Pick Me Up, Love, Every Day

On my way home from work this afternoon, I swung by the bank a few blocks away to deposit a check, only to discover that the bank was closed -- even the ATM was dark. There was a sign on the door, but I wasn't motivated enough to get out of the car to go read it, so I headed home. On the way, I spotted a police roadblock that seemed to be clouded with smoke. I figured I'd go home and use my fancy new DSL to check the local news websites to learn what had happened. As I got out of the car, I noticed that my stairway light was off, and wondered why my neighbors would turn it off, since it was a full floor above them and shouldn't bother them.

As I reached my door, I had that unpleasant eureka moment where all of the dots connected -- my neighbors hadn't turned off my light, the power was out, and whatever the police were dealing with was probably the cause.

Well, feh.

I set down my bag and groceries, turned around, and went for a walk to see if I could determine what the problem was. Apparently they'd cleaned up the worst of it by the time I got there, because I couldn't see anything, so I came home again and hunted for my candles.



I made dinner (tuna sandwich), read the mail and the paper, shuffled some boxes around to make room for the things I'll be bringing home over the weekend, and just as I was running out of stuff to do by candlelight, the power came back on.

Now, I may have mentioned that my new place has certain perks that my Summer lodgings lacked, and while I've been enjoying the bigger-than-a-breadbox shower, full-sized fridge (with freezer!!), and stove (that gets hot enough to boil water!) already, I hadn't yet used the oven. So tonight, I baked.



Here you see the combined fruit of my kitchen's wonderful appliances: apple-cinnamon muffins (Jiffy mixes aren't half bad, but don't make much), boiled water for a cuppa, orange-chocolate cake (vegan!), and ice cream (solidly frozen, not mushy).

I'm in heaven, I tell ya. Being able to make the whole apartment smell like chocolate totally makes up for the stairwell smelling like the neighbor's cigarettes.

I was expecting my beau to be here to enjoy these goodies with me tonight, but apparently a drunk driver ran somebody down right outside his house, causing the police to shut down the area, so he can't get out until morning. It seems the crazies are out all over the place.

So yeah, every day is an adventure. I'm going to have one more cup of licorice tea to help with this head cold I've acquired, and then I'm going to tuck myself in for the night. I'm aiming to carve out some time on Monday to post about more knitterly things, so, as usual, stay tuned!