Rent unabated

Our attempt to get rent abatement was met with stiff resistance. They responded by voiding our partial check, refusing discussion, calling it nonpayment of rent, and beginning the pre-eviction process. That was not pleasant. I got a little freaked out. We looked into it, and although they'd have to take us to court in order to actually throw us out, we decided to pay up. Among other reasons, it's not our last month here.

There was a "construction update" meeting on Tuesday, attended by a number of angry tenants. Many of the units are much worse off than ours, and no one is getting a satisfactory response from the management. They have an email group and are coordinating their efforts! I was delighted to find this little rebel band, and even more pleased when I learned that they have met with a lawyer who is willing to represent all of us. There may be more on that later this week.

The day after I politely recounted my pre-eviction story for all to hear at the meeting, the management offered us a settlement: $128. That's not even per month - that's the total offer. And that's if and only if we sign an agreement stating that we will not seek any further compensation, that we understand this is not compensation for damages but merely a goodwill offering, etc, etc. This is laughable. We think that ten times that amount would be more fair.
We'll throw in our lot with the lawyer.

The birthday cake

I have fun making cake. Bekah asked me what flavor my birthday cake would be, and I told her it was cake flavor. Or really butter flavor. I love fancy hazelnut-mocha-cherry cakes or whatever too, but for my birthday I prefer to keep it classic. As you can see, the frosting was a totally retro pink. I did my first swiss buttercream, which is more buttery tasting and less chokingly sweet than ordinary frosting; it gets part of its structure from egg whites and you have to beat and beat and beat it. It's delicious. Dale still likes cream cheese frosting the best, but I think prefer that with a more strongly flavored cake.

Dating

Last weekend we saw the Ugly House again and it was worse than we had recognized; it needed not only paint, but also pretty major remodeling in the kitchen and both bathrooms.  That's a lot of work, and money.  We hope we can do better.  

And we decided we need to get off the househunting rollercoaster.  We had been lurching emotionally from house to house saying, "Is this the one?"  Now, we've decided to think of it more like dating.  You don't go home from every date saying Is This The One? -- you'd make yourself crazy, and it's not that good for the date, either.  Instead we are thinking of the whole thing as much more of a process.  We see how it goes, maybe we take the next step or maybe we just keep looking.  Unlike dating (?), we keep a database, and we are methodically touring six houses every weekend.  Thank goodness for Grandma's babysitting.

Healthy birthday

What do you know:  Last night after all that silly elderberry syrup and probiotics, Aaron had his best night of sleep in a week, and woke up completely well.  Maybe that stuff actually works.  His favorite is the eucalyptus chest rub.  He giggles and wiggles and imitates me doing it.  He still couldn't go to school (he has to have been puke-free for 24 hours), but at least he could digest his lunch, and chase the ducks at Greenlake.

I had a low-expectations birthday - it's hard to pull much together with the house having been in disarray all week.  But I got to have my very wonderful deep tissue massage, and Bekah and Bob came over with their kids and a big lasagna, and I made my favorite birthday cake, a pink retro layer cake featuring much butter.  Some other day I'll enjoy a sushi extravaganza at an old favorite place.

Thirty-eight, sheesh.  On his thirty-eighth birthday my father was a young lawyer, a few years out of school, about to experience the legal case of a lifetime.  And my mother, I think, was big pregnant with me.  Makes you wonder what might be around the corner.  How about a perfect house?  I'd go for that.

Coughing it up

Aaron got to try a half-day at school this morning, and he was so excited to go!  He ran into the building saying "Aslee?  Yoren?" (his teachers are Ashley and Lauren).  When he got to his room, there was a bin of multicolored mini pom-poms to scoop with a giant spoon.  It doesn't get any better than mini pom-poms.  He waved a perfunctory goodbye to me and got to work.  

Sadly, he puked at lunchtime, and I had to come and take him home.  He was bummed.  I brought him to the doctor in the afternoon and we got much sympathy and various herbal remedies.  He checks out fine - not dehydrated, lungs clear, all that.  He does have a very runny nose and a cough, and it turns out that at this point, the coughing leads to gagging and then puking.  This phenomenon is very common in toddlers.  sigh.  So we are treating him with warm honey lemonade for the throat, a eucalyptus chest rub for the congestion, probiotics to restore digestive health, and no cow's milk because it makes more mucus.  I have to admit that part of me was hoping for a hardcore Cough-B-Gone medication... but that probably wouldn't be any more effective.

3 out of 4

Three of us were in nearly perfect health today, thank goodness, but poor little Aaron is still barfing regularly.  It's been five days.  He's quite chipper between episodes but this is way too long.  (In addition to the obvious concern for his health, our work schedules are completely screwed up now.)

Aaron's digestive problem is coinciding with an extraordinary expressiveness about food.  He's hungry, poor baby, and he keeps asking for specific things:  "Muk!  Sausages!  Yogi!  Ap-sauce!  Ka-ka!  Kachi!"  (the ones you don't recognize are milk, yogurt, cracker, and ketchup.)  "Pancake!  Nana!  Wawa!"  He has also developed his own hand sign for "butter":  a pointed finger pressed along the table, like a knife spreading butter.  He insists that we butter pancakes, bread, etc:  he chews off the buttered part and hands it back for us to re-butter.  Another major interest for him right now is body parts.  Post-barfing, he's immediately cheerful, and starts poking his dirty fingers onto my face saying "Eyes!  Eyes!  Noose!  Maf!"  Great.  Apparently this is all very advanced of him, to have such a large vocabulary.  We've even caught the first few two-word phrases:  he pointed out a "doggie" to me through the window, and when the doggie left, he said "Doggie, home."  He's a genius!

Sick day

We're all four of us sick with some nasty stomach bug. A day of movies, Pedialyte, and load after load of laundry. Jordan is heroic about getting himself to the bathroom under difficult circumstances, but we just have to follow Aaron everywhere with a bowl. Crossing our fingers for a better time tomorrow.