jennanddave.com

...of things that broke down while we were on vacation and after we got back home.

1. Our cell phone. We're not entirely sure what happened, but one morning while we were at the beach it decided it was moving on to the Great Cell Phone Pasture in the sky. What was really tragic was Dave had spent the previous two weeks going back and forth with the University's Verizon rep, trying to pick out a family plan that would work for us. Were we not two indecisive Libra's, we probably would have been the proud owners of two new phones by the time we went to the beach. It was weird not having a phone, mostly weird in a good, disconnected way. We do now have two lovely new phones, plus Dave is the proud owner of his own phone number. Our plan is to nix our land line and our long distance thereby whittling our number of monthly phone bills down from three to just one. I'm really looking forward to that.

2. Our washer. The night we got back, I washed the sheets that were on our bed so they'd be nice and clean and dust-free for those of us who have allergies (ahem), then I threw in a nice big load of vacation laundry. The washer pooped out in the middle of the agitation cycle. We tried a couple of different things to get it going again, but ended up wringing out the wet clothes and bailing out the water. Dave instrument of choice for doing this: an 8oz. cup. I suggested perhaps something bigger might get the job done quicker, but when he's made his choice, he's made his choice. (Which is why, in the end, he went through with marrying me despite possible better judgement.) We've been itching for a new washer since we moved in six years ago because the current washer just didn't seem quite up to the challenge of cleaning our clothes. We headed off to Sears the next night and picked out a lovely new energy efficient model. We also purchased a small chest freezer which we have high hopes of filling with all sorts of frozen dinners that we can pillage and reheat once Chocolat arrives. It's something we've been talking about purchasing since we found out we were expecting and this seemed like as good a time as any. So our new appliances will be arriving June 9th. Perhaps needless to say, we spent some serious quality time at the local laundromat on Sunday.

3. Kitchen ceiling fan. I was vacuuming the fan blades when I managed to shatter the glass light cover. We talked about replacing the glass bit, but then I suggested it wouldn't be horrible to get a new ceiling fan altogether, perhaps one that gave off more light. Which is what we did. Now when you turn on our kitchen light, you're practically blinded. It makes me very happy that I decided to go ahead and paint the walls a few years ago because I can only imagine how dingy the room would look if I hadn't.

Now we're sitting around waiting with baited breath to see what the next thing to go will be. I think Dave's hoping either the fridge or the dishwasher. I'm hoping it's the wall between the kitchen and dining room, but the likelihood of that giving up the ghost is probably pretty slim.