I now have Pox Americana stuck in my head to the tune of Mambo Italiano.

I just made apple crisp with my CSA apples from last week. Yum!!

Stephanie, it kills me that my apple tree is absolutely FILLED with delicious apples and they're all going to waste. Between hotel-hopping and being completely overworked, I have no time to go home and pick them, and even if I did, I have no way of doing anything with them! I've thought of at least trying to organize some kind of "come to my house please and pick a LOT of apples and do something with them!" but I have no extra time.

The flood was on September fucking 10th and I hope to move back into my house on the 24th or 25th. And when I say "move", I mean it. They've emptied every single room except the dining room in order to repair/replace the hardwood floors; I think it's all sitting in a pod in my driveway.

I am beyond irritated but there's nothing I can do except wait it out.

But damn what I wouldn't do to just sit at home eating a home-made apple crisp.

I so wish I could send you some of mine!

I think your whole house disaster is just unbelievable. I mean, when I was reading about it, I seriously couldn't believe a toilet could do all that damage.

(And in nice parenting news, I gave our neighbor boy some of it and he told me it was really good and better than what his grandma makes. And then Ellie chimed in with "my mom is a great cook!" which is semi-true and really sweet of her to say because there's no way she actually knows I"m a good cook because I never cook anymore.)

(And in nice parenting news, I gave our neighbor boy some of it and he told me it was really good and better than what his grandma makes. And then Ellie chimed in with "my mom is a great cook!" which is semi-true and really sweet of her to say because there's no way she actually knows I"m a good cook because I never cook anymore.)

This is so cute. Yay for Ellie being pro-mom's cooking.

Yeah, one toilet. And I've had a really crummy time with other house stuff since then (you don't know fun until your flowerbeds are covered in raw sewage, for instance) but I mostly keep it to very short whiny tweets. It's really all just an expensive inconvenience and part of being a homeowner. I just really didn't need to be "broken-in" this hard less than two months in!

And my job is very difficult these days for a multitude of reasons that I can't go in to. But I just hang in there knowing This Too Shall Pass.

I do miss my dogs, though. But they're really happy staying at Charlie's house because he gives Them All The Treats and All The Walks.

Yeah, you got the ultimate hell in new home ownership.

But damn what I wouldn't do to just sit at home eating a home-made apple crisp.

If you have time this coming weekend, we could get together and pick apples and then I could make a pie or cake or crisp and we could watch a movie or something. Which isn't your home, but at least it's a home...

It doesn't compare but my upstairs toilet is currently a very disgusting clogged up mess. Im trying to work up the energy, and stomach, to go deal with it some more.

Weird huh? Never had a single issue with the place the 2.5 years that I was a tenant.

I did have some pretty funny news last week when the electrician came by to work on a list I had for him. It included the garbage disposal that hadn't worked since summer of 2010. A plumber had looked at it and said I needed a replacement, but I had my trusy electrician take a look, too. Um. He tried plugging it in and found that the outlet wasn't "hot". It did work when plugged into an extension cord. So, he investigated the garbage disposal switch.

I have a night light in the kitchen, plugged in, and it turns out that it's so big it covered up the "re-set" button . He took the night light off, pressed the button back in, and the switch for the garbage disposal worked. HAHAHAHA! I told him I was the happiest idiot ever!

ETA: Stephanie, Tom and I were both VERY grateful that the flood was "clean water" from the toilet!!

If you have time this coming weekend, we could get together and pick apples and then I could make a pie or cake or crisp and we could watch a movie or something. Which isn't your home, but at least it's a home...

Awww thanks but I am leaving Friday for a weekend at my (surrogate) sister's "ranch" north of Sacramento.

But if you can use apples for pie or canning or whatever, you're WELCOME to them! That goes for the ZMayhem's too (and any other localistas!). The back gate is unlocked.

Contagious-disease fans should definitely read Pox Americana,

I second the motion. Also, everyone should read Rats, Lice and History. The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, about a London cholera outbreak, is pretty good until the author, who likes to hear himself talk a little too much, goes on a weird tangent about urban planning.