It only took 19 days...

That's right, you heard me correctly, it only took me a mere 19 days to de-christmasify my house. And to be completely correct, we're not done yet. We still have the lights hanging up outside, i just can't bring myself to bundle up in many many layers and go outside to struggle to bring lights down. Can they stay up until its warm out?! Unfortunately, Frank doesn't think they can, so i'll have to go out and take them down SOMETIME this week, just not right now, not today. But all the lights inside the house are down...some of them have been technically down for a few weeks now (for those of you who don't know, most of the lights on my windows have been half down since before Christmas. For some reason, the suction cups didn't want to stick what-so-ever this year, and Frank and I were completely sick of re-hanging lights every single day..so we left them dangling by 2 cups. It was interesting, that's for sure). I also managed to un-dress the tree, and we put Mady down for her afternoon nap yesterday and we got the tree outside. And we didn't even make a mess! Every year we make a total mess of the house, just trying to get the ginormous tree outside. This year, we bought our tree bag from the tree place, and it totally fit over the humungo tree, no problems. We were both impressed.

And today, Frank called the water company to talk to them about our ongoing problem with the man from the corner. If you don't know the full story, here's a brief update. The water main is cracked under the building on the corner. The man that owns that building thinks that all of us on the block should help him pay to tear up the street and pavement, fix the main and re-pave his pavement and replace all his fancy-schmancy ammenities that are there. If it were MY water pipe that was broken, he wouldn't help ME, so why should i help him?! Did i mention the building is the district magistrates office? Yea, that's why he thinks he can push me around. Hi buddy, my name is Stacey, and nobody tells me what to do...just thought i'd fill you in. From what the people at the water company said, we have our own shut off valve to our house, and he can't get our water shut off for not helping him. They also told us that they don't believe we are responsible for fixing the main. Granted, that is just one man's opinion, but i like that man! We are going to talk to a lawyer and see if he can MAKE us help pay, or MAKE us do anything else, and if not i am going to tell him where he can shove it. He mailed us an estimate, which was extremely high. He only got one estimate too, he didn't shop around. I would also like to see a copy of that said estimate, to see what he is trying to charge us for. I'm sure it includes a bunch of stuff that i shouldn't be responsible for, like a new handicap ramp and new sidewalks. This is our on-going war, wish us luck.