Burned Towel
Well, I just had my first kitchen fire about five minutes ago. It really wasn't a kitchen fire, I just caught one of our hand towels on fire. I'm glad to say that I didn't freak out. I let go of the pot that I was holding with the towel (the useless plastic handles of our steamer, which get nearly as hot as the metal itself), and let the towel drop into the sink, where there happened to be a dirty plate with water sitting in it, and it went out immediately. I then opened the kitchen window and the front door so the smoke detector wouldn't go off, wrung the towel out, and threw it away. Well, I was thinking about getting some new towels, anyway.
As opposed to yesterday, I've done a lot around the house today. Thom has been living in this cottage for 12 years or so and, well, no one has made that huge of an effort to keep it up on the outside. The tenants before Thom were mostly university students, including one who fell asleep in the attic on a couch with a cigarette and now the attic is burned and closed off, which is a shame, because apparently there is a lot of room up there. At any rate, earlier today I noticed that the back door was dirty, so I wiped it off with a sponge, and then I did the front door, and then cleared all the cobwebs on the front porch away, and then washed the porches down with buckets of hot water, then I scrubbed the rails...you get the idea.
I cleaned the bathroom a bit, too, by bleaching out the tub and the shower curtain, but I think I'll wait and do the rest tomorrow. The hardest part about it all was carrying the Adirondack chairs from the back porch (which is probably 10 feet from the ground) through the house and out the front door. They fit OK through the front door, but they barely fit through the back door, and only when bringing the second one back out did I figure out how to do it correctly. Oh, well, at least one thing I'm good at is learning from my mistakes.
I guess a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks that I haven't written about. Well, for one, I'm 21 as of six days ago. I didn't do any partying (not that I probably would have if I could) because I had an exam at 9am the next morning. We went to my parents' house for dinner and I drank one of their wine coolers that have been sitting in the back fridge for 6 or 7 years. Me, being the good teenager, never drank one. It tasted pretty much like kool-aid and I felt only the slightest of effects. My mom made burgers, veggie burgers for me and Thom, and Jello No-Bake cherry cheesecake, the birthday staple of our household. I got $400 as a down payment for a laptop and a $50 J Crew gift card, so I think I made out pretty well.
Thom and I are going to go on vacation next week to his boring, depressing hometown to take care of some stuff for his elderly aunt and visit his relatives. I'm looking forward to going, since it will be a change of scene, and since I grew up in a boring depressing town (only, mine is about 49,000 smaller than his) I don't mind. There's a lot of thrift shopping to be done. You see, in cities where people usually have good taste, like here, going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army sucks, but in places that are backwards and really behind the times, people just give stuff away, not knowing what they're getting rid of, only to be snagged by those of us who have good taste. Not to brag, but if you saw this city, you'd know what I mean.
In other news, we upgraded our phone service yesterday. We have DSL and were paying about $115 a month, but Thom called them up because we've been having a battle with the post office about our address (only now do they want us to add "B" to our house number) and he called them up to change the billing address. He was talking to this lady who said that they don't even offer our internet speed in their packages anymore, and that if we upgraded and got a faster speed, we'd only be paying $70 a month. Of course, it's kind of counter-intuitive, but I guess it's the same logic behind paying more for B&W camera film even though it came first. The new modem came in the mail today, so I guess Thom will set it up tonight and we'll see what happens.
Pretty soon I'm going to continue my task of making dinner. We have a couple of zucchini that need to be cooked, and I had no idea what to do with them, since Thom LOVES zucchini, but I can take it or leave it. At any rate, I decided to make a cold dish, consisting of lentils, chick peas, zucchini, and a couple cans of flavored diced tomatoes. Wish me luck because I have no idea what I'm doing. None.
Oh, and I added a counter to the bottom of this page. I haven't had a website counter in...hmm...probably 3 or 4 years now, but I guess that I'm just curious, so we'll see. That's all. I may do reviews of Anne Michaels or Dylan Thomas, and I still need to revise my Samuel Menashe review.
As opposed to yesterday, I've done a lot around the house today. Thom has been living in this cottage for 12 years or so and, well, no one has made that huge of an effort to keep it up on the outside. The tenants before Thom were mostly university students, including one who fell asleep in the attic on a couch with a cigarette and now the attic is burned and closed off, which is a shame, because apparently there is a lot of room up there. At any rate, earlier today I noticed that the back door was dirty, so I wiped it off with a sponge, and then I did the front door, and then cleared all the cobwebs on the front porch away, and then washed the porches down with buckets of hot water, then I scrubbed the rails...you get the idea.
I cleaned the bathroom a bit, too, by bleaching out the tub and the shower curtain, but I think I'll wait and do the rest tomorrow. The hardest part about it all was carrying the Adirondack chairs from the back porch (which is probably 10 feet from the ground) through the house and out the front door. They fit OK through the front door, but they barely fit through the back door, and only when bringing the second one back out did I figure out how to do it correctly. Oh, well, at least one thing I'm good at is learning from my mistakes.
I guess a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks that I haven't written about. Well, for one, I'm 21 as of six days ago. I didn't do any partying (not that I probably would have if I could) because I had an exam at 9am the next morning. We went to my parents' house for dinner and I drank one of their wine coolers that have been sitting in the back fridge for 6 or 7 years. Me, being the good teenager, never drank one. It tasted pretty much like kool-aid and I felt only the slightest of effects. My mom made burgers, veggie burgers for me and Thom, and Jello No-Bake cherry cheesecake, the birthday staple of our household. I got $400 as a down payment for a laptop and a $50 J Crew gift card, so I think I made out pretty well.
Thom and I are going to go on vacation next week to his boring, depressing hometown to take care of some stuff for his elderly aunt and visit his relatives. I'm looking forward to going, since it will be a change of scene, and since I grew up in a boring depressing town (only, mine is about 49,000 smaller than his) I don't mind. There's a lot of thrift shopping to be done. You see, in cities where people usually have good taste, like here, going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army sucks, but in places that are backwards and really behind the times, people just give stuff away, not knowing what they're getting rid of, only to be snagged by those of us who have good taste. Not to brag, but if you saw this city, you'd know what I mean.
In other news, we upgraded our phone service yesterday. We have DSL and were paying about $115 a month, but Thom called them up because we've been having a battle with the post office about our address (only now do they want us to add "B" to our house number) and he called them up to change the billing address. He was talking to this lady who said that they don't even offer our internet speed in their packages anymore, and that if we upgraded and got a faster speed, we'd only be paying $70 a month. Of course, it's kind of counter-intuitive, but I guess it's the same logic behind paying more for B&W camera film even though it came first. The new modem came in the mail today, so I guess Thom will set it up tonight and we'll see what happens.
Pretty soon I'm going to continue my task of making dinner. We have a couple of zucchini that need to be cooked, and I had no idea what to do with them, since Thom LOVES zucchini, but I can take it or leave it. At any rate, I decided to make a cold dish, consisting of lentils, chick peas, zucchini, and a couple cans of flavored diced tomatoes. Wish me luck because I have no idea what I'm doing. None.
Oh, and I added a counter to the bottom of this page. I haven't had a website counter in...hmm...probably 3 or 4 years now, but I guess that I'm just curious, so we'll see. That's all. I may do reviews of Anne Michaels or Dylan Thomas, and I still need to revise my Samuel Menashe review.
posted by Emily @ 3:33 PM
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