2007-12-20 - 5:07 p.m.

...crunch,.knock knock...slam..MEOW...vroom..munch munch..sigh....

Today has been an interesting and rather full day. Early - VERY early - this morning, I heard some extremely strange sounds emanating from the street. It was a loud CRUNCH and then a dragging sound. I said something to Klaus, "that sounds like an accident" before promptly falling back to sleep.

Then at about 9am this morning there was an insistent knocking at the door. A gentleman came to inquire if I knew anything about his car - which seemingly vanished in the middle of the night. In fact, I DID know something about the car - I described the sounds that I heard, and when I thought that I heard them. It seems that someone had come and completely dragged his car off the street - but not just the street - up over our yard as well. K and I have since installed a club on our steering wheel.

Then I emptied the dishwasher and took a coffee up to K, as he needed to remove all of our things from the carpet before the carpet cleaner arrived. The cleaner arrived only a half-hour late (which is basically on time for contract work). The landlady brought him in both doors before we had a chance to secure the cats - Mizzy went postal, cried and panicked when she was inadvertently locked in the kitchen, and then raced out of the house and down the back alley. Sigh. We waited around for another half hour and finally the terrified furrball returned and I was able to escort her up to a suitable hiding place in the attic.

The landlady left, I guess assuming that we would deal with the contract worker. But we left, as well. K was seriously not in the mood to deal with this. And really, isn't the carpet our landlord's problem??

By this time we had put together a list of chores for the day, involving some Christmas shopping, some driving about town, and lunch at the botanical gardens. We completed our shopping and then made it to lunch - which was a gift card from my parents. And at this point I think we both visibly relaxed.

It was a lovely date. I don't remember what we talked about. I rarely do. But I do know that I love going out to lunch or for a drink with K because we succeed in removing all other distractions and are able to talk and have fun (which we did).

Afterwards we took a lovely stroll through the botanical gardens, which are fully decorated with Christmas lights. It was cold - but invigorating and kinda romantic to walk through the gardens while it was still light and completely empty. And by the end of our walk the sun was getting lower in the sky and the Christmas lights throughout the garden were coming on. We lingered in the cold as long as we could before moving on.

And then essentially we drove through a couple of neighborhoods, did a quick shopping stop at a grocery store (when you are in the car, it makes sense to buy big heavy things), and then came home. The carpet is still wet, but we've cranked up the heat. Both cats are downstairs, purring loudly, and meowing for food. Clearly the trauma didn't last...

I think I will go into the living room and start a fire (I'm still chilled through from the walk I guess) and then curl up with more of my latest reading. If you have to deal with a wet carpet, you might as well do it in style!