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We finally got to go home last night. It was a bittersweet experience. On one hand, we enjoyed living with J so much it was sad to leave, on the other hand, we are back in our own home. It's a mess. We cleaned out the living room, taking all our stuff off the couch and hooking up the electronics. Initially, the cable didn't work, but then it started (after I made a service appointment, of course). P built our new TV table (the former one died in the flood). We slept on the couch last night. The desk that probably no longer will house the desktop (since it also got flooded) is fine, but has tons of stuff all over it. I'm ignoring that part of the cleaning right now.

The house is full of mosquitoes. I never get bitten typically, but they're even interested in me. I guess P doesn't have enough blood to sustain them all. I've killed a couple so far, as has P. Aleister, naturally, refuses to do his part in the pest control arena.

I just moved all the dishes that required washing from their various places to the sink. We don't have a refrigerator anymore. Well, ok - the refrigerator is still here, but it needs to be removed, along with all its contents. The length of time we were without power caused everything left in the freezer (farewell, lovely Hatch chiles - KNEW I should've canned you!) caused everything to... well, liquify. Any mould. A lot. The fridge and freezer are so mould-infested that the 30 seconds I had them open, combined, caused me shortness of breath for a while. So right now, I'm thinking we'll just do the no-fridge-thing for a bit, until we figure out the money for a replacement. I'm thankful for my pseudo-wacko-survivalist tendencies, since we will still be able to eat well, despite not being able to have refrigerated items. I will just really need to scale down the portions I cook, or I will really need to get a lot more canning jars. :)

Anyway, I cleaned up a bit of the kitchen. I need to do all the dishes in a little while. I bought some lemons at the store today, to make more preserved lemons. I've been leaving a trail of preserved lemons everywhere I've been during this adventure, but my remaining jar, sadly, I'd stuffed in the fridge. So once the dishes are done, I'll make another jar or two. I also picked up some limes to preserve as well. I'm glad I decided I like canning, since I may be doing a lot of canning for the next little bit. I feel somewhat paranoid about storing foods in any other manner at the moment, even if I did have a fridge.

Oh, and I found some gigantic brussels sprouts at the store when I got the lemons, limes and water, so I bought several to roast. I also got an ear of corn to roast, and I think I'll serve it with rice instead of pasta this time. P will enjoy that.

I had a billion tests, also, this week. I didn't do as well as I would normally have expected of myself, but I'm still satisfied with my performance.

Anyway, more cleaning, more cleaning, more cleaning. That's where we're at. Maybe tonight we will sleep in our bed. Maybe not. We shall see.

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