Friday, May 30, 2008

Griping off the port bow!

Today's pre-nap time: 1 hour, 35 minutes of discomfort (*) before El Burrito finally fell asleep. Plus 10 minutes beforehand for diaper-changing and tracking down the 20+ cars that he takes in with him. Sigh. The part that really steams me is that after the last time I told him to lay down, it took a bare 5 minutes before he conked out. Now WHY didn't he do that, oh, an hour earlier?

(*) Because I end up laying (lying?) on the floor, with my elbows digging in to our cheap carpet, trying to read. Sitting up just inspires El B to sit up as well, which is counterproductive.

I'm ready to run off and join the circus, please.

Other than going to see a movie last weekend, I've had practically no time away from El Burrito lately. In fact, my quarterly dental visits are possibly the only "away" time I get on a regular basis. Sure, he takes a nap (and I'm very afraid that he's getting ready to give up the nap idea), but it's not like I can actually, you know, go anywhere farther than the mailbox while he's asleep.

Speaking of alone time, the summer riding program starts in a week, and I'm still not sure if I'll be able to go. It all depends on how flexible DH's schedule is next month, and I'm not convinced that Mr. 9 am - 6:30 pm Workaholic will be able to be home by 5 every day for a week. (He's never home at the same time two days in a row. My mother is still telling me occasionally that I should have dinner ready when he gets home. Short of developing precognition so I can know what time he'll be home, it ain't happening. Plus, that never happened while I was growing up, so what's Mom thinking????)

Also, my parents seem to be under the impression that money issues are why we haven't looked at houses lately (i.e. in the past five freaking years). Dad's asked if I'll have to get a job after we buy a house, and offered the advice that getting a job after El Burrito is in school would make me feel better. (He's probably right, and I'm still amazed that he came up with it. Dad's not the most touchy-feely guy.)

No, folks, the reason we haven't been house hunting is that we're tired, unmotivated, inertia-prone slackers. We stay up later than we should, and tend to spend our evenings in front of the TV. It doesn't help that we have to eat dinner on the couch, since the dining table was sold to make room for a crib. And once we hit the couch, we seem to stay there. We can't seem to get up and around before noon on the weekends no matter how early the alarm sounds, and we accomplished squat-all over the 4-day Memorial weekend. We've been without a microwave for about a month now, because we can't get organized enough to a) shop for one and b) get things moved around enough to enable the delivery of said microwave and the accompanying stove that DH wants to get. And now he's thinking of adding a new dishwasher, because most of the appliances here are 20+ years old and reaching their retirement age.

Enough griping. El Burrito will wake up soon, and I've got stuff that needs to be done, preferably without his "help."

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Books, a day late

Well, the book numbers from the library are going up instead of down again. That's mostly because I didn't get a chance to finish looking through the crochet books over the weekend. Sigh.

Right now: 39 items checked out, 6 on hold. I returned 3 books and a very overdue video yesterday, and came home with 6 more books. Of course, two of those were from the Princess Diaries series, and I finished one (Valentine Princess - Book 7 and 3/4) this morning. They're perfect summer fluff reading. The in-between books, like Valentine, are less than 100 pages, and I can read one while El Burrito and I eat breakfast.

What I returned: another Princess book, the first DVD of the Up! series (I watched the first one so far, which really needed either captioning or subtitles, because I'm okay with British accents, but not when they're mumbling and talking over each other.), and two other books that I've already forgotten.

Oh, and we spent a whole $1 at the sale. We were a bit late, and a woman just ahead of us grabbed at least half of the kiddie books.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Grrrrr

El Burrito's nap today was barely 90 minutes lng. And this was after I spent a full hour sitting on the floor in his room, which is the only way he'll go to sleep these days.

Also, the IndianaJones.com website is still mucked up when I try to see what's there. I get a nice Flash error message, and the rest of the Flash-based stuff loads and reloads so fast that I'm not able to click on anything. Even Googling for a direct link to something other than the main page doesn't work. This is why I hate 100%-Flash pages with the energy of a billion suns.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Another cute El Burrito story

Background info: El Burrito is on a Charlie Brown kick these days, so we've been watching the Peanust DVDs a lot. Right now, we've just got the "big 3" holiday specials and Lucy Must Be Traded out (the others are boxed up), so we've watched the Xmas special pretty often.

On to the cute story. El Burrito was helping me with the laundry on Monday. (His "help" is mainly running off with the laundry baskets to push them around, or tossing random stuff into the dryer - this week, it was red and orange crayons, which I luckily found.) He gets a kick out of watching the water run into the washer for some reason, so I let him watch when I can. This week, while he was sitting on the edge of the washer, he leaned over and said "Hello in there!" and then mumbled "something something Christmas cards!"

I laughed at the time, but it took me a few minutes to realize where he got that from. It's Charlie Brown yelling "Hello in there" into the mailbox, when he's looking for Christmas cards. After I figured it out, I had to laugh some more.

He's also started saying "Good Grief," "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" and "customer" (he got that one from Lucy. And he knows when Shroeder's about to play Jingle Bells.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The weekly book post

Today's library trip:

Returned 2 books, checked out 3, spent $1.50 at the sale. Right now, I've got 37 books checked out and 9 on my wait-list. I'll be waiting a while on some of them - I'm #32 for Battle of the Labyrinth (the new Perseus Jackson book by Rick Riordan) and still at #5 for Peter Walsh's Does this clutter make my butt look fat?

And now El Burrito is awake (early!) and wanting to sit in my chair. So much for my email.

Monday, May 19, 2008

A visit from grandma and grandpa

El Burrito had visitors today. My parents came to town for a medical appointment. (Dad had a hearing test at the VA. He needs hearing aids. This isn't news, folks. Years of driving a tractor and lawnmower, for starters.)

Mom can't be within 30 miles of us without coming to see her one and only grandson, so they came over for a few hours. Dad brought a stack of farm magazines for El Burrito, and Mom fed him a little box of animal crackers (ruined his lunch).

And then we almost had some trouble when they left. Dad sat down to put his boots on, and El B was right there beside him, waiting for a ride in Grandpa's Truck (which was at home - they drove the car). We walked out to the car with them, and El B was ready to hop in and go home with them. He cried a bit when they left without him, but not as much as I expected. We read two books when we got back inside, and then he was ready for his nap.

We'll probably see Grandma and Grandpa over Memorial weekend, and I'm sure he'll get a few rides in the Truck then, to make up for today. No, he's not spoiled at all. (Sarcasm there)

Friday, May 16, 2008

El Burrito's lunch date

El Burrito had a lunch "date" this week, because it was time for the monthly condo birthday lunch (aka Little Old Lady Lunch - I'm the youngest by about 30 years).

He heard me mention the lunch over the weekend, and kept talking about it all week. He mentioned macaroni and "drink of water" every time, and added applesauce to the list on Tuesday. I'm not sure if he remembered that he had macaroni & cheese at the last lunch, or if he was telling me that he wanted mac n cheese at this one. Either way, he was definite about it.

I almost caused a bit of a problem that morning. I asked El Burrito if Cookie Monster (his plush one) was coming with us, since Cookie's been quite the traveler lately. Then, of course, I forgot to make sure that Cookie actually made it out the door with us. What can I say, I was distracted by the child who kept handing me more cars to put in "my pocket" on the way out the door. We ended up with 5 cars, a truck, and a trailer, but no Cookie. So, naturally, El Burrito starts asking for Cookie when we're halfway to the restaurant. Ooops. Luckily, he didn't get too upset that Cookie stayed home. He'd pretty much forgotten it by the time we got to the restaurant.

(I'm hoping that this is his "normal" - he totes Cookie around a lot, but he doesn't throw a screaming hissy if Cookie isn't right there. Knock wood. He's got cousins who go into a panic if their blankie is in the next room. But when we start weaning him off the binky even more - binky is crib-only already - I can see him getting even more attached to something. Which is why we got an extra Cookie. He hasn't latched on to any one thing yet - it was Eeyore for a while, then Jingle Pony, now Cookie and Lightning-car.)

Anyway. Guess which restaurant doesn't have macaroni & cheese on their kids menu? Yeah, the one we were at. No applesauce, either. So he had baked beans and a grilled cheese for lunch. ($4.95, plus tax. Yeesh. It supposedly comes with ice cream, but the waiter didn't mention it, not that El B. needed dessert anyway.) The restaurant also has smiley-fries in the kids meals; they're pretty good, but El B doesn't seem to care for them yet.

He also charmed the lunch ladies again, although he doesn't speak up enough for most of them to hear what he says. But he always gets compliments on his behavior.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Dirty trick!

I'm an Indiana Jones fan, just to get that clear. Not an extreme fan - I own the DVDs, but haven't watched them recently. (Need to fix that before next week!) I bought the Taters of the Lost Ark Mr. Potato Head, but I won't pay $50 plus for each of the old soundtracks. I'm a moderate fan. :)

Anyway. Our local paper comes with the little USA Weekend "magazine" on Saturdays. I like it for the Sudoku, and occasionally they have something about movies. The latest cover advertised their interview with Harrison Ford (who looks very good for his age).

Notice the Exclusive Poster that is mentioned on the cover. It's also mentioned inside, with the interview.


I was reading along, enjoyed the short interview, and was really looking forward to an Indy poster to stick on my file cabinet next to the PC.

I turned the page, and this is their Exclusive! Indiana Jones poster:

That? Is NOT Indiana Jones. Or Harrison Ford, for that matter.

Nowhere near either one, actually. I'm still disappointed, and it's Thursday. Okay, Shia LaBeouf has gotten past the nerdy Even Stevens thing, and I'm sure the teeny-boppers and even college kids will be hanging his poster everywhere. He's got that whole James Dean thing going. But darn it, I want that Indiana Jones poster that they kept talking about.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Camoflage

We spent maybe 15 minutes tonight looking for a "Charlie Checker" car, because El Burrito wanted to take it to bed with him (along with maybe half a dozen other toy cars).

Charlie Checker blends in very well with the cover of a Jughead Double Digest comic, if you were wondering.

Tomorrow, I may have time to share the fun El Burrito had at the condo lunch today.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Book Post

Library day again!

We returned 2 books and a DVD that was woefully overdue (Slings and Arrows Series 1 - I managed to make it halfway through this time. Oddly, I just went to the library website to request it again, so I can finish it, and it's not showing up in the catalog again. Weird.)

One of the books was the Complete Peanuts Volume 1 (1950-52). I'd never seen a lot of the early strips, and it's intresting to read along and see how things have changed. I'd never realized that Charlie Brown is older than most of the rest, or was in the beginning. Lucy was just learning to walk in the first years, Shroeder wasn't talking, and Linus was just born. Woodstock didn't have a name yet, and Lucy wasn't the first person to yank the football away as Charlie Brown was trying to kick it. I hope the library buys the rest of the series - the publisher is reprinting all of the Peanuts strips in chronological order. They've made it up to the early 70s so far.

We came home with 4 library books, though, so the total increased slightly. Gotta work on that.
And we spent $3.50 at the sale - $2 for DH, 50c for me (a Perry Mason/Agatha Christie 2-in-1), and $1 for El Burrito (Lyle Crocodile and Chocolate Chippo Hippo).

Allergies and such

I picked up my lovely prescription eyedrops today. I knew they weren't going to be cheap; the optometrist gave me a $25 rebate form last time she prescribed them. This time, the warning sign was that the pharmacist told me the price and asked if I wanted to pay for them or not. Which I did; it's eyedrops or walking around with my glasses on, wishing for a way to take my eyes completely out of my skull and wash the gritty feeling off of them.

Grand total: $80+ for a very small bottle with 2.5 mL of the stuff. Plus the 0.5 mL sample I got from the optometrist. I'm glad we've got a FSA and insurance.

Needless to say, this stuff will be rationed very carefully - the dosage is 1 drop per eye per day. Last time, the bottle lasted about 6 weeks; it was a larger bottle, I think, but twice a day dosing. I hope this bottle lasts long enough to get me through the worst of allergy season. This stuff is right up there with DH's $3 a dose medicine on the Don't Lose It scale. Those are the pills that get dusted off, not tossed, if we drop them on the floor.

****

We didn't accomplish as much as I wanted over the weekend. Still not in shape for delivery of appliances, which will require moving furniture out of the main path, which in turn requires moving practically everything else. And the Firewire card is still in the box. But some things did get marked off the list, and the framework for some others was put in place. And we found out that our behemoth of a microwave isn't vented to the outside, which should simplify the installation. It also weighs about 85 pounds.

I did get lunch at Red Lobster for Mother's Day, plus some DVDs that are on the way. Gave 25 pounds of paper recycling to the trash guys, moved the plants outside, and donated 4 freebie cans of formula (the stuff El Burrito couldn't eat) to the USPS food drive.

And then El Burrito decided to wake up 2 hours early this morning.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Hopes and plans

I've got hopes that this weekend will see something accomplished around here.

Specifically, getting things organized enough (read: clean enough) to be able to a) buy and have delivered a microwave, stove, and possibly dishwasher; and b) schedule someone to come and rehang basically every door in the place, interior and exterior. Because I can think of one interior door that closes easily right now, and one exterior door that's passable. One deck door is totally worthless use-wise, since we had to use part of the lock from it to fix the main door.

That's the big, may-not-get-finished goal. There are some smaller ones, too.
  • Buying some Forever stamps.
  • Checking the free credit reports that we got in the mail last week.
  • Moving a chunk of money from the no-interest checking account (but with free checks) to Vanguard, where it will earn interest.
  • Possibly going to Red Lobster for Mother's Day, and scarfing down bunches of shrimp.
  • Getting DH to install the Firewire card that we bought in February, so I/we can actually do something with the video we've shot on the camcorder that we bought in November 2006.
  • Move the houseplant jungle out onto the porch for the summer. It frosted last weekend, but I think they'll be safe now. (I should hope so - it's May, for cripes' sakes.)
Funny story about going out to eat. Monday was Cinco de Mayo. We went out to eat, because I was uninspired to cook (again). Since it was almost 8:00, we drove by our favorite Mexican place, thinking the crowd might have thinned out by then. Not so much - we ended up having BBQ and doing some grocery shopping. As we were putting the groceries in the car, we heard sirens. By the time we'd gotten everything in the car and left the parking lot, we'd seen 7 police cars come, sirens screaming, into the strip mall across the street and park near the newish Mexican restaurant. For this town, that's a lot of cops. It was never mentioned in the newspaper, but we're guessing it was some sort of combination of a Cinco de Mayo drink specials, college kids, and who knows what else. If guns were involved, it would have been in the paper, so I guess it was just a really big bar fight. But it's a little odd that something with 7 squad cars involved wasn't in the news at all.

Anyway, hopefully we'll accomplish even half of that list and put a dent in the biggie this weekend. I meant to have the doors taken care of last fall, and it was too cold to do the outer doors before I knew it. Time flies these days.

On the up-side, I got 2 bags of paper recycling ready to go out on trash day. The pile was overflowing the paper bin, so it had to be done.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Reasonable Facsimiles

It's hard to be a fan of "international" food sometimes, if you can't find the food in question, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, when you get back home.

I fell in love with Jaffa Cakes in Ireland, after we bought a box at a gas station. We brought two boxes home with us, and I managed to hoard the last one for almost a year, but then we hit the hard part. They apparently aren't imported to the U.S. a lot (unless you want to pay through the nose for them). Amazon sells them for $5.15 a box, plus $7.15 shipping. For a box of 12, that we spent maybe $3 on in Ireland. Oy.

Jaffa Cakes are these scrumptious cookies/biscuits/cakes with a layer of sponge (?) cake, orange jelly-like filling, and dark chocolate on top. Lovely things, although after a few months, they're a bit dry. We've found a reasonable substitute from LU Pims, but they're also imported (from France, it seems), and not always stocked at the local store.

Sweet Candy in Utah makes chocolate sticks with orange or other fillings, which are yummy. It's kind of like a Jaffa without the Cake.

In Canada, I found mint Aero bars, which are a candy bar type thing. The filling is this fluffy mint-flavored stuff, sort of looks like honeycomb or foam, not mushy but just a bit crisp. And covered in chocolate. Haven't found anything like an Aero in the States. Next time my sister goes into Canada, I'll have to beg her to buy some Aeros for me. She claims you can find them in Detroit/Dearborn, too. I can apparently buy them online for 59p from the UK, but I hate to think what shipping would be. :) Oh, my - there's a caramel version too. Yummmmm.

And then we bought a tin of gingersnaps at Ikea when we went to Atlanta last year. El Burrito loves them, but Sis says Ikea only carries them at the holidays. We bought a bag of gingersnaps (organic) last week, but they're not the same. Thicker, very hard to bite, and they've got a zing to them. This week, I found a box of Anna's Ginger Thins (Canadian) in the teeny "international" section at HyVee, and they're very very close to the Ikea ginger snaps. Plus, not too pricey, at $1.99 for 150g. Not cheap, but we'll have to use some self control and not eat the whole box at once, unless HyVee starts to carry the 3-pound box.

One of these days, I need to take a trip to the international-foods store on the south end of town. I'd probably come home with all sorts of food I've heard people talk about (the downside of being on international chatlists - hearing about Hob Nobs and Tim Tams and Jaffas and other diet-dangerous goodies).

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

El Burrito news flash

Since I can't find his baby book. :)

He can count to 14 now. Unprompted - he was sitting on the couch, counting to himself.

Decisions, Decisions

Why do people have to complicate things? Yes, George Lucas, I'm looking at you. And Spielberg, because the edits to E.T. were just silly.

Five years ago, I bought the 4-disc Indiana Jones DVD box set, because I only had VHS copies and they don't hold up well over time. It had all three movies, plus a bonus disc. Now I've seen an ad on TV for a new DVD box set, a "special edition" this time. Apparently, the movies are the same, but the bonus features are different. Oh, and the new set is apparently subtitled in 8 languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Nepali, Spanish) instead of the usual 3 (English, French, Spanish), and appears to be an all-regions DVD instead of just Region 1.

Either way, I think I'll wait for a used copy of this one to turn up cheap. If the movies are the same (thank goodness - Lucas is too enamored of the ability to re-edit), then I'm not paying extra for new extras. I'll admit, I bought 2 of the Star Wars movies on DVD when Amazon had the original versions on sale, but that's it. The "improved" versions don't do anything for me. I prefer the "real" ones. Of course, I think the last three SW movies were bordering on crap. They spent too much money on special effects, and apparently ignored the script. Yes, the effects were cool - the droids in battle were fun to watch - but they felt dumbed down.

I'll admit, I've got both versions of the Lord of the Rings movies, but with those, there were differences in the movies. I bought the extended versions first, and then picked up the theatrical releases when they were on sale later. I can justify that, but paying twice for the same movie isn't going to happen. Plus, I'm enough of a LOTR junkie that I went for the ultra-spiffy box sets, with the bonus disc and the Sideshow Weta figurines.

In short, I guess not much of a decision, now that I've read up on the specs of the new Indy set, but it's still irritating.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Tuesday again

My allergies are acting up again, so I'm basically writing this one with one eye open. Gotta call the optometrist tomorrow and see if I can get in for an appointment. If it is allergies and not something else, I'm prepared to beg for more of those eyedrops I got a few years ago. I'm not proud. :) Those things were pricey, but they worked. You know it's going to be expensive when the doctor gives you a prescription and a form for a $25 rebate. It was worth the hassle of waiting 15 minutes between the eyedrops and putting my contacts in.

Anyway, on to the book post.

Library stats for the day: 35 items checked out, 4 on hold. Returned 3, checked out 4. And we spent $18.50 at the book sale, more than usual because it was a First Tuesday sale and I came home with some coffee-table type books with Western art (Frederic Russell, Charles Remington, etc.)

I returned:
  • Deluge (Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough) - The last book in the Petaybee Twins trilogy (which is a sequal to the Petaybee trilogy). This one is more of a young adult novel, so the main characters (hero & heroine) are teenagers, with special powers. I enjoy most of Anne McCaffrey's work, but the young-adult books - at least the Acorna and Petaybee Twins books - aren't really my thing. So, I get them from the library instead of buying them. On the other hand, the Pern books are automatic buys for me, even the younger-skewed Harper Hall books. However, the more recent books seem to be s horter, and I'm starting to reconsider my habit of buying them in hardcover. (And there are few books that I buy in hardback automatically - the Pern books, Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, and Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series are about it. I've been buying Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy series as they come out, but after the last one I'm waffling. )
  • Getting Started with Seed Beads by Wedekind - Because I really don't need another hobby, but I've done a bit with seed beads, and have some odds and ends laying around. Someday I need to finish using them, and the round peyote beading looks interesting.
  • And I read Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, and one of the World's Deadliest Jobs - written by the Hillstrand brothers and someone named Malcolm MacPherson. I admit it, I'm a faithful watcher of Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch. And if I had a fast connection, I would be tracking down those Youtube videos of Mike Rowe's QVC jobs, because they sound hilarious. Anyway. This was an interesting book, although more about the Hillstrands' childhood and less about the crab fishing, and Johnathan got more time than Andy did. It was interesting, though, and a fairly quick read. My only complaint is that the writing seemed a bit formal, somehow. Even in the dialogue, there were practically no contractions - I've for I have, or I'll for I will. It seemed a little stiff, and not the way the Hillstrands have talked on the show. Other than that, it was worth the time (although I'm glad I got it from the library instead of buying it).

Monday, May 5, 2008

The laundry snowball

I think I've been hit with a laundry snowball. Normally, I wash 6 loads per week. Today, it's more like 10.

Most weeks, it's
  1. Whites
  2. Lights
  3. Darks
  4. Jeans
  5. Towels
  6. El Burrito's clothes
In alternate weeks, I have a load of sheets. Sometimes, anyway. I go back and forth between washing both sets of sheets on alternate weeks, or tossing one set in with the whites every week. The alternate-week plan means an extra load, the other plan means that socks get tangled in the corners of the fitted sheet and are still wet later.

Today, in addition to the 7 planned loads, there was a load of rugs and then at least one load of coats and jackets.

The rug load started with the kitchen rug. Which had to be washed because the kitchen light burned out last week, and somehow the bulb was stuck and DH had to break it to get the base out. In spite of the bag over the bulb, a few bits of glass got loose, so I had to wash the rug just in case. Which led to "Oh, just toss the bathroom rugs in, too." Which then led to sweeping the dust bunnies out of the bathroom, and may also snowball into scrubbing the toilet and cleaning the sink and counter, if I have time.

The jackets are in line because we went to visit everyone this weekend - both sets of parents - and spent a bit of time outside getting dirty. And it's time to wash the winter coats and put them away for the summer. That may be one load, or two, depending on how bulky the pile is.

Some people go with the load-a-day method, but I'd rather just do it all in one day and get it over with. A load every day would make it seem even more like a never-ending thing than it already is.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Allergies

My eyes were itching so much last night that I had to take my contacts out by 9:30. Either the generic Zyrtec isn't working as well as it did last time, or I haven't been taking it long enough for it to be really effective yet. I started on generic Claritin a month ago, but switched last week because I thought the Z would work better. Possibly I should have overlapped them for a day or two.

Hopefully it'll pass soon. If not, it's back to the optometrist for an Rx for the effective but pricey Patanol.

El Burrito was amazed that Mommy was wearing glasses. I don't wear them a lot, because I prefer the contacts, but it was desperate times.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Forethought

Forethought was apparently slightly rare when the "architect" designed these condos.

Our microwave - manufacture date January 1986 - died the other night, as I mentioned, and we've been working on replacing it. The current plan is to replace the stove at the same time, and hopefully get free installation & delivery out of the deal. (And I'd pay for delivery, just so we didn't have to manhandle everything up the stairs, because that turn at the doorway is a killer. I felt sorry for the guys who had to get the fridge through it.)

So DH was thinking that we'd probably better find out if the micro. vents to the outside, or if it's just a recirculation fan (it's an over-the-stove model). Which means figuring out how it's installed; I guess some of them have a bracket on the wall. So far, the only thing I found is two bolts into the cabinet over the micro, one on each front corner. That can't be enough to support an 80s-era behemoth of a microwave, but darned if I can see anything resembling a bracket.

I started to say to DH (on the phone) that surely the people who built the place wouldn't have bolted in straight into the wall. Surely they would have realized that it would crap out someday and have to be replaced.

Then I remembered all the evidence so far regarding their lack of forethought. Like all the lights that require a ladder when the bulb burns out - which is, basically, every light other than the hallway light. The lousy air circulation and lack of working windows. The lack of storage space, like closets. The shoehorned-into-the-bathroom tub that's basically unusable, and is why El Burrito still gets a bath in his baby tub.

It won't surprise me at all if it turns out that we have to take a chunk of sheetrock out with the old micro. I won't like it, but I won't be shocked.