Anybody want an update??

So hey everyone!

How've y'all been??

I had school photographs yesterday. It was immensely aggravating. Seriously, the photographers they used were horrible, I could easily do much, much better! In the photographs they have no sense of placement, or the levels the students need to be in, in order for everybody to been seen. In last years photographs most of the students had their heads but out of the photos because these photographers but short people standing in the back and tall people standing in the front. It was so annoying! Not to mention the light placement that they have is absolutely absurd, it makes a large majority of the students are in shadow (again due to the placement of the tall people before the short) it was annoying. Also I decided to dress up for these photos, so I completely dress up, slacks, make-up fancy shoes, the whole nine yards! *Cough* I've never worn those shoes before, and so what ended up happening was that I got blisters the size of quarters in my feet, before I even got to the school! It was too painful to wear those shoes anymore, so I went the entire day barefoot.

If I were doing a poll on the effects that footwear has on the people around you, I think I could be a millionaire. Men for the most part didn't really notice the fact that I was barefoot, unless I mentioned something about it, but women picked up on it immediately. It's part of the woman to woman assessment, Examining what the other woman is wearing. The point is that it was cold, I hate dressing up, I'm very pissed with the photographers that the school idiotically hired, and my feet were killing me! The pain of just standing on them was excruciating! So today, I am wearing flip flops. I can't wear actual shoes yet, and the school told me that I can't go bear foot unless it's unavoidable.

Uh.... Oh yes! I'm doing a new photography assignment, one on ageing. A very common theme but one I can get lots and lots of individual research on. The photos are standard black and white frontal viewed portraits. occasionally some of them have colour in the eyes, but usually it's not a very noticeable thing, just something that I do for myself. A large portion of the photos were taken during my trip back to America, although the range jumps around as the models grow older so I have lots of places that need to be filled in with new photos. My photography teacher saw the beginning of these photos (the first five I printed out) and he loved them, so once I complete the series we're going to choose favourite pieces (There's not enough room for them all) and he's going to frame and hang them in the school entrance. Which is an amazingly big deal!!!

Some of the photos are on my Deviant Art if anyone would like to see them the link is www.redpaperflower.deviantart.com But yup. That's me in a nutshell. Anyone want to know anything else? Love you all!

-Ash

God said 'Let there be Drama!' and lo and behold...

So let's talk a bit about closets, shall we? Say, specifically, hall closets?

I have one, and after not having one in our last house, I am grateful for the joy that is hall closets. I appreciate a place to put my dry towels and my blankets. And the hall closet that is our current joy shares space with the hot water heater, which means that my linens not only stay nice and neat and dry, but also warm and fresh smelling.

That is, until there was a leak.

We discovered the leak about a month ago now, when we went to put a warmer duvet on the bed. Our very nice down duvet, safely stashed in the hall closet, came out smelling of mildew and mold-stained. The whole house smelled as we pulled out 4 blankets that had been wet for god-only-knows-how-long and set them to dry. Lucky for us there is a cleaner close enough to our house that 1. we could walk our duvet to, and 2. was able to get all of the smell out and most of the stain. And all things considered, they didn't charge us all THAT much.

We informed the landlord of said leak, which wasn't really that bad, put a pan under the drip and waited.

A plumber came, perhaps a week or so later, to 'look'. "Oh, that's easy!" says he. "It's the water softener that needs replacing. It only needs new parts. I can't do it today, but I'll get back to you." He hasn't been back since.

Soon, after 1 instance of forgetting to empty the pan under the leak, there was water covering the carpet on the floor. The next time, it was not having forgotten to empty the pan that led to water on the floor. It was due to the leak getting worse. And since then, it has gotten progressively worse. A week ago, we put a mop bucket under the pan. (Due to some pipes, it can't actually drip directly into the bucket. It has to drip into the pan and then fall into the bucket.) The first night it was fine. When we went to empty it the next day, it was overflowing. The day after that, it was overflowing by the evening. Yesterday, it was overflowing after 8 hours. Last night, it didn't make it 6.

The closet door is propped open and the house smells like wet carpet. I can't get the hall closet dry, and touching it you can feel the water in a layer over the carpet. I've taken to putting towels down under the bucket, and they come out drenched. Obviously, not all the drip is getting into the bucket, but there is nothing else I can do. The two fine small pipes that run a few inches above the floor ensure that nothing can sit on top of them and they are directly under the leak.

I am worried about the flooring under the carpet, not to mention the carpet itself, being ruined, and being blamed and charged for the damage. Being on the third floor, I worry about the water getting into the ceiling of the lower floor and being charged for that damage too. I worry because Stephen's entire family is coming to our very tiny, wet carpet smelling house for his birthday (it was on Tuesday) dinner on Saturday. There will be 10 people in the house, including 3 children. I have to make a good impression. And I can't close the hall closet door. I worry that this all reflects poorly on me somehow. That my fancy-schmancy roast venison dinner with sweet potatoes and butternut squash won't mean anything at all next to our rinky-dink house that smells and leaks.

I really thought we were doing the right thing by leaving the last house, as it was so much bigger than we ever really needed unless there were people staying over. But now that there are people staying over, and we don't even have room to put the table out, or enough chairs to seat everyone...

I think that the facade of my being the perfect hostess in the perfect house with the perfect stuff and the perfect timing is going out the window this weekend. I kind of hope that no one notices, but I know for a fact that they all will.

And During this Break...

A video that I thought I might share.




Personally, I hope you do vote.

It Happens Everytime...

Every time I go to post a new blog, something gets in the way.

Today I was going to have my only opportunity to blog, along with the kazillion other things that I need to do in order to not fall behind. I didn't plan to work today so that I would have a day to do it.

Well, now I'm working.

When it comes to everything in the world going on, it seems that the blog takes a back seat. :( Kelley has threatened to do mean things if I don't update more often. And I'm sure a lot of you agree with her. I'm sorry that the blog is not alway my focus. I want it to be...

Ashley has a new beau. I will have to make her wax poetic on that topic. Stephen's birthday is coming up, and that brings dinner plans and what-do-I-do-for-a-present panic. I think of a million things that would be just perfect during the year, and don't write them down, so when crunch time comes, I am clueless. Pathetic. University started for me this week, but previous to that, I have been working between 40 and 50 hours a week, plus trying to keep up on the house and laundry, etc, etc. The dishes are winning the war.

We have a leak in our hot water closet, which is also our linen closet. The lightweight down duvet was covered in mold and mildew from having secretly been leaked on for months. Lucky for us, the laundry, after having charged us an arm and a leg, salvaged the duvet. The house smelled (and sometimes still does smell) of mildew. There are 4 other comforters that I need to decide what to do with. They are all too big to fit into our washing machine. It pains me to think about throwing them away.

My (last year's christmas tree) ficus has scale. In a major way. I have no idea how it got it: I have no other house plants. And my herb boxes came home post-scale. I have a recipe for a spray to help with it, but it involves rubbing alcohol. I can't find rubbing alcohol. No one sells rubbing alcohol. At the last place I checked, I was told, "People here don't use that sort of thing." I don't know how they function when their plants have scale. Or when they need to strip their hair. Or when they sterilize a needle to pull a splinter. I still have to check out the actual chemists. (pharmacy) That will happen on the proverbial day when I have time.

The past few weekends have been equally as busy, what with friends and family coming down. Our much smaller house, while perfect for us everyday, is a bit tighter when there are stay-the-night folks. Ashley was very sweet to give up her bed in the name of the cause. (Granted, she got a weekend at a friend's house out of it... but that doesn't diminish her sacrifice. Really.)

That's it in a very tiny nutshell. I hope to have more time later, but we will see what happens. I miss all of you. I miss blogging. I graduate in 9 months. That will be one less thing to stress about.