Kickball And The Crazy Girl

Ok, so I'm a bit competitive. I swear I was trying to take it easy, after all, there was my five year old son playing kickball with us. I just don't know what happens to me when I play sports. There is this primal instinct in me to cream everyone and everything in site! Other than elbowing my son in the face within the first five minutes of playing, I thought it went very well. If you don't count every time I beamed someone with the ball, or pushed my son out of the way so I could catch it...or tripping over my own two feet running after the ball. Really, it wasn't that bad! 

So here we are a day later....my son refuses to talk about the game, and I swear I've gotten dirty looks of betrayal from the other players. Looks that said "I thought I knew you." When my reflection in the mirror this morning said the same thing I finally caved..."Fine! I like to win. What's wrong with that?" No answer came....just some blue/grey eyes looking back at me. And then some words echoed in my head...

"It was just to have fun."

Ohhhh....

Is it possible for me to play a game and "just have fun?" Not be competitive? If we all played the game to have fun, took the competitiveness out of it, what would this world look like? 

A really good place to be. Hmm....

Anyway, I can't wait till the next game!

Oh Netflix...Why Have You Forsaken Me?

I don't watch a lot of TV, I typically like watching movies. There are a few weekly shows I like to watch and knew I would miss when moving to London. So, I set out on a mission to figure out how I could keep up with my shows. So far I have been somewhat unsuccessful with one in particular.....Chuck. Now, I love Chuck. It's really just a silly show, but I really like that silly show and I looked forward to watching it every week. Before we left the US I purchase a new Apple TV. We've owned the first generation Apple TV for a few years and love it, but the idea of having one that was 1/4 the size AND streamed Netflix was too good to pass up. I'd figured this would solve my problem of staying current, or as currant as I could get with the few shows I watch. Yesterday I tried accessing Netflix. It doesn't work "from this location."

But, never fear! I think I have found my solution. NBC's site has full length episodes you can watch online! That's right! And then I tried to watch one...."We're sorry, but that clip doesn't work from that location."

WTH!!!!

Any recommendations would be SO appreciated.

The Joys of Plumbing

Having lived in a house for many years of my life, I am not used to the workings of an apartment/flat. Over the past month here in London, we've had some interesting experiences with the utilities (electrical, plumbing..) As you can imagine, the flats here are much smaller than what we've been used to in the US, but not unlike the US the idea is to save space the best you can. That's why companies have invented putting a washer and dryer into one unit. When the clothes are done washing, you simply leave them and switch it to dry. That's if it works how it's suppose to....and if the plumbing is set up how it's suppose to be.

The first couple of weeks in the flat I was playing catchup with the laundry, since much of it had piled up...and I had to "learn" how to use this brand new appliance. I was able to get fully caught up, and had just started to do the regular "weekly" wash (here it is "daily") when the washer threw it's first error message. F18. F18, what does that mean? So to the washer's manual I go.

F18: Can be caused if something is caught in the front drain. Empty it and clean it out. Or, it can also be caused by the filter being blocked with lint.

Hmmm....the drain is in the front....the filter is probably somewhere in the recesses of the dark cabinet behind the washer. I chose the easier route. I also had no idea how to check the filter anyway. Well, the drain seemed fine, so I continued doing my washes. After another couple of weeks, the washer consistently threw the F18 errors, and I even got one F17. No idea what that one even meant in the manual. I did, however, check the front drain again.....and again it was fine. Ok, there has GOT to be something wrong with the washer. I called the landlady, and she gave the me the information to have a service technician come out. I procrastinated a couple of days due to dealing with another plumbing issue that I will get into in another post. Then I had an incident that made it impossible to ignore this problem.....the night I opened the FRONT facing washer door, and a flood of water landed on my feet and the kitchen floor. The washer didn't drain. I called the technician.

So, now I write this post after my visit with the technician. The nice man, whose bare buttocks I became familiar with every time he bent over, did not charge for the visit...even though he should have. It seems there was something to that F18 error. It was indeed clogged at the filter. Great! Now I knew what the problem was and how to fix it myself going forward. But, "How can I prevent this from happening again?" I asked him....."Don't use the dryer" was his reply.

Hmmm.....

Another Sunny Day In London

Today I woke up to another sunny day in London. I think this makes the fourth day of sun since we moved to London on December 13, 2010. Coming from Atlanta, GA USA where there is sun almost everyday, it was a bit of a shock to our systems not to have it around. I'm someone who thrives off the sun. Years ago Jennifer, my partner, encouraged me to get a tattoo. I had no idea what I would get a tattoo of at the time and thought long and hard on it. Nothing came to me that I would want to put on my body forever. Then Jennifer said to think of something that held great meaning for me.....the sun. That was it. I found a design at a mall of a sun that I really liked. The design at this mall was indicating a particular direction, or entrance of the mall. What better design to have than of a sun providing me direction. So, I have a tattoo of the sun on my lower back, although Jenn and our son Kyan say it is on my butt. Not true! Don't believe them, you absolutely can not see the crack of my @ss! :)

Anyway, back to today. It's simply amazing to me how GOOD I feel when the sun is out. It gives me energy and lifts my spirit up like nothing else. So, I bought a new iPhone 4. I think the sun made me feel better about spending the money. I had to purchase a new iPhone in the US back in June because my old 1st gen iPhone had finally kicked the bucket, thanks to a heavy downpour in Miami. When we came to London, the iPhone of course wouldn't work on the carriers here unless I jailbreak and unlocked it. Unfortunately, I am one that constantly stays up to date on my phone software, and realized when we landed that there is currently no unlock for this version of software I have, and no idea when it would be released. So after using a cheap pay as you go phone for the past month, my depression got the best of me and I purchased a new iPhone on a contract here. I justified doing this when Jenn finally said she wanted an iPhone 4, instead of her current 3GS. So, we agreed that I would get this one now, and then we would wait until the unlock came out for the old phone for her.

Right now, I am a happy camper. It really is the simple things. :)