Archive for the ‘Nonclassified Nonsense’ Category

Our upstairs neighbor isn’t around much. I think she spends most nights at her boyfriend’s place, coming back now and then to feed her cat (we’ve seen lurking in the window). This is good for a couple of reasons. On weekends especially, we tend to lose track of time and have the stereo up loud way into the night. When she is home, the floor creaks and groans, the washing machine rattles the walls, but it usually isn’t too bad.

On Saturday night we went to bed late. After we had crawled in bed, we heard our neighbor climb the stairs and slam the door of her apartment. Then she jumped around and practiced some dance moves while rearranging furniture. Actually, I imagined she was packing. She finally exhausted, and we fell asleep. This was between one and two in the morning.

At five a.m. the clumping began again. I guess she didn’t get much sleep. We heard her hurry out the door. I imagined she was catching a Sunday morning red-eye. We went back to sleep and got up much later.

At five a.m. Monday morning Berck woke me up by saying something about how the alarm was impossible to sleep through. That woke me up enough to hear it. Our neighbor had set her alarm to get up on Sunday morning but hadn’t turned it off. It must be a pretty loud alarm, because we could hear it just fine through the ceiling. “I wonder if she’s dead,” Berck said. I said I thought she was out of town for the week. We had to listen to the alarm for an hour before it turned itself off an hour later after starting. We got back to sleep at five-thirty.

Berck was restless after that. Maybe it’s a good thing I slept lightly after that. I opened my eyes, and there seemed to be too much sunlight coming through the window. I glanced at the clock. 7:25. I usually leave for work at seven-twenty. I dashed out the door as Berck yelled at me to drive carefully, and I still clocked in at 08:00.

We heard our neighbor get back last night. I suggested Berck go ask her to turn the alarm off, but we figured she’d find out for herself at four-thirty a.m.

Unfortunately, she left again. I woke up this morning at four-thirty when the alarm went off. I tried not to stir so as not to wake Berck, but I had to turn over so my good ear was in the pillow. That wasn’t enough, so I put another pillow over my head. That worked. But by then Berck was awake, so going back to sleep wasn’t going to happen with his ongoing commentary. Berck eventually got up and tried to figure out which circuit breaker was our neighbor’s so he could turn off her power, but they weren’t labeled well. We had to wait out the alarm. At five-thirty we finally got back to sleep.

Today I left a note on our neighbor’s door, should she come home and leave again. We just heard her clump up the stairs, and I don’t think she’s left. Maybe we’ll sleep through tonight.

I had moose for the first time last night.

Moose don’t live in Oklahoma. But pilots (and would-be pilots, like my husband) do. One of the flight instructors Berck’s flown with offered him a moose roast, so Berck offered to invite him over for pizza if he brought it. That was last Friday. This Thursday, Berck invited D and his girlfriend over to eat the roast. But Berck discovered after chopping up all the vegetables to go in with it that the vacuum-packed chunk of thawed meat was actually ground moose. So we had a beef roast instead. A sorry bait-and-switch, but there you go.

Dinner was very nice. It’s the first time we’ve entertained another couple in our humble abode; the four of us barely fit around the table. I used the white placemats and plaid dinner napkins we got as wedding presents, but the table was so small that the placemats overlapped. Berck situated himself in the chair closest to the kitchen, otherwise, he’d be climbing over everyone to get there.

We made the thawed moose into moose burgers tonight and ate it all ourselves.

Mom deposited a check to pay for our hotel bill in Richmond. We got quite a chuckle out of her e-mail notifying me. I have no idea where the second to address came from. And Ben didn’t answer, so I left him a message.

— Original Message —
Subject: money
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 13:42:14 -0500
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.613)

readthiscarefully……i,spilled,water,on,the,keyboard,and,it,will,not,l et,me,spacebar,or,return,etc,…..so,i,have,to,write,like,this…i,depos ited,350,dollars,into,your,compass,bank,account,on,thursday….it,should ,be,ready,for,withdrawel,by,tuesday,i,imagine…i,am,mailing,you,some,cl ippings,,,,when,it,rains,it,pours,it,seems,when,something,comes,along,th at,i,think,you,would,like….also,i,opened,joanne,lawrence,s,gift,and,to ld,you,about,it,on,the,card,that,is,in,your,envelope,with,all,the,clippi ngs….it,is,a,stovetop,wok…..looks,very,nice…..ben,said,you,called, last,night….he,seemed,pleased…..i,hope,you,had,a,good,conversation.. …this,is,too,wierd……let,me,know,if,you,get,this….i,hope,the,keyb oard,dries,out,ok….love,mom

Well, it has happend.

Joanna has a mobile phone.

E-mail me, and I’ll be happy to send you the number. (JonahB52 at gmail.com)

Ba ba-ba-ba, ba ba-ba-ba, baby
Don’t forget my plumber

In other news, I came home to find the apartment in disarray with an industrial -sized fan blowing toward our living room wall. Apparently, a pipe blew in the wall when our neighbor turned off the water he’d been using to wash his truck. The carpet beneath the bookshelves is soaked. Berck said that the maintenance guy spread magic cinnamon enzymes on the carpet and sucked up most of the water, and he’ll be back tomorrow to give our carpet a real carpet cleaning. The carpet is beyond cleaning (it was that way when we moved in, but we’re poor), so we’ll see.

In yet other news, I’m fighting a little cold. I’m trying to decide if truly the best thing for a cold is running around in a humid and very hot environment. It does seem to help.

Berck is soloing, and I’m listening to him on the webstream request touch-and-go’s from Westheimer Tower. He’s supposedly going to get some night flying in at around 10 tonight. I think I’ll be sleeping.

If not, I’ll be reading the manual for my phone. It has color. It’s pretty :)

I wonder how to make it work…

My brother-in-law Nathan has a new site up at PicsTheyMissed.com.

Right now it’s just some photos taken by our Air Force friend Max, but Nate hopes to expand into a receptacle for pictures from anyone who wants to share their photos from being deployed overseas.