Tonight Tommers came over for dinner (I made this awesome turkey bacon-wrapped chicken stuffed with spinach, garlic, and pepperjack cheese, with some sauteed garlic-olive oil broccoli and wheat spiral noodles) to celebrate the arrival of my new sofa. I put a picture of her on Flickr. *sighs of joy*

Through the evening's conversation I realized that I now have three items of clothing that I will probably never wear again because they've been challenged beyond their elastic limits (so, uh, we're talking about the plastic deformation region if you were to plot stress vs strain of the fabric? uh ah what's going on - I totally just dorked out, and yes, I have a fully functioning "delete" button but I'm choosing to let you all laugh at me instead like I just did for thinking that). Those items include two red dresses that Andy borrowed for the Red Dress Hash 2 weeks before Katrina (sponsored by some running club, men and women get up in red dresses and race through the French quarter, stopping to get the beer that is handed out along the way instead of water) and my Old Navy pink flowered tie-back low-cut cotton shirt that Chris swapped me for exactly a week ago. And by "swapped" I do mean that I was then wearing his black and some other colors stripped button down. Sexy.

I took the day off work to get the sofa, and while waiting for it to arrive around 2pm, I WASHED MY ENTIRE FRIDGE. AND FREEZER. Have you ever washed an entire appliance before? Have you?

It didn't so much smell as the entire floor of the fridge was COVERED WITH SMALL BLACK BUGS. Gnats/flies/ebola carriers, whatever you want to call them, they decided to move into my house, live it up on my rotting cream cheese, have nasty gnat sex on every shelf of my fridge -- I'll give it to 'em for doing it on all the vertical AND horizontal surfaces -- and then all DIE. I was hoping that once I had taken the FOUR HOURS to clean out the mass grave that was my food preservation unit, there would be peace in my world. The bugs would stay outside and I would stay inside. We'd respect each other's space. By God, these 4 walls are all I've got -- you bugs have limitless boundaries on places to pester other people!

But no. No, no, no. All that wild bug fornication was clearly fruitful because post-cleanup I am once again the owner of a very cold cemetary that also happens to be a conveniently cold storage box. And I'm boycotting cleaning it again because I know those bugs probably did it like unprotected monkeys before dying a very cold, but sexually satisfied, death. So there. Tommers says that so long as I stop leaving plates of raw, spongiform-infected beef around I should be ok. Damn.

Luckily my resident mold friends were much more cooperative in their eviction today. I mixed my first ever bucket of bleach and water to disinfect the few spots around the house that were growing a thin layer of fuzzy, greenish-black mold. It was really satisfying to wipe that sponge over a particularly hairy spot and see it dissolve in seconds. I felt hardcore, too, with my yellow PPE kitchen gloves on. HSE, wha what?! (hehe that's Health Safety and Environment for my non-work friends out there, and PPE is Personal Protective Equipment. I think.)

In driving around today, the mounds of trash started to blend into the fabric of the landscape, and I didn't feel as depressed by how somber everything looked. Maybe it's because I had just fought my own battle against death (those gnat hussies!) and done a little of my own destroying (take that mold, mildew, and soap scum!); at the same time, though, I don't want to lose my sensitivity to the uniqueness of what's going on. It's becoming precariously normal. I filed for my homestead exemption today. And drilled some exploratory wells in my wall where the paint has bubbled up. Normal.

I'd also like to mention that I've had NPR on since I got home at 4:30 today, which means that for the past 2 hours Tom and I, and then just me, listened to classical music. In my grown up house. aaaaa!! Have I mentioned how much I love having a couch? To lounge on while stealing my neighbor's unsecured wireless internet access (I probably shouldn't write that here, huh?) and listening to *ahhhh* classical music. I have arrived.... :)