Monday

I took an impromptu vacation from this Update. It isn't that I left town or did anything that really took a lot of time; I just didn't write. I should probably drop a note about last Tuesday, though, when Ms. Hương did not actually cook us dog, of course, but did cook some really fabulous prawn and tomato soup with pineapple (one of my favorite Vietnamese soups, and maintaining the status quo re: my near-vegetarianism). In the process something went wrong with the stove. Luckily, whatever it was didn't short the whole apartment's power out until just after the food was done and set out on our little glass coffee table. Ms. Hương called maintenance up to the apartment before leaving us to eat our food in the dark. Ambient. I tried to get the circuit box to reset, but each time there was a loud thump in the wall near the oven and the power went back out. Eventually, the technician came up and, using my flashlight, decided there was nothing to be done about the issue until Wednesday; but he got the rest of the power back on by disabling the stove. After that, the evening went as planned: Sunshine attended the late closing ceremony of altruistic hip-replacement surgeons, and I wrote my April Fools' Day blog (the one right before this one). The next day, maintenance came around to completely take apart the stovetop, laying it all over the floor. Their arrival coincided with my leaving the apartment for a few hours, and by the time I arrived home again, the mess was cleared away and all the circuits were working again. It remains to be seen whether this fix is permanent, but there were no more power problems throughout the rest of the week. [Cavin]