A couple of suggestions to contractors everywhere

1: if I ask you for an itemized quote don’t send me a one line contract with a single dollar figure list and a spot to sign here. Especially when I know you sent my insurance guy an actual itemized quote.

2: if you say you’re going to show up this afternoon to look things over and give us a quote, and for some reason are unable to make it, call me and let me know. I’m a generally understanding person, honest. Not bothering to call the next day either to apologize and reschecdule doesn’t help either.

On the otherhand if anyone ever needs chimney work done in the general Syracuse area I can tell you tw companies NOT to pick!


Mice

We have a mouse problem. I don’t expect to have one for long though……

Folks we bought the house from had a pair of energetic Yorkies (little guys, I doubt they’re more than 5lbs a piece) which I’m sure the mice were thrilled to see the last of.

We had a minor incursion over the winter, some mouse sign in one cabinet. Some traps solved the problem and we’d not seen them since though we left the traps in place.

I guess the rain has finally flooded them out of their home. Today I looked in the cabinet and discovered that two of the traps had caught a mouse….and just about 30 minutes ago Janie was going nuts trying to catch one in one of the puppy free corners of the house. It escaped her by dodging under the puppy barrier only to be greeted by said puppy who’d been trying to figure out what all the noise was about…..theres one less mouse in the world tonight.

As I type this Janie is attempting to digg her way under a set of shelves and the puppy is sitting ever so patiently outside the puppy barrier hoping for another snack!


How to use a scope….hints, tips, suggestions anyone?

Ok, so this past weekend while the weather was nice I took the opportunity to haul out the air rifle.  I won’t be posting a picture of my target, lets just say it was pretty bad, and not because I was a good shot.  Part of the problem was the puppy who was NOT happy about being stuck inside while I was out was barking at odd moments making me twitch (not yet 5 months old and he sounds like a german shepherd, can’t wait to hear him as an adult!), but my hands weren’t happy either (g*d d*$%ed weather) which was making the loading process interesting, and I’m pretty sure I was shakier than usual: something has to explain the issues I was having…..  I took 5 shots with the built in fiberoptic sights, first one was less than an inch from the bullseye, not a bad start right?  Yah, except every shot from there on out went further and further away…..sigh.

So I gave up on the fiberoptics and attached the scope to play around with for a bit.  Please note this is NOT a high end scope by any means.  It came with the air rifle and the whole kit cost us just over a $100.  Took another 5 shots before I gave up reloading (gonna have to spend some time doing this when the husband’s home so he can reload for me).  I’m clearly lost when it comes to scopes.  Pretty sure I’m not getting the right angle to look through the thing at first of all because I keep getting the visible circle at odd angles instead of straight ahead, and the instructions that come with it on how to adjust it aren’t the most helpful.

So….anyone reading this have suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong??