"Your House Did Not Asplode"

Yay! We didn’t explode! Our house did not explode! And we’re having a mini stay-cation! Wahoo!

I should probably start with the exploding business. Tuesday night when I had my routine bathroom visit i thought the hallway smelled like gas. In the morning it still smelled when you first walked out of the bedroom, but you didn’t notice it after a little while. So we forgot about it. Then I got home from work and after smelling the fresh rainy air, it definitely smelled like gas inside. I was in a bit of denial and made tea, which was a stupid idea, but at least our stove is electric so there was no open flame. Brian called the gas company and then called me and told me to leave the house. Ugh. So I took my cup of tea and bowl of cereal (yes, afternoon breakfast. I do that sometimes) and sat in the car. because it was raining. The gas company came and it was not a false alarm, but it was also not a major emergency yet (or I might still be in denial). A valve that did not get replaced when the new furnace was installed was leaking. So it was easy to find and easy to fix. And we did not blow up.

I have been working extra hours on Mondays which means I have other random days off during the week. This time I got a lovely four day weekend, having today and tomorrow off. Brian surprised me on Tuesday by announcing he got the days off too! We had thrown some ideas around about a little trip for our anniversary, but since we didn’t plan anything in advance we decided to stay home and enjoy our own town.
After the gas excitement we kicked off the stay-cation by going to the East side of town. Which I guess is a West-sider’s vacation spot. But really, we thought we would get some half-priced Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish Grill because it was Wednesday. But there was a 50 minute wait. Too long. So we headed to Bradley Fair where we immediately got seated at Bella Luna and enjoyed some lovely pasta (although I think I’ll go back to my regular next time). Then we walked a bit as it was no longer raining, and I wanted to check out Francesca’s because I’ve seen cute things there, but never been in. I got a dress. It has tiny whales on it. I have weddings to go to this spring. And Brian bought it as an anniversary gift.
Then we had to go to Cocoa Dolce. They have the best hot chocolate ever. Well, they have the best everything chocolate ever, and beverage form seemed appropriate with the weather. After way too much chocolate to drink we came home happy.

Today has been pretty lazy. More like a Saturday, without feeling like we need to accomplish things around the house. I’ve been wanting to finish up painting a dresser, but I ended up experimenting in the kitchen instead. I guess that was my creative outlet today. I made peanut sauce with rice for lunch. My former roommate used to make it, so I kind of just made it up as I went, using coconut milk and peanut butter as the base and adding sriracha and lime juice and other things that struck my fancy. Then this afternoon I made some chicken salad. I’ve been craving it for a little while, so I pretty much made it up too. I cooked the chicken in lots of curry seasoning and added grapes and celery and pecans. It might need some more miracle whip, but you have to be careful with it, you know? You don’t want to over do a thing like that.

So, now there’s a fresh cup of tea and a new episode of Psych (watched on amazon) calling my name. I think I’ll go indulge in some more vacation.