artykins

Hello again! I've got a few minutes before Mr. Arty gets home and dinner is well on its way to yumminess in the oven, so I'm beached on my sofa like a blue whale who just happens to blog.

Things have been going right along for me and the husband. Matt's green card process is long and drawn out, but the good news is that he applied for a social security number and they should be able to generate one for him within 24 hours. Finally! A government agency that doesn't drag its feet in producing a legal document! And Matt only had to wait 25 minutes at the social security office, which made me angry. I had to wait two hours just to change my last name when I got married and I'm a freaking citizen that votes!

All that aside, though, I'm really pleased that he'll have a social security number. It means we can do things like apply for joint credit and he can actually be added to the payroll where he works. He spoke with the woman who handles all the accounts at work and she tried to add him, but ran into a snag with a SSN (social security number). Long story short, she wasn't able to add him because he lacked a SSN, so we did some research and found out that lacking a green card doesn't prohibit a legalized alien from applying for and obtaining a SSN. Yay for us!

So that was the news of the day, really.

Matt and I are looking to buy a piano within the next two weeks. He's got his eye on a couple possibilities. Both are upright pianos as our flat doesn't lend itself to a grand piano...as much as we'd love to get a grand piano. But then again, given the price tag of grands, I don't think we'll ever buy one.

That said, the choices have been slimmed down to a Bechstein and a Sauter, both pretty good pianos. Heck, Sauters are sexy pianos. Our cousin, Diana (whom my faithful ones have heard about before), was house sitting for her boss, who is a doctor, and he had a grand piano that was a Sauter. It was HOT. The Bechstein is also a sexy little number, so the choice will be hard for Matt, I'm sure.

Both have been offered to us for a steal. To give you an idea, the Sauter we were looking at this past weekend should be retailing for between $35,000 and $40,000, but it was offered to us for much less. It's still a big hunk of cash, but it's something that'll last us the rest of our lives. And really, when it comes down to it, I don't see the point of buying a cheap piano.

Matt is an accomplished pianist and doesn't need a cheap piano to learn. He needs one that he can grow into and one that can grow with him. Regardless of what we choose, I think the Bechstein and Sauter both fit our needs. Personally, I'd really like to see the Bechstein in our ownership. There are several reasons why, one of them being the salesman pushing the Sauter was smarmy and saccharin. I didn't care for him at all. The guy who sells the Bechstein, however, is much nicer and actually has a mutual friend of mine.

Anyway, here's hoping!

The next three weeks all hold hope in them for me.  You see, the next three consecutive Fridays are going to be wonderful days.  Tomorrow my brothers and uncle are coming over for dinner and then we're all going to go see Burn After Reading.  Next Friday, Chipotle opens up it's newest location just three blocks from my flat!  I'm so incredibly excited about that!  Good news follows in that vein since the brother and uncles are coming over again to have dinner there and play some games.  The Friday after that is the really big one.  Oh, baby, it's gonna be great.

On the 10th, I'll be at Disneyland!!!!! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)!

I'm SO very excited about this trip.  It'll be Matt's first time there, which I'm not all together sure he's excited about, but that's just the way he is, I suppose.  He's been to Southern California before and he's seen, smelled and tasted the delights of Hollywood.  We went to see Wicked at the Pantages there the last time we were in town.  But this time we'll be a little further south in Anaheim.  We're going to Orange County.

As it stands, we should be meeting up with Chrissy (Jeff's amazing girlfriend) and Sara (our amazing cousin).  Funnily enough, Chrissy is a freshman as Azusa Pacific and Sara just graduated from Azusa Pacific.  It would follow, therefore, that amazing people go to Azusa Pacific.

Personally, I wouldn't mind going there.  I'd also like to give Pepperdine the once-over.  Jeff was there last weekend (it was Chrissy's birthday, so he went down to celebrate with her) and wandered around the Pepperdine campus because they happened to go there one afternoon.  He said it was beautiful.  Of course, he also got to spend the day at the Santa Monica Pier and in Malibu.  Douche bag.

I'm writing to Julia this week sometime to ask her to set aside some new ta-tas shirts for us.  Jeremy wants the one that says 'Ta-tas are awesome!' which really doesn't surprise any of us.  'Ta-tas make me happy' would also be fitting.  Jeff wants just a plain one and I'm considering the one that says 'Fabulous Ta-tas' because let's face it...my bosom is glorious (that last bit is taken from Emily, a friend of mine).  Matt has the one that says 'My Wife Has Great Ta-tas' and that pleases me immensely.

If you can't tell by now by the seemingly disjointedness of this particular blog, let me say it's been penned over the series of days.  Lately I haven't been in a 'sit down and blog' mood.  It's come to me in short spurts, so this is the result of that.

THis weekend was fun.  It involved chocolate cake, champagne, celebrating my mom and dad's 28th wedding anniversary and lots of games.  The majority of our time has been spent playing Mille Borne (a French card game), but other games have included Skip-Bo and Yahtzee.  Matt actually beat my high score, the douche bag!  And what's so upsetting is that he did it only by eight points.  My high score was 520 and he scored a 528, thus my anger towards him.

The injustice of it all worked out in the end, though.  Matt failed to win a single game of Mille Borne and the majority of the time he lost to me.  There are a few things I'm really good at.  Cooking is one of them.  Cleaning is another.  And playing to win is another.  You see, my dad is a strategy shark.  He ALWAYS wins games that involve strategy.  He'll actually sit there at the table with us when we're playing cards and actually card count out loud:

Dad: "Let's see...Arty played the ace of spades, the ace of diamonds is on the table, which leaves the clubs and the hearts in play."

Me: "Just play, daddy."

Dad: "Your mother doesn't have any aces, but I suspect you have the hearts, 'cause that's the high suit, which again leaves the ace of clubs somewhere in the pull deck."

Me: (muttering under my breath) Damn it!

Dad: (calmly plays his card and smirks).

As annoying as it is, a few things have rubbed off on me apart from my dad's stubborn streak.  He taught me how to be a card shark without reservation, so you can bet your bottom dollar that if I can play a card to ruin the chances of someone else, I'll do it!  Yeah.  I'm that person you hate to play games with.  It actually proves to be amusing since Matt is a really competitive player as well.  I have some fun with him.

Come to think of it, I'm kind of twisted that way.  But I digress.

My parents get-together was nice.  It was just us, them and my grandmother.  Everyone else had prior engagements to attend, but we all met up about 9ish and had cake together with the champagne.  And let me just go on the records has saying that chocolate cake and champagne is heavenly.  The only other thing that could have been added to make it better would have been some freshly sliced strawberries.

So now I'm home, on my sofa, all showered and wrapped up in a nice, big, fuzzy robe that I got on my honeymoon.  Matt is right next to me browsing Amazon for some music.  Currently it's Cuban music and I'm approving just because I happen to love that kind of music.

I also happened to discover an amazing breakfast this weekend.  Thanks to the 'mention' Brian (Brian is one of Matt's boss people, but you'd never know it, he's so laid back) gave it, Matt continued on to mention it to me and I, having the necessary ingredients and the wherewithal to know my way around a kitchen, made it for him.  It consisted of two fried eggs, sunny side up, avocado that had been cubed and some Cholula.  

I can almost hear my tios cringing with this breakfast.  Not exactly a heart-patient's best breakfast, I know, but I had two avocados left over and I wanted to use them.

I didn't share Matt's breakfast experience.  I had an omelette with some scallions and avocado.  Still, I may have shared some Cholula with Matt. 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sleep.  I napped for two and a half hours today and I'm still ready for bed.  It's kind of sad, really.  Don't judge me.

Later Days,
Arty 

It's blue and yellow
Orange and white
Warm and inviting
Just like tonight

Everything was familiar and calm
We had fun, didn't we?
I know I did

And now I sit here
Freshly showered
Smelling faintly of olive oil soap
And rose petal mist

My skin
Which you so often caress just for the sake of it
It radiates the warmth from within

This is me
The me that is for you
The me that strives to be better
This is the me that chooses every day to love you

Unconditionally
For better or for worse
Both now and until the end of my days

I find myself contemplating at times
Wondering who I am
And in many respects it's easy
Because I know where I come from

I know the past
I know less of the present
I know nothing of the future

But you make me want to be better
To be more even-tempered
Less selfish
And more accepting of what we are

Because as it stands I am entirely in love with you
Not a moment passes in my days when I think of you
That I am not completely happy that you're here, that you're who you are

That you're mine
That you're so easy-going
That you're life with me is understood to be a learning curve with wonderful rewards

You're here to share my journey
And I yours
And we can be explorers
Going anywhere we want

So tonight I wanted to go to Portugal
To the culture-rich, history soaked coastal shores
And you took me

It built a memory
A bridge that connects me to you
And I brought back those colors and smell
You gave me a platter

As a reminder that you love me
That you care for me
That you would do anything for me
And what's best about it is that I can touch it and remember

So as you sit on the sofa beside me
Gently dosing while listening to your music
Remember that I adore you

I love you with all m heart
I could never love another as I do you
And that's something I have, something I possess
That they do not

So there once was a Portuguese platter
It belonged to me
And it remembers this

What's happening blogdom?!

I thought I'd blog very quickly to tell you about a funny experience I had tonight.

I was in the bedroom putting freshly laundered clothes away while Matt was tidying the kitchen and getting things together to take to the garbage. So I heard him get all the bags (he normally takes one bag of garbage and a bag of recycling out to the sheds) and head out. I continued doing my thing when I heard him rush back inside the apartment and yell at me.

I ran out to the living room to see what the matter was and he said there were giant animals drinking from the fountain in the courtyard between us and the sheds. Intrigued, I slipped into my Danish-made clogs (they're the most comfortable shoes I have, okay?) and Matt's dressing gown and went outside with him.

It turns out the giant animals were two raccoons. As Matt had first approached, one took refuge behind the fountain and another halfway up the trunk of one of the courtyard trees.

The funny thing was that Matt didn't want to be attacked by them. He told me they don't have the thieving little blighters in England, which really did surprise me. He said they have foxes and badgers. And then there's his brother's (Martyn) cat, which is a beast and viciously slaughters local voles, mice, birds and anything else small and cute in the country where they live.

Anyway, the raccoons we saw scampered away while Matt was out in the sheds, but after we came back inside, I went back to the bathroom and distinctly heard the sounds of something in the fountain. The little bandits are probably in the sheds now feasting.

To be fair, the ones outside were some of the largest raccoons I've ever seen. And to be perfectly honest, I think I'd rather see raccoons than possums. Possums are just freaking creepy. If the underworld had a mascot or a pet, it'd be a possum.

And with that bit of hilarity behind us now, I'm off to bed.

Later Days
Arty

So I've come to a few conclusions about different things the last couple days. I've had time to sit and ponder as I listen to the sounds of the Amazonian rainforest come forth from Matt's giant Stonehenge speakers. I find the rhythm of rain soothing. And funnily enough I find it thought-provoking as well.

We'll start with the most recent.

1) Eating things with eyes still attached is murder most foul:

I wanted to make crab sandwiches for dinner tomorrow night since Uncle Arnie and Jeremy are coming over. Matt agreed to it. Thing is, we never agreed to terms.

You see, when I said I wanted to make crab sandwiches, I figured I'd go the market, find a tin or two of the stuff and be done with it. At the worst, I'd have to approach the fish counter and look for pre-packaged, pre-cooked crab meat. At the very worst, I'd have to settle for that stuff that masquerades as crab meat, but really is something unrecognizable and made from things you've never heard of, let alone pronounce without seeming like a four-year-old trying to make sense of a Charles Dickens novel.

Funnily enough, I happen to think that a four-year-old would make sense of William Faulkner's writing, but that's a story for another time.

I digress.

So we're at the market. We don't find the tinned crab (which isn't surprising since our Safeway sucks major eggs) and we're reduced to finding the fishmonger person.

Please note here that the fishmonger person didn't speak English very well.

The pre-packed crab meat is astronomically priced. The imitation crab is cheap. And for a reason. We opt to forego the vacuum-packed chunks tainted with a color you're never see in any natural thing you'd put in your mouth to eat.

This leaves us with either King Crab legs, (whose size makes me shudder to think of every running into a whole specimen in the wild. Seriously, those things must be massive...) or whole Dungeonness crabs.

Fishmonger Man tells us that the King Crab is on sale, so we buy two pounds, only to get to the checkout register to find that they're really not. So back goes Matt to Fishmonger Man to get two Dungeoness crabs and return the King Crab legs. Turns out, returns are done at the front with customer service, so off we went to exchange the monster parts for the little beasties.

It was an ordeal.

It was made even more an ordeal when I found out the crabs still had eyes.

But home again, home again we came! And onto the stove went two pots of water, one plain for our little beasties and one full of lemons cut in half in an attempt to absorb/diminish/destroy any smells that would make me feel like a friendly port to the sailors.

I couldn't bring myself to put the crabs into the boiling water, so Matt did it. I merely took them out after they had cooked and put their rigid little lifeless bodies onto a tray to cool down. Having never had a whole crab in my presence while at home before, I was morbidly fascinated by them and I must admit that I spent a moment or two poking and prodding at them with my trusty pair of tongs.

But it wasn't to last. The slaughter was near.

Matt prepared to shell the beasties, which I secretly named Chop and Block, and I took refuge in the bathroom with a shower to escape the sounds of their demise.

So long story short, I've come to the conclusion that eating things with the eyes still attached is murder most foul and should be frowned upon.

Next time I see those lobsters in a tank, I'm smashing the glass and setting them free. Of course, I could always be like Niles: get drunk, smash the lobster tank, scream for their freedom and then weep uncontrollably when I fail to revive the little plastic diver with CPR.

2) Northern California is becoming Southern California:

There's a whole lot of hoopla going on about global warming. I'm not a person that believes it isn't happening. I actually do believe the world is getting warmer, but I also think it's a natural part of the cycle. Have we learned nothing from history, people? We had 'ice ages,' but there would have to be periods of warming as well. So cool your jets, kids.

Southern California has distinctive weather. It gets warm and then stays balmy throughout the evening.

Northern California, especially the Bay Area, also has distinctive weather. It's foggy in the mornings, it burns off in the afternoon and then about 7ish or so in the evening, the fog rolls back in and the cycle repeats.

Well, we still largely maintain our weather pattern here in the Bay Area, but this summer, more so than in previous ones, I've noticed that when we have our heat waves, they're a lot more like the heat waves in Southern California.

The heat has lingered this year. Instead of one or two days of intense heat, we've had four or five intense days. The evenings are balmy. The smell is the same as Southern California.

I got up this morning and it felt and smelled exactly like it would if I was in Anaheim and going about my business there. It's the weirdest sensation to be going to work, but feel like you should be getting ready to stand in line at the gates to Disneyland.

That said, with the trends I've noticed, I think patterns are shifting north. It's my fervent hope, though, that that delightful layer of visible air (known as the smog of Los Angeles) won't follow.

3) Living out of a cooler sucks, but can be fun:

As many of you know, Matt and I have been having trouble with our fridge as of late. Simply put, it's not working. And it should be working. It needs to be working. Damn it, I want it to work!

Despite the hazards and trials of living out of a 64-gallon ice chest/cooler, it hasn't been as bad as it can be. It's like going camping, except without the bugs, smells or dirt.

So while I certainly don't want to continue on without a working fridge, I'm making do with a cooler full of about 30 pounds of ice and some essential foods.

4) Sleep is underrated:

Sleeping is phenomenal. I don't know why people don't do it more often.

I mean, those Spaniards have it right. Work hard in the morning, have lunch, take a nap and work hard again until dinner. I should really assert my right as a Spaniard to sleep more!

And with that said, I'm going to do just that.

Later Days,
Arty

A few highlights of my day so far:

- Getting payroll prepped and done!

- Seeing Gus do a happy dance in the copy room because a science teacher was here to be interviewed.

- Esther, who has a hurting foot, telling us she's planning on telling people she injured herself with a basketball jump shot done in her high heels.  Esther, who's all of five feet tall.

- Hearing about Amy's cousin.

- Eating a banana.

- Eating an orange.

- Eating a salad with nothing but greens and mushrooms.

- Eating a piece of swiss cheese.

- Planning on making enchiladas for dinner.

- Planning on making a whole grain salad with asparagus and other delightful eats in it.

- Thinking about our long weekend away in October.

- Realizing said long weekend is only three weeks away!  Woo!

- Finishing a large task here at work that took me two days.

- Seeing Linda act like a mother hen to everyone on staff.

- Getting a state-wide testing calendar in the mail since it makes my life that much easier to plan things.

- Being asked if I'd like to downsize and live in a re-vamped garbage truck.

- Being told I can make a desk with my own two hands out of wood.

- Fixing the copy machine.

- Making coffee that seems to fly out the door even if I don't touch the stuff myself.

- Fiji water.

- The prospect of getting to go to the shops later.

- Remembering that Daphne's and Chipotle are opening up soon!

- The fact that dinner is gonna be a smash and grab job, meaning it's basically a one pot meal and everything can be prepared in advance and then just thrown in the oven to cook.

- Remembering that even though the fridge is broken again, we can still eat well living out of a very large cooler filled with ice.

- Remembering the film Matt and I watched last night.  Robin Hood with Errol Flynn.

- Hearing Nancy order an ice cream cake for one of the kids in their class.

And now I'm off like a herd of turtles!

Well, today was party day at the house. Since Jeff had to work Thursday night (Jeremy's birthday), the entire family got together again this afternoon at the house for homemade tostadas and an afternoon of fun. Jed (Jeremy's best friend) surprised Jeremy by coming over around 2ish. Of course, the rest of us had already known about this. In fact, we plotted with Jed to come over.

Anyway, the tostadas were yummy. Grandma always makes a great tostada/burrito/taco/fajita bar. Today was no exception. There were frijoles (beans), carne (meat), crema sin sal (cream without salt...or sour cream), queso (cheese), tomates (tomatoes), cebolla (onion), lechuga (lettuce), tortillas (tortillas), guacamole (super yummy avocado stuff) and hot sauces.

So needless to say, we all feasted and then all suffered from a state of semi-food comas. We perked up again around the time Jed got there because it meant that Jeremy's present could be unveiled. Matt and I went to Mi Pueblo (a little Mexican market nearby) and bought a piñata for today. It was shaped like a many-pointed star and looked kind of like a small land mine. Only without the explosive nature.

Well...I suppose that's not true. Piñatas have explosive natures, just not deadly ones. Unless, of course, you're at a party with Alf and you knock back one too many tequila shots and them go on a rampage with a baseball bat. The problem is, the neighbors dog, although resembling a Mexican cabra (goat), is not a piñata and should therefore not be hit. So while piñatas may have explosive natures, they're very rarely deadly ones.

But I digress.

I spent a happy half hour or so last night filling the piñata with all sorts of goodies. By the time all was said and done, the thing weighed about fifteen pounds or so. I then covered the hole to the piñata with some yellow tissue paper and set it aside on our wicked cool chair to spend the night.

This morning, it was transferred to the back seat of my car. Our laundry was in the trunk, which really wouldn't have mattered since Matt and I had discovered that the piñata didn't fit in the trunk of the car anyway. It was too big. And the thing we got was considered 'medium' by Mexican standards, which makes me wonder just how big the 'large' ones really are. They didn't have any large ones left by the time we got to the market where they are.

You may have noticed I'm speaking of the piñata in the past tense. Well, that's pretty much because it was destroyed this afternoon.

Once Jed arrived, we all gathered in the front yard. My dad, Matt and Jeff hung the piñata up with some rope strung between one of the porch posts and the nearby telephone pole. At that point, Jeremy was blindfolded, given an old umbrella (we couldn't find the baseball bat) and the fun began.

I was given the delightful job of spinning people around five times before pointing them in the general direction of the ill-fated piñata. I then got to step back (I did so quickly!) and laugh myself silly watching people try and break the brightly colored star to expose the candy inside.

Jeremy went first, followed by Jeff and then by Matt. Jeff broke a portion of the piñata off and only a little bit of candy exploded. Jeff was swinging so hard that he actually knocked a piece of candy out of its wrapper and then proceeded to hit a piece or two onto the roof of the house.

It was Matt that succeeded in breaking both the piñata and the umbrella we were using. We all gathered together afterwards to pick up all the stray pieces from the lawns, walkway and various flower beds. I found a Mr. Goodbar lying half smashed underneath the Japanese maple tree. I also found a mango-flavored lollipop, which made me happy. I was also able to gather an apple-flavored Jolly Rancher, which I tucked away and ate about an hour later while watching the US Open.

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoyably. Matt and I went with Jeremy and Jed to do some filming for a movie they were inspired to do. The cone-shaped spikes coming out of the piñata looks like Olympic torches when held properly. The brightly colored tissue paper all around it helped make it look that way too.

The point really is, I got to wrap myself up in a sheet, stick some leaves in my hair and play a mute Greek goddess that controlled the silliness of the games.

Dinner came after we got back, which all of us enjoyed. I then beached myself on my uncle's sofa downstairs next to Matt to watch some more of the US Open. I don't really understand much about tennis, but it's a mesmerizing game to watch.

Once through with that, it was a quick trip to the post office on the way home to mail a letter that's going to Texas and then we were home. I put all our clean laundry away (Sunday is normally laundry day, which is fine with me because I can doze in and out of consciousness while things are going) and took a shower.

Carpal tunnel is still giving me grief, but I've faithfully been wearing my brace when not doing something potentially messy like eating or wrestling in the mud (which was an idea of Jed and Jeremy's when it came to plotting out their particular Olympic games to film).

Anyway, the weather here is deliciously cool! We saw fog rolling in over the bay when we went to the post office, which is just a couple blocks away from us and on the beach. There's nothing quite so beautiful as fog rolling in over the gate and bay during the summer. With cooler weather, I'm sure I'll be getting a lot more restful sleep.

And that's exactly what I'd like to do right now.

Later Days,
Arty

Carpal Tunnel is hurting me, so it'll be short facts about today.

- Surprise...carpal tunnel suck.

- 2.0 earthquake this afternoon centered in Berkeley.

- 4.0 earthquake tonight centered in Alamo.

- Both earthquakes were along the Hayward Fault and this is somehow worrying.

- Most of the East Bay sits right on top of the Hayward Fault.

- Went to see Pirates of Penzance tonight.

- Had fun.

- It's still blasted hot!

- I haven't been sleeping well because of it.

- Talked to Esther today about the situation with Pat.

- I feel better for it. Like a weight has been lifted off me.

- Brought home the flowers my mother surprised me with at work.

- Watered all the plants.

- I pine for the deepest, darkest hour of winter when everything is cold.

- Had a cat meow at me pitifully from outside the back door. It just sat and stared at me as though trying to incite me to feed or water it.

- I did neither. I don't do cats.

- Got off work early because Gus told everyone to leave.

- Gus hates the heat.

- Had a productive morning at work.

- For the first time ever, didn't need to wrap myself up Eskimo-style to see a show at Woodminster.

- Had some soda for the first time in a long time.

- Drank my weight in iced tea.

- Subsequently peed my weight as well.

- Made plans with Matt for the morning.

- Took some medicine for my wrist.

- Showered. Twice.

- Sat down to blog.

And there you have it. A few bullet points of my day. More when my wrist isn't kicking my butt.

Later Days,
Arty

So I discovered last night that the city of Dulot in the first Shrek movie is modeled after my own town.  I discovered this in a series of bizarre events.

- At one o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by classical music.  At first I thought it was from Matt's computer, but after listening to it for a minute, I realized it wasn't.  Even in my groggy stupor I know Matt has better taste than that.  I then got up and wandered around my dark apartment to see if it was coming from upstairs.  After all, upstairs neighbor lady does werid things at weird times of the night.  But no.  It wasn't coming from upstairs.

And we're talking loud classical music, blasting across the courtyard.  I half expected to see a Lord Farquod character running around outside, it so closely mimicked that scene in Shrek where the city is deserted, but there's cheesy elevator music playing over a loudspeaker system.

- So Matt got up too.  He got dressed and went in search of said music.  He found the source to be an upstairs apartment from all the way across the courtyard.  I stood outside our apartment listening to him bang loudly on the door several times.  There was no answer.

- So I unplug my iPhone and dial 911 (surprisingly, the Skype phone doesn't work when you dial 911).  I explain that there might be a possible emergency situation because several older people live in our little complex and I didn't know if someone had fallen, passed out or worse.  

- Someone was dispatched to our site.

- I sat with Matt on the sofa with our front door open and listened to the police bang on the door even more loudly than Matt had.  They even took it one step further by going to the back door and raising a bit of hell.  

- Still no answer.

- Ruthie, our property manager, was then called.  She woke up, gave the police the keys to the apartment and they went up.

- Turns out everything was fine.  Some person just didn't bother answering the door.  This is the same kind of person that wouldn't answer the knock on their front door if the building was on fire and someone was trying to save them.

- Neighbor person turned down the music while the police filled out their report with Ruthie.

- As soon as police go, music gets turned back up.

- So the lesson of this story is simply that I feel I did the right thing.  I wouldn't have been able to sleep knowing that something might be wrong and do nothing about it.  So I was relieved to know that the jerk across the courtyard was okay and I went back to sleep.

Later Days,
Arty

Hello! I thought I'd take a moment to give myself a much-needed break from various things. As we speak, the sweet noxious fumes of cleaning products are emanating throughout my flat. You see, our fridge was fixed (yay!), but in order to have that done, two handymen had to traipse through my apartment (boo!).

One of the handymen was adorable. He was an older Latin gentleman whose name is Javier. I know that because I carried on many a conversation with him in Spanish. Admittedly, I was able to understand a whole lot more than I was able to speak. Still, I wanted to adopt him but Matt said we couldn't afford him. To this, I said 'he's a plumber, he can probably afford himself and us as well if we adopt him!' But at the end of the day I am Javier-less.

So the fridge turned out to be broken, not dead. I came home yesterday to find the two handymen in my kitchen poking around in my freezer. The culprit was a defrosting coil that had given out. That meant that ice crystals were accumulating at the back of my freezer and thus preventing cold air from getting down to the fridge. Funny, isn't it?

Anyway, this morning, Javier and handyman two, who was more like an annoying overseer came back with a new defrosting coil and fixed our fridge.

Which brings us to why my apartment is filled with sweet noxious fumes...

I don't care how careful handymen are, they ALWAYS end up bringing dirt into the house with them. It seems to be a pre-requisite habit in order to even think about becoming a handyman. That said, my kitchen floor has been dirty since last Friday*.

* Rewind to last Friday: Javier came over last Friday in order to look at our toilet, which had been driving Matt crazy because it wouldn't fill, so the sound of water would go on forever into the late hours of the night, thus preventing sleep, thus inducing tossing and turning, which in turn produced a very cranky wife because she was being kept awake by a husband who was being kept awake by a toilet.

Case and point, we got a new toilet. It's lovely. And most importantly, it works like it should, thus allowing Matt the sweet blissful slumber he was heretofore robbed of.

Back to today.

Anyway, in the process of having the toilet replaced, dirt inevitably found its way everywhere. And let me just say that our toilet (which was old) had things underneath it that I don't think would be able to survive in sunlight. Or air. It was really nasty. But all that's over with! We have new caulking and everything.

When Javier was finished with the toilet and after I had offered him some ice water (he accepted!), he looked at the fridge and cleaned out the back of it and told me (in Spanish) that he didn't know what was wrong with it, but that he had cleaned it out and I should call if it didn't get any better.

Well, things didn't get any better, so I called the property manager, who in turn called Javier and much to my delight, he was here yesterday seeing what could be done.

And so it was that Arty and her husband, Matt, lived happily with the prospects of being able to keep milk and juice again! Seriously, having no milk in the house sucked. We're going later to drown ourselves in the stuff, which can be translated as 'we're going to Trader Joe's to get the stuff we've missed the last few days.'

Jeremy's birthday is tomorrow. We'll be going out to Concord for dinner with him. He's excited about that.

Jeff has been occupied the last few weeks writing a summer camp program for our church. Every summer since before I can remember, our church has done a summer camp for local kids. It's changed dramatically from the time we were kids going to camp and now. Jeff prepared everything and took it to Nancy (who heads up the camp thing at church) with the resolve that if she didn't accept it, he would wash his hands of camp all together and not do it anymore.

Well, he presented the idea and camp to Nancy today and she accepted it!

He's really excited and I'm excited for him. It's a good thing for him. I might even help out in some capacity.

I sent my resume and a cover letter to a prospective job today. I'm excited about this. After college, I was kind of at a loss as to what I wanted to do. Well, I'm a year older now and a little more sure of what I would like to do. I'm more sure of what I don't want in a job, which is pretty much everything I'm having to deal with now.

I was talking to Cat yesterday afternoon and she asked me why I didn't like my job anymore when I seemed to love it so much just a few months ago. Well, I can't deny that. But things have just gotten bad. Bad to the point that no sane person would deal with it regularly, which is what I've been doing all summer. I'm about ready to snap.

So I'm looking to start somewhere new. Somewhere without a micro-managing person overseeing me. Somewhere that I can stretch myself.

I have a couple other jobs in mind that I'll be applying for. One of them I'm actually waiting for a family friend to get back to me on. He's got an in at this place and I want the skinny on the position before I go for it. Then I'm always looking. New things pop up every day, right? Right.

Today I took Matt to the dentist to have a filling re-filled. He was quite impressed with our dentist, whose office fails to resemble the hole-in-the-wall dentist offices in the UK where no one can hear you scream.

Anyway, they numbed him up nicely. It's been about three hours and the Novocain is just now starting to wear off. It was actually pretty amusing because we went to Chipotle for a late lunch/early dinner and he remarked that the salsa was making the left side of his mouth all hot whereas he couldn't feel a think on his right side. I can imagine how strange a sensation that would be.

Still, Chipotle rocks my world. And I have recently tapped into the sweet realm of cooking with chipotle peppers. They're amazing things. They're smoky and bold with a serious bite. Still, I sometimes wonder if packing them in adobo sauce is necessary. I'd like to taste what a plain chipotle tastes like without it being smothered in a sauce.

Well, that about does it from my end of the continuum. I'm going to go into my freshly cleaned kitchen and make a big pitcher of iced tea. It's supposed to be hot for another day before it cools down, but as long as I have iced tea and lemons, I'll be a happy camper. I'll holler back atcha sometime later this week(end).

Later Days,
Arty