Updating on a Friday instead of a Sunday as usual because Alex and I are going to be starting a big road trip tomorrow. Things have not worked out as hoped vis-a-vis Alex's job situation since graduation, and since Missy is back at school we are down a car which has been inconvenient, plus I don't like having things in limbo like we do now, with the car just left in the care of Scott and Alex's stuff in storage in Redmond. So, assuming Alex is going to be home for a while yet, Beth will drive us to Chicago (Beth is still dealing with the ear infection, but still improving, so we're hoping it goes well) and drop us off at O'Hare, we will fly to Seattle, retrieve the car, pack up Alex's stuff (we will cram the car as full as we can, ship a few totes with what won't fit, and leave what won't fit or ship. We're donating the desk and dresser to Scott, who says he can use them). Then we're going to drive from Seattle home. I'm looking for interesting stops along the way, so I'm not sure how long it will take, but we may not go that way again so why not? Everything I see online says you need a week to see Yellowstone, but I'm trying to figure out what we can see in an hour. Maybe Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, Wall Drugs, the Badlands, but definitely NOT the Corn Palace. That place is lame.

Meanwhile as we prep to be gone for a week or so, the water heater in the house has started seriously leaking. I had thought the water on the floor of the laundry room downstairs was condensation from the AC but it started getting bad enough that it seemed it couldn't be. Once I looked under the water heater it was clearly leaking. And then once I noticed it, it started getting worse very quickly. I went out and bought a new water heater on Wednesday hoping it could be delivered in time that I could get it installed and wouldn't have a massive gusher downstairs while I'm gone. It was delivered on Friday, and I immediately dropped what I was doing and started work on installing the thing. Which was tricky because it turned out I ordered the wrong size, or at least a different size than I had thought. The old leaky heater was short and squat, and the new one is taller and narrower. Same capacity but it made making the connections awkward, and I had to run out to Menard's once to get new longer connections, and then to Lowe's to get some new longer connections that don't leak. Getting the thing in place wasn't hard, it was getting the pipes attached so I didn't have MORE water getting out than I had before. It took a while, and a lot of fretting and cursing, but I got it done and in the end there were no apparent leaks. And I even got the old one out and up the stairs into the backyard. The bottom of the old one is really corroded, no wonder it was leaking so bad.

Anyway. Tomorrow morning Alex and I head out for an adventure!