"I've missed my cooking, too!

This is what Julianna exclaimed at our first dinner back in the apartment together.  Unlike some roommates who would like to escape from living with each other, Jules and Alex were ecstatic to see each other again after Christmas break.  These past few days we have spent catching up with one another and with activities around our home.  There has also been more laughter than our neighbors probably appreciate (Of course, maybe the couple below us are complaining.  But it’s a mystery because they speak Chinese, so we never know what they are saying.)

This week has been relaxing for some, but those who have to commute are going to be glad when the winds change and blow from the south, bringing 70+ degree temperatures.

Last evening a snow storm hit the metro area, bringing chaos to the rush hour commute.  Apparently everyone thought, “Since the storm is coming, I am going to leave early and beat all the other crazy drivers going home.”  

But the snow had a mind of its own:  “Not so fast, buddy.  I’m going to make you stay out on these roads to enjoy me as long as possible.”  And that is what happened for Jules and her fellow co-workers.  She left around 4:25 pm and felt carefree, thinking, “I should be able to get home around 5.”  An hour and a half later found Jules in a different state of mind, for she had driven in that period of time what normally takes less than ten minutes. 

Thankfully, Miss Garmen GPS took control when she decided to off-road it, guiding her down roads less traveled (and more snow-packed). This made a huge difference, since she didn’t have to stop at all the lights that were only letting one car through at a time.  She finally made it home safe and sound after over 2 hours on the road. 

During the next day at work, Julianna was able to put her commute in perspective when her cubicle-mate was stuck on the roads for 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Now she understands what her mother meant when she was younger: “You can have fun playing in it, but I have to drive in it.” 

Others of us are still on Christmas break from classes and feeling very carefree for the time being (that feeling will vanish once Alex enters the halls of learning again).  Alex enjoying sitting on the couch all afternoon curled up with a good book watching the snowflakes dance across the sky.  Also the next morning when everyone else who lives in this building was up before the crack of dawn to scrap snow and ice off their vehicles before trudging to work, she remained nice and warm as she snuggled deeper into her flannel sheets. 

Random quotes for the week:                                                     

• While deciding which Christmas decorations we should put away:  “But if we only leave the lights up, I’m going to feel like I’m in a red-light district.”  
• Alex displaying her new cookware:  “I have a new fire-engine red girdle...I mean, griddle.”  A fire-engine red girdle results in a completely different mental image.
• “My pancake has a hard lump in it, like a tumor... I should probably stop palpating it.”
• Jules served edamame (for those who aren’t so citified such as Alex these are soy beans) as the vegetable at dinner one evening this week.  Alex had never eaten these before in her life and needed a demonstration on the proper way to eat them.  Alex then asked Jules, “What did you call these, I keep thinking enema but I know that can’t be right?”

Basically from the quotes this week it has been decided that Alexandria would just be better off if she didn’t talk in the kitchen (or better yet, Alex should just stay out of the kitchen all together.)

Jules:  Alex is actually a pretty good cook, and I have been spoiled with coming home late this week and finding my roomie cooking dinner.  I know this won’t last, so we are thinking up some solutions.  More on that to come.

Our Weekend

Note:  This blog posting was written 5 weeks ago but somehow never found its way to being published. We apologize for our long absence but Julianna is now gainfully employed (and therefore a real young professional!) and Alexandria has been very sporadic in her time at our apartment due to adventures to exciting places such as rural Missouri and western Kansas.  Anyway, without further ado, our blog.

So, Julianna and I haven’t updated our blog in awhile—we really do apologize from the bottom of our hearts to all 3 of our dedicated readers.  This entry isn’t about anything special but just what we did this weekend- pretty ho-hum.  Actually, this was the first weekend in several weeks that we got to just hang out around our apartment—it was great.  We started off the weekend right with pizza and strawberry fizzies.  Then we dove into watching White Christmas.  Really what beats Danny Kaye tap dancing and Bing Crosby singing?  Saturday morning we went to church for a ladies brunch.  We had a fancy breakfast and cheesecake for dessert.  Most of these ladies are moms and probably would be appalled if their children ate cheesecake for breakfast but had no problem doing it themselves. 

We then continued our quest to figure out how to hang curtains over our sliding glass door.  This has been a project for months.  After looking at numerous styles of curtain rods and deep discussion, we finally selected one we thought we could make work.  We also want our blog to be educational, so here is our section on home repair from Jules and Alex. 

We found that our sliding glass door had a large gap at the bottom that wasn’t sealed—this could partially explain all the cold air rushing into our cozy apartment.  Not having the equipment or the know-how to do anything more advanced, we stuffed cotton balls into the gap with our meat thermometer.  It seemed to work, at least for now. 

We then were debating how to hang the curtain rod since we lack any power tools here, except our blender and food processor.  We selected zip ties as our fastener of choice (we seriously considered duct tape-Handyman’s secret weapon-but decided we should be a little classier).  In making some adjustments to the rod, we did have to drag out our tool bag.  I asked Julianna to hand me some pliers and instead she gives me a wrench.  (Our tool bag only contains a hammer, pliers, and a wrench so she did have a 1 in 3 chance to get it right). We were successful and now have beautiful curtains to help keep the chill out.  While Martha Stewart may not be contacting us anytime soon to help hang her drapes, it works for us. 

Other home improvement projects include selecting artwork for the walls.  We choose a couple of posters at Hobby Lobby but then upon returning home realized that we bought one of the posters that we already had in our dining room that we had been staring at for several months- oops.  We were hanging a poster in Alexandria’s room and couldn’t quite get it to hang straight.  To fix this problem Alex taped a nickel on the back for extra weight so it would lean the other way.  Everyone has heard stories about people finding important documents or large sums of money hidden behind pictures on the wall so someday a lucky person will look on the back of that poster and exclaim “Look, Alex’s whole fortune- a nickel”.  

In addition to running to Home Depot twice this weekend, we went out on the town Saturday night.  Friday was Alex’s birthday, so Julianna took Alexandria to dinner at Jack Stacks to celebrate.  It was amazing Kansas City BBQ.  (Note from Alex:  If I must live in a city I am grateful that this city takes BBQ seriously- one of Kansas City’s redeeming qualities).  I think we could both just sit there and relish the smell of BBQ for quite awhile, but to make it better we even got to eat some.  After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we then ventured out into the cold night with snowflakes swirling all around to drive and look at the Christmas lights.  There was some spontaneous belting out of Christmas carols, burst of ooohs and aaahs, and some impressive light displays.  We then finished the evening off with a sappy Hallmark Christmas movie (The Christmas Card)—what a great way to finish a fun weekend.

Key quotes for the week:

~While watching White Christmas:   

•       If desperate for a pick-up line this is probably not a good option.  Phil:  “Speaking of families, I read an article just the other day about citrus fruit and its effect on children’s teeth...uh, are you interested in children or families or other things like that, Miss Hanes?
•   When trying to trick Bob into proposing to Betty by pretending they’re engaged, Judy remarks to Phil:  “You’re not exactly superman, but you’re awfully available!”
•     Judy:  “You do find me gay, amusing, charming, fun to be with?                                                    Phil: “Sure, but I feel the same way about my cocker spaniel.”

~The Christmas Card:  Laurie disgusted at the end when they drop the curly fries so they can kiss:  “Get your priorities straight!  Kissing or curly fries...always go with the curly fries!”

~ After struggling to measure strings of popcorn and cranberries to the appropriate length, Julianna blurted out “Shoot!  Forget measuring this!”  She has gradually loosened up on this particular perfectionist tendency.