How Hard DID the Wind Blow?

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The wind blew soooooo hard, it blew the paint right off the house!


Ha ha ha.

Okay, it's not funny.

Shortly after moving into our new house, I came outside one day to find big pieces of seafoam green "paper" lying in the driveway. It was very windy the night before, so finding junk in the yard wasn't startling, but what were these green sheets of paper?

Turns out they were paint off the house!

The main culprit seems to be an air conditioning duct along the top of the house that apparently wasn't prepared properly to accept the paint the previous owner had applied to improve the property's "curb appeal" for selling.

Mostly you can't see the problem unless you go to the second floor and look for it. (If you click the first picture above, you can see more of the detail.)

There's a little patch on the front of the house where metal is showing through the peeling paint. And THAT upsets me. It wrecks the facade of the house!

This is such a gorgeous looking house; I'm very sensitive to something wrecking the look of the facade.

Somehow, I don't think the previous owner would want that either, so we're trying to find out whether there's a warranty on the paint job we can still take advantage of.

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She's Hilarious!

Monday, January 22, 2007

This is my five-year-old niece, Emily. (Her preferences are for ENFJ, for those who keep track of such things.)

Don't let her angelic appearance fool you! This little gal has a wicked sense of humor. And she got off some amazing wisecracks over the holidays that we're still laughing about.

For instance, if you admire her dress too much (like the white one she's wearing), she'll let you know right away that it doesn't come in *your* size.

Here are a few other highlights:

I made some remark to her at Christmastime, and she looked at me and said, "Watch it or I'll use my 'cute voice' on you."

As we were moving into our new house, she announced she was going to imitate my husband. Then she stomped up the staircase and said (in a loud, fake-male voice), "Honey, I'm hooooome!"

On Christmas Eve day, my sister set out a spread of deli items for us to snack on. Robin is a vegetarian, and he had some cheese and dips. Emily came over to him with a slice of salami, waved it tauntingly in his face, and said, "Meeeeat, meeeeat, meeeeat."

My sister tells me the other day my oldest niece wore an elegant fur coat to class for the first meeting, and on the way home she commented that she probably looked like a dork. Emily piped up from the back seat, "But you're a beautiful dork, Heather."

Oh my, she's a pistol.

I'm going to update this from time to time with new Emily humor -- stay tuned!

10/31/07
My sister ran an errand, and when she returned home and pulled into the driveway, Emily looked at me and said, "There's your little sister!"

5/15/08
My sister bought a party dress. It was a Grecian-style gown, with gold sequin trim under the bust, laid over classically draped white chiffon. She looked elegant and lovely. But she reports that Emily looked at the dress and said, "Mom, the Eighties called. They want their Roman dress back." Pretty sassy for a 6-year-old!



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