Our House, Some Food, and Southern Living

First is an update on our house. I went in and measured all of our windows so that we can buy drapes (for downstairs) and blinds (for upstairs). Since almost everyone who reads this blog already owns a house, you will all I'm sure be unsurprised to learn that Julie and I were rather unpleasantly shocked at the exorbitant costs involved. But we have a huge stack of 20% off any item coupons for BedBathAndBeyond coupons, so that should help. In any event, the inside is making progress: we now have a sink! I have absolutely no clue what is going to take them a month left to do. I think I could have the inside ready n a month. Also, it's hard to see from this picture, but our property has been "leveled," although "smoothed" would be more accurate seeing as how our back yard is a hill.



We haven't been making much in the way of interesting food lately, because they keep Julie pretty busy with her residency (and slowly accumulating stuff for our impending move into our first house is taking the rest of her time), and I also have little time. So, our food picture of the day (month?) is of Marcie's mini meatloaves with cheesy mashed potatoes and garlicky broccoli. Mashed potatoes made me realize how difficult life can be without a Kitchenaid mixer. They were quite lumpy.



Finally: things are different in the South. Specifically, things are slower. On the 4th of July we feebly attempted to attend a Nashville Sounds (minor league baseball (Triple-A affiliate of the Brewers)) game with Julie's parents, but the rain won and the game was canceled. Anyway, that's not the interesting thing. The interesting thing is that I had to call in order to get our tickets (they can be gotten online, but things ended up being complicated, so I had to call). When you call someone in the North, they tell you your menu options in 20 seconds flat - maybe 30 seconds if they are making a conscious effort to be overtly polite. In the South, on the other hand, you don't even start hearing your options until thirty seconds into the call (I timed it) and then it was another thirty seconds before I heard what I wanted. It's on of those things that will take a little getting used to.