Speaking of getting domestic, I dropped some big bucks and special ordered some nice Italian furniture. Of course, it won't come in until October, so anybody who visits before then will be subjected to my standard green cloth couch and loveseat.
I also spent most of the afternoon yesterday doing yard work. I realized that this is the first time I've ever mowed my own lawn. Mostly because I've never lived in a place that had a lawn before. I think the house I shared in Saratoga is the only place I've lived that had a yard, but it was pretty much just mud in the summer and fall, and tundra (permafrost?) in the winter. Not a lot of mowing involved.
Did you know there's such an invention as an electric lawnmower? Yeah, neither did I, but that's what I borrowed from the landlord to cut the grass. It draws about as much power as an electric razor, and the blade is roughly the same size as one, too. So a lawn that should have taken me at most 10-15 minutes to mow took a good 45 minutes. Then I figured, why stop there? So I weeded most of the yard. All around the perimeter along the fence, I pulled or cut everything down to size. And I have all these fruit trees in my yard that somebody decided to put flower gardens around at some point, and of course the flowers were all being choked by weeds. So I went and dug out all those weeds and cleaned up the rocks and made them look generally presentable. And sunburned my back very badly in the process. It really impressed my landlord's mom and her friend, though. When I was done in the yard, they had me over for coffee in their backyard along with another American who lives in the neighborhood and we had almost an entire conversation in (sort of) Italian. The old ladies are very sweet, though; they've brought me pasta almost every day this week. So when I cooked up some ribs on the grill last night, I brought a couple over to return the favor. By their reactions, you would have thought I had just cured cancer. Wow, were they happy.
This weekend was a big step forward for me linguistically. I learned how to say "go." So now instead of telling my neighbors "I to the store today morning," I can tell them, "I GO to the store today morning."
I also spent most of the afternoon yesterday doing yard work. I realized that this is the first time I've ever mowed my own lawn. Mostly because I've never lived in a place that had a lawn before. I think the house I shared in Saratoga is the only place I've lived that had a yard, but it was pretty much just mud in the summer and fall, and tundra (permafrost?) in the winter. Not a lot of mowing involved.
Did you know there's such an invention as an electric lawnmower? Yeah, neither did I, but that's what I borrowed from the landlord to cut the grass. It draws about as much power as an electric razor, and the blade is roughly the same size as one, too. So a lawn that should have taken me at most 10-15 minutes to mow took a good 45 minutes. Then I figured, why stop there? So I weeded most of the yard. All around the perimeter along the fence, I pulled or cut everything down to size. And I have all these fruit trees in my yard that somebody decided to put flower gardens around at some point, and of course the flowers were all being choked by weeds. So I went and dug out all those weeds and cleaned up the rocks and made them look generally presentable. And sunburned my back very badly in the process. It really impressed my landlord's mom and her friend, though. When I was done in the yard, they had me over for coffee in their backyard along with another American who lives in the neighborhood and we had almost an entire conversation in (sort of) Italian. The old ladies are very sweet, though; they've brought me pasta almost every day this week. So when I cooked up some ribs on the grill last night, I brought a couple over to return the favor. By their reactions, you would have thought I had just cured cancer. Wow, were they happy.
This weekend was a big step forward for me linguistically. I learned how to say "go." So now instead of telling my neighbors "I to the store today morning," I can tell them, "I GO to the store today morning."
posted by Chris at 2:33 PM
1 Comments:
I have mowed with electric lawnmower--it is quieter. Using gas power means potentially running over twigs and rocks, making noise and causing cursing. Using electric power means potentially running over power cord--and, with all that electric running through your body, well no time or energy to scream or curse. Be careful, please.
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