The Big Uh Oh

Two years ago my friend Tracey bought me a dress up George Bush magnet set for my birthday. In paper doll style you can dress Bush as Napolean, Chiquita Banana or a Rastafarian. And without the gear our fearless leader is wearing nothing but a strategically placed cutout of the Lone Star State. It’s lighthearted liberal fun at it’s best.

Noah has spent quite a bit of time moving fridge magnets around, but for the first time yesterday he really seemed to take note of President Bush. While sitting at the dinner table last night he pointed at the fridge and said “Uh Oh.” It took Mark and I a minute to realize he was concerned about George’s nudity. When Mark realized Noah was uh-ohing Bush he responded by saying “Yeah… George Bush, he’s a BIG Uh Oh.” And from thence on Noah chanted a repetitive mantra of “The man… George Bush… Big Uh Oh.”

And if that weren’t enough comic fodder to last you, it got better this afternoon. While the HVAC guy was here checking out the AC, Noah headed upstairs. I called up to him to persuade him to return to my line of sight. I asked him what he was doing. He came running out of his room with the Bush magnet in his hand saying “The man… diaper.” Yup – he took our president upstairs to diaper him. And then he put him on the potty, carried him around and read him a couple of books. Seems Noah has found a new best friend.

And what is with our AC you ask? Well, you want the good news or the bad ? The good news is that the water on the ground was condensation leaking out of our unit because there was a clog in the PVC condensate drainage line – and all that had to be done to alleviate the short term problem was to wash out the build up in the PVC tube with a hose in the back yard. And better news yet is that we didn’t pay a dime for it because luckily we realized yesterday afternoon that it should be covered by the maintenance plan Mark bought from PGW. The bad news however is that according to the HVAC guy there is a larger problem with our central air unit. Apparently it should have been installed on a slight pitch with the right side of the unit slightly elevated so that the water sitting in the condensation pan would be aided by gravity in draining out the PVC tube – and said tube should also be on a downward angle as to move water smoothly out of the unit. Unfortunately our unit was most likely installed half-ass by the do-it-yourselfer former owner of our home and as with many other things in our place, not done quite right. As a result water is sitting in the pan to long, causing rust, which is then catching in the tube. The big solution would be to have it ripped all apart and resituated by a proper installation expert. But you know what we’re gonna do? Since this is the first time we’ve had this issue in five years of owning this home we are gonna just monitor the drainage tube for blockage and hope the water doesn’t back up again. Oh yes, a lot of hoping. And now your HVAC lesson is complete.

Tomorrow afternoon I may take Noah to see the National Train Show at the Convention Center. I think he’ll really dig it if he can overcome his interest in touching all the model trains. We shall see. If we don’t go tomorrow we'll go on Saturday morning before the Northern Liberties Music Festival (if it’s not rained out for a third time.)

Oh. And I’ve been meaning to ask – WHAT are you guys watching on TV? If we’re lucky Mark and I get to watch a little less than two hours of drool inducing television each evening after Noah goes to bed. But there is next to NOTHING on. Summer TV sucks. I’ve been very grateful for the HBO shows (“Deadwood,” “Entourage” and “Lucky Louie”) and sort of enjoying “Treasure Hunters” - the poorly done “Amazing Race” ripoff, but I can only watch SO many episodes of “House Hunters” before I start insisting we buy a tacky condo in Fort Worth. Please HELP! What will get me through the next week until the new episodes of “Project Runway?”