cold war 2011

austin is in a freezing tumult this week.  it was 78 degrees outside on monday, and by tuesday night we were down to 18 degrees.  i totally realize that normal cities (read: north of here) get 18 degree weather and it doesn't send the entire universe of the city and its populous into a tailspin.  but a tailspin is exactly what happens here - or at least that is what our lives have been topsy turvy this week.

we woke up wednesday morning (was that only yesterday?  yeesh.), after having left our faucets on with a drip the whole night, to the grim reality that despite all normal precautions being taken (short of insulating our pipes, which wasn't going to happen), our pipes were frozen.  we aren't sure if they are busted yet or not, as they are still frozen.  for lack of better adjectives, it sucks.  to make matters worse, it is likely that temps won't creep above freezing until saturday or sunday, so we will have been without running water for 5 days.  that is a lot of days when you have a 3 month-old living in your house.  it's also a lot of days when it's 18 degrees outside and all you want to do is be in your house and your kitchen, making yourself feel warm and toasty and comforted.

somehow, water is necessary for all things in life.  jb went to heb on the way home from work last night and picked up 2 gallons of water.  they were gone by this morning, and no showers were taken, nor were dishes washed.  it's crazy.  add to this fact that our nanny and our baby are home all day while we're at work.  and the fact that i normally do 2-3 loads of laundry in a day.  and 1-2 loads of dishes.  our house is not a pretty picture right now.

i am trying to look at the comedy of this scenario.  i still don't know where my winter coat is (it's in a box somewhere from before i was pregnant), so i am wearing a 3/4 sleeve spring coat when i have to go out.  have i mentioned that i have not lost all the baby weight yet?  apparently i did not inherit the magical metabolism many others have post-baby (even with exclusively breastfeeding), so my spring coat does not quite button around the 10 pounds that insist on lingering well past their welcome.  i actually find the fact that i'm wearing a non-warm coat unbuttoned to be hilarious.  additionally, we have been saving this gift card we got a couple months ago for a delivery meal for just a night such as this.  i ordered the delicious indian cuisine, we waited close to an hour and a half for it to get here (long story), and my meal was wrong (chicken tikka instead of chicken tikka masala - just one word off....).  so justin, eager to please and intolerant of not getting what we paid for, just scurried off to the indian place to pick up my masala.  there is humor in this, i'm sure of it.  maybe we will have a chuckle as we enjoy our dinner....at least we don't have to do the dishes!

finally, even the chickens are mad about the cold.  one of them laid this egg yesterday....

and finally finally, emme is great.  we've all made it (almost) through my first week back at work, albeit a bit more chaotically than we expected.  here's a quick shot of the little miss sitting in her bumbo today.