What'd we get for Christmas? A new water meter!

Hope everyone had a peaceful Christmas. Or Festivus. Last month we received a very large water bill from the City. Bigger than any before. 21,000 gallons, they said we used. WHAT? Call the water department. "Well, you can read your own meter, if you want." Uhhhh, nope. Because, guess what, our water meter is under the Sidewalk to Nowhere - remember, the one the City required the day before move-in? Jiminy Christmas. Called the warranty department of our builder. The lady cracked up laughing. Under the sidewalk? NO WAY! Keep on laughing, chicky chick, here is our meter:

These two dudes dug it out, and moved it south about 18 inches. Notice the nice braid on the guy on the right.

Luckily, it was about 70 degrees that day. I wore shorts and did a lot of sidewalk supervising. Gave 'em a Diet Coke. There was a leak, right at the meter, so the super-competent City will fix that.

They put all the sod back in place, and they'll have to pour a new slab of stupid concrete, because this one broke into pieces. Happy New Year, everyone! Don't drink & drive.

Got a new rug -ug -ug

Our family room has a super high ceiling, and it echoed in there. Until yesterday. With the great help of our friend Michael (she's Michael Ann to new people, Michael to us, Little Rag to me!), we found this nice rug and wrestled it into position yesterday. The echo is gone. Thanks, Little Rag!

Deck the halls & other things

This weekend we put up our Christmas lights. We don't go for the complete saturation look with music, but it's cool when others do it (Rybes!). Since this is the first time we have decorated our new home for Christmas, we're still figuring out what to do. It's a work in progress right now.

The Smart seemed to need decorating, too, so we bought this little outfit at Walgreens. We have named the Smart "Pookie", after the lion puppet on Soupy Sales, so this is Pookie the Red Nosed Smart-deer:

Those of you who remember Soupy Sales' kids show (mostly us Midwesterners) might like to check out some of his shows on youtube (my F&J coworkers had better not view this at work - check it out at home!) Here's a good one - fast forward to 3:42 and watch for Pookie singing the "Chew Tobacco Rag" - keep on watching until 7:11 for the last gag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2zWIxBfy7U