I'm Erin, and it's been 10 days since my last post.

Sorry I've been absent lately. I've been insanely busy at work (I know that's what I always say, but it's true) and the Plumbing Debacle of 2007 didn't leave me much free time at home, either. More on that some other time, perhaps, but for now, I'd like to share my 2 favorite conversational quotes from that incident:

Me: lots of stuff about what's going on
Miriam: "um, you just said 'shutoff valve, solder, and blowtorch' all in the same sentence. are you sure you don't want to call a professional?"
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Me: "so, i've turned off the water to the kitchen and the bathroom, turned off the supply to the water heater, installed a shutoff valve, drained the lines, and all i need to do now is..."
CubeNeighbor: "...call the plumber."
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In all seriousness, sweating copper is pretty fun, but troubleshooting problems in existing lines is not at all fun. So, if you're putting in new plumbing, I'll be happy to help. Have blowtorch, will travel. Heh.
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I have an announcement.
Drum roll, please.
I will be moving to Florida in the next 5 years. Actually, probably at the end of the next 5 years. What I'm saying is that I'm working on a 5-year plan here. I've decided to make the mini-farm in the Sunshine State. Which really, when you think of it, makes a lot of sense.

I'd been thinking that I would try to find a nice little rural area close to a small town somewhere in Central Florida, and then this morning, the local news station was doing a piece on Reds player Bronson Arroyo and his off-season home in Brooksville, Florida. They showed the little town of Brooksville, which looked exactly like what I'd been daydreaming about for my mini-farm, and then they mentioned that Bronson actually built his house by hand, with the help of his father and friends, which isn't really relevant to my story, but I thought I'd throw it in here because that's just cool. Brooksville is 50 miles from Tampa and 70 miles from Orlando.

I know that this is a change from some of my earlier statements that I would just stay here in Norwood until I'm ready to retire, but honestly, every winter is more miserable for me than the last, I think I'd be a much happier person in Florida, and I'm just tired of being grumpy for a third of every year. I know that a lot of people claim to hate Florida, but I'm hoping you'll all be willing to overlook this and come visit the mini-farm anyway. I'm planning to build a lovely guest cottage so guests can come and go as they please.

Oh, and I actually already found a lot. It's $165,000 for 5 acres, so I'll be taking donations if anyone has a couple of bucks to spare. Hmm. I wonder if I could panhandle my way to $165,000 in the next 5 years...