Much ado about nothing
Mar. 30th, 2005 03:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilight33All these cuts are here for a reason, I don't think I've ever rambled so much. I've been working on this off & on since this morning!
So when we got back from vacation last week, I noticed our natural gas bill looked rather odd. We have a gas furnace, hot water heater & dryer so we're usually using at least .50 therm/day even in the middle of July & around now it's closer to 1.5. Between 2/15-3/17 this year, with an average temperature of 48 degrees, we used.... nothing according to the bill. The meter reading didn't change by a single therm, and the bill was just a $6 customer fee.
I went outside to look at the meter and it still said the same number. Tempting as it was to go 'AWW YEAH!', ethics intervened and I called on Monday to report that something seemed odd. They said that the battery probably went out on the meter 'since nobody reads them in person anymore' and would send someone out to fix it that afternoon. We didn't see or hear from anyone, assumed it was fixed, and didn't think much about it until yesterday afternoon.
Also while we were on vacation, we got a voice mail from our new homeowner's insurance company saying they wanted to come inside to do a mold inspection on the 29th. Keep in mind that we were fearful our pipes had sprung a leak & the carpets were wet the same time we got this news, so of course we were in 'Oh shit! How do we hide this from them so they don't cancel our policy?!' mode. Things dried out pretty fast once we got the new hot water heater though, and to be on the safe side we kept every fan we had in the area on until yesterday at noon.
The inspector showed up at one, and my husband found a notice from the gas company on the front door saying they were so sorry they'd missed us this morning (while Kieran was at preschool & I was filing for graduation and getting my parking permit for the quarter; we use the kitchen door), that we had a new gas meter & they had to shut off the gas to the house, and to please call so they could turn it back on.
End result: Inspector eyed the area where the pipes broke in 2001 (just behind the hot water heater), saw that the wood wasn't moldy, was happy & left. No questions asked. Whew. A few hours later the gas company came back out and turned the gas back on and checked all our appliance pilot lights. So much for just a battery being out!
And now, a sort-of blurb about Victoria for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miss_becki
There are so many things to see & do in Victoria and an overabundance of places to stay, it is impossible to list them all. I'd say get familiar with the area first, look around & keep things in mind to take the kids to at a later time so you two can enjoy yourselves :) Our favorites are just walking along the ocean, the RBC Museum, walking around & in the Empress Hotel, Parliament Buildings & Thunderbird Park; shopping on Government Street, Chinatown, Craigdarroch Castle, Beacon Hill Park, Ross Bay Cemetery, Abkhazi Garden, Butchart Gardens, aimlessly driving around to see where we end up along the coast, and the Cowichan Valley plus the beautiful drive to get there. There is still plenty more we haven't seen yet either so who knows what future favorites we'll have.
It depends on the kind of experience you'd like to have there as to what I'd recommend for lodging. If you're for a luxurious pampered getaway Abigail's is wonderful, but they are very expensive these days. There's the full spectrum of hotels/motels all easily accessible via Victoria's tourism site including the famous Empress Hotel, and then there's our B&B you won't find off that site.
It's called the Gingerbread Cottage and we just love it. It is not a luxury B&B (especially compared to Abigail's), but pretty similar to the European B&Bs we've been in with the exception of breakfasts unlike any place we've been to, ever. It is run by an Austrian woman named Vanessa, who is not only a very hospitable and generous woman but an amazing professional chef. We've stayed in all the rooms and the Klimt is our favorite, we have a Spider-Man air mattress tent that Kieran loves 'camping' with in there :) The Hungarian Room is their 'family room', but it has a single twin bed in addition to a queen so I'm honestly not sure how things would work with two kids. There is an extra room connected to the Hungarian Room too. The B&B is 5 blocks from the Inner Harbour and a block from the ocean so you'll get lots of exercise on walks. Despite the massive breakfasts we both always lose weight & tone up on vacation there!
Every morning there we pig out starting at 8, and with the exception of maybe a granola bar around noon we don't need to eat again except for tea around 2:30-3:00. That consisted of free leftover breakfast pastries, so the only meals we pay for when we go to Victoria are dinners!
They always have homemade granola, fresh fruit, cheese, yogurt, juice, coffee, tea etc. then a variety of breads like squash muffins, blueberry muffins and raspberry or peach/apricot scones. She makes all her own jams & jellies, and an enormous variety of them. I think we had 6 to choose from on our table. Vanessa usually makes her famous apple strudel every other day. During our stay she alternated with a strawberry then a loganberry gateau, a type of fancy coffee cake. Our main course options were a variety of berry crepes, berry-topped Belgian waffles, eggs benedict or omelettes (we had ham, cheese & homemade salsa; also smoked salmon & cream cheese) with sides of potatoes.
So there you have it!
So when we got back from vacation last week, I noticed our natural gas bill looked rather odd. We have a gas furnace, hot water heater & dryer so we're usually using at least .50 therm/day even in the middle of July & around now it's closer to 1.5. Between 2/15-3/17 this year, with an average temperature of 48 degrees, we used.... nothing according to the bill. The meter reading didn't change by a single therm, and the bill was just a $6 customer fee.
I went outside to look at the meter and it still said the same number. Tempting as it was to go 'AWW YEAH!', ethics intervened and I called on Monday to report that something seemed odd. They said that the battery probably went out on the meter 'since nobody reads them in person anymore' and would send someone out to fix it that afternoon. We didn't see or hear from anyone, assumed it was fixed, and didn't think much about it until yesterday afternoon.
Also while we were on vacation, we got a voice mail from our new homeowner's insurance company saying they wanted to come inside to do a mold inspection on the 29th. Keep in mind that we were fearful our pipes had sprung a leak & the carpets were wet the same time we got this news, so of course we were in 'Oh shit! How do we hide this from them so they don't cancel our policy?!' mode. Things dried out pretty fast once we got the new hot water heater though, and to be on the safe side we kept every fan we had in the area on until yesterday at noon.
The inspector showed up at one, and my husband found a notice from the gas company on the front door saying they were so sorry they'd missed us this morning (while Kieran was at preschool & I was filing for graduation and getting my parking permit for the quarter; we use the kitchen door), that we had a new gas meter & they had to shut off the gas to the house, and to please call so they could turn it back on.
End result: Inspector eyed the area where the pipes broke in 2001 (just behind the hot water heater), saw that the wood wasn't moldy, was happy & left. No questions asked. Whew. A few hours later the gas company came back out and turned the gas back on and checked all our appliance pilot lights. So much for just a battery being out!
And now, a sort-of blurb about Victoria for
miss_beckiThere are so many things to see & do in Victoria and an overabundance of places to stay, it is impossible to list them all. I'd say get familiar with the area first, look around & keep things in mind to take the kids to at a later time so you two can enjoy yourselves :) Our favorites are just walking along the ocean, the RBC Museum, walking around & in the Empress Hotel, Parliament Buildings & Thunderbird Park; shopping on Government Street, Chinatown, Craigdarroch Castle, Beacon Hill Park, Ross Bay Cemetery, Abkhazi Garden, Butchart Gardens, aimlessly driving around to see where we end up along the coast, and the Cowichan Valley plus the beautiful drive to get there. There is still plenty more we haven't seen yet either so who knows what future favorites we'll have.
It depends on the kind of experience you'd like to have there as to what I'd recommend for lodging. If you're for a luxurious pampered getaway Abigail's is wonderful, but they are very expensive these days. There's the full spectrum of hotels/motels all easily accessible via Victoria's tourism site including the famous Empress Hotel, and then there's our B&B you won't find off that site.
It's called the Gingerbread Cottage and we just love it. It is not a luxury B&B (especially compared to Abigail's), but pretty similar to the European B&Bs we've been in with the exception of breakfasts unlike any place we've been to, ever. It is run by an Austrian woman named Vanessa, who is not only a very hospitable and generous woman but an amazing professional chef. We've stayed in all the rooms and the Klimt is our favorite, we have a Spider-Man air mattress tent that Kieran loves 'camping' with in there :) The Hungarian Room is their 'family room', but it has a single twin bed in addition to a queen so I'm honestly not sure how things would work with two kids. There is an extra room connected to the Hungarian Room too. The B&B is 5 blocks from the Inner Harbour and a block from the ocean so you'll get lots of exercise on walks. Despite the massive breakfasts we both always lose weight & tone up on vacation there!
Every morning there we pig out starting at 8, and with the exception of maybe a granola bar around noon we don't need to eat again except for tea around 2:30-3:00. That consisted of free leftover breakfast pastries, so the only meals we pay for when we go to Victoria are dinners!
They always have homemade granola, fresh fruit, cheese, yogurt, juice, coffee, tea etc. then a variety of breads like squash muffins, blueberry muffins and raspberry or peach/apricot scones. She makes all her own jams & jellies, and an enormous variety of them. I think we had 6 to choose from on our table. Vanessa usually makes her famous apple strudel every other day. During our stay she alternated with a strawberry then a loganberry gateau, a type of fancy coffee cake. Our main course options were a variety of berry crepes, berry-topped Belgian waffles, eggs benedict or omelettes (we had ham, cheese & homemade salsa; also smoked salmon & cream cheese) with sides of potatoes.
So there you have it!
