Paradise of a Thousand Shingles: February 2007

Issuing Rejection

Today I was very sinful. I haven’t ever told this many lies in a row before.

Kara has a stalker. His name is Cyril. They met at a high school dance at Purdue at 4H camp when Kara was 17. He was short and ugly and had a mustache. Naturally, he immediately became enamored with our heroine. Kara spent the evening trying to rid herself of him. Sadly, she had to go to bed early in the girls’ dormitory in order to succeed.

Very unfortunately, Cyril was able to get young Kara’s home phone number through sneaky connections. He called her several times that summer, much to the distress of our heroine. Finally, Kara’s father had to get on the phone and tell him to never call his daughter again.

For nearly three years, Kara lived in (almost) blissful peace. That peace was interrupted when Cyril called Shingle Paradise today, and Kara answered. As soon as he identified himself, Kara hung up the phone.

Three minutes later, the phone rang again. I answered. The following conversation ensued:

“Hello, this is Shingle Paradise.”
“Hey, is this Kara?"
"No, this is Jessica"
"Who?"
"Jessica"
"Can I talk to Kara?"
“I’m sorry, but Kara moved to Wyoming.”
“Really? I just talked to her a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, that must have been Karen. Kara hasn’t lived here for like two years.”
“Her facebook profile said she’s graduating from Purdue this year.”
“Well, it must be wrong. Would you like her new phone number?”
“Yes, please.”

At this point there was a long pause in the conversation while Kara and I searched online for the Rejection Hotline number.

“Are you still there?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, it’s 641-985-7888.”
“Thanks.”

Several minutes later, our phone began ringing again. I unplugged it. If any of you try to call SP and we don’t answer, that’s why. Try a cell.

a snippet of dinner conversation

Imagine the scene. Four girls are sitting around a table eating meatloaf, macaroni and cheese and/or baked potatoes, and broccoli while the following conversation takes place...

Kara: Well, you know, breastfeeding increases intelligence.

Jessica: (oh-my-maybe-I-should-try-this expression on her lovely countenance)

Mia: (catching on to what is going through Jessica's blonde head) The child, not you!

Jessica: (crest-fallen) Oooh.

Sara: (chokes on her broccoli)

Kara: (chokes on her baked potato)

Mia: (doesn't have food in her mouth)

So, boys, does it make you uncomfortable when we talk about breastfeeding? 75% of us think not. After all, if you guys take enough hormones, you can do it too!

Valentine's Day Romance

Subtitled: Andrew is our hero

Here at Shingle Paradise, we have many special romantic moments. Here are a few from Valentine's Day.

Jessica learned that sexy clothes are cold. It's a good lesson, even if that's not the only reason to dress modestly.

The table set for our candlelit dinner.

Mia looks like she's all excited about a bottle of wine, but in fact, it's merely a sparkling beverage I bought on Sunday night (definitely not acloholic then).

Most of the pictures came out fuzzily, but here are four of my favorite people in the world, ready for a delicious dinner. All of the dinner came out deliciously, although my steaks were a very qualified success. They were the best tasting steaks I've ever had, but they took so long to cook and we had to keep putting them back in the oven that we'd eaten each dish as a separate course before the meat arrived at the table. I always put off learning how to cook steak since I figured that was my husband's responsibility, but after tonight I've decided it might be a useful skill before I try cooking a romantic dinner for a guy.

After dinner Mia became very entranced with the candles.

Sara did the dishes after supper, and when she tried to clean out the sink with the garbage disposal, a catastrophe ensued. Everything bubbled back up again from the sink, and finally our kitchen flooded. Andrew came over to rescue us, and here are a couple video clips. We laughed so much that my throat is sore, and it pretty much got in the way of getting any homework done. The saddest part is that it still isn't fixed and we can't find anyone from maintenance to help us. Andrew used my sheets to mop up the water, so I'm going to be sleeping on a bare mattress tonight.

(These videos are also available at Google Video - Part 1 and Part 2 )

If you can't tell, Jessica forgot the camera had movie capabilities, and I forgot that movies are one-directional.

Since Jess didn't have any homework and the rest of us were trying to get some done, we elected her plumber's assistent and put her in charge of changing the bowls of water as they flooded from the pipes. She whimpered and screamed the whole time. It was great.

Snowy Shingles

Pictures can't fully portray the depth of the snow, or the whiteout conditions caused by blowing snow, but I thought I'd put up the views out the front and back of our Paradise anyway.

This is the front walk, just a few hours after Josh and Allen thoughtfully shoveled it for us. Jess's bike has been snowed under for a week, but Sara's and mine are safe and dry in the basement.

The snow drifts are highest in the middle of the back yard, so I got a straight-on shot from our back door. Beautiful view, isn't it?

Blizzards are so much cooler than regular snow. There's a whole new element of adventure, of having to deal with something new and slightly dangerous. And seeing peaks of snow forming like sand dunes is just cool.

Suppertime!

Tonight we ate someone’s least favorite dish for dinner, and she complained all through her plate of an alternative entrée. Because it’s Monday night, we thought we’d each put up our very least favorite dinner. Some people are pickier than others (*Mia*and*Sara*) and could’ve picked several dinners, but we thought we’d avoid the obvious:

and instead present you with four entrées which are enough to spoil the blissful state usually present in Shingle Paradise residents. Lest we appear persnickety eaters, most of us like at least two of these dishes and tolerate the others.

Entrée One

Beef stroganoff