Weekend Recap

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have air conditioning.

I was originally going to try and go without the blow to my pocketbook by not purchasing the somewhat expensive window air conditioning unit. However, what with the emergence of the Evil Twin this past week, and the fact that it reached approximately 1,000 degrees (Celsius) and 99.9999999% humidity on Saturday, Evil Twin demanded that I put aforementioned window unit on my credit card to end the misery that was my apartment. I think the straw that broke the camel's back was the image of Blue literally melting off the couch and onto the floor where he lay splayed out and panting as though he had run a marathon. (Casey was napping and panting in her sleep.)

The boy called and got the angry earful as I complained about having to spend the money that I hadn't planned on spending, I had other bills to pay, blah blah blah. His response (bless his patient soul) was, "Wait, you're not going to buy it and install it youself are you?"

At the time, Evil Twin got all offended and went off on a rant about how I can do anything a boy can do and OF COURSE I was going to do it myself. I am an independent, self sufficient woman and I can take care of myself.

You can imagine how that went. I cringe to think of it.

The boy calmly talked me into eating a popsicle, pointing all fans in the place towards myself and the dogs, and waiting until he got home from work and could go with me to purchase the a/c unit.

He arrived, we went to Lowes, and proceeded to disagree about exactly how big the a/c unit should be....not to mention where it should be placed. Luckily, there is central air at Lowes which made the Evil Twin relax some, and we were able to compromise. I didn't get the ginormous, really expensive one that the boy seemed to think I needed, but I didn't get the tiny cheap one that I thought would work just fine. (The compromise did have a remote control...something I wasn't sure was necessary and now can't believe I considered going without.)

In retrospect, how come the boy got to spend my money?

Three and a half hours and a whole lot of sweat later, the window a/c unit was installed.

I don't know how long I expected it to take, or how difficult I thought it was going to be, but the actual experience exceeded both of my expectations...whatever they were. The installation manual wasn't difficult to understand, the steps seemed pretty simple, and luckily my window was perfect for the unit (outside windowsill and all) but there was this heavy ass a/c unit to maneuver, a storm window to remove, a cat to find after she jumped out the window and disappeared for 20 minutes (she ended up coming back on her own) and several instances of "Wait - let's read the manual...look at the picture. Does that help?" It was hella-hot in the apartment, too. The sunshine, the heat, the open window while we figured out what the heck was going on... I'm surprised we both emerged unscathed, actually.

Of course, as soon as the unit was installed, the cool breeze that signified impending rain began. We ended up opening the windows and letting the cool air in that evening anyway.

The end result was a really really long walk with the dogs on Sunday morning that ended with a nice quiet nap for all three of us on the couch/loveseat. No panting at all.

More to come later with stories of yard work...