Monthly Archives for October 2009

Summer Reading Breakfast

Last Friday was the Summer Reading Breakfast at school, so I stopped by to schmear some cream cheese on bagels before work.  It’s such a great event – any kid who reads 10 books over the summer and returns their form in September gets to come and have breakfast (bagels, donuts, fruit, juice, munchkins) with their friends, the literacy specialist, and the principal.  Each kid’s name is called and they receive a certificate and a book to keep.  All of the food is donated and the breakfast is organized and run by PTO volunteers so thank you everyone!
I managed to keep track of where the forms were all summer and remembered to send them in when school started (miraculous!), so Aliya and Adlani were there, along with their friends Hannah, Maren, Sophia, Griffin, and Nicky, plus a couple hundred other super-readers.  Congratulations little people!
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Don’t Try This At Home

It’s official.  We are not qualified to replace the belt on our washing machine.  In fact, we’re not qualified to do anything with any appliance other than press the buttons and open and close the door.

In the last 12 days, I have washed 3 loads of laundry…which I squeezed in between when the sewer pipe got unclogged and the washer belt burned up.  Three loads is not nearly enough laundry for a 12-day period, and we have a mound of dirty laundry the size of a Volkswagen Bug.

We spent a long and frustrating part of this evening replacing the belt by using the 18-step instructions we found on the internet. (Note Ben’s blood on the bracket on the right side of the photo.)  My favorite part was when I overheard Ben say to himself, “Now this part is really important, so it HAS to go back in.”  WHAT??  They ALL have to go back in!

The belt has now been replaced, and the washer still doesn’t work.  While we were replacing the belt, I noticed a piece of black rubber in the bottom of the washer.  When Ben pulled it out, I realized that it was a broken brake shoe, and all 3 of the shoes were broken.  Technically you could run the washer without brake shoes as long as you don’t mind losing a hand if you open the lid during the spin cycle, but the big question is WHY did the brake shoes and belt simultaneously self-destruct??

Until I’m proven otherwise, I’m going to blame it on the thoughtful but misguided decision my family made to wash my very dirty car mats in the washer.  Ever since then I’ve occasionally heard a gritty sound while the drum was turning.  I think the sand has probably caught up to us.  I’ll be heading over to Belcher’s after the game tomorrow for a little chat.

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From AAA Appliance to Z-Pack

In addition to getting a bunch of work done today along with my mothering duties, I had two mandatory things on my to-do list:
A) Find a belt for the washer.
B) Convince a doctor to write me a prescription.

You may have read about the black smoke that came out of the washer on Tuesday morning.  If I had just called the appliance repair guy before I called Ben, I wouldn’t be sniffing through the dirty laundry looking for clothes that smell less bad than the rest, but hindsight is 20/20.  Mr. Fix-It is still insisting that we can replace the washing machine belt ourselves.  I’m pretty sure he originally said, “myself”, but now it’s apparently a team effort.

I called the appliance parts store yesterday but both of their locations were out of the belt.  I called Belcher’s and they were incredibly helpful, but they were out of them too.  Either everyone’s Maytag SAV205DAWW has a broken belt, or we’re the only ones who bought that model.  The guy at Belcher’s told me to try AAA Appliance Parts on 135, but they close at 2 on Wednesdays.  I called them this morning and they had one in stock!  The guy told me that they’re located “inside of Larry’s Home and Garden,” so while we were there Norah kept asking me, “Is that guy Larry?  How about THAT guy…is he Larry?”
No offense to Larry, but Larry’s Home and Garden really should be called “Larry’s Appliance Graveyard.” From the looks of the store and the outbuildings, Larry has been hoarding used appliances for quite some time. I never thought about it but I guess there’s a market for them. We made it out of Larry’s / AAA with our belt, so now we just have to figure out how to put the thing on.  Ben found some instructions online – 18 steps including removing the pump and motor.  WTF? 
Now to numero dos on my list…drugs.  I don’t take a lot of medications, but at least once a year I get a cold which eventually turns into something really nasty like bronchitis, walking pneumonia, a sinus infection, etc.  When Dr. Quack had his practice on Route 9 across from Whole Foods, I could go in there and get a prescription just by sneezing a couple of times.  I know the dangers of taking too many antibiotics, but I also know that when I’m sick for this long, it’s not going away on it’s own.
Since Dr. Quack is no longer on Route 9, I decided to try out the CVS Minute Clinic in Natick (the photo is not of the Natick location).  I wasn’t sure if it was Minute as in “minn-it” or “my-newt”…I’m thinking the latter because it took about an hour and the “clinic” was a very small room squeezed in next to the photo developing desk.
There were two nurse practitioners working there, and when I filled out my information on the touch screen, I was patient #1 in line.  I went into the my-newt room, described my problem, and forty minutes later I had gotten a flu shot and headed back to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions for a Z-Pack (Zithromax) and an inhaler.  I think a bunch of people heard the news about the seasonal flu vaccine shortage, because when I came out of the clinic, there were about 10 people in line waiting to see the other nurse to get their flu shot. 
The first woman I dealt with a the pharmacy wasn’t very nice and since I didn’t have my prescription card (I don’t usually use CVS) she basically told me to come back when I had my ID number.  After trying to call Caremark to get it, I went back to the counter and while I was waiting, a guy asked if he could help.  When I told him that I couldn’t get my number, he offered to call Walgreens and get it for me!  How great is that??
All in all, both experiences were good, so if you need a used dishwasher or an inhaler, you know where to go.
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False Alarm

A couple of weeks ago, Ben brought Adlani to me so I could examine the “injury” on Adlani’s buttocks.  I’m not sure what he thought the injury was from (maybe a well-deserved wupping from me?), but he was very alarmed. 

I’m no nurse, but even a hardware consultant could put two and two together and figure out that:
A) There was no blood or bruising,
B) Adlani wasn’t in any pain,
C) I hadn’t wupped him recently, and
D) The “injury” formed a complete circle around Adlani’s butt. 

Hmmm…what would you call that?
NintendoD.Ass?

Yes, I do realize that Adlani’s going to kill me someday for posting these photos, but right now he’s too busy playing NintendoDS to care.
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