Zongker Family Blog

The past week or two I’ve been doing all the home maintenance items I’ve been putting off for years in order to get the house ready for sale.  So far I have:

• Cut down all tree branches that were damaged by the ice storms.
• Replaced a sink
• Clean paint and grout off baseboards
• Cut and bundled probably 100 unwanted baby trees
• Removed some mold that was growing in one of the sinks

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Cutting down the broken tree limbs was pretty fun.  My grandpa passed away last December and I ‘inherited’ a pole saw along with some of his other tools.  That made the job SO much easier.  Jeanette wasn’t thrilled about me using a “chainsaw on a stick” given my track record, but I still have all my limbs and managed to not get hit on the head with a branch.

Fixing the leaking sink was the part I dreaded the most.  I swore off ever doing plumbing work again a few years ago.  I never can seem to get everything hooked back up without it leaking.  After my dad pointed out I could just replace the sink cheaply instead of trying to repair it, I decided to give it one last shot.  Turned out to be a piece of cake.  Only took about an hour and $30 for a new sink and hoses, and it works great.

When we first moved in, our master bathroom had carpet.  After the first time the toilet overflowed, we decided carpet was a REALLY bad idea and installed tile instead.  We also repainted the walls a few months later.  Being the first time for both, it didn’t dawn on us to tape off the baseboards before starting, so we ended up with quite a mess.  We figured we’d have to replace the baseboards to fix it, but we found a paint thinner and grout remover at Wal-Mart that did a pretty good job.  It took a LOT of scrubbing and didn’t get rid of everything, but it looks MUCH better than it did.  The camera flash makes it look worse than it really was/is.

Chopping down and bundling the baby trees has been the biggest project so far.  I spent about 15-20 hours working on it.  Much longer than I thought it would take.  It’s finally done now and the yard looks much better.  I put out 6 bundles of wood for the garbage men last week, fortunately they took them.  I have another 5 bundles sitting out there today.

There are still quite a few more projects to do..

Ok this is about a year old, but I have a somewhat funny story I never got to tell.  Around this time last year I went to the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas.  It’s basically an event for other self employed computer geeks like me to get together and pretend we have real jobs.  It was around the time I was selling one of my websites and several potential buyers were there that I needed to meet with.

In addition to the conference, a few of the sponsors were hosting some events.  One of the events I was looking forward to, was a party as the TAO night club at the Venetian hotel.  They had reserved the upstairs for people from the summit and had hired Blue Man Group to do a private show there. I’d never seen Blue Man Group, but wanted to so this sounded awesome!

The party started at 7pm, so like all the other nerds I lined up promptly at 6:45.   I didn’t know this at the time, but apparently this is one of those fancy clubs where the bouncers decide who gets in and who doesn’t.  So there’s one line with all the hot people, and then, well, there’s us.

I finally get in around 7:15 and it’s kind of cool at first.  About what you’d expect, dim lights, loud music, free drinks, a beautiful view of the strip and balconies overlooking the pond at the Venetian and about 100 people standing around in clicks talking about pay per click, conversion rates, SEO and analytics.  You know, the typical club scene.  They also have the stage set up already it looks awesome, I’ll be able to watch the show from 15 feet away.

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I had met a few people while at the conference, but I didn’t see any of them there.  I came alone and it just seemed a little to awkward to me to try to go find a group and jump into their conversation.  Plus I could barely hear over the music.  So I’m standing around like a wallflower waiting for Blue Man Group to show up so I can see them and leave.

After about 15 minutes of this, I’m feeling real uncomfortable and think to myself.  “If I had a drink to hold I’d look like I was just chillin’ here instead of standing around.”  Now I really don’t drink much and hate the taste of beer so this left me not really knowing what to order.  I heard someone else order a rum and coke, which I’ve tried before, so I got that.

I hadn’t had anything to drink since leaving the conference about 3 hours earlier so I drank that down pretty quick.  Thankfully it was more Coke than Rum.  That put me back where I started though.  I couldn’t order the same thing again, but I needed something to hold.  I was thinking “I don’t want to order something girly.  Oh man, what do I do!?”  Just then I remembered I had an iPhone!

I pull it out and spend about 15 minutes Googling “manly drinks” which really ended up being no help at all because I had virtually no reception.  Just then I remembered, Martini!  I mean James Bond drinks those, they’ve gotta be manly right?  I walked up to the bar with confidence.  “I’ll have a martini!”.  That confidence quickly went away when I was hit with the response “What kind?”.  I stood there with a blank stare like Napoleon Dynamite for about 5 seconds before he finally asked me “Gin or Vodka”.  Phew!  Multiple choice.  “Vodka!” I said with confidence once again.  “Clean or dirty?”  I panic again.  I don’t even want to know what goes into a dirty martini!  “CLEAN!!” I said.  Final question, “Do you want olive juice in it”.  I love olives so I say “Sure!”.  (I just now looked it up and found out that’s what makes it dirty, so now I feel even more stupid.)

Now I don’t know how martinis are normally made, but he pulls out a bottle of Absolute Vodka and fills the cup 75% of the way with it, then fills the remaining 25% with olive juice.  I took the first sip of it and it was extremely nasty.  I’m guessing he made it “special” just for me after our ordeal, but if that’s the way they’re normally made, James Bond is a sicko!  But now I’m stuck with this thing.  I hold it for about a half an hour and slowly take sips from it as much as I can stomach.  By this time it’s about 8:30 and I’m beginning to wonder when Blue Man Group is going to show up.  I pull out the paper and it says the party is from 7:00pm to ???. Great!  They may not show up until midnight.  A slot opens up on the balcony so I go out there for another 30 minutes and finish the drink while waiting.  Blue Man still isn’t there and I’m not feeling so great after finishing that drink so I decide to give up and leave.  I left the drink on the balcony so I wouldn’t have to face the bartender again.

I called Jeanette to tell her how lame it was and end up talking to her on the phone for the next 2 hours while walking around the Vegas strip in a half-drunken stuper.  Around 11pm I finally finish walking the strip, am worn out and starving because I never ate dinner.  I was under the impression there would be food at the club.  I’m ready to go to bed, but I’m at Luxor and I’m staying at Ceasers which is surprisingly far away dispite the fact it looks close.  I grab a midnight pizza from the Pizza Hut at Excallibur (also a bad idea) and walk back to the hotel and finally go to bed around 1:30 am.  I have to get up at 5am to make it to the airport in time to leave.  It wasn’t a good night.  I decided not to go back this year.

Our house is coming along nicely.  We’re about at the half way point now.  It has been framed, shingled and all the gas water and electric lines have been run.  We’re waiting for inspections now before putting up the bricks and sheetrock.  We should be on schedule to have it finished right around the time school is letting out.   Here are some photos.

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We decide to ditch the old blog with the videos that creeped everyone out and put up a standard WordPress blog instead (I’m being lazy).  We’ll eventually get the old posts moved over..

Alyssa is just such a silly, happy little girl!  It’s hard to get on to her when she does something she shouldn’t, but she’s beginning to learn more & more what those things are, and for the most part, how to listen to her Mommy & Daddy, when we tell her, “no”.  She just keeps picking up different expressions & it’s fun to watch her personality develop.  Recently, Jeremy & I both were awakened to a habit that we share, viewing it through Aly’s eyes, anyway.  She has begun to grunt when she picks things up, even if they are not heavy at all!  We realized that she started this the other day, after one of us leaned over to get something that was just out of reach.  I don’t remember if it was Jeremy or I, but naturally, you tend to say, “Ugh”, or something of the sort, when doing that.  I know I typically make some kind of grunt-like noise when I lift something heavy, so I imagine she’s seen/heard me do this recently, as well.  In any case, it’s just so cute & funny to hear out of her little mouth, especially when all she’s picking up is a plastic toy that will fit in only one of her hands!

Katrina’s just learning more & impressing us with every passing day!  Of course, we knew she loved school, even prior to this year.  But, it seems with first grade, you get to learn some new skills & one of her favorites this week has been spelling!  She had a list of ten words that they brought home & we got to practice each evening.  She loves playing the game of putting together cards with each of the letters on them to spell a word, especially.  Even though she got them all correct during our “practice runs”, she missed one on the actual test they had on Friday.  But, 9/10 isn’t bad for someone who’s just learning!  She’s happy about it & excited to continue learning more.  They have 10 more words this week – 2 which are from last week & the rest are new.  We’re so proud of our eager little scholar!

Although Alyssa’s not even 2 years old yet, Katrina’s eye doctor wanted to go ahead & check her eyes & make sure that she does not share the same condition Kat has, because it can be hereditary.  So, this past Wednesday, both girls had an appointment.  Aly did surprisingly well, for someone her age, anyway.  She sat still on her Mommy & Daddy’s laps, as the doctor looked in her eyeballs.  The only part she didn’t like was having eye drops put in, so that her pupils could be dilated.  She laid down on the table, but I had to hold her hands, hugged around her, so that she wouldn’t rub her eyes.  She fussed a bit, but once they were done, I was able to hold & comfort her.  She enjoyed the wait to see the doctor, since they have some good toys in the waiting room.  It turns out that she might be slightly nearsighted, but there are no signs of Amblyopia, so we are remaining hopeful that her vision will stay that way, or even improve, with time.  The doctor wants to see her again in a year.  It will be easier to explain to her what’s going on by then, at least… 

Katrina had a regular check-up with her eye doctor this past Wednesday.  She has grown accustomed to them over nearly the past 2 years.  For those that may not know, she was diagnosed with a condition called Amblyopia, when she was 4½ years old.  It is more commonly known as “lazy eye”.  We took her to the eye doctor on the notion from her teacher at the time, who noticed that Kat would color slightly to one side of the shapes on the papers she was given & that she tended to look at things further to one side than they actually were when they were pointed at.  Neither of her eyes ever actually “wandered”, so it was difficult to even notice, really.  But, the eye doctor, after screening her vision, one eye at a time realized that the left one was seeing things extremely differently.  At that first visit, her eyesight was 20/70.  So, we began using a patch over the “good eye” (her right one), in order to make the vision in her left one stronger.  She also got her first prescription for glasses at that time, as well.  We have been back every couple of months & Kat has grown significantly & her eyesight has improved a great deal, since then.  At this past appointment, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it is now at 20/25!  Her prescription lenses were changed once more, but she is still wearing the original, cute, purple frames she picked out almost a couple of years ago, now.  We feel blessed that she has shown so much improvement & continues to go on.  She has such a great personality & attitude toward the whole thing, too.  She has never had a negative comment about wearing glasses & she is very good about keeping them on, during her waking hours.  Here’s keeping the faith that she will continue to progress toward 20/20 & that her next appointment, in 6 months will be even better! 

Alyssa just thinks she’s so big, it’s cute!  She got in trouble a little, just recently for something she didn’t realize she was too young for, though…  It’s kinda’ funny, so I thought I’d share…  Katrina has a small, kid-size table that she typically sits at, to eat her meals & to do art projects, & things like that.  Since Aly’s not quite old enough for that sort of thing, just yet, she still eats in her high chair.  But, just a few days ago, when her Big Sis was in school, Alyssa decided she was going to climb into Kat’s chair & sit there for a minute.  It was sooo sweet & funny, she didn’t really get into trouble then.  It was the next day, when she decided she was going to get out her Sister’s markers, crayons & other art materials that she was told, “No-no!” about.  Thankfully, she only dumped them out, onto the floor, rather than trying to use them, but still…  I think we’re going to have to put them up, out of her reach, pretty soon, until she understands a bit better that those are Sissy’s things, not Aly’s. 

Well, Katrina’s been making more progress on becoming “mobile” this week!  Her Dad took her to the schoolyard to ride her bike the other day.  They had a great time!  She was turning corners & going all over the place on that thing like a pro!  So, we decided it was a good idea to go ahead & take her training wheels off.  This was a much harder thing for us, than for her, it seems.  She was all excited about it, we just weren’t sure if any of us were quite ready.  So, we took her to a local park that has a little walking/biking trail around it.  The whole thing I’d estimate is only about ¼ – ½ mile, or so.  Jeremy & I took turns, helping her balance while riding.  Whichever one of us was not helping Kat at the time was pushing Alyssa in the stroller.  She got to pedaling rather well & got up to speed where her Dad & I had to jog to keep up, but the entire time, it felt like she was leaning one way or the other, rather then balancing on her own.  We each let go a handful of times, but only for a second or two, before we felt the need to grab on & let her use us to lean on…  She’s getting there, though.  A couple more times & she’ll probably be going around on her own, with no training wheels.  We’re proud of her for trying her best & for trusting us & not being apprehensive at all!  It’s a great first step!