door? No. 1.

I ain't even lying:

It's a boiler!
I know what you're thinking. It's a gorgeous piece, but "The Man" says that the dangerously high carbon monoxide levels seeping out of it are "bad" for us and offset the fabulous 50s kitch factor of keeping it. Pfft! "The Man" knows nothing about art, obviously.

So these past few days were a whirlwind of a) finding out what exactly a boiler IS anyway b) trying to sound like we understood what the expert on boilers was saying while telling us how great the new one would be, and c) trying not to snicker at the term "cast-iron push nipples", which apparently the new unit has in spades. Ahhh, yeah, baby!

But now that I'm a full-fledged H.O. I will feel confident in giving my seasoned opinion on boilers and heating units of all stripes, even though I have no idea what I'm talking about. It is my right. My upwards of $4,000 CDN right.

It's really just a matter of time until you come up behind me one day, deep in conversation, and overhear me saying things like "But what about your push nipples? Are they cast iron? Well thank god for that. Oh, you're kidding me! Don't even get me started on my gas valve! Have I got a story for you..."