Getting Festive

So it's December 1st, and we're all gearing up into Christmas mode. Which means, in reality, we're getting stressed out, power-shopping for presents, wearing toques on walks because it's finally cold, and juggling travel plans and social events.

We were grocery shopping last week in the far-away town that has a big grocery store, and they had Soy Egg Nog in the hippie section. Against my better judgment, I picked up a carton. There was no way it would be any good, but I couldn't not try it. I really do like Egg Nog, but we try not to buy a lot of milk products so I didn't want to buy any of the real stuff.

So we we had a little dinner party with our friends the next day. Right before the company arrived I brought out the Soy Nog and tried it and... it is effing delicious. I promptly poured a shot of rum in it and it became the drink of the evening. Chani had some and loved it too. This is too exciting for words! I have to go back to the grocery store now and buy like five cartons of that stuff. With my luck they will be sold out.


The dinner party was pretty cool - it was the usual group (Mark, me, Chani, Nay, and Jay) minus Captain D., who is always working, and plus Chani's mother, who got tipsy off wine and wandered into the living room after dinner and slept on our couch.


Earlier that day the house was clean, the food fixings were mostly ready, and I was power cleaning our new kitchen table, which we had salvaged from Chani's barn. I had baking soda and vinegar all over my hands when I was done cleaning the table, and so I went to wash them.

Turned on the tap.

Nothing came out.

It was t-minus two hours til party time, and our house had no water. This was nothing new. We'd lost water the previous week for about three hours, and a few days before, our power had decided to permanently go on "halfsies" power. Which meant, our stove lights turned on when you turned the dial, but the elements did not heat up. The microwave went full power for two seconds when it was turned on, but then did a really creepy half-power slow-down. The overhead light in the living room flickered randomly between bright and dim. Then out. Then dim again. Then we woke up the next morning and our electric heat, which is what heats our entire house, was no longer working. The house was coooold.

Yay for the holidays! What a perfect time to lose power and water!


So we called in an electrician, who told us to unplug all major appliances and call the utility company. I called the utility company, and through a magical holiday miracle, they had their giant elevator-basket truck out to our house about a half hour later. Then they replaced a whole bunch of crap - actually pretty much everything - in the power pole we are connected to and told us that it had been in very bad shape. It's been almost a week, and the halfsies power seems to be gone for good.

I was feeling a bit manic, so I called the power company back and waited on hold. A tired-sounding operator took my call and looked up my file, noting in an emotionless montone that I'd called them an hour ago. I said that yes, I had, and the problem was already fixed, and I wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you for doing it so quickly. She let out a startled giggle and voiced her surprise that I'd called again. I told her that I figured everyone always called when they took too long to fix a problem, so I wanted to call because they'd been so very quick about it. Her voice lost the monotone and she seemed genuinely pleased. She asked if she could send my comment to her supervisors. I think I made her like her job that day.

Oh right.

I was talking about a dinner party, and water.

That was actually not such a big deal. They dug a hole down the street from our house and had water running again about an hour after it had stopped. I finally washed the crusty baking soda from my hands and the rest of the night was a rousing success.


So. Christmas will be here in less than a month. It sure would be nice to get some nice pots for plants, or even some nice house plants. Or a sturdy cookie jar for the dogs. Or a Fiskars splitting axe with a 4 pound head for Mark.

Ahem.