Washer and Dryer

Or, how we've been drug into the 1950s.

Somehow, my family has managed to get by with doing our laundry Somewhere Else for the last six years. When we had one kid, we did laundry at the house of the family member we went to visit that week. When we had two kids, we did laundry wherever we were when we stopped moving (normally, that meant my FiL's house).

Kid number three is due Thursday.

So we finally decided to take the plunge. Be responsible. Grown-up, even. My financial aid money paid for a high efficiency front load washer, the matching dryer, a five year all-expense-included extended warranty, installation parts, and delivery. There's still money left over.

Two years ago, we would have put a purchase like this on a credit card. Today (Wednesday, actually), we paid cash. Today, we own it. Today is a good day.

Let me back up a bit. When I learned how much money I would get in financial aid, I decided that we needed a washer and dryer. Long before now, I'd been resolved to purchase something. The Conns circular from this Sunday caught our eye, because they advertised a Frigidaire HE front loader washer and dryer set for $999.99. This was very exciting, especially given the fact that these units would stack and they would cost about as much as a traditional stackable set.

This is important, because most washers and dryers are 27 inches wide. Our utility room is 36 inches wide, meaning that we would have to stack the dryer on the washer to fit both units in the house.

So we went to Conns. Let me preface this by saying that my wife is about a kajillion weeks pregnant. So we go to Conns. The guys there are like the rejects that are too slimy to work the local used car dealership. Greasy. Shifty. Desperate. Ick.

We left. Quick.

The next day (Wednesday), we went to Lowes. The experience couldn't have been more different. The first three people we saw said hello and smiled (nobody in Conns acknowleged our existance). We went to the appliance section to look at and touch everything. Conns was advertising a discontinued set of Frigidaire Affinity units. My wife thought they fely "cheap". The lowest-end models at Lowes felt "better". We looked, we touched, we asked questions.

First, the guy said he would match the Conns price for the Affinitys. Unfortunately, they had to be ordered, so we couldn't get them for two or three weeks. However, he pointed out a different set that he could also price match on that were in stock. Not only that, but they felt "great, not cheap at all".

Ten minutes later, I plunked down cash and we left happy.

Today (yesterday, as I write this), the units were delivered (early!) and installed. We started the first load at 12:30 and finished the ninth load at 10:30. Flawless.

Two salient points. First, the Lowes in Mesquite is the best. Evar. Second, Conns is scary.

Oh, and here are the washer (LTF2940F) and the dryer (LEQ 2152F). Ours are black.

Keeping up with everything

As I sit here listening to Metallica at an ear-splitting level, I have a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. No, it's not the fried with cheese lunch I had. Upon closer inspection, I realize that this feeling is unfamiliar.

You know those times in your life when you should be overwhelmed, when there's too much for any one person to be able to reasonably handle, when you're holding more weight that you can swim with? You know how sometimes, if you're lucky, you feel perfectly calm and up to the task instead of weighed down with blind panic?

This is one of those times.

School. Family. New baby. Getting into this whole social networking/blogging thing. It's just too much.

Oddly, these are all things I swore I'd never do. I did better than college graduates for a while. I had no desire to have a family. Marriage? Not for me. Facebook? No thanks, I did that when we called it Chips 'n Dips. And I'm sure that there's nothing that I could contribute to the massive noise that is the blogosphere that would stand out.

Yet here I am eating all of my words. And they taste good.

(not) First Post

So I had planned on writing about other stuff yesterday, before sparky the coffee maker bit my wife. Here is what I had on my plate.

1. I really like fast cars. Actually, I like a rather thin subset of fast cars.
2. I'm crazy about aircraft from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Also, Joe Baugher has too much time on his hands, in addition to being a huge resource for people like me.
3. I have one wife. We have 2 and 37/40ths children. Additionally, the cat runs the house.
4. Hockey is good.
5. I go to school at Richland College. From there, I'll go (tentatively) to the University of Texas, Dallas for a BS in Physics. After that, I want to go to Cal Tech or Cornell or MIT or some other school that's associated with NASA or Boeing or Scaled Composites or something.
6. I am an urban gardener. I grow food for my family. Nothing makes one feel so alive as the scent of freshly cultivated earth. Everyone should have a garden.
7. I used to be a bike messenger. I like to run. Roman chair sit ups separate the wheat from the chaff.
8. I forget what eight was for.
   
9. My typing skills are not 'leet. One of my goals for this blog is to learn to type better.
10. Aeronautics has a lot of interesting problems that should be addressed, like very high speed propeller research.

I will post five concrete goals later on. Today, I just tried to hang on :-)

Wake up

I had originally intended for the first post of my new blog to be about who I am or my interests or some other thing. Instead, I find myself humbled at having nearly lost a baby.

My wife was shocked at work by a faulty machine. The shock itself was not big, but it was big enough to startle my wife. Several hours later, it became apparent that the baby she is carrying hadn't moved. A frantic call to her ob/gyn resulted in a visit to the Baylor Labor and Delivery ward.

The sweetest sound I've ever heard was the baby's heartbeat, thumping clearly through the speaker when the nurse hooked up the monitor.

Mother and baby are both okay. Baby seems to be staying put until her due date in three weeks. Mother has gone back to work. I've returned home to a nap, Beowulf homework, and this, my first blog post.

Way to start things off with a bang...