As all you faithful readers have probably noticed by now, I've been out of blog land for the past few weeks. While I have been known to go longish stretches without an entry, but this is the first time it's been THIS long.

Usually, the problem is that I'm not feeling particularly inspired to write. That's partially because I actually spend a lot of time formulating my thoughts and writing my blog entry. Then my husband insists on proof reading it. If he doesn't, and later reads my blog, he is mortified by something or other and makes me change it. So I usually don't post until he reads it first. And that's after I've spent a good amount of time writing.

But the real reason I haven't been blogging lately is that nearly three weeks ago I had an accident.

The embarrassing truth is that I committed the not-so-uncommon sin of eating at the computer. Usually you end up with sticky keys or a keyboard full of crumbs, but the problem this time was that I was eating soup. And our computer is a laptop. You guessed it, I spilled.

I spilled a half of a whole bowl of a half package of top ramen. In case that seems a little convoluted, let me spell that out for you: I made half of a package of top ramen. Then I took the whole bowl to the computer and ate about two bites before spilling half of it - I literally tipped the whole bowl upside down - onto the keyboard of our laptop! (This is the same laptop that had been slightly damaged by the lurching train on our way home from Christmas holidays).

After rescuing my bowl, I immediately cut the power and proceeded to mop up the mess. Interestingly, I didn't get much on any of the paperwork scattered around the desk, but managed to get most of the soup on (and in between) the keys themselves. I got out the roll of paper towels and folded one up meticulously to eke out the liquid from under the keys. I even used my hair dryer to get some air under there to dry it out. I spent quite a bit of time at this before thinking that it was probably adequate.

As an afterthought, I decided to turn the computer upside down, you know, just to make sure it was really dry. You should have seen the amount of liquid that poured out of the computer then. Sheepishly, I removed the battery, opened the disk drive, and removed the wireless transmitter to allow for any remaining liquid to have a chance at freedom. Then I tipped it on its side and waited in trepidation for Brad to get home.

I admit that I might be an IT guy's nightmare (sorry Neklan if you are out there reading this). And I also have to admit that this isn't the first time I've spilled on the keyboard of my computer. Except that the other two times were water and it was Focus's computer. On both of those occasions, the keyboard was the only thing to be replaced. Unfortunately, the keyboard on the laptop is a little more difficult.

Needless to say, immediately after I spilled, I shut down the computer and didn't start it up again until last weekend. That was after we purchased an external hard drive to back up the system just in case the liquid was going to short circuit it. Fortunately, it didn't short circuit, but (not too surprisingly), only half of the keyboard works. This was easily solved by the purchase of a wireless keyboard. 120 Euros later, I'm back in business and blogging. Needless to say, our poor old laptop is becoming less and less portable!

At last, some photos of our house courtesy of my mom's digital camera. See the October 16th post for a more detailed description of our house.

The outside of our house:



Our bike hallway:

Our living room:

Our dining room:

Our kitchen (photo taken from the stairs):

And the stairs:
I erred in thinking that I would have time to blog while my mom was here visiting, but the next few posts will be excerpts from the emails that she sent home to my family. It provides another perspective on our life here.

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Some comments from mom on our home:

Mollie's street is narrow with a reddish stone bike path on the side of the road. The buildings are all connected townhouse style. They are brick with white trim, no front yards and the stone walkway/bike path goes right up to the door.

Their house is very spacious. They have two big windows in the living room facing the street, 15 foot ceilings, wood floors, and it is modestly but nicely furnished. Although the building is 100+ years old, the interior is modern. There is a dining room, small kitchen, remodelled bathroom, and 2 bedrooms upstairs - one large for Mollie and Brad and one small for guests - that's me! Their place is very nice and roomier than their Vancouver place.