Awakening

There are plenty of bad ways to awaken. On a Tuesday, thinking it's Saturday. To the sound of water dripping from your ceiling. I submit, however, that one of the worst is to the sound of mice chewing through the carpet in your bedroom.

Oh, yes.

David had sealed all the radiator pipes going through the hardwood floors, but we hadn't worried about the bedroom, as the carpet tightly enclosed the pipes and seemed quite tough. Not too tough for mice, though, apparently!

The sound of fibers snapping, presumably between sharp rodent teeth, awakened me (not generally an easy task) at about 4am. I rolled over, saw David moving, and mumbled, "Do you hear that? I think it's mice." It was, at least to my sleep-besotted brain, a terrible, nerve-grating noise, which sounded like the mice were destroying the very foundations of our home. When David would stomp on the floor, the snapping would stop momentarily, though it quickly resumed with the same fervor. Confident the problem was in capable hands, however, I rolled back over and fell asleep. (David, who sleeps more lightly than I, couldn't, and was unfortunately awake for the next few hours. He reports that a mouse did make it into the bedroom--and into my closet.)

David discovered that there were gaps between the floor and the wall that had been covered by the carpet, so tonight he filled those, too. I did see one mouse today, down in the basement--close to poison the neighbor had set out.

With my luck, it will probably die amidst my storage boxes.

On a happier note, tonight I made an awesome dinner: soba noodles with cilantro-spinach pesto, salt and pepper tofu (with red bell pepper), and steamed broccoli. And then, because I'm trying to look less ribsy, most of a carton of Ben & Jerry's (the perfect chaser to an otherwise vegan meal). We couldn't find the camera, so you'll have to just trust me on this one, but it was bright, festive, and completely delicious.

We've Moved!

This is the moving announcement card I sent out several weeks ago (photo kindly supplied by Ellen, who snapped it post-postal service journey).

I don't have a picture of the back, but it involved a line drawing of a dirigible... oh! And there was sort of a little seal or stamp:


Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, the old place flooded one too many times for me. (There are those who would argue that even once was one too many, but the rent and location were both excellent, and I do hate moving.)

What we found is the top floor of a duplex owned by a terribly charming young couple who just bought the place in October. It was remodeled before they bought it, so our kitchen and bathroom are brand new, as is the carpet in the bedroom and tiny office. (Ordinarily I try to avoid carpet, but I'm actually quite liking it here.) The kitchen is big enough to fit multiple cooks(!), there's a private garage, and there's free laundry in the basement. It's all very exciting.

Here are a few pictures:



I'm still in the process of decorating (and, admittedly, unpacking!), but things are coming together. I re-covered a bunch of pillows last week, so I'll try to post some pictures of those.

Oh! A bonus picture:
This is the St. Vincent de Paul dining set that I'd been "monitoring" in my last post and finally bought last weekend (set for brunch with the downstairs neighbors + friend). I haven't done anything to it yet, including reupholstering the chairs (aside from cleaning/disinfecting it and some Old English Scratch Cover). It's a fairly nice wood, but the tabletop is quite scarred, so I'm debating various options for improving it (including the trusty black spray paint method, which, as I believe Adrianna has addressed, can be quite addictive.) The great thing about the table is that it has two drop-down leaves, so it can be tucked away under the window when we're not entertaining, and can expand to fit six or more. Good times.

Watery

The ceiling started leaking again on Tuesday, and then again today. Tuesday my landlord had sent me an e-mail to warn me that they were clearing snow in preparation for the mythical re-tarring to occur sometime later in the week and that the dripping might start again--though for the last time. Today, my only warning was an ominous dripping sound (and these days anything that slightly resembles that noise sends me into spasms, much like anything evoking a scritch or scrabble did during the height of the Mouse Wars) and some damp clothing in the closet. The Tuesday before that, the dripping had actually awakened us, at 5:40 a.m. We heard the drops splashing on the closet floor, but it turns out the pantry was flooding far worse. There's nothing quite like spending one's first hour of wakefulness removing all the contents of one's pantry onto the already meager surfaces remaining in the kitchen.

That day I started searching for apartments in earnest.

The good news is, we found one! We're planning to move weekend after next.

This weekend, we're going to be On A Boat! My dear friend M is getting married, and I'm thrilled to be heading out there to celebrate with her. Especially thrilling? 50 degree temperature gain. Oh, yes. I can't even communicate how ready I am to trade in views of endless snowbanks for ones of water and sand. Minneapolis has been more or less monochrome for the past two months, at least, so I am SO ready for some color (though not, of course, on my own skin!).

I can't wait!

Leak-y

Here is the quick version of this winter's installation of the Leak Saga, in bullets!

• Wednesday night (12/22), having attended an ill-advised but nonetheless enjoyable showing of Billy Elliot The Musical with a friend, and having found walking home from downtown to be quicker than waiting for a bus, I was beginning, at approximately midnight, to pack for the next morning's 6:30 flight when I noticed that the leak in my closet had gotten worse, soaking a section of clothing--including ones I'd wanted to take.

• It had started earlier in the afternoon, at which point I had called my landlord, who is used to me--and presumably every other tenant of his older properties--calling about this at least twice a year, generally around the time the precipitation changes forms (rain to snow to rain, etc.). I put down buckets and he said he'd send someone over.
• I flew to Seattle Thursday morning, with the unexpected drama of the terrifyingly long security line and attendant close call on making my flight erasing any thoughts of flooding.
• David flew in the next morning, Christmas Eve, and we had a fantastic holiday weekend with my family!
• David flew back on the red-eye Sunday night/Monday morning, and as he tells it, made it to the far corner of the bed, about to turn on the light (a pull-cord model in the middle of the room) when he felt the water through his socks.
• Apparently, the leak had worsened, overflowed the receptacles, and flooded the bedroom floor.
• He had planned to go into work that day, but instead found himself calling in, mopping up the mess, and moving all of the furniture except the bed frame (but including the mattress) into the next rooms.
• The leak had spread from the closet threshold and was apparently dripping into nearly the middle of the room.
• Thankfully, it didn't get the mattress at all. It also barely touched my books, thanks mostly to a watercolor pad sitting atop the bookshelf in that room, which acted as a sponge. We'd already moved a lot of the stuff in the closet out, and since the floor is so uneven, the under-bed storage was also spared.
• The floor, sadly, was pretty warped; each board now bows in the center, so although it's not visible except to close inspection, you can clearly feel the ridges when you walk on it.
• David camped out in the living room for the next few days, sleeping on the couch.
• At one point while I was in Walla Walla, the neighbor whose apartment is directly below mine texted me to mention that the flooding in his apartment had gotten worse, wondering about ours.
• When I called David, he was already at the apartment cleaning up again, having received the same message.
• The renewed flooding was apparently due to a thaw that swept the city, warming it up to a balmy 36 and causing a plague of ice dams.
• The flooding stopped due to a combination of the workmen clearing the ~2' of snow off the roof, breaking up the ice dams, putting down some tarps, and the weather cooling off again.
• When I got home a few days later, the mattress was propped against the living room windows, the bookshelf and two dressers were in the middle room, and my clothes were hanging all over the apartment.
• I spent the next week cleaning, organizing, moving the furniture back in, doing massive loads of laundry at the laundromat, and sorting through piles of papers that had either gotten wet or just turned up in the shuffle.
• Now everything feels pretty good!
• I saw my landlord today (we're on the third day of a new, and relatively very minor, saga of him replacing the light fixture in the bathroom [yet another pull-cord model, but this one mounted on a vertical surface, and the cord of which pulls out every 1.5 years and requires complete replacement]), and he assured me that hot tar in the spring would fix the problem for at least another year.
• I hope so, because even though David was sending me renters' applications to the complex down the street, I'd really rather not move before I leave town.*
• Here's hoping!

*Though it would be soooo nice to have more than three square feet of kitchen counter space... on-site laundry... a nice, reliable management company...

1/11/11

Last Tuesday, when I noticed that it was the 4th of January and that I hadn't blogged since the 4th of December, I resolved to post something. Needless to say, I failed to do so.

But anyway, I'm back! I guess sometimes a date is enough of a motivation.

I was in the Northwest for about 10 days over the holidays and had a really excellent time. I flew into and out of Seattle, but in between also got to visit W2 and Portland. Among other things, I got to hang out with old friends and family, meet two brand-new babies, see my favorite mountains, and cook and consume lots and lots of delicious food.

Now I'm back, where it's all the predictable old things (cold, snowy, sunny when it's not snowing) and also delightful new ones (fleece sheets! hot yoga in the WINTER!). It's getting late now, but speaking of things I came back to, next time remind me to tell you the Tale of The Leaking ("It's a Natural Disaster!") Roof. Good times.