Tuesday, June 24, 2008

One of those days!

Actually I'm having several of those days. *sigh* The first Tuesday of our holidays we have our regular home visit from our supervising teacher. It would be nice to finish up some more work, especially math, but it's looking rather sad. It's not even all Ditz'z fault. I just haven't had time to work with her. Instead I have been frantically trying to organize cooktops & washing machines which actually arrived yesterday. Great excitement all round.

At 8am Liddy's work rang asking could she come in by 9! More excitement. Frantic hunt for clean clothing & Liddy thrilled to be getting an early start & learning the layout & everything weeks before the store officially opens but another kink in my day. Ditz kept popping out of her room like a jack~in~the~box to watch operations on cooktop installation & the washing machine, which Dino did for me. I have piles of laundry but when I went to use the machine it wouldn't fill. It is a front loader (which I've never had before), all computerised & push buttons & frankly I'm terrified of the thing but it was on sale & I get a rebate for the water saving ( a substantial rebate ~ especially if I save water because I can't make it work! :}) so what was I going to do? Say no? Hardly likely.

I went into meltdown. Dearest fiddled & we got it to fill. Went to take Dearest to the doctor to find all the building going on meant we'd acquired a nail in our front tire. Mad dash to the garage instead to get the tire plugged. Emptied washing machine. Went to do 2nd load. Machine no fillee ~ again! I have now sorted it out but for a while there I was not in good shape. It's not like getting hold of a repairman or returning the thing is the simplest thing to do from here.

Meanwhile children arrived in the kitchen & fell in love with my flat top, glass top cooker. (It is very pretty! lol. also acquired on sale) & promptly started pushing buttons. Child lock went on & the thing promptly became unusable! Much fiddling later we had heat but then had the dilemma of how to turn it off & the only one prepared to read the instruction manual was me! Everyone else is a hands on learner & just kept fiddling!

However I am now slowly working my way through the backlog of washing ~ but this end of the week I am somewhere else more often than I am here & the machine not only holds less but takes a long time to run through its cycle.

At which point, stopping briefly to check on Ditz's progress, I found the child had failed to check the colours for the Aboriginal flag, coloured them wrong, & I had to remake her flag. At least I got her before she did the same thing to the Eureka flag. I mean, it's not like she's never seen either flag before. Obviously her mind is elsewhere. And the sad thing is she has been working steadily but I haven't had time yet to check her work & I just hope she's got a better grip on it than I suspect she has. I do know she very conveniently lost her math ...Again! How that book does disappear!


7 comments:

molytail said...

You need a vacation - just so happens I know the perfect island spot.... *grin*

You've got one of those fancy glass top ones eh? My friends Diane & Norman have one of those on their oven - they freak me out. They're like... all flat and spooky looking. Yeah I'm odd. :-P

I've never had a front loader machine - used one at a laundromat once, they're cool! :-D Haha, I remember thinking how cool it would be to open the door mid wash LOL

What kind of a store is Liddy working at?

Math is very good at vanishing. Very very good.

>^..^<

Constance said...

I too have a front-loader and I have read that one day that will be the only new machines that will be made. At least over here. I am all about conservation. This is my 2nd one but mine actually holds bigger loads than my old top loader.

I am curious how you like your new stove. I had to replace my stove 18 months ago and considered one. I found out though that you can't "can" on them. (Something about the weight of the canner as well as the amount of heat required to process). A lot of people I clean for have the smooth ceramic tops and they clean up pretty easy.

You'll have to post some pics!

Connie

Diane Shiffer said...

i used a front loading washer at the laudromat once... it opened up mid-load sending gallons of soapy water and my clothing cascading across the (filthy) floor. they scare me now.

oh, my dear... i'm so sorry you're having such a day. i just said a prayer for you, and i promise to do so whenever//////////*.33333333333333+++++++333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
the Lord brings you to mind((hugs))

btw, all the "//33..." were the psychotic kitten's message specail of condolence to you- at least i *think* that's what she was doing. she leapt upon the keyboard and that was the result:D
love ya,
diane

Diane Shiffer said...

ummm...sorry...

that was supposed to be "the psychotic kitten's special message of condolence"

eep...

MamaOlive said...

How exciting to get all new stuff. SO if you read the book and they fiddle with the buttons, who figures it out first? ;-)
At least you have a nice view to calm your soul.

I currently have both a front-load washer and a glass top stove. Not too bad. The thing that really threw me off was the oven is convection, so everything cooks at a different rate than I am used to.

Ganeida said...

Moly the cooktop is waaay cool. It glows this evil red & pulses as it gets hot. Ditz loves it!

Yeah I told all the kids they weren't to open the washing machine once the cycle was started but I've found the door won't open anyway so we're all good.

Connie, the cleaning factor was the big reason I wanted a glass cooktop...& I don't can so that's not something I have to worry about. I've had other sorts & with the kids they are just always filthy 'cause they never clean up spills & by the time I get to them they're baked on. Yuk!

Thanks for the prayers & kitty love, Diane. I think I'm just unravelling at present. I just never seem to get any breathing space.

MamaO, I can assure you I'm never the first to work anything out because I'm too scared to fiddle & find out if what I think should work actually does! lol. The view is a great consolation.

This is the 2nd convection oven I've had. I burnt a few things first off. Now I just cook a few degrees under what the recipe calls for. The front loader washes heaps cleaner than the top loader & wrings the stuff dryer & once I get over my fright I will be very happy with it but life is so frantic all this stuff I operate on *preprogrammed* & having to actually stop & think how to do it is more than I can cope with some days. Where's that view?

Anonymous said...

If your front loader's anything like mine it will have something like a "quick 30" programme, which does take 30 minutes as opposed to the 2+ hours for most other cycles, and seems to work fine for things that aren't really grotty. Also lowering the water temperature can reduce the cycle time.

I thought my washing machine was a goner last weekend -- wierd messages on the LCD and the troubleshooting section of the manual was less than helpful. (Why am I surprised when I've been writing instruction manuals for more than 20 years :-P)

Hope this helps

Siano