Hurra, wir leben noch…

Vor zwei Nächten haben wir, bzw. ich, fast unser kleines Haus niedergebrannt.
Nein, ich habe nicht wieder mal das Öl in der Pfanne zu heiß werden lassen und ein kleines Feuerchen verursacht…wir haben ja dank Nathan seit einiger Zeit ein Schildchen über dem Herd, auf dem zu lesen ist: “Please don’t burn the oil”. =)
Ich hatte meine Unterwäsche per Hand gewaschen und sie dann abends allesamt über einen Kleiderbügel gehängt; also ein paar Sets neben- und übereinander. Der Kleiderbügel hängt bei uns an einem langen Band von der Decke, so dass er vor unserer Gasheizung hängt. Dann hatten wir einen Film geschaut und später waren wir dann mit anderen Dingen unter der Bettdecke beschäftigt, bis Nathan dann aufsprang und meinte, ob der Nebel in unserem Haus Qualm sei. Ich war ziemlich erschrocken, als ich die Schwaden sah. Man konnte kaum noch was im Haus erkennen. Panik. Nathan hat dann Fenster und Türen aufgerissen und mit einem Stück Pappe ziemlich lange herumgewedelt, um den Rauch aus dem Haus zu bekommen. Irgendwie war die Situation lustig als auch überhaupt nicht komisch zugleich. Wir hatten gerade einen Tag zuvor unseren Rauchmelder von der Wand genommen, weil der zu sensibel eingestellt war und bei jedem Anschalten unseres Gasherdes bereits Alarm schlug. Der Rauchmelder hätte bestimmt schon ne halbe Stunde eher Alarm geschlagen.
Nun ja, aber komisch war es schon, weil ich schon die Schlagzeilen im Kopf hatte….’Junges Paar vergnügte sich bevor sie sich gemeinsam das Leben nahmen, weil Ihnen die Visabedingungen das gemeinsame Leben in einem Land einfach zu sehr erschwerte’…oder so ähnlich. Grins. Ich habe mir dann meine Klamotten angeschaut und da war nichts Verbranntes zu sehen. Gar nichts. Seltsam. Nathan meinte dann, dass es das Waschpulver gewesen sein muss. Er meinte, dass die Chemikalien des Waschmittels eventuell das Kokeln verursacht haben könnte. Ich glaubte das nicht, denn erstens haben wir ein Ökowaschmittel was nur aus Kokussnuss- und anderen Ölen besteht und zweitens, weil die Sachen nichts Verbranntes an sich hatten. Wie kann denn bitte etwas ein kleines Haus komplett zuqualmen, ohne die Stoffe der Materialien zu beschädigen? Ich glaube, dass es eher die Synthetikfasern in meiner Unterwäsche waren, die den Qualm verursacht haben.

Snail mail surprise

After almost seven weeks (!!!) the package that my dad send me end of 2006 finally arrived. Well, in two weeks I already will leave the US again. In the package was a anti-allergy (anti dust mite) mattress cover, a few coffee filters (because I could not find size 4 filters in December 2006) and a cream. It probably took so long because the package was not sent as a gift and it probably got stuck at the customs office. I could not see if someone opened it, but why the hell does it take 6 weeks and 4 days for a small package with 2kg (~4.5 lbs) weight?

Thanks dad, for your effort and your good will, but…*fg* accidentally you sent me the wrong mattress cover. =)

I know that you won’t read this, because you do not have internet at home, but maybe my dear sis (who hopefully reads this) can tell him that?
Dad, you sent me the mattress cover of my very old mattress; the one that we already threw away. I just kept the cover for whatever. I know, you could not know that. I think it is funny. However, even if it was the right cover it would not fit on our current mattress, because we change our bed from the bad uncomfortable futon mattress to a nice thick luxurious queen size mattress, that we found in the storage shed outside. This new mattress is too thick for my allergy cover anyways.
Still, when we opened the package, it was a big laugh!

The moon

…reminds me of the moon in Australia, because it is the same upside down. Weird.

…erinnert mich an Australien, weil die Mondsichel nicht steht, sondern auf dem Ruecken liegt. Eigenartig.

Damn, we have a….

in our

mouse drawn by mr. n., house by missy c.

Weather chaos on Valentine’s Day

The weather is totally weird here in New Mexico. When you think it is already spring and sometimes as warm as it could be summer (remember my sunburn), then the weather forecast reports about a huge snowstorm and you do not want to believe it.
Well, the forecast was right and we got a lot of snow, right on Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day, either you love it or you hate it. Mr. N. and I owe it to chance that this day always is our half-year anniversary. This year we had our two and a half year anniversary. Wow…time flies by fast.
N. had a day off and we wanted to do something; go on a trip. When I looked out of the window in the morning it looked like this:

It snowed a little bit, but it did not look like the snow will stay long.

Although it was not recommended to drive on the roads that day, we gave it a try and packed a sleeping bag and warm clothes in the case that we get stuck in the snow. ;o)
We drove on the so called “Turquoise Trail”, one of many trails south of Santa Fe. After half an hour we thought, well, we cannot see much, because it is so foggy because of the snow storm. “Nice” car drive through a white-grey landscape where you could not even see the mountains any more. Too sad. We had a good time though. I will post some of the photos soon when I have more time.
The weather climate changed immense on our journey. While we had only a little bit of snow in the beginning of the trip, it snowed heavily later. The roads got worse and we were happy that our car still has the snow tires on.

At home we relaxed a little while and afterwards we drove into town (Santa Fe) to eat dinner at our favorite sushi place, the Kohami. It snowed very bad on the way. It was an exhausting drive, because N. could not see much, but we could make it in time (did not lose our reservations).
Because of Valentine’s Day they had many guests, the favorite tables had been taken, but by chance our favorite table became free when we arrived. The former guests just left. Lucky us.
We ordered our favorite sushi and waited. After about 20 minutes the waitress brought us a Miso soup for free. We didn’t know why, but we guessed because we waited a little bit longer until the food came. It was not long, in my opinion. I mean, it was their second most busiest day of the year and I can understand that they have more guests than on normal days…but we were happy with the soup. Yummy. In the end we payed less than we expected. Again we thought they might have taken stuff off the bill, because of our waiting for the food. The staff at Kohnami is very nice and very friendly. We love that place.

Happy and full we went home. It did not snow that much anymore. Good. But we saw at least five accidents on the way back and police car lights everywhere. New Mexicans do not know how to drive, was N.’s conclusion. I have not seen that many accidents on one day before. Ok, it snowed a lot, but the roads weren’t icy. They just had a layer of snow. If you don’t brake hard, you don’t slide. If you leave enough space to your front man you don’t slide into him. N. said it is much better to drive on fresh snow than later when it becomes flat and icy.
A long part of the interstate, which goes to our home, had been closed because of the snow storm (or because of all these accidents).
We were on a slow road next to the interstate and then, since the interstate was closed, we had all these crazy drivers in front of us. I wondered how less distance they leave to their front man. No wonder, why they crash easily into each other. Weird NM drivers. They live in the mountains and should know how to drive on snow.
Well, at least we arrived safely at home.

I did not want to believe it, when N. on the following morning said, “it snowed a lot last night, hon”. He heard a loud “oh noooooo” from me. What I then saw, was this:

We got the same amount of snow that we had with the last snow storm. It is so weird. A few days ago I got a bad sunburn while sitting outside, and now all this snow again. It is too early to put the winter clothes away…too early.

Hope you had a good Valentine’s Day.
Hannah, thank you very much for the nice e-card!