We love you Indy, oh yes we do!

I'm currently reading "The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life" by Thomas Moore. Recently, I finished the chapter on food in which Moore writes about how we, as a culture, seem to have lost our enchantment with food. Instead of appreciating the simplicity and soulfulness of fresh meals prepared with love, we've grown to become a culture that tolerates bland, overly processed, tasteless food from the fast food joint down the street.

Moore addresses the soul of food, the gathering of family and friends at the dinner table…a simple lunch in the park…a cup of tea in the afternoon. He writes, "Every repast can have soul and can be enchanting; it asks only for a small degree of mindfulness and a habit of doing things with care and imagination."

The reason I mention this book is because Lucky and I had the most wonderful weekend in Indianapolis, and food played an integral part of our enjoyment. Allow me to gush about it for a moment. And then, after you read about our weekend, you'll be rewarded with pictures. I know you like pictures. We all like pictures. And bribery.

As most of you know, Lucky and I used to reside in Indianapolis - she lived there for five years, I lived there for seven. During our time in Indy, we made lots of good friends, plus we found each other, so the city holds a special place in our hearts.

It just so happened that one of our favorite people in the whole wide world, V, turned 50 years old on Friday. How could we, as her sister-friends, NOT share in such a momentous occasion??? (Happy Birthday, V! Thanks for spending your birthday with us!) So off we drove to Indianapolis to celebrate.

Our weekend included amazing conversations and joyful laughter with good friends while we ate amazing food prepared with love. Sure, we probably each gained five pounds in the process, but it was SO worth it!

As you may recall from previous blog posts, Lucky and I share an affinity for sweets. Specifically cupcakes. And cake. And donuts. And dark chocolate. (Sweets are sort of an obsession, really.) Whenever we vacation, Lucky and I love to seek out pizzerias and bakeries. This vacation was no different. In addition to sharing fabulous meals prepared with love and soul at friends' homes (thank you David and Deb, thank you Kip), we also enjoyed incredible pizza from Bazbeaux and Datsa Pizza as well as amazing pastries from Long's Donuts. YUM! Oh, and homemade Sprinkles Cupcakes prepared by David. And incredible chocolate chip coffee cake made by Kip. And so many other tasty meals and wonderful treats. (I think I'm drooling, by the way.) Those meals fed our bodies, filled our souls and helped to affirm our enchantment with food.

More importantly, when Lucky and I drove home on Monday, we took time to reflect on the events of this past weekend. In doing so, we realized the importance of reconnecting with friends. We were surrounded by so much love it was almost overwhelming. We missed you guys and we love you! It's wonderful to be within driving distance of the wonderful energy you provide.

Alright, enough gushing. I leave you with photographs of our visit to the Hoosier state. As always we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz

P.S. By the way, I'm THRILLED to report we have seen no more cockroaches. Hooray for roach motels! Thank you, Combat Quick Kill Formula. This stuff don't play. As the box reads, it "starts killing in hours." Morbid, but effective.

P.S.S. Oh, AND this past weekend I got a haircut by an incredible stylist who might best be described as a hummingbird wielding a pair of scissors. Sounds dangerous, I know, but she did an amazing job on my hair in spite of behaving as though she was on speed.


Chopping veggies at Kip's house


Kip and Lucky


Stevie Wayne and V


Rodney, Minnesota and Steve


The remaining brunch gang - the others left before we got pictures


Before haircut


During haircut


After haircut


Mmmmmm, donuts

Ewwwwwww!

Our love affair with our treetop mansion has officially ended. Some of you probably assumed this had already happened much, much earlier - like when we didn't have machines in which to do our laundry for three weeks, or when a large truck showed up unexpectedly and nearly dumped two tons worth of gravel behind our car (which would have left us car-less, 'cuz our little Honda Civic doesn't do off-roadin'), or each weekend when we hear our slumlords arrive home at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. No, none of these slight annoyances rattled our affection for our little love nest.

Until this morning.

Setting the stage: It's 5:15 a.m. Thursday morning. I stumble into the kitchen to make breakfast. Bleary-eyed, I reach toward the floor to plug in the power cord for the space heater. Instead, I nearly pick up a gigantic cockroach.

Yes, a cockroach.

Immediately I gasp, "Oh my god!" and instinctively back away, hurriedly. (I would have screamed louder, but I didn't want to wake the neighbors. It is 5:15 in the morning, after all. Which, looking back now, is funny: Even in duress, I still try to be polite.)

Hearing the terror in my voice, Lucky asked from the bedroom, "What's wrong?"

"Get a shoe please," I commanded. "There's an enormous cockroach in the kitchen!"

Now normally we subscribe to the "no-kill" Buddhist stream of thought. All living things deserve to exist, regardless of their species. A bug in our apartment doesn't get to live inside with us, but our home is not a murderous den.

We shoo ladybugs outside. We coerce spiders out the door.

Unfortunately, though, word must've gotten out in the bug world about our no-kill policy. The ladybugs told the gnats, the gnats told the little spiders, the little spiders told the bigger spiders, and apparently, the bigger spiders told the cockroaches.

Cockroaches??? Well, we discovered this morning we draw the line at cockroaches.

So Lucky grabbed her heaviest, thickest soled shoe. She dove for the cockroach and missed.

It scampered off, running for its life.

Thankfully on her second lunge, Lucky managed to squash the roach. She then proceeded to pound her shoe into its carcass, again and again.

"Die, die, die!" she screamed madly. (Just kidding. That part is embellished. But it makes for a good story, right?)

She forcefully slammed her shoe into the floor repeatedly, but she did so as quietly as possible. (She is also polite in spite of duress.)

So we discovered something new about ourselves this morning. We will not tolerate cockroaches in our apartment. They need to get out. Now. Or they need to die, by any means necessary. We also discovered another thing we miss about living in the Pacific Northwest - no cockroaches.

We will be calling our slumlords today and asking them (politely, of course) to rid our little abode of any creepy, crawly, nasty cockroaches.

Thus, the end of our love nest love affair.

So this is what it's like living in the South.

She's ready for her close-up

At long last, here are some pictures of our little love nest. Below each photograph is a caption because we didn't want anyone to get lost on our expansive house tour.


Here's the front door and living room, taken from the kitchen.


Another shot of the living room.


And here's the kitchen and dining room (i.e. the island bar).

Next we have two shots of the bedroom and office.





The little people are happy in their new home too.


And finally, the closet with our new/used washer and dryer units.

TAH DAH! So there you have it. We're all cozy and settled into our new place.

Stay tuned for outdoor shots. Until then, we leave you with a picture of the sunrise as seen from our front door.



As always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz

We have clean clothes!

You'll be happy to know we were not forced to beat our dirty clothes on a rock down by the river. And do you know why? You guessed it. We finally received our new washer and dryer on Sunday afternoon. WOO HOO!

Of course, these items didn't arrive without slumlord drama. No. You see, we were supposed to receive the machines on Saturday morning. Because we had errands to run that morning, we dutifully moved the furniture and hanging clothes out of the way (for the fifth time) so the slumlords could install the machines without contending with our obstacles.

So when we arrived home at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, we fully expected to have our machines installed and in working order. But alas, no, it wasn't meant to be. It was then that we learned that one of the slumlords had been taken to the emergency room due to an infected tooth (He's fine now).

Although we're sympathetic to his plight, we were also very frustrated to learn that again, we wouldn't be receiving our desperately-needed washer and dryer. And again, we would have to move our furniture back into place (so we could walk around in our apartment) and hang our clothes (since we laid them on our bed) and wait to hear as to when said machines would be arriving.

With high spirits and optimistic outlooks, we once again moved all of our items on Sunday morning after learning our machines would be installed that morning. Sure, the installation didn't occur until 3:00 p.m., but we were so ecstatic, we didn't care!

Seven heaping loads of laundry later, we can now rejoin life and spend time with others knowing we don't stink anymore. It's a great day!

Oh, AND the slumlords sheepishly returned our stolen towel. They even washed it.

So the only thing left on our slumlords' to-do list is to install a storm door and screens. Oh, and fix the kitchen faucet. But we're not holding our breath that those things will happen anytime soon.

In other news, the weather in Georgia has been absolutely gorgeous, so we took the opportunity to walk to Little Five Points on Sunday to explore the neighborhood and do some people-watching. As always, we had a lovely time.

We also hope you're having a lovely time enjoying all life has to offer. Please know you're in our thoughts and we love and miss you...the girlz

Please tell us if we're being doormats

It's Day 16 of the washer/dryer saga and no word as to when we'll receive them. Our assumption is that the installation will occur this weekend. (Please let it happen soon!)

By the way, when they installed the broken down washing machine that leaked all over, apparently the slumlords decided to use our towels to mop up the water. But they didn't tell us they had done so. Instead they chose to take our towel and, presumably, hope we wouldn't notice. We noticed.

It's a harsh accusation, I know. We looked for the towel, just to be sure. But we did not misplace the towel. The towel is gone. The towel went missing while we were away. Therefore, it's a reasonable assumption that one of our towels was stolen by our slumlords.

I know...it's just a towel. But it's the principle, you know? Don't use something that's not yours without asking, and certainly don't take it without telling!

In reaction, I put together my Seven Commandments for Landlords:
1) When performing repairs in your tenants' apartment, always be prepared in case there's a leak. Bring rags/towels from home.
2) If there is a leak and you didn't follow Commandment #1, run downstairs to get your own rags/towels from which to sop up the water. It's not like you live miles and miles away. You're above your own garage, for God's sake.
3) Don't use your tenants' stuff without asking.
4) Don't use your tenants' stuff without telling.
5) Don't take your tenants' stuff without asking.
6) Don't take your tenants' stuff without telling.
7) In fact, just don't take your tenants' stuff. Period.

In other broken-down news, the touch-up paint we were given is the wrong color. (At this point, we're feeling a bit like the unwanted stepchildren who've been locked in the castle's turret, never to be seen or heard, kinda like the kids from the "Flowers in the Attic" book series. "Here's your damn paint, now quit your bitchin'!") We should have paid attention to the signs indicating this, too, would prove to be another difficult and long process. After all, when we were given the quart of touch-up paint, the slumlord jokingly commented, "If this isn't the right color, it will be the new wall color." Since we assumed the slumlords kept accurate records of paint colors, we laughed it off. (Remember, this place is a baby at mere two years of age!) Surely they kept track of which white and beige they used on the ceiling and walls.

Well, they didn't.

Wrong shade of beige, wrong finish. (The paint on the walls is flat, not egg shell.) So now we have little splotches of too-light, too-shiny paint on our walls. What do we do now, dear readers?

As I see it, we have three options:
1) Leave the walls as they are: Scuffed up, dingy, grungy and splotchy.
2) Ask for another quart of flat, beige paint and hope it's the right color.
3) Have them repaint the entire apartment. (It should have been repainted before we moved in anyway.)

Option 1 is the most realistic since it takes the least amount of effort on their part. Plus, no expectations on our part. No expectations = no disappointments.
Option 2 is the most uncertain since they really don't know what color is currently on the walls. How many quarts would it take to get it right?
Option 3 is the most work since we'd have to take everything off the walls and move our furniture to the middle of the room, etc. Plus, at the rate they're moving on the washer/dryer, who knows when it would happen anyway?!

Oy vey! No washer/dryer. Wrong touch-up paint. No sink aerator. No storm door. No window screens. No super-deluxe cable. Stolen towel. (Am I missing anything?)

However, in the interest of optimism, here's what we DO have:
1) A roof over our heads.
2) A (relatively) warm tree-top dwelling. (Did we mention the baseboard heat in our apartment is terribly inadequate, even during the (relatively warm) Georgia winter, so we've been using two space heaters instead? We're not freezing, no. After all, we only need to heat whichever room we happen to be using - 250 square feet at a time. If the apartment were bigger, this would definitely be an issue. But, thankfully, it's not too big of an issue. It's only a slight issue when the temperatures drop to 20 degrees - like last night, for instance. Brrrr!!!)
3) A comfy bed with lots of blankets in which to lay our weary heads at night.
4) Hot water.
5) Working toilet.
6) Laughter and our senses of humor.
7) Love. Lots of love.

We're keeping some of that love to give to each other and sending the rest to you, dear friends and family. More updates to follow...the girlz

Our washing machine ran off with our dryer

For those of you who are finding our "saga of the deadbeat slumlords" interesting and/or comical, here's the latest news: We are still without means to wash our dirty underwear.

(pause for dramatic gasp and subsequent, astonished "WHAT?!?")

Yes, that's right, folks. We are currently on day 13 without a washer and dryer.

Are you curious to know why? Well, I'll tell you, even if you're not curious.

On Sunday afternoon we went for a walk to enjoy the 60 degree temperatures and people-watch at Piedmont Park (which was fabulous, by the way). When we returned, the slumlords were organizing (and I use that term loosely) the mounds of junk in their garage.

They had some news to report, they told us. While we were away, apparently they decided remove the broken washer/dryer combo unit and install our new side-by-side machines.

"Fabulous," we exclaimed.

"Nothing is ever easy," they responded, in a downtrodden manner.

"What happened?" we inquired.

"Well, we removed the old washer/dryer unit and hauled your new washer and dryer upstairs. However, the washing machine leaked all over the floor, so we had to carry both of them back downstairs. You'll be getting a new washing machine sometime this week after I go on Tuesday to exchange the broken one."

(Side note: The machines are not new, from a store, but rather they were purchased from some guy who rehabilitates used appliances, and apparently not very well, I might add.)

SOOOOOOOO...thankfully we were given a partial rent refund for our time and trouble. In the meantime, we're practicing the arts of compassion, patience and kindness, and knowing we'll have new (or rather, used) machines soon.

In other news, we were given touch-up paint (cross #4 off the list) and told that the cable company would be stopping by on Saturday afternoon to give us our cable box and remote control (issue #7). Progress is slow, but it IS progress.

Stay tuned for further updates. As always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz