The Moving Issue, Updated

Happy Tuesday, everybody! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was good, though we didn't do much. We ran errands on Post, bought groceries....the normal boring stuff. Saturday was Vivian's 2nd birthday party, and we had a blast! There was a cool (and delicious!) butterfly-shaped cake, a tree swing that Jericho loved, and tie-dyed t-shirts as party favors. So much fun! On Sunday we had made plans to go to the lake, but once we got there we realized everyone had the same idea. There were so many people, we couldn't even get the car down to the end of the parking lot to find a space. Out of frustration (and a little motion sickness on my part), we gave up and headed home, vowing that our next lake visit would be on a weekday.

So my neighbor downstairs is moving back to the States. I'm kind of glad; her dogs can be heard barking from upstairs, even at night. I like the couple just fine, but I'll be happy to have a little peace and quiet until new people move in.

I was standing on my balcony yesterday afternoon, hanging Jericho's infant car seat out to dry, when my upstairs neighbor came out and asked me if we had mold or mildew anywhere in the walls of our house. We do, in our garage. About 15 feet of lower wall space is literally flaking off in chunks from moisture in the wall. Some of our belongings - including Jericho's infant car seat and stroller frame that are stored by that wall - have gotten moldy and damaged from the moisture. She went on to tell me that she'd spent 4 hours at Housing the other day, and is having an inspector come out to survey the damage in her bedroom. When she showed me the pictures of the walls in her room, we agreed the damage should be taken care of. She also mentioned that she was told if the damage is bad enough, the building would be condemned and we'd be allowed to move. That's good news, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. We exchanged phone numbers, and if I'm not home when the inspector comes, she's going to give me a call and an update on the result. If I happen to be here then the inspector will gladly be invited to see the spots of mold in our bedroom as well.

I never thought I'd be so glad to have something as yucky as mold in my house!