The Cat, again

Stella has been kept indoors since the move. We tell people it's because we don't want her to get eaten by the coyotes and raptors(birds, not dinosaurs, well, maybe dinosaurs too) in the back yard or get run over but the real reason is: if she doesn't know what's outside, she won't miss it and therefore won't yowl at the break of dawn to be let out to experience it.
She's doing well so far, partly because we ply her with TikiCat cat food and lots of love. But she may be going a little crazy. Case in point:

Huge Disaster of an Epic Scale

The fish tank stunk. I had been putting off cleaning it for about a week, but finally the pump had stopped working and I needed to clean it out. If not for me, for Jemaine the goldfish.
I thought I could do it myself, sliding the full tank across the counter top, over the stove to the sink where I could more easily drain the gross, fishy, water. Disaster struck when I got the tank to the stove. As I slid it across the burners, I let it rest for a moment in order to gather enough strength for the next leg of the trip across the counter tip. I looked up at H-man who was on the computer, thinking briefly of how pregnant women should not lift things over 50 lbs and wondering if I should call H-man over to help me out. That's when it happened.
The room filled with a "PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" sound which I immediately took to be the burner on the stove snapping off and gas pouring out into the house at an alarming rate. H-man turned to me at that instant with a look that could only be described as "WTF?" I was wrong about the gas, at that moment the water hit my feet, a lot of water. 10 gallons of water. I had busted the bottom of the tank and water was flowing out fast, onto the stove, onto the kitchen floor and down the hallway.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I said.
"Get Jemaine! Get Jemaine!" H-man said.
I grabbed poor Jemaine and plopped him in a bowl of water I had, thankfully, nearby.
"The water! The water!" I said
"I'll get towels" H-man said.
All in all it took 2 hours, 13 towels, some moving of major appliances and a new fishtank. But all my floors and baseboards are clean now. So, that's a plus.
Jemaine is fine by the way.

Catapulted into the 1950's

It's almost too much to bear. For four years we lived in a teeny-tiny apartment, an apartment so small that nomadic Mongolian villagers, a people who have their entire extended family living in a single room tent, might visit our home and exclaim "how on Earth do you do it?". Needless to say there were no laundry facilities, dishwasher or any fancy-shmancy appliances to speak of really. I felt it was a luxury to have a gas stove and wall heater. I'm not exaggerating when I say that our bathroom doubled as a laundry room, with rinsed out undies and socks hanging from any available surface, and watch out in the bath tub: laundry detergent is really slippery on ceramic!
Now, that's all changed. Right now, at this very moment while I'm typing this I have a load of dishes drying in my brand new dishwasher, a load of laundry cycling in the washer, I'm drinking a glass of ice water from our ice-making/water dispensing freezer. The central heater just kicked on (it's a little chilly today). Later, after I make dinner (meat from Swingle's and roasted veggies) I'll rinse the crap left over on the plates into my new garbage disposal while H-man utilizes one of our two bathrooms. It's a 1950's housewife's dream come true.
Ha! She doesn't have a dishwasher, keep smiling lady, maybe your luck will change.


My favorite appliance? It's a toss up between my washer/dryer and dishwasher. I get clean clothes whenever I want and I haven't had to hand wash a dish since I moved in. I freaking love it. Maybe I've been watching too much Dick Van Dyke, maybe I'm nesting, I don't care, I have Ice Water.

I Love my Husband

"You haven't got the pregnant 'fat-face' yet, a lot of women get a real fat face when they gain a ton of weight."

( to a friend we just had coffee with) "Did I tell you about the sex we're having? I mean the sex of the baby."

many more later

My Moustache Brings All the Boys to the Yard...

About 6 months ago my wonderful father gave us the gift of Roku, a device that lets us watch Netflix Instant Play movies on the television in our bedroom, despite the fact that our computer is across the house. We've had it for 6 months but only recently have been able to hook it up and get it working due to the generosity of a friend who gave us a router. But that's another story. This is a story about La Moustache. This may be one of my new favorite movies, a movie I probably would never have seen if it wasn't for the Roku.
A summary:
Marc, a mustached man for a long time, asks his wife one evening what she would think if he shaved his mustache off. She replies that she wouldn't know what to think, he's had it so long, she may not even know him without it. So, while she's out, he shaves it, but is baffled when she, his friends and his coworkers don't even seem to notice.
Okay okay, it sounds boring, but give it a chance and you'll be amazed at how deliciously weird, funny and mysterious this film is. While watching it I kept on running out of the room (or waddling at this point if we're going to be honest) to H-man and yelling "This movie is so great/weird/funny/crazy!"
Being married to a man with ample facial hair (at times), and being a woman faced with a future of facial hair herself (I'm already plucking) this movie was especially significant. I highly recommend it.

A New Home and a New World

We've done it, we've moved to Jackson. Or maybe Martell. The difference? Jackson has about 4,000 people or so, Martell has 200. How do we not know which town we live in? Because we are past the Martell city limit sign, but the wonderful woman who runs our park answers the phone "......mobile home park in old Jackson". Also the tax assessor staff don't seem to know that our house exists. Very odd.
Leaving Humboldt has been difficult, but Amador county is a wonderful place. The more we explore the area the more we love it. Not even 50 mile from our house we have several historic town, at least two cavern systems, tons of hiking trails and everyone we met has been extremely friendly.
Also, did I mention that we live next door to this gem? This makes me worried for the friendly cows who live behind us. Not so much for #11, the queen of the cows, but for the little male calves that have been accompanying the ladies for the past couple of weeks. But who am I kidding? This place may have the best tri-tip I have ever tasted. We buy our meat exclusively from them now. I can't even remember what it was like when I was a vegetarian so many years ago.
We have a Walmart not even 1/2 a mile from our house. And a Petco, Lowes, Jamba Juice, Starbucks, K-Mart, Blockbuster and McDonalds. This has been the most difficult thing to get used to because when we were Humboldtians we made it point NEVER to shop at these places, (Petco excluded when the local shops were closed) Now these are the only places we can shop since there is almost no local businesses in Jackson/Martell. Luckily we found a pet store in Ione, 9 miles away, owned by a woman and staffed by her various children. We've been shopping there since. Walmart has been the biggest culture shock of these various corporate stores. They sell EVERYTHING there and after a conversation with some locals, it seems that there used to be a great deal of local stores, until WALmart moved in. Very scary, I try to avoid it as much as possible, but have accompanied the H-man there several times, sort of a morbid curiosity. At least that's my story.