Clean Livin'

Well, the washing machine has been here long enough that we thought we ought to share our joy. Here is the wonderful new addition to our building:

Actually, it is, as usual, joy tempered with frustration. On the one hand- no more buckets of laundry! Hooray! On the other hand, the system for accessing/charging for/using the washing machine is still being worked out. So far, the problems have been many, and the frustrations high. The machine was installed and put behind a lock, which only our landlord and his new apartment manager has a key to. So we are supposed to ask for a key when we want to use it – except they are never available. Our landlord sleeps until about noon it seems, and the new manager guy – well, we don’t know what his deal is, but he just seems to tell you what you want to hear and then disappear (without unlocking anything…). So many times now, we've wanted to get some laundry done but can only stare through the locked glass door longingly. Also, there seems to be general confusion among the building residents about how to use it- many times we've discovered half-washed laundry sitting in the machine for no reason, sometimes all night long. (Actually, we recently realized the shutting off mid-cycle may have to do with power outages, but this still doesn't excuse leaving it in there all night long...)

So, it has been bittersweet so far, but we’re hopeful the process for accessing it more easily will be worked out. We just want them to let us have a key to the door so we can use it whenever we need to, but they seem to want to control the key. Thus, now our plan is to do laundry very early in the morning at 6 or 7 am when Atticus wakes us up anyway, which will require them to wake up early and give us the key- or they could just give us key permanently so they don’t have to get phone calls at 6am and wake up so early….you get the picture.

All in all, the introduction of the washing machine has been incredibly positive- the evenings no longer consist of hand washing laundry and the fabulousness of that really can’t be overstated. Also, the washing machine is pretty big, so we can get away with doing a big load about three times a week, instead of every single night. This has freed the evenings up for things like mopping, and so the general cleanliness of the flat has gone up as well.

This is also the first week of Atticus’ school break - three weeks off. We’ll be doing some fun stuff post-Christmas, but for this week, Atticus is kind of just enjoying a little school-free veg time, and can usually be found here:

We’ve mixed a little park time in there, and some walks around town, but it has been kind of nice just to relax a little after our crazy schedules lately. Jon and Sam are both managing to get a little work done, but have also more than willingly succumbed to the Christmas-week-slacker-syndrome that occurs every December. We’ll be productive next, week, honest!