Introduction to Blogging

So here I am. I've hit the 21st century. Blogging. The new journal. Except now the entire world can read my useless thoughts.

I suppose I should state a few things up front. I'm married (let's call him, The Hubby) and have two kids: one girl (The Girl) and one boy (The Boy). Oh, and I'm not really a housewife; I work as a project manager for a software development firm. But something just appealed to me about having "Disgruntled Housewife" as my byline. Because while I'm not really a housewife, I am often disgruntled.

That's why I'm here, really. I need an outlet. I figure a blog is cheaper than therapy. And my real-life friends are probably sick of hearing me bitch. And The Hubby is always saying I need to write more. Did I mention I'm a frustrated writer? "Frustrated" because it's really hard to write when you have kids pulling on your elbow saying "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" from the minute you get home to the minute you go to bed. And oh yeah, The Hubby gets annoyed when I spend too much time on the computer. Go figure.

So as I said, here I am. My most recent frustration is home renovation. We have an old house, built about 1920. We've done a lot to it - built bookshelves, put in a wood stove, painted, new bathroom, it's all good. The newest project is a basement remodel. This one will either turn out brilliantly or turn me into an incoherent pile of goo.

First, I endured a week of no hot water. Yes folks, you read that right. A week - 5 days - of no hot water. Not only did this mean no hot showers, it meant no laundry, no dishwasher, we boiled water on the stove to wash dishes and bathe the kids. I cold-showered the first day. That sucked. Not even The Hubby, Airborne though he is, could stand that. The rest of the week I showered at my office (fortunately, I work for a nice company that provides fairly luxurious locker room facilities). The upside was that I had hot water. The downside was the water pressure was pathetic and I spent the first 30 minutes of my work day in the locker room (fortunely, I have an understanding boss). But this is okay.

So they finally finish the concrete floor, and The Hubby and a buddy go to reinstall the hot water heater. Great. They turn off the water. Then they need parts. Swell. This at least gets me dinner out. Then the buddy calls and says, "I've taken my shower, lets do this tomorrow." Um, okay. The Hubby tries to turn the water back on.

Turns out 80-year old plumbing does not like being shaken. At all. Not a bit. Things leak. Wonderful. So now I have zero water. This is not an improvement.

Saturday morning I take the kids to swimming (I have not showered). Cell rings - hot water is back on. Yay! Take kids to Target. Cell rings - hot water tank is leaking, need to turn water off. Boo. Take kids to McDonald's. Cell rings - hot water back on. Yay! I finally get a hot shower Saturday night, six days after the water went off. I am a happy camper.

Fast-forward a week. Friday night washer and dryer were supposed to go back in. But the buddy disappears. So now it's Saturday. Washer and dryer are in the basement. They might get installed tonight. Who knows.

And falling into the category of "Why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it"? my car failed to pass inspection today. The Hubby was supposed to take it last Saturday. I told him, let me take you to drop off the car, I'll run the kids, and we'll pick it up later in the day. But he refused; showed up at the mechanic's at 11:30, and he closes at noon. So now I find out I won't have use of the car tomorrow (when I have three times as much running as last Saturday) and The Hubby will be working all weekend. Lovely.

I call Enterprise. They open at 9:00, but won't be able to pick me up until 10:00. Kids have swimming at 9:30. Wonderful. And all The Hubby can do is say, "I don't know why you're complaining to me. I'm stressed too." Yeah, but he's taking off for work at 6:30 tomorrow.

I hear lots of banging downstairs. Keep your fingers crossed - because my kids are out of underwear.