smacky and bucky

This weekend was pretty busy. Saturday morning a friend dropped off their youngest (same age as H) for a babysitting gig/play date at 7:30 a.m. The kids played while we rushed around making food for the Christmas brunch/party later in the morning.  Got over to the place in a cold steady rain and helped set up tables and chairs, then all the moms (and some dads) arrived with their kids and it was organized chaos and eating for three hours.

(Oh, and before we left I turned off the furnace and let it cool completely. More on that soon!)

Got everything cleaned up and loaded back up when it was all over and went home (still with the other woman's kid with us). She picked up the kid about 30 minutes later.

Now, I had shut off the furnace because the HVAC guy wanted me to run a test. Here's the text of the email I sent him about it:

I turned it back on, set the thermostat for 78, and the following happened: the pressure rose slowly but steadily (less than 10 mins) to a hair below 30. The water came out in a thin steady stream at that point. The temp seemed to max at 190, but the valve never went off. Instead, the gas turned itself down (if that's how you explain it) and the pressure dropped. So the boiler flame went back into resting pilot mode before reaching the temp set on the thermostat. The overflow tank still seems to be free of water. The top gets a little warm to the touch.

Does this make sense? I don't know why the pressure is rising so quickly when the flame is burning. The good news is that it does heat the house quickly. We just need to get the pressure under control (and maybe a new pressure relief valve since it's not going off at 30 like it's supposed to). 

So I will call him today and try to figure out what to do next. Ugh!

Free afternoon. The toddler napped some and H played with Lego.

Then at 4:30 H and I left for a classmate's birthday party at a community center/gymnasium. One and a half hours of watching a bunch of kids go through an obstacle course--they all loved it--and eating a slice of bad pizza.

Picked up dinner on way home (still raining) and got the kids to bed not long after.

Sunday: Headed into downtown DC for a Christmas pageant. Had lunch at a sandwich place (meh, okay), and then to the auditorium. The toddler sat on my lap for the whole thing, and clapped after each song.

Rushed out of there to a shopping center near our house where there was a tree lighting and Santa. Of course Santa was there 1 to 5 and we got there at 5:10. H was already tired and cried because he missed Santa. Saw him a little later walking by and Santa waved to him. Made him feel a little better.

Home again.

Dinner? Well, dinner was ready because I had put a roast in the slow cooker before we left in the morning. Yay!

I left out the most minute details, such as how one or both kids are waking up in the middle of the night and want to sleep with us, or how I am checking a bucket under the overflow pipe on the furnace and emptying just shy of a gallon every eight hours (not a tragedy, but what happens if we go away for a day or two over the holidays? Not good!).