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Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Valentiniversary
I've been living in Tucson for almost four years, and until this past weekend, I had yet to spend more than an hour in the state of California. Considering that San Diego and its beaches are only a 5-hour drive from here, I'm actually a little bit ashamed of that fact. But, don't worry. Now that I've officially visited San Diego, I can say with assurance that I will go back... in warmer and less rainy weather.
Josh and I drove to San Diego last Friday and stayed for three nights. The weekend marked our two year anniversary of being together (and a few days past Valentine's day), so it was a good excuse to get out of town, eat some amazing food, and do some sightseeing (not that I ever need an excuse to visit the ocean...). We dealt with rain and clouds on-and-off for the whole trip, but it didn't stop us from having a great time. We walked on beaches, toured the city, visited the wild animal park, checked out the tide pools, ate at some fantastic restaurants, and did a little shopping. It was both fun and relaxing.
Josh and I drove to San Diego last Friday and stayed for three nights. The weekend marked our two year anniversary of being together (and a few days past Valentine's day), so it was a good excuse to get out of town, eat some amazing food, and do some sightseeing (not that I ever need an excuse to visit the ocean...). We dealt with rain and clouds on-and-off for the whole trip, but it didn't stop us from having a great time. We walked on beaches, toured the city, visited the wild animal park, checked out the tide pools, ate at some fantastic restaurants, and did a little shopping. It was both fun and relaxing.
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| Coronado Island |
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| High tide brunch at The Marine Room. |
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| Tide pools at Cabrillo Nat'l Monument |
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| Baby seals! La Jolla Cove. |
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Red.
I have red hair now. Well, it's sort of red. It's reddish.
Josh bought me henna for Christmas. Funny thing, though: I had no intentions of dying my hair, nor had I ever expressed interest in dying my hair. I had once mentioned that if I had to dye my hair, I would use henna because it eventually washes away and does not damage the natural hair color. So because Josh loves red hair and he thought I would look good with red hair, and because I had once mentioned the very vague possibility that I would consider dying my hair with henna, Josh thus gifted me a jar of henna for Christmas. It's a horribly male-minded sort of gift to give, wouldn't you say?
I've not exactly been chomping at the bit to try out the henna, but Josh has certainly asked about it a few times. We decided to have Megan over this past weekend to cut both of our hair (we both badly needed trims, and Megan is quite handy with scissors and will work for the easy price of dinner and wine), and he again not-so-subtly suggested that maybe this was an opportune time to give the henna a try. I relented, for a few reasons: 1) I don't really have a good reason to resist, as it's not like I have any important interviews or jobs which require me to look a certain way; 2) henna eventually washes out; 3) if anything goes wrong it can and will be 100% Josh's fault; 4) sure, I admit, I'm a bit curious; 5) I'd have friends who have done this sort of thing before around to help; and 6) Happy Valentine's Day, Josh.
Lauren and Angela both were also in need of haircuts, so we ended up having a haircutting party at our house. I cooked lasagna, we drank wine, Megan cut everyone's hair, and I got a bunch of weird tea-smelling, dirt-looking stuff smeared in my hair. Lauren and Angela went to town with the henna, and once all of the mixture had been caked onto my head, they delighted in being able to wrap my entire head in cellophane.
I had been pretty worried about the color, having absolutely no clue how this little experiment would turn out. The henna color was labelled "Medium Auburn", and who knows what that is supposed to mean. But, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the result. I'm officially a fake redhead for the next 4-6 weeks.
Josh bought me henna for Christmas. Funny thing, though: I had no intentions of dying my hair, nor had I ever expressed interest in dying my hair. I had once mentioned that if I had to dye my hair, I would use henna because it eventually washes away and does not damage the natural hair color. So because Josh loves red hair and he thought I would look good with red hair, and because I had once mentioned the very vague possibility that I would consider dying my hair with henna, Josh thus gifted me a jar of henna for Christmas. It's a horribly male-minded sort of gift to give, wouldn't you say?
I've not exactly been chomping at the bit to try out the henna, but Josh has certainly asked about it a few times. We decided to have Megan over this past weekend to cut both of our hair (we both badly needed trims, and Megan is quite handy with scissors and will work for the easy price of dinner and wine), and he again not-so-subtly suggested that maybe this was an opportune time to give the henna a try. I relented, for a few reasons: 1) I don't really have a good reason to resist, as it's not like I have any important interviews or jobs which require me to look a certain way; 2) henna eventually washes out; 3) if anything goes wrong it can and will be 100% Josh's fault; 4) sure, I admit, I'm a bit curious; 5) I'd have friends who have done this sort of thing before around to help; and 6) Happy Valentine's Day, Josh.
Lauren and Angela both were also in need of haircuts, so we ended up having a haircutting party at our house. I cooked lasagna, we drank wine, Megan cut everyone's hair, and I got a bunch of weird tea-smelling, dirt-looking stuff smeared in my hair. Lauren and Angela went to town with the henna, and once all of the mixture had been caked onto my head, they delighted in being able to wrap my entire head in cellophane.
I had been pretty worried about the color, having absolutely no clue how this little experiment would turn out. The henna color was labelled "Medium Auburn", and who knows what that is supposed to mean. But, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the result. I'm officially a fake redhead for the next 4-6 weeks.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Brrrr. (Part 3)
Yes, I'm sad to say that there is a Part 3 to this never-ending day. Remember how in my last post, I wrote "I may finally be able to shower in my own bathroom with functioning pipes. Maybe. I don't want to jinx anything else"? Well, that was the nail in the coffin, apparently.
I turned on the shower. All seemed ok, we had (hot!) water. Landlord calls to check in, I step away from the water for a second, and next thing I know Josh is running around the house frantically, grabbing tools and talking way too quickly for me to understand. I look outside and see a deluge of water coming from the roof. It looked like a torrential downpour... except, it wasn't raining. By turning on the shower, I had apparently busted a pipe on the roof. Hey, at least my landlord was already on the phone...
I hang up with the landlord and follow Josh outside to see if I can help. Once again, it is unclear how we are supposed to turn off the water (because apparently, turning off the water to the kitchen, which I had done earlier in the day, does not turn off all of the water). Josh runs out the front door, and since I'm not wearing any shoes I quickly slip into a pair of his running shoes (which are way too big for me) and run after him. He turns quickly to go around the house, and I see him slip and almost fall on the wet sidewalk. Note to self: don't fall. I turn quickly around the same corner Josh just almost fell on, and what happens? I fall. Hard. My feet slip out from under me in Josh's huge clown shoes, and I go down straight onto my side, on the gravel. My hip took the brunt of the fall, but both of my hands landed in the gravel and my head narrowly missed some bricks. I was mostly shocked by the fall, but once I realized what had happened I was in so much pain I could barely move. Josh literally had to run back to where I was and pick me up off the ground... meanwhile, the deluge is still coming down from the roof.
So I'm crying and barely able to walk while assessing the bruises on my palms and the chunk of flesh recently removed from my thumb and shivering because it's really damn cold and I'm not dressed warmly, and now all I can think about is the fact that we had scheduled the plumber to come look at the pipes earlier today, but then cancelled because Josh had fixed what we had thought was the only problem. Did I mentioned that I jinxed this day from the moment I woke up? Wow.
Josh eventually managed to turn off the main water valve (the real main water valve, which the one from earlier in the day was not), and we call the plumber. Then our landlord shows up at the door to check on things. She walks in to see me clutching a bag of frozen peas between my injured hands and decides to wait around until the plumber shows up so she can talk to him herself. The plumber-with-Russian-accent-and-no-coat-even-though-its-20-degrees shows up (miraculously) within the hour and finds not one but two busted pipes on the roof and the front of the house. So, we have a professional on scene who is fixing everything. This is good. Then Russian Plumber's ladder, which he placed on top of the aforementioned slippery corner of sidewalk, slips out from under him while he is climbing up on top of the roof, and I watch through the window as he just barely manages to throw himself onto the roof before going down with it. ... This day is cursed.
Russian Plumber finally fixes the pipes and clears us to use the water again. The slippery corner of sidewalk turns out to, in fact, have a thin layer of ice on it. Huh, go figure. When I hobble into the backyard to retrieve the wet towels I used earlier in the day to mop up floodwaters, they crunch because they are now frozen. But good news! I throw the towels in the washing machine and turn it on... and nothing explodes!
This has been one of the longest days in recent history. And if the weather has it's say, maybe tomorrow will be just as awesome as today was. Somebody please shoot me now.
I turned on the shower. All seemed ok, we had (hot!) water. Landlord calls to check in, I step away from the water for a second, and next thing I know Josh is running around the house frantically, grabbing tools and talking way too quickly for me to understand. I look outside and see a deluge of water coming from the roof. It looked like a torrential downpour... except, it wasn't raining. By turning on the shower, I had apparently busted a pipe on the roof. Hey, at least my landlord was already on the phone...
I hang up with the landlord and follow Josh outside to see if I can help. Once again, it is unclear how we are supposed to turn off the water (because apparently, turning off the water to the kitchen, which I had done earlier in the day, does not turn off all of the water). Josh runs out the front door, and since I'm not wearing any shoes I quickly slip into a pair of his running shoes (which are way too big for me) and run after him. He turns quickly to go around the house, and I see him slip and almost fall on the wet sidewalk. Note to self: don't fall. I turn quickly around the same corner Josh just almost fell on, and what happens? I fall. Hard. My feet slip out from under me in Josh's huge clown shoes, and I go down straight onto my side, on the gravel. My hip took the brunt of the fall, but both of my hands landed in the gravel and my head narrowly missed some bricks. I was mostly shocked by the fall, but once I realized what had happened I was in so much pain I could barely move. Josh literally had to run back to where I was and pick me up off the ground... meanwhile, the deluge is still coming down from the roof.
So I'm crying and barely able to walk while assessing the bruises on my palms and the chunk of flesh recently removed from my thumb and shivering because it's really damn cold and I'm not dressed warmly, and now all I can think about is the fact that we had scheduled the plumber to come look at the pipes earlier today, but then cancelled because Josh had fixed what we had thought was the only problem. Did I mentioned that I jinxed this day from the moment I woke up? Wow.
Josh eventually managed to turn off the main water valve (the real main water valve, which the one from earlier in the day was not), and we call the plumber. Then our landlord shows up at the door to check on things. She walks in to see me clutching a bag of frozen peas between my injured hands and decides to wait around until the plumber shows up so she can talk to him herself. The plumber-with-Russian-accent-and-no-coat-even-though-its-20-degrees shows up (miraculously) within the hour and finds not one but two busted pipes on the roof and the front of the house. So, we have a professional on scene who is fixing everything. This is good. Then Russian Plumber's ladder, which he placed on top of the aforementioned slippery corner of sidewalk, slips out from under him while he is climbing up on top of the roof, and I watch through the window as he just barely manages to throw himself onto the roof before going down with it. ... This day is cursed.
Russian Plumber finally fixes the pipes and clears us to use the water again. The slippery corner of sidewalk turns out to, in fact, have a thin layer of ice on it. Huh, go figure. When I hobble into the backyard to retrieve the wet towels I used earlier in the day to mop up floodwaters, they crunch because they are now frozen. But good news! I throw the towels in the washing machine and turn it on... and nothing explodes!
This has been one of the longest days in recent history. And if the weather has it's say, maybe tomorrow will be just as awesome as today was. Somebody please shoot me now.
Brrrr. (Part 2)
I shouldn't have complained about the cold. I think I jinxed it.
We woke up this morning to frozen pipes. It was inconvenient, but no big deal... just have to wait for things to thaw out until we can have water, right? Josh left for work, and I decided to stay home until the pipes became un-frozen and I could shower. So, I complained about the cold on my blog, and then I hopped on my bike trainer to kill some time. Thirty minutes later, I was changing the channel on the TV when I realized that I was hearing an odd noise in the background behind my trainer (the bike trainer is quite loud). And I also realized that Sienna was sitting precariously close to my spinning bike pedals, staring intently at me while looking very anxious and unhappy. I looked over my shoulder and saw water gushing out of the kitchen door into the dining room.
Oh, shit.
I call my landlord as soon as I can yank off my bike shoes, since I have no idea where the water main switch is. She doesn't know either, and has to call her mother on the other line to find out. When I run in the kitchen, water is spraying straight out from the wall under the sink. It's also spraying down on the floor and up at my waist. There's water everywhere. And it's cold. After a few minutes of running around through the house and leaving wet footprints everywhere and then running around outside on the freezing patio in my sports bra, bike shorts, and soaking wet socks, I finally managed to tear off the cover to the hot water heater and find the valve for the water. Great, so the water is off, but two rooms of the house now have a couple inches of standing water.
I managed to block the water from spreading into the living room and shoo the dogs outside, and then I just sort of stood and stared at the floor for a while. I don't have a squeegee. I already threw most of my bath towels on the floor in my initial panic while I was running around trying to turn off the water. I don't even have a mop (and no, the trusty Swiffer was not going to help me with this one). Oh, hey, maybe I should go around and unplug all of those cords in the outlet over there? And maybe I should move all that stuff off of the floor. Crap, I guess I have to roll up the soaked rug and move it outside too. Damn, the bag of dog food is getting all wet. Sigh.
I managed to get most of the furniture out into the backyard by myself, and finally got ahold of Josh who promised to come home from work and stop to pick up a mop on his way. I managed to get a decent bit of the water out of the house by the time Josh got home, and we were able to get most of the bigger puddles with the mop. A few fans and a bunch of open windows and doors eventually dried up everything, but it took a couple of hours. The entire backyard is now draped with soggy towels, and we could just about set up an entire dinner party with all of the furnishings and pieces sitting out there.
As it turns out, Josh was able to fix the pipe pretty easily himself. Our landlord had already set up a plumber to come by and fix things, but Josh had everything back to normal within a few minutes of getting home. Luckily, we didn't actually have a pipe burst, rather, a valve simply came free from the pipe it was attached to. Granted, I think I would rather deal with an outdoor pipe burst than any kind of indoor pipe separation, but I suppose it could have been much worse. Probably the luckiest part of this whole thing is that I had decided to stay home instead of going to work this morning. I don't even want to think about how bad this could have been if I hadn't been home. (Not to mention how traumatized and pissed off the dogs would have been!) And now that it is 2:30pm, I may finally be able to shower in my own bathroom with functioning pipes. Maybe. I don't want to jinx anything else.
I've been so worried about keeping the plants and citrus trees alive during this crappy weather that I hadn't even been thinking about the house itself. I've never had to deal with frozen pipes before, so this was a learning experience. The wood floors are going to need some TLC and a couple new coats of wax, but otherwise everything looks like it will be fine. Considering that we have a few more sub-freezing nights ahead of us, I'm going to be very careful to leave the faucets dripping overnight. And for you people waking up to frozen pipes: don't assume everything will thaw out and be fine if you leave and go to work!!
I live in the desert. This isn't supposed to happen. I'm ready for my 115 degree summer already.
We woke up this morning to frozen pipes. It was inconvenient, but no big deal... just have to wait for things to thaw out until we can have water, right? Josh left for work, and I decided to stay home until the pipes became un-frozen and I could shower. So, I complained about the cold on my blog, and then I hopped on my bike trainer to kill some time. Thirty minutes later, I was changing the channel on the TV when I realized that I was hearing an odd noise in the background behind my trainer (the bike trainer is quite loud). And I also realized that Sienna was sitting precariously close to my spinning bike pedals, staring intently at me while looking very anxious and unhappy. I looked over my shoulder and saw water gushing out of the kitchen door into the dining room.
Oh, shit.
I call my landlord as soon as I can yank off my bike shoes, since I have no idea where the water main switch is. She doesn't know either, and has to call her mother on the other line to find out. When I run in the kitchen, water is spraying straight out from the wall under the sink. It's also spraying down on the floor and up at my waist. There's water everywhere. And it's cold. After a few minutes of running around through the house and leaving wet footprints everywhere and then running around outside on the freezing patio in my sports bra, bike shorts, and soaking wet socks, I finally managed to tear off the cover to the hot water heater and find the valve for the water. Great, so the water is off, but two rooms of the house now have a couple inches of standing water.
I managed to block the water from spreading into the living room and shoo the dogs outside, and then I just sort of stood and stared at the floor for a while. I don't have a squeegee. I already threw most of my bath towels on the floor in my initial panic while I was running around trying to turn off the water. I don't even have a mop (and no, the trusty Swiffer was not going to help me with this one). Oh, hey, maybe I should go around and unplug all of those cords in the outlet over there? And maybe I should move all that stuff off of the floor. Crap, I guess I have to roll up the soaked rug and move it outside too. Damn, the bag of dog food is getting all wet. Sigh.
I managed to get most of the furniture out into the backyard by myself, and finally got ahold of Josh who promised to come home from work and stop to pick up a mop on his way. I managed to get a decent bit of the water out of the house by the time Josh got home, and we were able to get most of the bigger puddles with the mop. A few fans and a bunch of open windows and doors eventually dried up everything, but it took a couple of hours. The entire backyard is now draped with soggy towels, and we could just about set up an entire dinner party with all of the furnishings and pieces sitting out there.
As it turns out, Josh was able to fix the pipe pretty easily himself. Our landlord had already set up a plumber to come by and fix things, but Josh had everything back to normal within a few minutes of getting home. Luckily, we didn't actually have a pipe burst, rather, a valve simply came free from the pipe it was attached to. Granted, I think I would rather deal with an outdoor pipe burst than any kind of indoor pipe separation, but I suppose it could have been much worse. Probably the luckiest part of this whole thing is that I had decided to stay home instead of going to work this morning. I don't even want to think about how bad this could have been if I hadn't been home. (Not to mention how traumatized and pissed off the dogs would have been!) And now that it is 2:30pm, I may finally be able to shower in my own bathroom with functioning pipes. Maybe. I don't want to jinx anything else.
I've been so worried about keeping the plants and citrus trees alive during this crappy weather that I hadn't even been thinking about the house itself. I've never had to deal with frozen pipes before, so this was a learning experience. The wood floors are going to need some TLC and a couple new coats of wax, but otherwise everything looks like it will be fine. Considering that we have a few more sub-freezing nights ahead of us, I'm going to be very careful to leave the faucets dripping overnight. And for you people waking up to frozen pipes: don't assume everything will thaw out and be fine if you leave and go to work!!
I live in the desert. This isn't supposed to happen. I'm ready for my 115 degree summer already.
Brrrr.
It was 19 degrees when I woke up this morning. 19 degrees. And our pipes are frozen solid. What the hell, Tucson?! This is not what I signed up for.
I'm pretty sure the world is coming to an end.
I'm pretty sure the world is coming to an end.
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