We have been thinking of renaming our house. Without knowing it was the tradition around these college parts, we nicknamed the house shortly after we moved into it, decreeing it was “the Liar House,” namely because it looks cute from the outside (and in the picture we’d seen before we moved here), but hosting a series of minor to moderate problems once you get inside.
One of the issues has been that the tub from the full bathroom leaks through the ceiling and into our kitchen. As my 14-year-old niece put it, “your dirty tub water rains into your kitchen? Eww!”
We’ve asked the building manager to come out to fix this several times, and although he didn’t understand the severity of the leak at first, he has been here repeatedly to try different things, even opening up the ceiling at one point and having a bona fide plumber replace some of the pipes. We still had water coming down after that, but the ceiling was closed back up anyway.
While we were away on our tour of western Canada, the building manager had the kitchen painted in Susanne’s favorite shade of blue (the shade of which he had researched with me) in order to win her heart and soften her email messages, which by this point had become understandably more and more irate. Who wants to deal with putting four pots around the kitchen to catch brown water, after all? Not either of us.
We were assured the matter had been resolved. Until one of us took a bath. And then:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evmaroon/3484892097/
We are considering changing the name of our abode to, “The Crying House.” There are a multitude of connotations, see, that we can address with this moniker, and so that may be the direction we take. Thoughts? Comments? Questions?
Trans/plant/portation 
seriously dudes, i know you don’t want to move, but are you sure?
But if they finally fix it, it’ll be over. Who knows what’s wrong in the next house?
Hello,
I think have finally finished reading your entire blog on your move to Walla Walla. I started because it was so nice to see someone who is some bizarro reverse of me.
I spent most of my childhood in the Walla Walla Valley. Mostly on the Oregon side in a town which you have failed to mention…Milton-Freewater. Growing up, Walla Walla was the “big city”. Okay, not really big city, that would have been Portland.
I now live in…wait for it…New Jersey.
You asked for things to do in Portland. Go to the Powell’s bookstores in Hawthorne. The Home and Garden one will have an even better selection of cookbooks and the neighborhood is funky.
Also, don’t ever bother driving in Portland. Public transport is inexpensive and efficient.
I also thought of you as I waited patiently for a Shoprite worker to intial a posted checklist so I could open a door and the thought occured to me…does she think I am hovering rudely?
Another concept here that took me forever to get was snatching. My western view is that if you are handing me a book, have stated that the book is for me, why is there some sort of internal timing issue which governs how I should take it from your hand?
Did you ever find grits? I had never eaten grits before I moved to NJ and there were a few states and countries between the Walla Walla Valley and NJ for me.
I miss that perfect spring green of the wheat. I miss South Fork of the Umatilla River. I miss wild blackberries. ($6 a pound in NJ!!!) I miss peaches, pears, apricots, nectarines, cherries and apples growing on real trees, not just laying in the local grocery store. I hate sales tax.
And why aren’t you going over to the to Oregon side for your gas? It used to be significantly cheaper.
And for all the mentions of the paper mill, not one for the lovely smell of a silage truck? 😉
Now I am really homesick.
We have made our way to Milton-Freewater, a few times, actually. What’s the deal with the frog theme? I will write soon about the chocolate store and the cider mill. I never think of it for getting gas. I will mention that Oregon and NJ are the only two states in the country where it is illegal to pump one’s own gas, so perhaps you find that a nice little convenience from home in your new stomping grounds.
New Jersey, I’ll just say, has a ton of pick-your-own fruits and vegetables, especially central and south jersey. I think you’ll find better prices from the farmers themselves than in the stores. If you look here http://www.state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/searches/pyo.htm you’ll be able to search by what kind of produce you want. It really is the Garden State, I promise. I also recommend those side of the highway farm markets. My first job was in one of those. Many of them get their produce direct from farmers, and it’s much, much fresher.
Hey also, how did you find my blog? I’m always looking for ways to make it more appealing to people generally, and not just our extended friend, coworker, and family circuit.
Cheers,
Everett
I found you while looking for pictures about Mt. St. Helens and the ash cloud in Walla Walla for a children’s story at church this weekend. That is where the google search started and where it ended was at your blog (and the realization that this is MOther’s Day weekend so I will have to find a sappy story about moms and can’t do the cool presentation about the upcoming anniversary of the eruption).
I will try again for the u-pick, but my efforts so far have resulted in places that are more “two parts theme park, one part peach orchard”. I don’t want an authentic hayride to pick green fruit. One of my early jobs was working at a food cannery. I expect professionalism in food production!!
The nick-name “Muddy-Frogwater” was around in my high school days in the late 70s/early 80s. They have really run with it lately though. I think that the Milton-Freewater sounded a little stuffy, especially with the hyphen and connotation of John Milton so we thought we should poke a little fun at ourselves. (And I just named a puppet: Milton Frogwater 😉 )
As far as increasing readership, you are a good writer and deserve it. I’m not sure how to go about it, but I know that Trent at “The Simple Dollar” has a series of posts about creating a successful blog. I think one thing you might try is posting comments on successful blogs with a link to this one. So you might post a comment about the financial struggles of moving to a new area on The Simple Dollar and then have a link to your blog. You’ve lived in DC, I’m sure you can segue into anything if you try.
Have you gone to a small town fireworks celebration? That is one of the great things about small towns. The fireworks are close enough to feel.
Oh, and please don’t make the mistake of thinking that the students of either college in the area are “locals”. They aren’t. They may be nice enough, but not local Walla Wallans.
Bye…