Wedding
Wedding planning marches on with much gusto. We met with Robin and Jerry, the owners of Tin Angel Cafe, to show them the Hardware Building and I feel so relieved that we made an AWESOME choice. Not only do we crave their food constantly but they are an organizational power house. Jerry and my mom have already made a deal that Jerry will put her to work in the kitchen "polishing wine bottles". Ohoho.
As we've been talking with wedding vendors, one thing that really bothers both Andrew and I is when vendors will ONLY talk to me. I understand that women tend to be the dominant parties in wedding planning but I am one of the fortunate few to have a significant other who wants it to be OUR day, not MY day. We make it pretty apparent that this is a joint effort but even with that, I don't think that some vendors even know how to talk to guys about these kinds of choices.
"So what's your theme? What are you thinking of for decorations?" They eye me furtively, as though we are sharing in some secret only known to womenkind. Surely Andrew's manly mind has no need or room for concepts such as decorations. He is a fly on the wall. He is the Invisible Man.
"Uuuhhhmmmm. . . " Is what I usually respond with, glancing up and away because I have no idea what to say. Wedding? Paper? Flowers?
This is another reason why we're so thrilled to have Tin Angel. They understand our "Good food, good music, good friends" sentiment. That's our theme, I guess?
I also have small blisters all over my fingers because I am hand-sealing the binding paper strips of the invitations with gold wax. I now know that I should have just done stickers but damnit, they look cool. Invitations will be sent out this week, probably dropped into the mailbox at midnight tonight and sailing on their merry way tomorrow morning.
Tables, chairs and the bartender are being booked. . . uhhhrrr. . . tonight. Or tomorrow.
Puppy
In other news, we have a new puppy! Her name is Lucy (yes, we would have named her Lucy even if Linus had a different name) and she is the most adorable reason to lose sleep I've ever encountered. Here she is:
I saw her and blurted out "Uh, we could take her! You know, er, just until she finds another home."
Andrew saw her and BOOM, she went home with us!
While the first week she had to go out twice a night, because she was only 6 weeks old, she is now able to go the whole night without needing to pee and I am excitedly looking forward to the day when I can let her run around the apartment without worrying that she will eat an electrical cord/get her eyes clawed out by Roman/pee or defecate all over the place if I haven't taken her out in the last 45 minutes. She's quickly getting there. I keep reminding myself that I should savor her poop-and-coffee puppy breath and her BOUNDLESS energy. And we are savoring it, but that doesn't stop me from yearning for a nap on the couch without her yowling dejectedly because of her crate training.
Linus loves her and Roman hates her. A lot, in both cases. Linus is doing so much better with a pal. Wa wa wa, more dog talk.
New Apartment
The apartment that I posted pictures of turned into a massive fiasco. Cosmetically it is incredibly cute and should have been really great for us, but I ended up finding black mold encrusted all under the kitchen sink, complemented by a little patch behind the toilet and behind the tub. There was also standing water in the basement. This was two days before our lease was up at our other apartment, which was at the time and has been taken by my close friend Stacy. We had no place to live but a musky, mold-filled apartment that was causing me to wheeze and get a sinus infection.
We told the landlord about it and he and his business partner met us there to see it. They claimed that it had to be black toxic mold to render the apartment uninhabitable and refused to give us our rent and full deposit back. They offered to "wash and repaint" under the kitchen sink.
"Have you turned on the shower in the bathroom?" They asked.
Why yes, I replied, but only once to rinse the bleach out of the tub.
THIS, they said, was what caused the leak, as though my turning on the water put us at fault for the massive water puddle in the basement and the mold around the pipes of the clawfoot tub.
The presence of any mold in a rental property, paired with standing water, is actually what makes a residence uninhabitable and illegal to rent, but they were having none of it. After a five day long fiasco that involved giving them a counter offer of our taking the deposit and their keeping the 2 weeks rent, that getting refused, their responding with their keeping 1/2 the deposit and the 2 weeks rent and our telling them that they would see us in small claims court, they finally caved and gave us the full deposit back. They kept the 2 weeks rent, but that's worth our never having to see or speak to them again.
In the end we really lucked out because the apartment across the hall from us opened up and I was able to negotiate it down to the price that we were going to pay for the duplex. It's a 1 bedroom, so just the space we need, and its utilities should be ridiculously low. Plus, we love our house and it's in a GREAT location. Our lives wont change much, just improve. I'm ok with that.
Other Stuff
Lastly, I guess, work is going a million miles an hour. I am now a Senior Education Specialist and am learning how to handle our Aplomado falcon, Phoenix, who has been hand reared by my Bird Programs Manager since he was 22 weeks old. Andrew is gearing up for grad school in the fall and generally things are crazy but good.
C'est tout :)
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