Preserving History

Thursdays are fast becoming my favourite day of the week around here - it's CSA day! I managed to get the veggie fairies who brought me oodles of root-tastic vegetables last fall to put me on their spring/summer roster, and each Thursday I come home to a big box of picked-that-day-organic-any-more-local-and-it-would-actually-be-my-own-garden fabulosity.

(Can you tell that greens make me giddy?)

I've learned from past weekly produce deliveries that you've really got to work to stay on top of it, and the most important thing to do is process as much as you can before it goes into the fridge. Cut the leaves off, bag it properly, pop it into a glassful of water, that sort of thing.

So I'm cutting the tops off the beets and I see those beet leaves lying there and I think, mmmm, leaf soup. It's what we called sommer borscht in my house. And I want to make some Right. Now.

But then I remember I made garlic scape soup for supper last night. And I see those fresh beets and the dill just crying to be made into beet borscht. And I remember that it's eightyjillion degrees outside, and soup might not be the best choice for supper, anyway.

Freeze it! I thought, cutting up the leaves. Then I thought, hmm, might as well throw some dill in there, since I'll need it anyway with the soup. Then I spied the green onion tops peeking out of the veggie box.

And realized I had all this:

And as I chopped and put it into a bag, breathing deeply the freshness and the goodness, I became my grandmother.

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Yessir, That's My Baby!

So today we got one of those "To Household" information letters detailing all the exciting things going on in the local school division.

(Gotta make people feel as though they're getting their money's worth in property taxes, I guess.)

I glanced at the picture on the front and thought, hoo-boy, that kid's got some crazy hair:

And then I burst out laughing.

That kid = MY kid!

Too funny.

Try as we might, we can't tame that haystack. Well, I suppose we could with a Number One clippers, but I don't like it that short. So, he looks like a scarecrow most days. He doesn't care. And, even though the entire city is now laughing about "that kid," I don't actually care either.

People keep asking me whether I'm settled yet, and I just laugh. It's not (really) for lack of trying. But life keeps getting in the way of unpacking, so I'm choosing to live it instead of emptying boxes.

We had our first visitors this weekend (well, second, if you count my parents who got prematurely sent home after the main drain clogged), and I was praying very hard for power, plumbing, and gas the entire weekend. We had a fabulous time - nothing like running water and electricity to really make hostessing easy.

However, things still do seem to be a tad precarious in the utility department, so every day I wake up wondering what it's going to be today. They are TOTALLY ripping up our street. Planned maintenance, but since the planning phase undoubtedly went on prior to our ownership of the house, it's taken us by surprise and has extended our move-in adventure all the more.

I'm good with the orange cones and the "no thru traffic" and the constant noise of jackhammering/heavy equipment. The whole "can you make sure your spigots are on because we need to turn the main water line off and run temporary water to your house" makes me a bit nervous, though

As did the whole "no problem, we'll be done in an hour" transferring of the gas meter from the inside of the house to the outside of the house, which (of course) turned into "sorry, ma'am, we've got a problem. Do you know why there is a big concrete slab here? We can't drill into it."

(Jimmy Hoffa? Dinosaur bones? Who knows?)

I will say that this move does seem to be a bit more difficult than it needs to be (and worse than anything I've ever done before). Ant infestation? Check. Roots in the main drain? Check. Demise of the vacuum cleaner? Check. Water softener replacement? Check. Flaky phone jacks so it's always a special treat when the phone actually rings? Check. Gas shut-off due to meter movement? Check. Water delivery via garden hose from the fire hydrant? Check.

(I so wish I was kidding about that last part.)

But we press on! Slowly, but there's a bit of progress every day. Look at me - I'm actually finding time to blog.

(Better send it quick. While I still have power...)

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Guess Who Found the Camera Cord!

(Aside: Did you know that if you log into your email while blogger is taking its sweet time uploading pictures and then write an entire post and try to publish it, you get an error and only then find out that your draft did not save along the way since you logged yourself out and blogger didn't have the decency to let you know? Grrr.)

We're getting there! Not at the end of the After yet, but definitely well in. After a long weekend of work, we've got couches to sit on, a table to eat at, a garage to park in, and clear pathways on the floor to walk through.

(Holy Ending Sentences with a Preposition, Batman!)

We're in full-on transition mode these days since the kids finished school on Friday (how is it possible for someone who still feels as though she's somewhere in her twenties to have a third-grader and a fifth-grader, I ask you?) and we started their summer program yesterday.

Here's a few of the other things we've been up to lately:

First home-cooked meal in the new house. Fettucini alfredo, as requested.

Cupcake baking (and taste-testing).

Using leftover cupcakes in a crepe (ewwwwww).

Sidewalk-chalking on the sunny driveway. Do you love how his shirt matches his picture?

Oh! I do have one "after" picture for you - this is AFTER our vacuum cleaner gave up its ghost. Can you see the haze in the air? It started making clunking noises just as I was finishing the final vacuum in the old house (I quickly did the stairs amidst the thunking and the smell of hot metal). We thought maybe a rest and a change of scenery would do it good, but the minor electrical fire that resulted suggests otherwise.

Poor dear. We had it for almost sixteen years (yup - original wedding present. Hey, it out-lasted the microwave). Hopefully the Kenmore we ordered tonight will last as long.

(Let's see, if I now have a fifth-grader and the new vacuum lasts sixteen years...it'll pretty much end up vacuuming a dorm room at McGill....)

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Guess Who's Peeing in Her *Own* Potty Tonight?

Yep, me. Thank you Jesus.

The clog that sent us straight to the nearest Sheraton was 10 ft from the house (wow - carpenter ants and roots in my drain line - Ancient Oak Tree, you're the gift that keeps on giving!) and easily dispatched this morning. A test load of laundry and a few toilet flushes seem to have been dispatched equally effectively, so looks like we're back in business.

(Not out of the woods yet, though. The cleaner-outer guy said there's something "significant" at the end of the pipe but, since a similar situation and someone saying "psshht, that's just a big tree root" led to a house blowing up last month, he's being extra cautious and we're going to have the gas company confirm their presence [or lack thereof] in the vicinity before we determine our final course of action.)

And we're back in business none too soon - because, really, who doesn't want to finish unpacking and cleaning a kitchen and scrubbing floors and catching up on mountains of laundry in an un-air-conditioned house in the middle of a heat wave (complete with severe heat warnings, huzzah!)??

Actually, I want to - I am so sick of not having a place to call my own that at this point a working toilet, no imminent gas line ruptures, and a third bottle of PineSol are pretty much all I need to make me a happy camper.

(Cross fingers for a few emergency-service-call-free days - y'all might have After pics by the weekend!)

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Can This At Least Be Close to the End of the Before?

Sometimes things get a wee bit daunting in the PM world - so much so that I need to whip out the ol' Pollyanna "Glad Game":

- I'm GLAD that Dave the Exterminator loves his job so much. He did a whizz-bang job on the carpenter ants in the attic (and every tree on the property).

- I'm GLAD that my parents dropped by en route from Fargo, even though they saw us at our worst, since my dad spotted the sewer backup as it was happening and we were able to discontinue every activity involving water and avoid any mess in the basement.

- I'm GLAD that the bagel place down the street opens at 6:00 am. And that the bathrooms are conveniently located by the back entrance.

- I'm GLAD that we discovered the plugged (collapsed? We'll find out tomorrow) main sewer line was discovered in summer. Everything repair-related always sucks so much more in winter.

- I'm GLAD that we're in a hotel this weekend. There's a heat wave, and our new house lacks both air conditioning and a pool, both of which we are enjoying very much. (Also: Onsite laundromat. It won't be "PM is wearing a bathrobe to work" day tomorrow!")

- I'm GLAD that school is still on for one more week, even though we have to figure out homework and end of year parties and plays and field day-specific coloured shirts. A school lunch program coincides nicely with a lack of a working kitchen.

- I'm GLAD I found out yesterday about today's birthday party for The Boy's friend (since The Boy intercepted the invite weeks ago and hid t to get even with me for something...ah 8-year-old logic). It meant an emergency present purchase and I found a book I've been waiting for just came out in paperback.

Phew, lots to be GLAD about!

Anne Lamott says that if you can throw money at a problem, then it isn't a problem. I believe this.

Yes, I am in a hotel. But you know where I am not? Libya. Japan. The hospital (God forbid - children's wing). Divorce court. A funeral home.

Nope, me and my A/C (and FLUSHABLE toilets!) are doing just fine.

(But I'll still be gladder when we get to the After stage for real.)

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