Beginning adventures

It's been a little chaotic trying to move into our apartment, start school, and get used to our new work schedules all at the same time this past week and a half. However, despite the stress, there have been some fun little adventures and moments.

1. Eating Chinese takeout on the floor.

We got into our apartment late on a Sunday night, and Monday had decided that we'd get takeout for dinner instead of worrying about fixing anything. We've gotten takeout once before and it was a fun memory (involving an uninvited granola person who told us stories of French girls and sleeping on park benches) so we decided to do it again. We established our first family tradition: every time we move into a new place, we're going to eat takeout (preferrably Chinese) on the floor that first night. It's a winner.

2. Not having a working stove/oven.

This one was slightly less fun, but still somewhat amusing. Tuesday night, Michael left to work on a project, so I promised him a delicious warm dinner when he returned. Two hours and three phone calls later, I had determined for certain that I was not a raving imbecile, but that the stove was--in fact--broken (with broken meaning "devoid of gas"). Our female manager (who is very nearly clueless) insisted that our pilot light was out and that there was absolutely no way that the gas wasn't working.

About this time, Michael walked in to no delicious warm dinner and a frustrated wife. He then calls said female manager, who tells him that the problem is most definitely the pilot light. He politely tells her that the pilor light is working, but she counters by proving she has no ability to pay attention to the words coming out of his mouth

"well, sometimes the pilot light gets dirty and it won't light"
"no, no, the pilot light is just fine, there's just no gas coming out."
"well, it could be that the pilot light is just out"
"The pilot light is working just fine, but there is no gas. We think the gas is off."
"sometimes the area around the pilot light gets dirty..."

You get the idea. Anyway, she says her husband will be home around 9p.m. and will come to see what's wrong. He checks the pilot light then assures us that someone will be by the next day to check out the gas situation. Meanwhile, Michael excuses me from the kitchen and prepared us a delicious dinner of Snackster grilled cheese and sliced apples served with Secret Fruit Dip (aka yogurt) complete with heart-shaped garnish. I know. He's adorable.

The oven fixers came over late the next afternoon and guess what the problem was? Yup. No gas. So they fixed that, and we celebrated with a delightful round of homemade chocolate pudding made on our newly gaseous stove.

3. Stocking our apartment at Target

This was hilarious. Michael and I, through the GREAT generosity of all those around us had quite a bit of money in Target giftcards to use, and we decided to use it to stock our apartment. We had quite an adventure. With each of us armed with a shopping cart, we set about the store, sweeping needed items in here and there. What I found most amusing however, was turning around and consistently seeing Michael's cart ridiculously full. I kept thinking he couldn't possibly fit one more thing in that blasted cart, and he'd prove it was made out of the same substances that formed Mary Poppins' carpetbag. We had great success and came out several hundred dollars short of what we thought we'd spend.

Our next adventure there was fitting all those things inside our Honda civic. After some fancy arranging, rearranging, and re-rearranging, we were able to fit it all in (provided I carry the kitchen garbage can on my lap and hold my arm behind Michael's headrest to prevent a box from crashing into the front seat).

Horray for bargains, friendly helpful salespeople, Tetris experience, and a hilarious husband.