Stink Problem Solved!

Martin emailed me this article today that explains the awful smells over on the West side!
http://jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080804/NEWS/808040322
It's true that it's improved since the spring. It was REEEALLLY bad for awhile there. As you all probably remember.

Anja is now pulling up on everything she can find and has just begun to timidly move from one piece of furniture to the next. Today she moved from the laundry basket to the coffee table. It took her a very long time to do this and when she got there she was so proud of herself, but she didn't quite know what to do next... so she started eating the books on the coffee table! One of the books she tried to eat, which I rescued from her, was this book that Martin [unfortunately] bought from Barnes & Noble with a giftcard he'd recieved for his birthday. He ended up being very disappointed with his purchase. It's a book written by a guy from Lafayette (he didn't know that until after he started reading it--an interesting added fact!) named Jaime Salazar who evidently decided it would be a good idea to join the French Foreign Legion, then write a book about his experience. Well, from what Martin tells me, he didn't like his experience very much, but some of the little things he talks about are rather humorous... like the fact that throughout the book he says how religious he is, and in one part he tells a prostitute that he won't pay her for sex because he's a Christian, and Christians don't do that. Um... hello? Martin says that as much of the book that is about his experience in the Foreign Legion is also about all the girls he sleeps with. Then in the Afterword, it tells about some of the characters in the book and the author and what they're doing now... the author currently resides in Texas with his girlfriend and their newborn child. He is considering either going to Business school or joining the priesthood. HAHAHAHA!!! Sounds like this guy's got some screws loose.

This morning Anja and I finally got back to our morning walk. I intended to go over the bridge, around the movie theatre and home, but while I was on the bridge, JOANNIE called me! She wanted to take a walk!! How funny. So Anja and I turned around and met up with her and we made the same route, the second time making it around the movie theatre.

And speaking of movies, not only do I live under a rock, but it's a bigger rock than I'd thought. I've been hearing everyone talk about "The Dark Knight" and the more people I hear talking about it the more I wonder what it is I'm missing out on. So finally I start thinking maybe this is something I SHOULD know about... like maybe it's a film that Pope John Paul II made in secret and is just now being released to the public. Maybe I should be as hyped up to see it as everyone else... or at least know what the heck it is. So I looked it up the other day. And it's a freaking BATMAN movie!!! Although, since I'M the one who lives under a rock, I'm sure all you reading this already KNEW that it was the new Batman movie. I still feel a little silly for not knowing what it was... but not too much. I mean, it's not like I have time to go to the movies, or even to read reviews online. Ask me what else is playing these days--I have noooo idea.

So Anja didn't want to take any naps today. She fell asleep for about two minutes between our walk and the time Joannie left--then the phone rang and it woke her up and I wasn't able to get her back to sleep. So we stayed up and played and then early afternoon began fading into mid-afternoon and she was getting a little bit crazy and I was getting a little bit desperate, so I called my mom and asked if she'd come pick us up and drive us around for a few minutes to see if Anja would fall asleep that way. What a treat! My mom took me to the Custard for a vanilla coke and then we drove around looking at pretty houses. She took me through the neighborhood where she grew up, then showed me some GORGEOUS houses that I'd never even seen before on Center street, and then we took a spin through Highland Park and she told me stories about different houses from when she was little. It was really fun! And her little dog, Maizie, was with us, and she's such a good little dog. She just sat on my lap the whole time! Seriously, for a tiny little yip-yap dog, Maizie is great. I mean, I think she's great anyway... but I would've expected her to be bouncing all over the car, climbing on my mom's lap, getting up underneath the dashboard... not the case! She's just happy to ride on the floor or as was the case today, quietly in my lap.

For dinner I'd planned to make steak stir fry. Last night I made a creamy chicken and broccoli pasta that turned out pretty good for having made the recipe up! Martin tupperwared the leftovers to take to lunch today, but as it turns out, he didn't eat them. Well, we had a lot of leftovers yesterday after dinner so I assumed that that much was left for tonight and I said I wouldn't fix dinner tonight, we'd just eat the leftovers. So he brought them home and I opened the tupperware to find a skimpy one-person serving of last night's dinner. I asked him what happened to all the rest of it. He said it was mostly pasta so he threw a lot of it away. I asked him what happened to all the sauce and he said he'd take me out to dinner. So we looked at our trusty peelers (we've got TONS of peelers because both our parents buy them from the CC kids and then give them to us) and decided to go to Pizza Hut. While we were getting Anja in her carseat, TusaRebecca called and invited us out with them to Logan's! Haha, so we went there instead and I ate some delicious popcorn shrimp that I didn't finish and Martin got a steak that he didn't finish, so now we STILL have some small portions of leftovers. I've found that one problem with cooking for two is that you only usually have enough leftovers for about half a person... but still too much to just throw away. So we end up with tupperwares of leftovers stacked up in our fridge, and I keep making new meals every night. Eventually we have to dump out all the moldy tupperwares and we could've saved ourselves a lot of time and fridge space by just tossing out the food in the first place. It's kind of ridiculous.

We HAVE to get our video camera cord replaced soon so we can record Anja eating sweet potatoes. It is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Is there anything better than a clean quilt from the dryer? Mmmm, I'm wrapped up in one now. I don't wash my hand-made quilts (I know, I'm gross) but this is a surprisingly cute, soft, and durable Walmart quilt I've had for years and years and it's our usual picnic quilt. It was really covered in dog hair so I washed it and now it smells soooooooo good and its all poofy and soft and snuggly. Mmmm. Good thing I'm already in my pajamas... I'm ready for bed!