Friday Freeday!

I finished my 50 hours of work yesterday so I could have my entire Friday off to relax!  The trouble is that it is raining out and gloomy.   So there is not much I can do outside on a day like this.   Technically, THIS is the best day to be stuck inside and score from the warm, spacious confines of a 600 sq ft apartment.    But how are you going to know that before hand....

There are things I can do today with my new found free time. Cheryl plans on scoring to about 3 pm and then we will be going to town and doing errands.  Errands that should be done tomorrow, but the project looks like it is behind schedule, so we will be working this weekend to get as many hours as we can.  

And then there are the little things.   The coffee maker.   German Engineering at its Finest!  This is our second one because the first one broke. (German Engineering.... at its finest!)  To be fair, we did use it quite a bit.  And it was the small electronic button that failed, not the major parts.  I fixed it, but the button looked unsightly, so Cheryl opted to spend another small fortune for a new one. ( German engineering is expensive!)   

But yesterday, for no reason at all,  the new one stopped working properly.  Again,  to be fair, we have been using it an awful lot these last few weeks.  In fact, we tend to use it more than normal all winter long. ( Hot drinks are my favorite!)  And Cheryl uses it to fill her hot water bottle on those cold nights and mornings. But still,  an expensive piece of German engineering is not something you willingly throw away....   Especially if you can not readily replace it.    ( Replacing  it now  would cost over $500.00!!!!)   So... I took it apart. 

I did this before, so I was mostly on familiar territory.   Most of the time the things are simply dirty or a part is burnt out and needs replacing.   It is not like it is a German Car or anything....   

But I am proud to say that I solved the issue.   A small piece of hair got stuck in the water pump.  The coffeemaker would start, pump for a few seconds, and then abruptly stop.  I figured it was either a short or something with the water flow, and was excited to find  the microscopic issue hidden in the water pump. ( thankfully, I could open  up the pump and look inside.)  My theory,  The pump would run, twist up the hair until it would get caught, and then the pump would stop before the water had fully cycled through.  After removing the hair, ( both pieces!) I buttoned everything up and ran some water through it.  It works!   Hurray for Me having Appliance aptitude!   

Now you might think that a small single strand of hair would not cause so much headache, but this IS German Engineering, after all.  A little bit of dust will immobilize a Mercedes. 

UPDATE!  Apparently,  it is an Italian design.   Which makes much more sense now.   Italian items tend to break even more often!  Sorry Germany.  But both items are cool in different ways.   To bad reliability is not one of their strong points.  ( like the Japanese!) 

Besides that... The only other thing to do on a rainy day is blow bubbles.   Bubbles LOVE the humid weather, and without any small kids running around popping them,  the bubbles will fly well over the neighbor's house and over to the next street.   A great way to enjoy the rain as an adult.  It is also very relaxing... as long as there is no kid hovering around to destroy your zen and burst your dreams. 

Oh, that is right,  I may not have mentioned that the neighbors have moved out a month ago.   Without the 6 year old running around, things have become nice and quiet once again.  ( he is probably 7 by now.) I might complain about him, but he had his moments.   And he would manage to get me in trouble more often than not.  ( Either with his mother, or the neighbors... or with Cheryl!)  But luckily, we didn't make too much noise. Or create too much of a mess.   Or ....  break anything to valuable...( and if we did,  a least no one found out about it...) Yeah, it is probably a good thing he has moved away.   Cheryl said he was a bad influence on me. 

The rain continues.   Did I mention it snowed Sunday night?   That is correct!  After the sun disappeared, the snow began to fall, if just enough to demoralize us  all.   But my Chalk rabbits survived it.   At least until  Wednesday, when it rained for real.   Currently it is storming outside, and I am enjoying the rumbling thunder.   Rain is nice as long as there is not much wind tossing things around.   Looks like I will be at the scoring thing again tomorrow.   The just upped the Overtime to 60 hours!   I want to take as much advantage as I can.  In the mean time,   looks like Blogging will continue to be limited to long posts about coffee makers and bubbles.  Thanks for stopping in.