This And That

I am sitting here waiting for plumbers to come and look at our boiler. When I mentioned in yesterday's post about Little A getting up at 12:00 am on Friday night I didn't mention what happened earlier.

Shortly after putting Audrey to bed at her usual 9:30 time I was sitting at the computer (surprise!) and Peter rushed into the room and said he needed my help. As I followed him down the stairs he filled me in that as he was laying in bed he heard a noise similar to a jet engine taking off downstairs. Clearly I am deaf since I didn't hear this from the living room. We both looked at our boiler in horror and confusion as we observed the blue flame coming out of the front of the burners. *Side note for those of you who have a furnace and don't know about this crazy thing called a boiler. A boiler is what older homes like mine often have which circulate hot water through radiators rather that hot air through vents. This couldn't be good. We proceeded to call a plumber. Why do these things always seem to happen after hours when they charge like a hundred dollars just to come and look at the boiler? The first plumber we called made excuses about how he didn't think he'd have the parts and he'd have to charge us anyway if he came over even if he couldn't do anything etc. I said thanks but no thanks. We called another plumber, this one actually asked us what the boiler was doing. When we described it to him he sounded worried and suggested we call the emergency gas line 1-800 number. Fantastic! I called this number and a nice, calm lady instructed us on what to do until the hydro man arrived. I began to shiver which is a reaction my body has to stress. We waited an hour for the hydro man. When he arrived we turned the thermostat back on and the boiler worked like a dream. He throughly inspected our boiler, chimney, and gas meter. He was perplexed since everything appeared to be fine then advised us to call a plumber this week. That was as long as it continued to work properly. If not, we were to call him again. It worked fine for the rest of the weekend and I called the plumber first thing Monday morning to make an appointment to have it looked at. They were coming tomorrow morning, that was until at 5:30 this morning when the jet engine noise happened again. My husband being the smart man that he is video taped the lovely blue flames. That way if the plumber came and our boiler miraculously worked perfectly there would be proof of it's disobedience. I called the plumber again ten minutes before they opened and explained our predicament. They said someone would be over this morning.

The plumber has arrived and we ate popcorn while we watched the video of our boiler getting ready to explode or poison my family with carbon monoxide gas. He is presently about to climb up on our roof to look down our chimney. Sounds expensive. I'll keep you all posted.

On a happier note Audrey finished her swimming lessons yesterday. I am sorry to report what a slacker she is since she wasn't passed from 'Splashers' to 'Bubblers' and will have to repeat the session. She neglected to meet some of the requirements for this level such as jumping in while holding adult's hands and exiting pool using variety of methods. Currently her only method of exiting the pool is in my arms. Sigh. Of course I am kidding. I think we will skip the next session since I need a break. It makes for another hectic day on one of the days that I'm 'not working'. I hope she enjoys the water the same way when we do another session in the future. Here are some happy swimming pictures for your viewing pleasure. I'll just be here contemplating ways of making extra cash to afford the plumber who is on my roof.