Almost Home

It is a cold and rainy day here in L.A., one of the coldest and wettest I've experienced here in Malibu. Rumor has it someone spotted a few snowflakes fluttering in the wind. (It made the news, so it must be true. Click here for the story.) There were very few of them, of course, and they melted instantly on contact, but it gives you an idea of what today has been like. I actually don't mind the weather--we get so little of it here--what I mind is having to drive in it. Drivers here are insane under normal circumstances, and when you add something like rain it really gets dicey. Only a few more days until I get to board a plane home for the holiday. I have no idea exactly how I'm going to be able to get everything done I need to between now and Sunday morning. Usually it all somehow gets done, so I guess I'm just going to have to count on it happening again this time around.

Aside from the usual holiday bustle, the rain this week revealed a leak at our bedroom window. This Monday when I woke up and went to peek out of the blinds, my barefoot stepped on cold, wet carpet. Wonderful. That discovery began a process of working with maintenance to dry the carpet, ultimately resulting in the delivery of a dehumidifier. This machine is so ancient it should be on display at the Villa. It seemed relatively harmless until I turned it on. The filter has probably never been changed, and as it sucked up the moisture, the filter was dampened and began emitting a stomach-turning mildew/mold stench. We ran it for as long as we could stand it and when we couldn't take it anymore I turned it off. Even when it was off the stench was still there. Maintenance finally returned to collect it this afternoon, so I'm currently trying to clear the air around here with every Glade candle I could find in the place.

Assuming the scented candles do their job, the apartment should be back to it's normal warm and cozy holiday self soon. We've already received several Christmas cards from friends and family that are helping to make the living room festive. Sinful goodies are also rolling in from work, along with a few other gifts. I have a pragmatic reputation, so I got some very nice lotions--including some peppermint oil tingling foot cream (gonna have to keep that out of Eric's reach). The general consensus around the office seems to be that we teachers deserve to pamper ourselves. That's exactly what I intend to do.

...in just a couple of more days.

Christmastime Is Here

I'm settling in this morning with a cup of coffee to catch up on email and various other cyber to-do's. It's already 11 o'clock, I'm still lounging around in my pajamas. Eric is on campus, so I have the place to myself. I love days off. This past weekend was my December Saturday-Sunday weekend off (usually I'm off Monday-Tuesday), so Eric and I took advantage of it and used Saturday to get our Christmas tree and decorate the apartment. The Christmas tree lot was predictably busy, but luckily the 7-8' trees weren't entirely picked over. We examined several candidates. Well, Eric got all dirty and sticky with sap while I examined them. That's his job.

After a few eliminations Eric's mom spotted a nice full noble fir in good shape. We shook it out to confirm first impressions, and once it was declared worthy we claimed our tree and loaded it in the truck. Well, Eric loaded it. That's his job.

There was the annual discovery of faulty strings of lights and the annual trip to get more to replace them, but before the day was out we had the tree decorated. It looks great--hopefully we can keep it looking good through the holiday season. We cleaned and decorated all afternoon and had the place cozy and Christmas-y by the time friends came over that evening.

Sunday was another busy day for me. I ran all sorts of errands, did the grocery shopping, more cleaning, and laundry. I even made my first batch of homemade candy (butterscotch haystacks) for the season. Having done quite enough yesterday, today I'm giving myself permission to do nothing at all. It's hard to believe that I have only two weeks or so before boarding a plane home. I almost can't believe I'm going to have two weeks off for the holidays this year--that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. I plan to make the most of it!

Thanksgiving & the Arrival of Jeffery Alexander

Eric and I had quite a busy Thanksgiving at the Wells house, although not as busy as others. A morning phone call found both of us lounging around--me with a cup of coffee in front of the t.v. and Eric still in bed. In the small hours of Thanksgiving morning, Eric's sister, Heather, made an unexpectedly early trip to the hospital to give birth to a baby boy, Jeffery Alexander. Preparing a Thanksgiving dinner is always a lot of work, but this meant we would be short-handed. It was a busy day of cooking, but everyone pitched in and helped out. Even our friend George (seen below) got involved and prepared one of the turkeys the way it's sometimes done in England, stuffing it with sausage meatballs and covering the outside with strips of bacon. Sure, the English aren't exactly well-known for their cooking talents, but the turkey was very tasty.

By six o'clock everyone was properly stuffed, and once we could be persuaded to move again we headed for the hospital to visit Heather and the baby. Jeffery Alexander was born six pounds and a bit, and much earlier than his planned mid-December arrival. He's doing just fine, so I guess he was the better judge as to when he wanted to be born.



Uncle Eric, of course, was eager to hold his new nephew.









He was even persuaded once or twice to give Aunt Amber a turn as well, as you can see. Babies are cute and sweet when they just lay around and sleep, which is all Jeffery felt like doing at the time. I'll be watching to see how eager Uncle Eric is when he's around for the fussiness and dirty diapers. :-) His talents for diaper dodging from the infant days of Jeffery's big sister Genna are legendary, so we'll see how this time around goes.