The Week Ahead

Today was Stake Conference which meant a reduced Church meeting schedule for me, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's allowed me to get caught up on a lot of things, including a slew of things for my Mom. I've also spent some time in the wreckage that is our basement. We are awaiting a bid from a contractor and the approval of the insurance company so we can move forward on the repair work from the stupid exploding water heater. I get the feeling we are in for the long haul on this one.

I have also had some time to think about the week ahead. Here's a look at what's on tap:

- New York City. Couple of days of work meetings-staff and suppliers. A fancy pants Star Alliance event for Continental Airlines as they bid farewell to Skyteam. Lunch at Numpang. A run through Central Park. Probable delayed flight on the return (weather isn't looking great this week for NYC or the Midwest) which means bonus miles - thank you, Mother United. Can you guess what I am most excited about? If you said Numpang, you would be correct.
Cannot WAIT to try one of these!

- Phoenix. Seeing Mom. It will be good to see her. I am so proud of her for how she is handling her new situation. She's tapped into a strength that she's always had but it's been dormant for awhile. Like I said, I'm just really proud of her.

It's been a good day and it's not yet over, but I'm ready to crawl under a blanket for a little while and read a book. I've just started reading Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's book, Highest Duty. I'm barely into it but I can tell it's written in his voice. Having had the honor of meeting him, I can totally hear his voice in these pages. It's a good read.

Why I love my alma mater

Tomorrow, my alma mater, Brigham Young University, will be the home for ESPN's College Game Day and that is cool. Tomorrow's game is big - #16 BYU goes up against #8 TCU. TCU spanked us last year so it promises to be quite a game. I'm proud of my school's football team, but honestly, it's not why I love the school. It's for gems like this that appear in the school's newspaper, the Daily Universe:

Trespassing

Oct. 11 Several female students left their apartment for 30 minutes to attend ward prayer. When they returned to their apartment, they found a severed elk head on their kitchen table. The suspects could not be identified and the elk was disposed of at the materials handling building.

I am not making this up. I only wish I were THAT creative. Read it here if you don't believe me. Awesome. Just awesome.

Some things to look forward to

The last three weeks of work have been positively brutal. Brutal. It looks like there's a light at the end of the tunnel - I just fear what that light is. But I've got other things to focus on now. Like seeing Jim Gaffigan live on 30 January at the Chicago Theatre in the city. He is just funny and I am so looking forward to taking the stunningly patient SML to see him. It's going to be funny. Here's a preview of Jim at work:

Awesome! Now to figure out where dinner is that night...

The other thing I've got to look forward to is the Middle East, specifically Abu Dhabi and maybe, Doha, Qatar. I was the lucky winner of a Business Class ticket to any destination that Etihad Airways flies to and I say Abu Dhabi here I come.

Where to stay? What to do? Need to figure that all out. Looking forward to it. So if you've been to Abu Dhabi or Doha, let me know and give me some ideas on what to do/to see.

Adios, Water Heater

It had to happen. We live in an older house. You could hear it in the occasional clanging and moaning coming from our water heater that it was going to give up the ghost sooner rather than later. Sadly, unlike an eerily silent ghost, when the water heater gave out today, it went out big. Unfortunately I was too lame to notice. Here's how it all went down:

My home office is in the basement and I settled in at 530AM this morning for a day of calls and catch up after a brutal few weeks. I was on conference call number three at 8AM-ish when there was an unusually loud bang from within the room that houses the water heater. Loud enough that I jumped but given that it makes noises like a Ford Pinto without a muffler, I didn't give it another thought. This was a bad call.

About 45 minutes later, I'm on yet another conference call when the stunningly patient SML comes down stairs asking what happened to the water (she'd just gotten out of the shower). That turned into a scream when she yelled, "The water is ALL OVER THE FLOOR!" I looked down and no lie, it was! About an inch of water was below my seat. Now, you might ask how did I not notice this...A) I was sitting on my feet so they weren't touching the ground; B) it wasn't like a tidal wave so it was pretty quiet; and C) who thinks to look down for water at any given moment?!

Anyway, it turns into a mad scramble to rescue all the electronic stuff off the floor, followed by a dash into the room to figure out how to turn off the water heater. FYI - it's the valve above the heater. Something I did not learn until after 10 minutes of furious struggle this morning. Then we started bailing. We used every towel in the house. Meanwhile, the stunningly patient SML calls a supposedly reputable local plumber here in town who responded by saying: "We're too busy today. Call someone else." Completely awesome. Not. The second plumber was fantastic. Lenert Plumbing was so helpful and were on the scene in no time. John, the plumber, was an incredibly calming influence too. Funny as well. I was apologizing for the disaster in the basement and he said, "I've just spent the last four days in a seven foot deep sewer trench. This is great!" I called our insurance company as the water was still pouring and they were great too. We had a disaster recovery team onsite within 90 minutes and an adjuster called within a couple of hours, saying we'd probably have a check in a day or so. Incredible. The recovery people from Servpro were amazing. Four guys dove into the mess and had it torn up and on the way to drying so fast. We were really impressed with Tim and his team. They've done a great job.

So now we've got most of the carpet thrown away, the baseboards off, holes drilled in the wall, seven fans blowing and a dehumidifier working OT. And the stunningly patient SML is already planning the re-do of the basement. Painting. New carpet. Good times.

Here's some pictures of today's fun:




That's the dehumidifier, not a nuclear reactor.