This week was a strange one. It was one of the rainiest weeks we have had in St Louis in what must be months, and then on Thursday it became very warm and sunny (29 degrees Celsius!), only to plunge to drizzly, grey, windy and cold on Friday again (7 degrees Celsius). Last night as I lay in bed trying to sleep and thinking of the weekdays that just passed (not that it really makes much of a difference, especially since Jon has been working this + the last few weekends), I had trouble remembering some of the days because it felt like E and I didn't do very much - though that of course isn't true based on further scrutiny.
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Monday: We had no plans and it was going to rain in the afternoon. We took what turned out to be our only neighbourhood walk of the week to drop off a costume at a neighbour's house. Ran into a neighbour, Lynne on the way and had a nice quick chat with her before E decided to follow another neighbourhood kid, R, who was walking his family's ancient dog (first time I've ever seen that dog), and I had to run after her. Then E napped after we got home, and while she napped I went outside to break down the branches of the Bush Honeysuckle I had been attacking/removing over the weekend, for waste pick up the next day. While I was breaking the branches down, Rob the lawn guy actually dropped by for a surprise visit, and I had a short conversation with him about the lawn and gardens.
I had originally intended to bring E to Schnucks to just get a rotisserie chicken after she woke up from her nap, but it turned out Jon was coming home early, and so he picked it up instead. For dinner I cooked noodles, veg, and fried eggs, and we had it with the chicken as a pseudo HK style dinner.
Tuesday: We had no plans, but I was bored and strongly considered going out, but I felt lazy. Finally decided to go out, and then the rain started and I felt kind of upset, but we got into the car anyway. Thankfully, by the time I drove south of the 64, it had stopped raining. I had to do grocery shopping at Aldi, and wanted to go to a Dollar Tree to see if they had any more Halloween stuff left (I planned for 60 kids, neighbours told me to expect 100 - gosh!), so I was headed to the strip mall in Kirkwood that had both of those stores right next to each other. I needed to use the bathroom though, so we ducked into a nearby Burlington Coat Factory, where I also purchased a bag of tapioca chips. Then as planned, we went to the Dollar Tree (no Halloween stuff left, urgh), and then Aldi (bought more chocolates for Halloween at least). On the way back home, I decided to stop off at Sugar Creek Gardens as I heard they were having a 50% sale, and ended up going home with a Dark Knight Spirea, while E decided to test the dirty stagnant water in every single bird bath for sale. In retrospect I really should not have let her roam.
When we got home, as E napped, I made Chicken Noodle soup. I had pre-chopped almost all the veggies and shredded the remaining rotisserie chicken from dinner the previous night. While that was cooking, I went outside and finally planted the Hydrangea and Rose Verbena plants that we have had outside for a while (any longer and I feared they would die from neglect, just like the other previous ones). E woke up, I fed her the chicken noodle soup, called my in laws, and then got a dinner of pan fried tilapia, baked asparagus and pilaf rice (from a microwavable bag, lol) ready. Then Jon came home.
Just when I was getting ready to wind down after bathing E and taking care of her the whole day, Jon called me downstairs - the kitchen sink was clogged. We had a kitchen garbage disposal installed and I had been happily throwing food scraps down, but now it seemed like it was clogged despite all the things Jon had been trying the last 20 mins (boiling hot water, plunger, etc.). After putting E to bed we ended up trying to work on fixing the sink (mainly Jon, with me assisting), but to no avail. At least he ascertained the clog was not in the garbage disposal, it was further down below. We both went to bed late.
Wednesday: I originally had a playdate with my friend Catie and her son S planned, and I had been texting her about the clogged sink since last night. Today I called our usual plumber and they said they could come out on the 27th Oct, a week away. Then I called a bigger company and they said they would send someone immediately, so I text to postpone the playdate to Friday. The plumber came quickly, and he was nice and more professional than our usual plumber, of course he also probably charged a lot more too.
From Mike, I learned: 1) the clog was in the cast iron pipes, and cast iron pipes normally last about 50 years before issues start (the house was built in 1961), 2) it would probably cost 4k to jackhammer up the 10 feet of old cast iron pipes and replace with PVC pipes, 3) don't throw any food down the kitchen garbage disposal. even coffee grounds, 4) our house had old pipes for the toilets too, 3 inch vs. the standard 4 inch now (so I guess don't take any mega poops?), 5) our half of the unfinished basement was a plumber's dream because everything was nice and exposed. For all of this info, and an enzyme cleaner to flush out the pipes (in lieu of replacing them immediately), I got a bill for $420. He was a nice guy, so I gave him a bottle of Fitz's Root Beer, since we had so many at home anyway.
After Mike left I went with E to Schnucks, because Aldi didn't have any ground sausage yesterday, and I wanted to make meatballs for dinner tonight. It was drizzling, so I bundled both of us up. At Schnucks I noticed they had a special on T-bone steaks, as it was their sell by date. I ended up getting the steaks, even though it felt like a meal that would be celebrating something as opposed to consoling us for just forking out $420 because our house had a heart attack. It was raining somewhat heavily when we left the store, so I ran out with the groceries first, then ran over to the car with Boo Boo (luckily just under 10 meters away from the store exit). On the way back, I stopped at Circle K to get gas, something I had been stressing out for a while because hitherto to this, I had only gotten gas at Sam's Club, but our membership had just expired. Sounds silly to get stressed out about, but having to do new things + toddler always disproportionately worry me. But anyway I got the gas at 1.91 a gallon, and obviously have lived to tell the tale, lol.
Back home we played together a bit, then E napped. It had stopped raining by then, and just as I was about to go out to do some gardening, some workers from a construction firm approached me and asked if I wanted a free evaluation of our roof. I was initially very skeptical, but had recognised them from our neighbour's place when E and I passed by last week, and he had mentioned they were going to do roof work for him. Anyway I decided to let them take a look, and they said our roof looked good. It seemed like 1 guy was training the other, so I was more than happy to let them use our place as an example. While they were checking out the roof, I was planning out where to put the Spirea that I had purchased yesterday, and ended up digging a bunch of holes as I intended to go back to Sugar Creek Gardens and get more plants. Luckily the ground was pretty soft from all the rain, as opposed to dry and rock hard the way it was before. While I was out there working, I ended up having conversations with 3 different groups of neighbours, which made me pretty happy. The couple that always seems kind of grumpy told me that our house hadn't looked this good in years, and offered to loan a bulb planter. Another joked that now after seeing me, she felt like she had to start working on the garden. Then Jeannie came by and we had the most random conversation about Covid and City Museum. Finally Jon came home and I started cooking. Dinner was T-Bone steaks, green beans (including the few sad ones I finally harvested from the garden), baked potato, and a salad.
Thursday: This was the warmest and sunniest day of the week. When I stepped out in the morning to refill the bird feeder, I was hit by an uncomfortable wave of heat and humidity. After E woke up, we hopped into the car for a quick trip to Sugar Creek Gardens, so I could pick up more 50% off plants. I ended up getting a Yuki Cherry Blossom (Deutzia), Sneezewort (also know as Peter Cottontail Yarrow, which sounds better), another Dark Knight Spirea, and a 6 pack of pansies, violas, and alyssum. When we got home, E and I went for a short walk down our cul-de-sac, and ran into a neighbour that we hadn't seen in months, mainly because E insisted on traipsing down her driveway (but her husband, Artie, had give me the go-ahead before).
While E was napping, I went out in the hot sun (looking back, I must have been half mad), and dug more holes, and planted the Deutzia, Spirea, and 1 Sneezewort, before I ran out of time/energy. Then I had lunch before waking E up, and fed her more chicken noodle soup, before racing out the door to meet Jennifer and Ilse, and their kids A and L, at a nearby park. It was a fun time out, and as usually we somehow ended up trading kids, and I spent a chunk of time alone with A as he climbed up the pavilion and kept staring at the slowly spinning ceiling fan, while E ran off down some hilly patches of grass with Jennifer following behind. As A hadn't napped earlier, he got wiped out early and Jennifer left first, so Ilse and I remained for about another 30 mins, and we checked out the old cabins and water pump on the park grounds.
Dinner was Dan Dan Noodles that Jennifer had made, as a barter for me buying a toy broom set for A. All I had to do was boil the noodles. I also made extra veg and boiled some eggs to add on more nutrition. Dinner was really yummy, and we all really enjoyed it.
Friday: A complete 360 from the previous day, Friday felt like the coldest day of the week. Right when I woke up, I read a text from the contractor who was working on our kitchen that his men were coming to fix some last things, and so as I ate breakfast I cleaned the kitchen and put away things. Then I raced around like a mad woman doing some other small things as I got E ready for our playdate with Catie. At Catie's place, E had a ball as usual, and we enjoyed the fresh blueberry muffins she had made. The kids actually somewhat interacted together this time, which was lovely to witness as usually S is pretty shy.
After we got home, I put E down for a nap straightaway as she looked really sleepy, and then had lunch and watched an episode of Forensic Files. Then, I drank my 2nd cup of tea for the day and went outside for more gardening, ducking my head back inside ever so often to check if E had woken up. This time I ended up clearing out the turf from the garden beds. A few weeks ago I had covered sections of the grass by the driveway to kill the turf, with a haphazard, "Sorry for the eyesore! Flower beds in progress" written on the cardboard. I ended up sitting on a stool in the cold (7 degrees Celcius and damp + windy anyone?), while using a small hand hoe to clear the grass. Then I planted half of the pansies, violas, and alyssum.
When E woke up, I gave her another blueberry muffin, and we spoke to my in laws over a video call. I started the prep for dinner, and then Jon came home, but the cooking still took a long time. For dinner we had a pseudo-German meal of beer bratwurst, kartoffelsalat, sauerkraut (from a can! LOL) and green beans.
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And that brings us to today, Saturday. Jon is still at work and E is finally awake (she got up as I was in the middle of writing about Thursday) and running around eating a banana and corn flakes. I plan to make a trip to Rolling Ridge and Maypop today to look at house plants (damn you Facebook stories!), and to pick up lunch for the 3 of us at Balkan Treat Box, before heading now. Ciao for now.
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