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.