I’m so excited. I just found out that Ab Fab is coming back to Comedy Central. I loved the old Absolutely Fabulous reruns but never dared to hope there would be more on the way!

I must warn you that Eddie and Patsy are, well, horridly shallow. But there is something about them that just cracks me up. I think I got suckered into an AbFab marathon one weekend and spent all day on the couch laughing my butt off. Simply fabu darling!

So make a mental note that next Monday at 9pm the girls are back. I know I’ll be eagerly awaiting their latest adventure. Supposedly, Edina succumbs to the power of Parralox continuing her eternal quest to fight aging. I can’t wait!

We have heat.

I know it seems like this blog has turned into some sort of do-it-yourself home repair journal but lately, all our time seems to be spent pulling things apart and putting them back together.

So our dryer quit heating and according to our do-it-yourself manual, this probably means our heating coil is dead.

The dryer repair, however, proved trickier than we thought. Most models have a back panel that you simply remove to locate the heating coils. Ours, however, is an industrial GE dryer built sometime in the 70’s judging from the color. The only removable panel was the front which meant the whole drum had to come out. Oddly enough, it only took us an hour and half to take the thing apart. Sure enough, we had a bad heating coil. Since it was so old, I though we were done for but a re-string kit only set us back $25 bucks and was in stock!! So it’s 12:30 and we’re thinking no problem, we’ll have the puppy up and drying in no time.

It was then we learned a new lesson. Kevin is not allowed to take apart anything without me watching. That’s right, while I was on the phone with Elmo, Kevin pulled apart the dryer. I wasn’t watching or marking the parts in my anal way that I normally do.

The result? Disaster.

It took us SIX HOURS and a whole lot of swearing to get the dryer back together again. First, we plugged it in and nothing – no power. This meant we had to recheck all the wires to make sure they were connected. Then, we had power and heat but no tumble. Kevin had removed the belt but couldn’t figure out how to put it back on. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t get the right tension. In his frustration, he yanked off the door and broke the door safety. You know, it’s that little button that acts as a cut off switch so if you open the dryer door while it’s working it turns off automatically.

I sent Kevin on a walk with the dog and managed to realign the belt but there was no hope for the door sensor. So we did the only thing possible. By-passed the safety and said good enough. Don’t worry, we’re going to replace it. But the need for clean clothes outweighed our safety concerns. We ended up missing the symphony and spend the rest of the night doing laundry and patting ourselves on the back.

We decided to go a little wild and Kev made some strawberry pina coladas to go with our pizza. You know, you basic, wild Saturday night. I think we passed out around 10pm. Home repair is exhausting!

Ah, Halloween. I love this day. What a wonderful excuse to do something crazy.

One of my favorite Halloweens was junior year of college. I was living in a house in the middle of a real neighborhood with the potential for lots of trick-or-treaters. We were talking about what we wanted to do when I remembered the bobbing ghost.

You see, when I was little, we used to go to the YMCA pumpkin patch to buy our jack-o-lantern. When you got there, you’d find a bunch of kids back by the hay jumping and screaming like crazy where someone had rigged this ghost on an invisible line. It would just hang there in the breeze until you tried to touch it. Then it would jump out of your reach. Sometime, the ghost would be replaced with a little pumpkin but the game was always the same. I don’t remember every seeing where the person who did the pulling was hiding. It always seemed like the ghost could move all on its own.

Now, after telling this story, Roger, Anitra and Mike all decided this was the prank for us. We had this big tree out front by the walkway to the door. We found that if you climbed out of the second story window, you could hide behind the rise of the roof and still see the front walk. So we rigged up this ghost and ran the line through the tree and up to the roof. As the poor unsuspecting trick-or-treaters approached, we’d drop it on them and give them the fright of their lives. We actually freaked out quite a few moms as well. It was a blast!

I thought about trying something similar tonight. We have a great tree for it and will definitely get some kids. The real problem is our roof pitch is pretty scary and it’s rainy out. Not much fun to cling to a roof in the rain. I have a feeling this set-up can only be accomplished in warm weather climates like San Diego. Ah well, it’s a great trick if you can pull it off.

So I guess tonight I’ll just dish out candy and try to keep Artie from eating any of the small children that wander onto our doorstep. Unlike last year, I hide all the Halloween candy so my husband (aka Candy Smurf) didn’t eat it all. Next year thought, I’m going to plan something good. I’m one of those people who likes the trick over the treat. Hee hee.

It was a rough computer weekend at my house. I think Windows figured out what I was planning and began launching counter-measures because things quickly went from bad to worse in the basement.

First off, I decided Mandrake was the Linux program for me. They have a very friendly web page with lots of cute penguin icons. This sold me. The only thing is, the program is GIANT. OZ was download for well over an hour and hadn’t even made a dent in the files. Meanwhile, Frankenstein was under attack. I think Windows sensed the presence of the penguin or something because all of a sudden, I started losing monitors.

Oh yes, have I mentioned Kevin is addicted to ebay? If not, consider yourself informed and read on.

Kevin had just bought me a newly used monitor off of ebay. It was a nice 17 inch for only $50 bucks plus $44 shipping. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking, I could get a new one at Fry’s for that much but remember, Kevin has a disease. He cannot control himself on ebay.)

So my newly used monitor showed up and was plugged in. After about 15 minutes, it starts to flicker and the wiggle. I found I could use it for about 12 minutes before it went bad. Grrrr. So after chastising Kevin, I had him bring back the old monitor. Only problem is, after a few minutes of surfing, this one goes dead. Total black screen of death.

Now tell me, what are the odds of losing two monitors back to back like that? Coincidence? I don’t think so. Because poor Frankenstein is now blinded and monitor-less, we had to abort on the plan to install Linux. I’m worried what’s going to go next. I don’t trust Windows. Not one bit.

Deep in the basement, in the back corner of our house, you’ll find a small room by the water heater. This is our computer center. In it, there live two computers. Kevin’s is called OZ. It is has the latest and greatest everything on it. It’s main purpose is the surf the net and play computer games and it does both very very well. On the other side of the room is my computer. It’s name is Frankenstein because it is made from bits and pieces. I swear there are parts that are held together by duck tape. But I love Frankie. It hops on the network and every now and then I’ll team up with Kevin on his latest computer game. It can access the Internet and surf just fine even if it does have a very small screen. We get along quite wonderfully, Frankie and I. So while OZ is jamming away, we chug along quite happily.

But I’ve decided that Frankie needs to come out the closet. That’s right, I’m thinking of going LINUX. I figure, why not? He’s already messed up hardware wise, why not mix up the OS as well and make him a true freak. Of couse, I’m not real sure what LINUX is but I know there’s a really cute penguin involved which is a good sign. I mean, what sort of a mascot is a window anyway???

But I believe in reading the directions before trying to install something so I’m off to do a little research. So far, the amount of information is overwhelming. This might take me a little longer than planned but that’s ok. Wish me luck!

Kat sent me these jokes and while I don’t enjoy puns as much as Kevin, I thought I’d post a few here for your enjoyment…

Q: How Do You Get Holy Water?
A: You Boil The Hell Out Of It.

Q: What Do Fish Say When They Hit A Concrete Wall?
A: Dam!

Q. What Do You Call A Boomerang That Doesn’t Work?
A: A Stick.

Q: What Do You Call Santa’s Helpers?
A; Subordinate Clauses.

Q. What Do You Get When You Cross A Snowman With A Vampire?
A. Frostbite.

Q: Where Do You Find A Dog With No Legs?
A: Right Where You Left Him.

Q: Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils?
A: Because They Have Big Fingers.

Q: Why Don’t Blind People Like To Sky Dive?
A; Because It Scares The Dog.

Q: What Is The Difference Between A Harley And A Hoover?
A; The Location Of The Dirt Bag.

Q: What Do You Call Skydiving Lawyers?
A: Skeet.