Mansion Life, A Slice Of

Not much new here at the Mansion. I spent the morning with
the heating and cooling guy. He was nice enough. I opened up
my back door for him. He really heated things up. In fact, the
smoke alarm went off for about 30 minutes. He was smokin'.
Then he finished, and handed me a bill for $225.

HH had told me it would be $200 for the labor. This guy was
packing up his tools, and mentioned that it would be around
$260. He came up to reset the thermostat, and I said, "Well,
HH told me it would be around $200. I guess that freon you
put in costs a little more." The guy hemmed and hawed for a
few minutes about not knowing the exact price until he called
his boss. About 10 minutes later, he came in from his truck
and said it would be $225, because it had not taken 2-3 hours,
but only 90 minutes. I had tried to call HH about this issue 3
times, but he didn't answer. When HH came home, he said,
"Oh, they settled for only $225?" I hate being the middleman.

HH and the boys have gone bowling. I am eating some Danish
Butter Cookies that cost...oh...about $1 for a can of 50. I am
planning to watch TV in peace tonight, what with the Hatfield
and McCoy young'uns gone to town. The last I saw of them,
they were shooting Nerf darts at each other from a distance
of 12 inches with no eye protection. It's all fun and games
until Hillbilly Mom has to shell out money for two white canes.
From what I hear, the dogs are free.

The boys and I took $20 from 4 gift cards to Blockbuster
yesterday. We got The Black Dahlia, Jackass Number Two,
My Name Is Earl season one, and a Wii game of some type.
No, I didn't let the boys watch those DVDs. And I didn't
play the Wii game. The cost was $19.96. I let her keep the
$0.04, because that's the kind of gal I am.

I tried to take a little chair nap around 4:00. I told #1 son,
"I'm taking a little nap before I cook supper. DO NOT come
over and stare in my face from 2 inches away until I wake up."
That's one of his little hobbies. Nothing interesting was on
Oprah, so by 4:05 I nodded off in the recliner. Next thing I
know, a ricochet pings near my head, and I see #1 sitting on
his rolling computer chair, laughing. It was the demon Nerf
gatling gun. DARN YOU, Mayor's wife, for giving that boy
such a gift! I suppose it's to make up for the time I gave your
2-year-old a plastic Noah's Ark. Complete with animals.

Now I'm going to drag myself back to the blue recliner and
watch some TV while it's safe to nod off and catch a few ZZZs.
I'm also going to work on a new project. Perhaps I'll share that
with you tomorrow.

Perhaps not.