Sweaters and Blankets and Space Heaters, oh my!

Without wifi, my usage of phone data skyrocketed and I have had to back off on my internet addiction. Unfortunately, that included blogging. However, Mr. Man solved my plight by lending me his iPad.

Since I last wrote, we have painted some sort of sealing goop onto the roof. It did a fabulous job, so the RV is nice and dry now. Which is good, because right after we did it, it poured for days, causing flooding.

The rain also brought cooler weather with it, so I grabbed all my warm stuff. I get cold easily. Right now I'm in a nest of blankets with the space heater running. It's probably 60 something outside.

Mr. Man and I moved almost everything out of the apartment. We will finish that next weekend and then we will have the two cats living with us as well. That should be interesting. At least I will have company during the day.

Pineapple on a Patio

Back in August, Mr. Man and I went to Dallas with some friends. While we were there, we bought a pineapple at the Farmer's Market. The pineapple sample was really good, so I decided to try to grow a pineapple from the top.

After getting it to root successfully, I finally potted it this weekend. We brought it back to the RV.

We also bought an indoor/outdoor rug from Camping World. After all the rain, we decided we wanted to try to prevent mud at the doorway. So, today I set up our outdoor patio area with table, chairs, and pineapple. Mr. Man says he will work on getting the awning down.

And the rains came down

Texas has been in a drought for most of the year. The weathermen like to panic about this, but it's pretty normal. My mom told me it would rain in September. Here we are in September and it is forecast to rain all day. Normally, I would celebrate the rain, but there's a problem.

The RV has a leak. Actually, it has two. One is a hole somewhere on the roof. Mr. Man got up early this morning when it wasn't raining and tried to fix it. The fix lasted through one rain shower, but not the next. The other leak is in the bathroom. The seal on the vent in there is leaking. It's almost directly over the toilet, though, so it's not a big deal.

The other one has a pot underneath it, happily collecting drips. I'll empty it when it gets full. Luckily, I have a rain jacket and boots, so I will stay dry no matter where the rain is.

Entertainment

As I said in my first post, the RV park has full hookups. This always means you will at least have access to city water, electricity, and a sewage connection.

When the RV is on electric (or a generator is running), the air conditioning unit and outlets work. So, we have a/c and we can plug in whatever we might want (laptops, microwaves, and tv).

The RV didn't have a tv or a microwave, so last night we went and bought them. At the end of the post, you can see a picture of our tv (a 19 inch Insignia HDTV/DVD combo). This little tv is awesome! It has low power usage (so if we go to solar, we won't have issues running it), it has the DVD player built in (space is always a consideration), and it has every possible connection you can think of (from VGA to HDMI). Last night we watched Epic (bought it as a $5 DVD) and the only complaint was the volume level. On TV mode, it's plenty loud.

We thought that the site had a cable hookup, because there are actually two coaxial cables to plug into. However, neither of them works. I went to the office to ask if cable was included or not, but it was closed until 6... So our little bunny ears are doing the job right now (yay digital breakup when a semi goes past on the highway).

The second picture is of our cute little microwave. We could have gone bigger but we decided that space won over power. Only $49. Thank you college students for making small microwaves cheap in the fall.

The microwave was necessary because the lp gas tube connection is having some issues and the gas is empty. We do have a propane camp stove and a few tanks but since we have electric, that's being saved for emergencies. Plus, we can cook without heating up the RV.

The Ants Come Marching

Our first night in the RV, we ran into some problems. When we moved the RV OUT of storage, we noticed a few ants. Mr. Man said that they sometimes climb up pipes and such.

Throughout that first day, I was randomly bitten by a few ants. It hurt. I was starting to think they were possibly fire ants.

During the night, the ants made their way up to the bed and kept biting Mr. Man. He was itching all over and didn't feel well. As it turns out, they were fire ants and Mr. Man is allergic! I had to drive us to Wal-Mart at 1 am to get benadryl for him. After the benadryl, he felt better and all of the swelling went down some. Thank goodness, because I was starting to panic.

We also bought some Raid Ant and Roach spray and he sprayed the ever-living daylight out of the RV. I am happy to report I haven't seen any ants or been bitten since.

The RV Life

So through various happenstance, Mr. Man and I are now residing in his rv. This RV is only slightly younger than I am (it was born in 1989) so it's been well-loved.

I have lived in the RV with Mr. Man and his friend when he was doing Ride the Rockies, back in June. It was different then because we were in a different town each night and the various "campground" setups meant we weren't sure what to expect before we got there.

We are currently parked north of a city right off of the intersection of two major highways. The RV park has full hookups (more on that later) and some nice teenage trees. It used to be a farm, which we both agree is a great way to keep the family land.

Our first night here, we had quite an adventure, which I will cover in my next post. For now, here is a tour of my humble abode.

(I am using the blogger app so bear with me).

First, the exterior. When we walk in the door using the handy folding foot stool, we are greeted by the dining room. To our right is the bedroom with the closet/cab below. To the left, is the kitchen and off of that is the bathroom and second bedroom.

The dining table can fold down into another bed if needed, but we don't need it. The back bedroom is probably meant to be the main bedroom, but Mr. Man put the better mattress in the loft. The kitchen has a small fridge (not pictured), a sink, a gas oven and range. The RV is too old to have a microwave installed so we bought one yesterday (the gas is on the fritz). That also means the water heater doesn't work at the moment, but the sun heats the water in the hose pretty damn well.

Three Strand Twist Braid

Happy 4th of July! In honor of the festivities, I present you a tutorial for a three strand twist braid. It is put together looking, but quick, and gets your hair off your neck for maximum coolness.

Learning to Crochet

I taught myself to knit from diagrams and internet videos (knittinghelp.com was a great source) back when I was in high school. By the time I found a knitting group at my church in college, I was a fairly skilled knitter. But in that group, there were ladies who could crochet.

Crocheting, for me, was impossible. Patterns that called for a crochet edging didn't get one. I couldn't even figure out a chain, much less a crochet pattern.

However, I recently stumbled across these baby sandals which are, of course, crocheted! My sister can crochet, but wasn't interested in teaching me. However, Mr. Man learned how to crochet when he was a little boy. His grandmother taught all of her grandkids to crochet, so he taught me!

Homemade French Loaf in an Hour

This weekend, we celebrated Mr. Man's stepfather's birthday. They were making steak and I wanted to bring something, so I made up a loaf of bread from scratch. This bread needs no special tools (you don't even need a loaf pan), no crazy ingredients (although you have to get some yeast), and no kneading! It's a quick yeast bread. Oxymoron, I know.

Let Them Eat Pizza!

Cleaning yesterday went brilliantly well. I had done most of the regular tasks in about an hour and then had time to watch an episode of Pretty Little Liars while I waited for the freshly mopped kitchen floor to dry. I made a lovely grilled cheese of turkey and pepperjack for lunch and then set forth on tackling cleaning the fridge.

Domestic Diva: Cleaning Schedules

Mr. Man's brother and sister-in-law are coming to stay for the rest of the week. They are celebrating their fifth anniversary by going to a water park which is very close to the apartment and are saving money by staying with us.

Mr. Man is a no clutter sort of person, but not a clean sort of person. When he says the apartment is filthy, what he means is that every thing isn't in its place. When I say something is filthy, I mean it is physically dirty. Don't get me wrong, he wipes down the kitchen counters with a Chlorox wipe every so often and the Roomba runs every night. But things like dusting and sweeping? He can't remember the last time he did one of those things. Heck, when I met him, he didn't own a mop!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

You can't ever get a good picture of it because it goes so fast!

So the other day we went to the grocery store without a menu or a list. I was hungry. Shopping hungry never works, because everything looks so delicious. But we had to go, because I was making sopapilla cheesecake for a dessert contest at the complex's summer pool party.

Nail Varnish Review: Revlon Neon Atomic Pink

So, sometimes a girl has just gotta have some pink in her life. I wanted some hot pink nail polish and found a duo that has a white base to give the neon color more pop.

New Beginnings

Some people believe in starting things only on a Monday, because it has some sort of magical appeal. Luckily, I am not one of those people. Before Mr. Man left for work this morning, I mentioned that we should go grocery shopping today. He agreed. This might seem like nothing, but we have been eating out way more than is good for us and my jeans are getting tight.

So, I have decided to chronicle this journey of exercise, home-cooking, cleaning, and every other thing that could turn a woman into a veritable Martha Stewart.