Things That Go Thump In the Night

It has been a small adjustment for Mike and I to not be living in a newer house. Either that, or it's just an adjustment moving into a new house period. I feel like I'd been woken up to strange noises the first couple of nights we were here but I figured that it was just my lighter sleep now that I'm a mom. Well, the other night, I settled into bed to watch the last episode of the Bachelorette (completely out of character for me to watch reality tv, but since I was home in Virginia by myself, I got into it and couldn't stop). Mike had made me go upstairs since he wanted to watch The Return of the Jedi. I heard this tapping sound every so often and just figured that one of our neighbors was hammering on something outside. Eventually, I didn't even notice the noise until Mike came upstairs. Given that it was now almost 10:00 and dark outside, we figured it probably wasn't a neighbor. We checked faucets, we checked cabinets, and finally, we realized that whatever was tapping was clearly something alive because it was too irregular, and that whatever it was was tapping the cover of our bathroom vent fan. I'm not sure who was more freaked out at this realization, but we immediately started hypothesizing about what it could be (Mike thinks bird, I think bat) and how on earth we were going to fix it. We settled on shutting the door to the bathroom, just in case whatever it was managed to find a way into our bathroom, and worrying about it in the morning. This worked fine for Mike, but I worried about it for at least another hour, until realizing that somewhere around 3 AM, the tapping finally stopped. Since the noise did not reappear last night, we are hopeful that it's gone, but if anyone has any good bat or bird deterrent suggestions, I'd love to have them.

Besides our unwanted houseguest, I feel the need to vent a bit about our air conditioner and refrigerator woes. First, we had an HVAC guy out here because the air conditioner seems to work really hard, even though it's not too hot outside, and several of the vents have no air coming out of them. After doing a lot of investigation and smoking a few cigarettes, he offered that the house probably could have used dual zone or a bigger blower. He also suggested running the fan constantly to help with the cathedral ceilings. I'm not sure that sounds like it would do us much good on our utility bill, so we may just have to get used to it.

Next, the air conditioner on Mike's car went out (again). Now, most of you know about the Audi...the check engine light works really well, the power door locks don't work, the dash only lights up halfway, and the dome light doesn't work. And, the A/C needs a new compressor, which we've decided not to do in the hopes we could stretch the car until this fall when we plan to get me a new vehicle. It's a great car...just has a few electrical problems.

We ended up moving both of our refrigerators from Richmond. One went in the basement and one went in the garage. Neither work. We think that with the one in the basement, it's just an outlet issue like resetting it or flipping the right switch. However, the one in the garage was lighting up when opened, but wasn't getting cool. So, I looked online to find a repair place and called them up to send someone out. Does anyone know what a replacement SHOULD cost for a relay overload thingy?? Let's just say I'm wondering whether I got charged for replacing the entire compressor, even though he just put this new little plastic thing in there. And, now the company won't call me back so that I can verify the price. There is nothing I hate more than feeling ripped off.

On a positive note though, we are getting more settled. I try and unpack at least 2 boxes a day. At this rate, I should be done by Christmas! Hee! It's another beautiful day in Chicago, so I plan to get out and walk with Luke this afternoon. I started my diet on Monday and so far so good.