The warmth of the holiday cheer

Kim and I live in this red converted church. There are a few quirks to our apartment, such as the fact that our shower likes to get hot or cold at least once per shower. I thought we discovered one of the last quirks we'd learn about ten days ago over dinner.

It was Friday, and I had made something that needed baking in the oven (probably potato wedges tossed with garlic and herb oil--we've mentioned our current obsession with potatoes, yes?) and we were eating at our table in the kitchen. I was nearly finished with my meal when I heard a weird popping noise come from the oven. I'd forgotten to turn it off, so I did that and peeked inside to see what was going on. What was going on was a small flame coming from the heating element.

I believe my reaction was first to say, "Kim? Our oven's on fire..." and then to be in the cupboard looking for the baking soda. I'm not sure if turning off the oven or pouring the baking soda onto it put out the fire, but one or the combination of the two worked. After we finished eating, we opened the oven back up to see if we could figure out what had happened. We hadn't spilled anything that ignited, but instead it seemed like the element had cracked.

A call to our landlords later, we were ready to have a weekend full of stove-top dishes. Of course I did some internet research and learned that some people whose ovens had spontaneously burst into flame couldn't even turn on their stove tops without the oven igniting. Luckily ours wasn't that bad. By Tuesday evening we had a new element put in and made celebratory baked goods. The oven worked so much better after that fix. All in all, I think we ended up gaining for the experience.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of our "Things break and we wait and are inconvenienced while the landlord fixes it" adventures. This last Saturday we woke up to a cold apartment. By cold I mean just under sixty degrees. Luckily there was hot water, so we warmed up with showers. Of course we put in a call to the landlord and were happy to hear noises of what we imagined to be fixing coming from the boiler room.

That afternoon Kim and I bundled up and left our cold apartment to go downtown and check out the ice carving competition with the full expectation that we'd return to a cozily warm apartment and have more baked goods to keep celebrating the return of our oven.

Watching people carve ice is something I'd never seen. I don't even remember seeing an ice sculpture before. When we walked onto the commons, there were both finished sculptures and works-in-progress to look at. I think what struck me about the finished ones was how transformed the blocks of ice were. Here was something taller than me made of this clear substance that glinted in the light. Later in the evening, the strings of white lights that garland the trees and twined around the pillars would make the sculptures sparkle in the twilight.

The in-progress ones were rough and chunky compared to their finished counterparts. As I watched, the sculptors used water to fuse two pieces of ice together. It was only then that I thought to look for seams in the finished products. When watching, you had to be careful of where you stood so you wouldn't get the wind blowing ice dust in your face, especially when the artist got out the chain saw.

However, I forgot my camera, so here I invite all the curious to go to google (or your preferred search engine) and type something in like, "Ithaca ice wars 2011," and browse.

We got home cold, and discovered three space heaters on the floor and a message on my cell phone. The two-year-old boiler was broken, but it'd be fixed Monday. Until then, we would have to get by with the space heaters.

Our water was cold, and we huddled by our space heaters in an attempt to warm up our fingers and toes. I made brownies and we put down towels and blankets on the coldest parts of the floor, and our spirits couldn't help but lift. We'd get by. It would be just a few days.

Then Monday came, and the boiler was still not fixed. Tuesday got us word that the part to fix the boiler was supposed to be in Monday, but would definitely be in on Thursday. It's Wednesday now. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I'm hoping for hot water so I don't have to repeat this morning.

This morning I gave in to the feeling of unwashed hair and boiled two pots of water on the stove. I poured those into our kitchen sink, diluted the water with cold and stood on a towel (to keep my feet warm) in front of it. Yesterday Kim managed to gracefully wash her hair in the sink. Her long-sleeved shirt even stayed dry. I, on the other hand, am either uncoordinated, unpracticed, or simply too short. My left hand was terribly awkward and wouldn't follow the right hand's lead. I had to stand on tip-toes to reach, and even then I would lose my balance in my attempts to lean properly over the sink. My arms ended up wet up to my elbows, and I definitely got water in my ears and eyes.

I did end up with clean hair, so I guess it was successful.

For now I'm hoping for a proper shower on Friday morning, and a good laugh later about how loud two of our three space heaters are.

UPDATE 12/15/2011 at 9:06 pm: We have hot water!

Tis the Season...

For Kim and Dariana to update the blog! And after so long, too! I imagine by now most of you have given us up for dead. But behold, like the Savior we will rise up again and--oh, that's me getting my holidays mixed up. Suffice it to say, we've been very very busy...doing things...other than updating...and for that we feel deep deep shame and offer you a holiday-themed blog post in consolation. 

And we offer you pictures! Why, I imagine you'll walk away from this post thinking to yourselves, "My stars! Those girls, such wondrous gifts they give us!" And you'll forget all about the, oh, several odd weeks when you didn't hear anything from us AT ALL.

And so, without further ado, let's have those pictures: 

Getting the branches just so.

Hey, they ARE under the tree. :D

Small (empty) boxes to put under this tree.

Same holiday cheer. Smaller package.

Our living room! With two trees!

Our adorable love seat and picture wall.

And another angle.

And the newly-painted kitchen!

With new table and wall clock!

Aren't the trees just the cutest damn things you've ever seen? It wouldn't take a very strong wind to knock them over, but they speak volumes about the holiday season. It doesn't have to be big or expensive or showy. It just has to have heart. And these little guys pack a lot of heart. 

And the apartment is actually starting to look like, well, an apartment now! I thought about showing "before and after" shots of the decor, but that would frankly be embarrassing. So here you have the "after," and if you'd like to imagine for yourselves the "before," just subtract anything cute, cozy, and houselike and replace it with a proportionate amount of cardboard. Don't forget the large expanses of blank wall!

The job news is much the same as the last time we wrote. Dariana is an expert cookie-baker by now (although she assures me that she was an expert cookie-baker before this job and that now she simply has the opportunity to demonstrate her superior baking abilities). I am still hard on the hunt for a job of my own. The hardest part, believe it or not, has been letting go of the notion that I need to find the perfect job RIGHT NOW. Working at all would be a blessing for my mental health at this point, and I could continue searching for "Mr. Right Job" while working something not quite as wonderful. Sounds perfectly reasonable, right? But you'd be surprised how long it's taken me to accept that. 

Looking at my joblessness another way, I think it's been good for Dariana to have some company while at work. For the past several weeks, I've been coming in with her to Insomnia and setting up my own little job-hunting site in the back of the store--which, yes, involves shamelessly mooching off Insomnia's internet connection. Call it an investment in the future. Anyway, I've come to understand just how quiet it can be in that store before about 6:00, when business finally begins to pick up. I believe that before I became a regular installation, Dariana's workday went something like this:

12:00 -- Let self into store.

12:00-1:00 -- Bake cookies. Check inventory. Eat lunch.

1:00 -- Open store.

1:00-2:00 -- Stare out window at college students. Shake head at what some of them are wearing. That dress could use a few more inches on the bottom, honey.

2:00-3:00 -- Read library book while watching for non-existent customers.

3:00 -- Have a customer! 

3:00-3:15 Sit in wonderment about how new and exciting it is to have a customer in the store.

3:15-4:00 -- Look at cooking blogs online. Email Kim about recipes to make when finally home. 

4:00 -- Receive call from a mother trying to order cookies for her son at college. Apparently she finds the company website "confusing."

4:00-5:00 -- Read book to take mind off the sad plight of the computer illiterate.

5:00 -- Have a customer!

5:00-5:30 -- Think about running away to the wilds of New Zealand.

5:30-6:30 -- Bake cookies for evening. 

6:30 -- Have TWO customers! At the same time! Woo!

6:30-7:00 -- Cash out register.

7:00 -- Go home.

But now, thanks to the presence of yours truly, her day looks more like this:

11:45 -- Attempt to shove Kim out the door before she makes me late.

12:05 -- Slide into work on two wheels due to aforementioned Kim making me late.

12:05-1:00 -- Bake cookies. Check inventory. Eat lunch. Wonder if Kim went to the store like she said she would and if she remembered to get lemons.

1:00 -- Open store. Let Kim in.

1:00-2:00 -- Sit with Kim while she eats lunch. Point and laugh uproariously at passing college students. Discuss the decline of common sense , the incline of so-called "fashion sense," and how they relate. 

2:00-3:00 -- Allow Kim to work for a bit on her job-hunting. Periodically come back to tell her about fussy mothers and computer illiterate customers. More hearty laughing. 

3:00 -- Have a customer! 

3:00-3:15 -- Go in back to tell Kim about it. Expound on the virtues of good customers. 

3:15-4:00 -- Look at cooking blogs online. Run in back to tell Kim about the recipe you just found for lemon cake. If only she had remembered the lemons.

4:00 -- Get scared out of wits by Kim sneaking up on you from behind.

4:00-5:00 -- Chase Kim around the work table in back, then read book while watching entrance to the back with one eye. 

5:00 -- Have a customer!

5:00-5:30 -- Complain to Kim about the innumerable un-virtues of bad customers. Discuss pros, cons, and logistics of running away to New Zealand.

5:30-6:30 -- Bake cookies for evening. Give Kim the broken/ugly ones to stop her drooling.

6:30 -- Have TWO customers! At the same time! Woo!

6:30-7:00 -- Cash out register while still watching back room with one eye. Fool me twice...

7:00-7:10 -- Track down Kim, who slipped out and is walking around and talking on the phone to her mother. Yes, in the rain. And she has the car keys.

7:10 -- Go home.

As you can doubtless see, dear readers, my mere presence makes her day feel longer, more full, and more spontaneous! What more could anyone ask for?

I wonder if anyone would be willing to pay for those services. Surely there's a market for what I do every day. Personal Assistant, perhaps?

Anyway, how was everyone's holiday? I know, I know; tis the season for asking, "Which one?" I mean the one where we're all supposed to think grateful thoughts before stuffing ourselves half to death. Here's hoping you did both, though not necessarily in that order. As for Dariana and me, we had a lovely holiday weekend with my parents. They drove up on Thanksgiving day carrying not a small share of the luxuries you see in the pictures. They also came bearing Christmas presents in case I couldn't come home for that one. The two of them were regular wisemen journeying from afar to bear gifts, though without the camels and the King. (And yes, that's me mixing holidays yet again. Little do you know that there will be a quiz later to see which of you can match the holidays with their correct paraphernalia.) 

And such a feast we had! It was a day late, but so worth the wait. Nut loaf, gravy, mashed potatoes and kale, green vegetable casserole, rolls, and cranberry sauce. We didn't make any desserts because we got a late start, but don't go feeling sorry for us. Our Thursday was spent with the Wysongs, the friends who kept us for a few weeks way back in August, and Laura (the fabulous and prolific cook that she is) sent us home with so many little tasties that we didn't even miss our usual desserts. It was indeed a feast to make kings of old roll around in their graves with jealousy. 

If you'd like the recipes to any of those dishes, you just send us an email. We think everyone should get to enjoy the gastronomical pleasures of our Thanksgiving dinner. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

My parents left the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I was sad to see them go, as I always am. Those are the two conflicting dreams of my heart: to travel the world, and to have my family close by. But I'm happy to report that circumstances have come together so that I CAN go home for Christmas! That holiday is one of the only times I get to see members of my extended family, so I was disappointed at the prospect of not being able to go. I will add, however, that times of need generate friends indeed. Two very good friends of ours asked what our holiday plans were, and when they heard that I may not be able to go home, they immediately extended the invitation to spend Christmas with them. It warmed my heart and inspired me to acts of kindness of my own, as I hope it does for you. Tis the season!

I need to wrap this one up so I can help Dariana with dinner (Dijon Green Beans and Garlic Scallion Mashed Potatoes--we do love our potatoes in this household). We hope you're all doing well, keeping warm, enjoying your snow (if you have it) or eagerly anticipating it (if you don't), and just generally enjoying the season.

Oh, and as a parting farewell, here's that quiz I mentioned earlier. (You thought I was kidding?) Match the holidays with the miscellaneous details that best describe them by writing the letter in the space provided. 10 points each.

[  ] Easter                          A. turkeys, pilgrims, gratitude, and more food than should be ever 

                                             be eaten in one sitting

[  ] Thanksgiving                 B. nativity scenes, evergreens, multicolored lights, and enough 

                                             wrapping paper to cover Planet Earth--twice

[  ] Christmas                     C. kids with colored food dye, fake grass, baskets, a resurrection, 

                                             and, apparently, bunnies that lay eggs

Take your time.

Cookies and a bit of reality

This blog seems to have become "Kim and Dar's adventures as seen by Dar." Perhaps this is because I have nice chunks of time at work to write up blog posts. I apologize for depriving everyone of Kim's writing.

I had written up a few stories of drunk people from working Saturday night, but have since scrapped that idea. Do you really want to read a post about a guy so drunk I was worried about him passing out in the store and a man dressed (poorly) as Princess Peach who creepily tried to get me to give him a snickerdoodle cookie for a penny? If so, just elaborate in your mind for a while. Those were the only two stories; most people were jovial and easy to joke with.

I've decided that we need to quit hiding behind work-related stories and tales of weddings. Let's come clean:

Kim doesn't have a job yet; my job involves more sitting and waiting for something to happen than I'd like; I don't have a car; we have no furniture except two floor lamps; we sleep on borrowed camping maps; our kitchen only has 3 plates, 3 bowls, silverware for two, mugs for two, glasses for two, a crockpot, 3 pots, 2 pans, a few baking dishes, measuring cups, a wooden spoon, a spatula, an electric wok that doesn't have its power supply, knives, and a can opener; our entire kitchen has almost no counter space and minimal storage; and our shower makes me sing Katy Perry (you're hot then you're cold).

Our kitchen before we painted it red. After pictures will come when I find my camera.

I don't mention this to complain.

I want to say that we're doing fine despite all of this. Yes, occasionally one of us wants something that requires a blender, for example, but we usually come up with something equally delicious and blender-free.

Our latest obsession are cookies. You'd think after working all day in a store that makes cookies that I'd want anything except cookies, but it's actually had a very different effect. After working as a cookie minion all day, I seem to want to prove my cookie-making independence. This seems to have extended to include old recipes.

I haven't made the old standby of peanut butter chocolate chip in a few months. The current favorite is double chocolate with various goodies. This started because Kim likes the taste of the s'mores cookies from work (think chocolate cookies with marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate chunks, and then realize how many times a day I repeat that phrase), and decided that I could make a better one. Buoyed by her faith in me, I decided to try it.

The first attempt failed because I didn't realize that marshmallows turn into pockets of extra-fudgy cookie unless frozen before added to the dough. As a not-a-marshmallow-fan, I made myself ones with walnuts and dried cranberries that first time. We both fell in love with the cookie base and have since added dried cherries (not a good idea), chopped Andes Mints (delicious), and a peanut butter swirl with a few peanut butter chips (also delicious).

On a side note: the local grocery store has a bulk candy section, so we can get small amounts of just about anything to add to cookies. The list of delicious things to put in said cookies will probably grow.

Our most recent cookie adventure is the one that inspired me to feel empowered by how well we're getting by despite most of our possessions being 15 hours away by car. We made pumpkin pie spiced sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting to celebrate Halloween. Since they were sugar cookies, of course they had to be shaped, so we had ghosts, witch's hats, cats, and pumpkins. To make this clear: we made them without a rolling pin, a mixing bowl, measuring spoons, cookie cutters or much counter space. We just use an empty jar, a casserole dish, eating spoons and estimation, paper printouts and knives, and the wooden living room floor (to decorate).

They were delicious, and adorable. My personal favorite is the hat that Kim decorated to look like the Hogwarts Sorting Hat. I haven't eaten it yet in hopes of finding my camera to take a picture.

In final news, I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this month. For those unfamiliar with that, it involves writing a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. The idea is to focus on just writing and not worrying so much about whether it's good. We'll see how this goes...

A fall wedding in New England

In hopes of inspiring reader-forgiveness, Kim and I would like to offer pictures to accompany this story of our first friend-wedding and our first time in New Hampshire. We carried the camera around and periodically would say, "We need to take a picture of this for the blog..." So here goes.

We'd been hoping to make this trip since Ben and DuCiel announced that they were getting married in New Hampshire and we realized that we were planning to move within a day's drive of there. Everything seemed to work out; I got the time off of work, and my godparents live very close to the wedding and happen to have been invited to attend. So we had a place to stay, complete with people I was genuinely excited to see.

We drove up on Wednesday. The drive took us mostly on winding two-lane highways through the trees. Even though it's harder to navigate, I found myself thankful to be driving those roads and not the straight freeways of midwest driving. Admittedly, the night driving on said winding and hilly roads was a bit more harrowing, but I kindly gave Kim the chance to do that. (Note: I did pay for that, as she declined all my offers to let her drive when it was dark for the remainder of the trip.) We arrived safely, had soup, and went to bed.

Thursday--wedding day--began with promises of blue skies and a crisp wind. We donned sweaters and packed jackets and drove to the Cathedral of the Pines. Go to google and look it up. I can say, "It's an outdoor cathedral. It has benches and a beautiful view," but that doesn't describe it. When we got there, Kim and I got out of the car and walked towards a mingling group, mostly of men in suits. Then I saw him in profile: the groom looking dashing in a top hat and tails, leaning on a cane that I later found out belonged to his grandfather. As I happily hurried closer, I picked out a few more familiar faces. So began hugs and introductions, but mostly a wonderful feeling brought on by being part of a group bent on having a joyous day.

The ceremony was beautiful, heartfelt, etc. Having not been to a wedding since I was little, I don't have much comparison. Of course the bride was beautiful, especially the first glimpse of her, veiled and in a long dress on her father's arm. Both the wedding, and later the reception, just suited the bride and groom. Of course they'd planned it, but it seemed to be deeper than that. It was as if someone had combined their personalities and manifested it as an afternoon. At the reception, we drank tea; ate maple candies; laughed at our ineptitude at contra dancing; smiled when we got the dance right; ate delicious sandwiches, eggrolls, sushi, dumplings and cake; and mingled and talked and met new people. That evening, out of our finery, we hung out at DuCiel's house and were giving a tour of Ben and DuCiel's apartment that they'll move into when returning from their honeymoon. I had missed that group of friends, and was saddened that almost everyone was leaving town the next day.

On Friday, we went on a short outing with my godparents. They took us to Pitcher Mountain. It's a very short hike from the parking lot (300 ft elevation gain, according to the internet), but the summit offers a 360 degree view and promises of wild blueberries if we'd arrived at the right time of year. The walk up was easier than the walk up East Hill in Ithaca (which, according to the internet is a 400 ft elevation gain, but I only walked the entire thing once, so that's besides the point). Perhaps this is because of the trees, or the fact that it's not up a man-made flat surface, or perhaps just that hikes are for the process as well as the summit. On the top we sat on a chunk of granite and basked in the sun and the view.

Of course it's prettier is person

On the way back, we were taken past Gregg Lake. The trees had just begun to turn next to the shore. No one else was there. It was still and I could have stayed and read a book and watched the Canadian geese for far longer than I did. It was time to go home.

Note: geese and fall leaves are out of frame

On Saturday--our last day--we decided to see some of the 22 miles of coastline New Hampshire has and go to Portsmouth. One of my coworkers is from New Hampshire and she highly recommended Portsmouth, so we thought we'd give it a look.

Portsmouth is a touristy town on a harbor. We walked around the downtown, wandered into a few stores, walked some more, found a park by the water, and began our quest for a bakery. On the drive from Ithaca, we'd seen a sign for an Italian Pastry shop. We didn't have time to stop, but we had been talking about bakeries a lot since then. We did find two bakeries downtown, but none of their items really sparked our interest. Saddened and resigned to a sweetsless afternoon, we began to walk back to the car.

Of course, I decided that we were going to go a different route back to the car. As we were passing a side street, Kim spotted a bakery. We went in, and I was immediately charmed by the pale green walls and stained glass windows, but mostly by the display of delicious (and reasonably-priced) tarts. We got a slice of frangipane, which is apparently an almond and apricot tart. The slice was generous and delicious.

Feeling a bit rotund, we made our way back to the car and started to drive to the coast. We had borrowed a GPS for a day and named her Miss Peabody, since she has a bit of a British accent and periodically would chide me with a resigned, "Recalculating" when I ignored or misfollowed her directions. With her help, we found the ocean. We parked and clambered over rocks to reach the sand. The surf was gentle and the day warm, so we took off our shoes and socks and wandered down the beach.

The drive home on Sunday finally gave us fall colors. Vermont was so beautiful that Kim and I eventually gave up exclaiming over it. We stopped in a town called Bennington because the traffic line was long and while waiting we spotted a painted moose and a bakery called Crazy Russian Girls Bakery--and couldn't resist the pair.

The moose is named Vincent

Our spoils from the bakery: a pumpkin and cream cheese whoopi pie

As we came through New York, we noticed that it's tamer here; the roads are flatter, the mountains reduced to hills, the lakes replaced by waterfalls and gorges, and the trees broken up by farmland. The illusion of untouched nature (surrounding the road, of course) had been left behind. As if sensing my loyalty wavering east, Ithaca leaves began to turn in earnest over the next few days as if to remind me that I'm not through with this adventure.

Today's view from the closest branch of my bank

An ornery doorknob, lots of rain and cookies, and red paint

Let's start with the life updates. Kim had two interviews. One with the press for a job she really wanted, but they haven't gotten back to her at all, despite her, "Hey, I'm totally willing to put off looking into other jobs for this one, but if you're definitely not interested in me, let me know please." She's been upset about that, but it's back to cover letters for her. She had no extra oomph for writing anything left, so asked me to blog this week.

My job has definitely gotten more interesting since I took over inventory and ordering. Some bits are not too much fun (like when I had to call 20+ people about not getting their delivery orders the previous night because our delivery guy quit and left midway through his shift), but it's mostly making things orderly and keeping track of what we have. I also figure out that I've made at least 2500 cookies so far, and that's a conservative estimate.

I've been taking the bus to work. I get on about a minute's walk away, and then ride for about 20-25 minutes. As long as there isn't someone telling way too many details of his life way too loudly (no, sir, I don't want to hear about your drunken driving escapades, or that time you nearly died missing the water while cliff diving), it's rather relaxing to just sit and look out the window. I get let off 4 blocks down the hill from work. Let me paint a picture of this hill I walk up. It's not a nice gradual rolling hill. It's a "trucks should not go down me I'm so steep" hill for two blocks, then a "aren't I nice in comparison?" but still steep for the other two. I never thought I'd get so tired walking two blocks. On the upside, I understand why so many people here have awesome leg muscles.

We finally have internet at our apartment! We got it hooked up on Thursday. It's still a novelty to go, "Hmm... We have a quart of peaches. Let's make cobbler! We can look at recipes online!"

In other apartment news, we're nearly finished painting our kitchen red. Unfortunately, I can't include pictures because my camera battery is dead and I can't find where I packed my recharger. There's wood paneling on the bottom half of the wall, and the top half was a yucky blue color. We were a little wary of it being too dark, but the red looks wonderful. We're so excited to do the last coat and take the blue tape off the trim and green drop cloth off the floor. It actually feels like somewhere we want to cook/eat in.

I believe that's it on life updates.

We had two... adventures, if you will. The first was getting 5"+ of rain in a day. I went to the work and the usually-subdued creek/waterfall across the road was roaring. There was flash flood warnings on the radio all day. When Kim picked me up from work, we went to B&N for me to check my email and then we scooted across the street to Wegmans (I just googled that. Shouldn't that have an apostrophe? Doesn't that make more sense?) for groceries. That area is probably about far down as you get, and you could tell. Whole lanes on the road were flooded. Luckily it was built with the middle higher than the sides so the middle two lanes were still passable. As soon as we started up the hill, though, there were no road-related problems.

The other "adventure," involves our lovely bathroom. I was in the kitchen or something and I hear a pitious "Daar?" from the bathroom. I didn't know what was going on, but I suspected there was a large and perhaps hairy spider. I go over and find that the doorknob has somehow stopped working. It was not locked and would not turn. Kim, being necessarily resourceful, began taking the doorknob off with a pair of tweezers because of course the screwdriver is not kept in the bathroom. Who keeps screwdrivers in the bathroom? She managed to get it off, we released her, and then I put the doorknob back on. This time we actually tightened it so hopefully it won't happen again. We do, however, now keep our screwdriver in the bathroom.

I'll end with a list of the riches we acquired from the farmer's markets this week: mixed green/yellow/purple beans, sweet corn, onions, peaches, bell peppers, basswood honey, tomatoes, kale, chard, arugula, garlic, eggplant, and English muffins. Our refrigerator is beautifully full.

Dariana

Working, moving, and eating

It’s been an exhausting, busy week. I started work last Friday and proceeded to work 8 days in a row. We also moved in on Tuesday (and, yes, I did work while moving, but I got to leave 2 hours early). Working and having our own place is really making the move seem to have been accomplished.

Speaking of moving accomplishments, we also now have a local bank! I’m irrationally excited about it. Opening accounts took forever because the woman we were talking to was super talkative. When we received the “Welcome to our bank!” form letter, the lady we’d spoken to had written a personal note to each of us. A few days later she emails me to make sure that I had figured out how to do the change of address and sign up for e-statements as we’d discussed. I’m utterly amazed at the customer service. Who knew banks could actually have good customer service?

I’ve also been given a raise at work already. Since I work weekdays, and we’re managed from Manhattan, I just naturally became the go-to person for dealing with local things. I was moved to being in charge of ordering, receiving deliveries, and doing inventory. It’s exciting to have more responsibilities because my days usually go something like this:

Get to work. Make sure there’s enough change in the drawer, if not, go to the bank and get some. Start the oven and warmers. Bake cookies. Count the cash in the drawer. Put down the stools. Take the cookies out of the oven. Put more in. Open store. (End first hour.)

Happily sell cookies to the after-lunch crowd.

Sit.

Sit.

Sit.

Laugh to myself because there’s a car outside with a mattress on it that’s being held onto the car by four college boys holding onto the mattress handles.

Sit.

Sell a few cookies!

Sit.

Answer the phone.

Sell a few more cookies. (End next four-five hours)

Bake cookies. Sell cookies to the pre-dinner crowd. Remove cookies from oven. Sell more cookies. Do closing paperwork. Count cash in the drawer. Sell more cookies. Deposit the profit at the bank. (End last one-two hours)

Our apartment is treating us reasonably well. We left a number of essentials in Iowa with the understanding that they’ll get driven out here soon. We’re sleeping on two borrowing camping mats with borrowed sheets. At least we brought blankets. Also, a few vital kitchen boxes are missing, such as the one containing all of our dishes. We purchased plastic plates, and were gifted extra bowls by the woman who lives upstairs—so we have three bowls now! It’s pretty hilarious to have no furniture, no dishes, and lilac walls. The smoke detectors have the unfortunate habit of going off for no apparent reason (making pasta? taking a bath?) but hopefully they'll figure themselves out soon.

Yesterday we walked to the Brooktondale farmers’ market, which is two buildings away. It was small, but all the venders were super happy to chat. We learned about the Brooktondale Apple Festival in later October. It’s apparently a big deal and has tons of pies and cider and fresh fruit. We’re definitely planning to make it to that.

We bought a purple bell pepper for 15 cents and a beautiful onion for 2 cents. Can’t beat those prices! I suspect we’re supposed to get produce from them in bulk and make pickles or do some canning? We also tried samples of raw honey (basswood, orange blossom, and fall wildflowers), and homemade jams. We went home with their hottest pepper jelly. After trying it, the hot and medium were just kind of bland. It’s mostly going to be used in cooking, but there may be some crackers and cream cheese broken out with them.

And now I must go eat a pie made from locally-grown peaches (not made by me, sadly).

Dariana

Here Come the Jobs

Oh, and the apartment, too.

Let me first say that I’m sorry for the late posting, but those of you who know me well are likely not surprised and probably could’ve predicted it. You’re chuckling to yourself right now about how some things never change.

How right you are.

The past week, I’m happy to say, was a productive one. Dariana started her first day at her new job last Friday! She works at a place called Insomnia Cookies where she peddles late-night cookies and milk to studying college students. Apparently the company was first dreamt up by two college guys who were fed up (har har) with there being no food except pizza available for delivery at two in the morning. So they started baking cookies for themselves, then for their friends, and then decided to make some money off the idea by turning it into a business. Thus, a system of deploying freshly-baked cookies to book-weary students was born. No, Dariana doesn’t work until 2:00 a.m. and she doesn’t deliver (although the bulk of the store’s business does come in the evening and through deliveries). She opens the store at noon and bakes several batches of cookies before the rush later on. Currently she is a one-woman band, baking and cleaning and peddling cookies all by herself until 7:00. She enjoys the baking and the customer interactions, but the seven straight hours by herself are lonely. As for the cookies themselves, she says they’re definitely not like home-made, but they’re pretty darn close. I can’t say one way or the other, as she has not yet brought some home for me to try. *grumble grumble

I just had a job interview with Cornell University this morning, and have another interview with them (different department) this afternoon. The first interview was for the very prestigious position of Administrative Assistant III (I know, I know, you’d like to just faint right now, wouldn’t you?) in the College of Arts and Sciences, one of Cornell’s seven undergraduate colleges. I would be working in Academic Advising, but don’t go thinking that I’d be the one doing the advising. No, no, I would simply schedule the students for appointments with advisers. But I still think getting to welcome in the students would be nice. Especially the poor firsties.

My second interview is by phone with the Cornell Press. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I may have another publishing job. The position is Production Coordinator; I would be helping oversee the actual printing and distribution of the University’s books. True, I wouldn’t be editing, but I’d still get to handle the books, and I’d be using my impeccable communication skills to build solid relationships with the Press’s vendors. And who knows? Maybe someone in the editing department will be just overwhelmed by the sheer knowledge of grammar and mechanics leaking out of my pores that he or she will up and quit, leaving the position open for little old unsuspecting moi.

The downside to the Press is that it is not actually on the Cornell campus, so I won’t be around the students as much. I mean, I’ll still see them around; there are more students in this town than townies. But there were just so MANY of them when I arrived on campus for my interview at 10:30 this morning. I think today must have been an orientation of sorts, because people were scurrying around like ants, glued to their maps or phones or friends. After my interview, when I had an opportunity to walk around, I just kind of allowed myself to get swallowed up in the world of student-dom. And I surprised myself with how much I missed being around all that energy. The average college student is all but bursting with hopes and dreams and insecurities. Put 20,000 of them together and the experience of walking among them is like walking down an aisle of humming appliances.

I just compared students to kitchen accessories. Wow, it must be late.

Before I go, I’ll quickly tell you about the apartment Dariana and I intend to move into tomorrow. It is a basement apartment, so all the windows start at ground level. I have hilarious mental images of us waking up in the winter to several inches of snow piled up outside our windows. But we’ll simply shovel the windows out to let the light fall in on the yellow-painted living room (which is quite cheerful) and the two bedrooms. The bedrooms are currently painted lilac and peach, which we’re thinking to change as soon as humanly possible. The kitchen is small but has plenty of cabinets and counter space, and that’s really what you want a kitchen for, right? Curiously, the bathroom is elevated above the rest of the flooring; three tiled steps lead up to it. I guess we’ll just always feel a sense of grandeur when we attend to the call of nature, since we’ll be “ascending to a higher level,” as it were.

Oh, and this is the best part: the apartment building is actually a converted church. This makes us, as a friend so endearingly put it, “church mice.”

I think that does it for this week. Wish us luck with our move, and we’ll see you next week!

Kim

P.S. Dariana would like to rescind the earlier slander about her cookies-from-work-providing. She brought home two (broken, but still delicious) cookies after work today.

Welcome to the blog!

The whole purpose of this blog is to attempt to break our terrible record of keeping in touch with people. The idea is for one of us to post once a week. Since we've been here a week, let's do week 1!

This week was all about job and apartment searching. Our personal two favorite apartments so far are:

1) A two-story one with a gorgeous downstairs, big kitchen with tile counters and tons of counter space, a dishwasher, washer/dryer, and deck/backyard. Unfortunately, the bedrooms upstairs had a dorm room feel to them, and the bathroom was tiny and tub-less. The upstairs was such a con to the huge pro of the downstairs. It was quite disappointing. Also, we suspect the landlord works in the fracking industry. We're not sure if we should infiltrate or stand clear.

2) The top floor of an old, but well-maintained house (built in 1840) to the south of Ithaca. Really nice view, really nice feel to the apartment. We like this one best, except for the location (8 minutes to downtown, 12 to Cornell) and the lack of laundry facilities. We're not enchanted by the idea of needing to do laundry in January and having to shelp it all into a car, drive for a while, and then wait.

Our least favorite was one relatively close to Cornell with a lovely view on the drive up to it. There were farms with hills rising behind them not close enough to feel shut-in. The apartment is in a slight valley. Inside it's kind of damp feeling. (No washer/dryer, but the laundry is only one block away!) There are windows, but for some reason there doesn't seem to be space in any of the rooms for beds because of the way the windows and doors are located. The kitchen was big, but only had things on one wall. By things I mean the refrigerator, stove, counters, and cabinets. It might have been workable with an island, a dining table, and some shelving units. This was also the first apartment that we looked at. At least everything looks better compared to it...

Job-wise, Kim is applying to Cornell as I write this. I have a job offer at a bakery that specializes in cookies and dairy products (milk/ice cream) delivered to college students. Tomorrow I'm going to stalk down the offices of a place in town that apparently organizes tutoring for the area. I'd love to work part time at each place.

When we're not madly working at the basic logistics of living here, we've done a little bit of sightseeing. We took a brief walk/hike on a trail that runs along the rim of the gorge that Taughannock Falls falls into. On one side were trees, and the other more trees and then a steep drop. Way down was a wide, flat stream bed with a shallow stream in part of it. 

It's amazing to consider that I'm going to live somewhere so pretty. Perhaps sometime we'll even post pictures.

-Dariana