Two Down, Two to Go.............

Two more festivaties to go........then, hopefully, the rest of the summer will be ours! mmmmwwwahhhhha.

Shower, over.  Daughter's trip for a checkup at Mayo, done.  BH's birthday shibang this weekend; niece's wedding in 3 weeks.

Got the camper cleaned out, vacuumed and scrubbed.  Ready for guests.  It didn't take as long as I thought.  But then again, I always imagine that a chore I absolutely hate the thoughts of doing are going to take forever! Hence, it gets put off as long as possible.

Tomorrow is the dentist, then grocery shopping for the big weekend.  Today will be housecleaning - another chore that keeps getting pushed back.  But now my back's against the wall - so ............

We have plans.  A camping trip week after next.  Where?  Who knows. We can't get into State parks because......the State is shut down!!  No budget was passed.  So, we'll have to dig out the KOA brochure.  Or go to Wisconsin.  Seems Wisconsin got a LOT of MN citizens' money over the holiday weekend.

We do need to get away for a bit.  We're also planning a few more camping trips in August, after the wedding.   As we were sitting on the deck the other night, talking about our trip, daughter relayed this insight:  " You guys have it so peaceful and quiet here. It's so pretty and relaxing, and yet you want to leave here and go --- camping?!"  We all laughed.  BH and I have always said we feel like we have our own private campground here.  And yet..........ah, the grass is always greener.......

Before we take off on this wonderful adventure, we have to clean out the van.  Because in order to clean the camper, we put all the camping gear in the van.  Willey Nilley.  "Just throw it in there; we'll sort it out later" was the order of the day.  Mostly because the weather was too hot to sort, repack and rearrange and because I had to make this as quick and easy as possible given BH's rant about how he doesn't "know why you have to take all the stuff out of there only to put it back again".  Best not to make a big deal out of it!

So far, there's rain in the forecast for this coming weekend.  Doesn't it figure?! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather pattern will keep moving forward a day or two. Please, please!!  There can't be rain with a house full of people including 2 small children, and a party in the works.

To keep my sanity, I've been spinning and knitting as much as possible.  Finally got the white beret w/beads done and almost the matching second fingerless mitt.  There are about 8 coils of the blue merino to be spun.  Moving forward.......

I do believe we finally got the new A/C figured out and working!!!  Finally got about 2 quarts of water dumped out of it when the "Full" light comes on and we cut about 8" of the exhaust hose off.  Making it shorter (as suggested in the manual....who knew?!) means a straighter hose; the hot air flows out much better, therefore, less condensation, means the tank doesn't fill up as quickly.
Hooray!!!!  I still hate the damn thing, though.  It's the stupidest design I ever saw.  Told BH it obviously was designed by a MAN.

Manual: "Keep the exhaust hose as straight as possible; no kinks or bends".
HELLO: The exhaust connection sits 3" above the floor.  I don't know anyone who has windows that go to the floor!

Manual: "To empty the tank, place a pan 1 1/2" deep under the drain plug.  Do not move or tip the unit while draining water."
HELLO: The drain plug is   1/2" from the floor.  Does anyone have a pan that has sides  less than  1/2" deep??  So it is necessary to pick the damn unit up, tip it backwards to get the water to drain out.  This needs to be done 3 times to totally empty it.  Meanwhile, there is water pouring out from every corner on the bottom.  Large bath towels needed to wipe up the water; and my carpet gets soaked for about 6".   @@##%%%&&^@!!!!

Enough, already.  I gotta get moving or nothing will get done today.  "Back against the wall"..........and the wall is pushing back!!