Nancy Drew and the mystery of "why are my laundry settings different and whose gym socks are these?"

I don't even need Bess to solve my mysteries...

When I came home tonight, I noticed my roommate's door was wide open and a large pile of dark clothing smack dab in the middle of her floor. I thought nothing of it, because I could have opened by accident with my butt when leaving or something like that.

Later on tonight, however, when doing laundry I noticed that my washer was on different settings than I had had it the night before when trying to shrink pants. I found this odd... until I opened my dryer and found a male gym sock lying there.

I then found a lone male dress sock and a holey gross gym sock in with my laundry.

Last I checked... I wore neither.

So I came to the conclusion that while my roommate is in France for the week, she let her boyfriend borrow her keys and he is letting himself into my apartment to hang out and use my washer and dryer. Needless to say, I am not pleased. I've only met him a handful of times at this rate, and I don't like him having free reign of my apartment/food/bedroom while the two people whose names are on the lease are either at work or abroad. I also don't appreciate having no clue this was happening. I need to stumble upon it.

Also, his family is all in the area, and he has a studio, so it's not like he's without options for laundry and chilling time. He should NOT be in my apartment.

I think when she gets back from France, we'll all be having a nice little chat on common courtesies... I also love that at age 25, I need to be having this conversation with an adult. I thought I graduated college 3 years ago and left those social maladies behind, but apparently not.

In a moment of immature passive aggressive retaliation, I shut her door tightly and piled all the gym socks I found within my laundry neatly in a pile on the handle. Yep, I'm 18 deep down inside when provoked...

I wish I had some fava beans

I got a letter from the city today for "The Landry Household" for the census. This struck me as funny for many reasons. First, I think because I'm single and I'm a renter, I never think of myself as a household. Half the time I don't even refer to my apartment as home. I mean, it is my home... but I think because I'm just renting and it's not my place, I don't think of it as something permanent in my life.

I think, in order to make sure this gets done on time and correctly, I will handle the census and make sure it gets sent out okay. Want to keep voting and all that. The only issue is that they have us both down as students, which we most definitely are not. But as we'll probably be moving from here, I don't think it's important enough to change...

And if the snow buries my, my neighborhood

A winter bike in front of Pampelmousse. So lovely!

I decided to take a walk around downtown and get one of my beloved lattes from The Gulu Gulu Cafe. I also wanted to see how Salem looked in the snow. I shoveled out my car, and unfortunately Dean the neighbor had not plowed our driveway yet. So I tried to shovel as best as I could, but got stuck in a snow bank. Chris from the first floor told me that his brother plows, so if worst comes to worst, we could hire him to help us out. Then when I got stuck in said bank, he pushed me out and told me how to get out of the bank. So I bought him some beer tonight. Who doesn't love beer, right?

Then I got downtown and about 5 minutes in realized that snow boots are not a maybe, but a necessity. Esp. in New England. Salem was beautiful today. No one was around, so it was so nice. I felt very energized and refreshed, since it's nice to enjoy my town without a ton of tourists and locals around. Photos of this are at the bottom, along with my beautiful latte from Gulu Gulu. So tasty and glorious. Not many people were there today, but per usual... serviced sucked. It's a good thing I want to be a cool hipster and will tolerate lack of service!

Then I sucked it up and went to the mall to start my Christmas shopping. Tons of people were there, but I knocked a few people off of my list. And by a few, I mean... I bought winter boots for myself and some hand cream. So that gets a fail. I'll have to head up there tomorrow or Monday to get the gift cards I wanted and some other stuff.

Then I came back here, got eggs, and made... MATZO BALL SOUP!! I've been brainstorming this bad boy for weeks. And let me tell you, it was totally worth it. Sooo tasty. Here is a photo of my soup... and me drinking Kahlua. It warmed my soul.

Now I'm continuing the domesticity with some shortbread cookies, more Kahlua, and knitting. I love being snowed in by myself!

Downtown, from I believe the front of Rockafellas. I was impressed at how many cars were driving around, but when I started walking there weren't many people walking around.
Delicious, delicious latte.

Matzo Ball Soup! Matzo balls in a chicken broth with carrots, parsley, and celery. I think the next time I may need to make smaller matzo balls. But this is my first time, and I think it's great. I have a ton of leftovers, so I might lightly grill them in a pan and then put them in a soup. I also love how my camera captures the steam coming up from my soup! So cool!

Disregard last year... this time, we REALLY mean that this is the storm of the century

At right, me just getting home from work early at 3pm for THE STORM OF THE CENTURY. OOOOOOOO AAAAAAA PANIC!!!!


So I'm sitting at home enjoying another snow storm. I really don't mind being snowed in, nor do I flip out. It seems, though, that everyone else in New England freaks the hell out about snow. I spent a lot of time this afternoon watching Storm Coverage, which is news casters rehashing the storm. "Oh my God, it's still snowing... I'm still on the side of this highway freezing my ass off..."

Why is it that every storm is the worst and filled with hyperbole and freaking out? I know you need to create news, and in this day and age, that means drama, but seriously? Don't report on nothing, and don't try to hype people up into freaking out. It's snow. It falls every year. Just be smart on the roads and keep your houses warm.

This DJ in Boston has made the same joke two years in a row, but it's very accurate "It's a snow storm, let's all run out to the store and buy milk and bread for your fat children". And sure enough, on my drive home, Shaw's was chaos with people trying to buy groceries. There was a line onto the street of people trying to get in. I made mistake of going last year during that blizzard where it took 2 hours to get home... insanity in the store. People running around with staples and what not. I went last night, and still nuts... but not as bad.

Sarah, my roommate, started dating a guy. Much to my surprise, it seems he's also hunkering down with us for the weekend. Ohhhh to always manage to find roommates with boyfriends so you're a third wheel in your own apartment.

I managed to get home in about 45 minutes, with the roads only getting bad in Salem. I must say, I think I'm pretty good at driving in bad weather thanks to all these storms and having to get to work. Granted, I did hydroplane and total a minivan one winter, but other than that... smooth sailing.

Tomorrow it's supposed to die down, which is good. I am supposed to have a Christmas Party in Cambridge tomorrow, but I'm concerned about the roads and parking, so I may need to bail. If that's the case, I might trek to Beverly to hang out with Crystal and her posse.

I took a walk to get away from the love birds and to also take some photos of the neighborhood. Usually it is hopping on a Friday night at 9pm around here, but it's very much a ghost town tonight.

I'm standing in the middle of Jefferson, taking a shot of the street with no cars coming. As you can see, not a very good job at plowing, but still not terrible.

On Arthur, looking up the street to the neighbors. The flash is on, so you can see it's still snowing.

At 3, when it was just beginning to pick up. Now plowing yet, nor will there be for a bit. But still, not all that bad.