"Yes, I'd like to put in a request for a day off. Wait, what? Moms don't get those?! May I speak with your manager please?" Sigh. Why do I have the feeling this will go nowhere? Don't worry, I'm not about to put in my resignation or anything yet. :-p

You guys, it is warm out there! Downright balmy, in fact. It is all the way up to zero degrees, which is 30 to 40 degrees warmer than we've had in nearly two weeks (with the exception of Wednesday, but we've already cried together over that one). And Finn is sick in bed with a nasty cough and moderate fever. And he won't stop crying because... his finger hurts? What in the world?! Can I be done momming now? I stayed home from meeting with the boys this morning. We snuggled in bed listening to audiobooks.

Our friends here were in the hospital for a week with fevers and coughs, so hopefully that isn't what Finn has. We bought a thermometer at the Pharmacy and it is a piece of junk. Finn's temperature registered at 35.6 (normal is 37) so I decided to test it on myself. I get 36 +/- 1.5 degrees for back-to back tests, so essentially the stupid thing tells us nothing. Ugh. What a waste. I'll guess we'll just keep monitoring his temperature by feeling his forehead.

It is interesting how there is very little quality control here. For example, we live in the nicest apartment building in our neighborhood, yet there are broken tiles in the entrance and on our balcony, we have laminate flooring that you can feel voids under, our living room lights don't work, one window is broken shut, a door is broken open, a radiator valve is stripped so we can't turn it off, and about half of our trim is either missing or dangling in place. Some of these things are the result of our landlady not maintaining the place, but there is just a culture of low quality here too. I'm always amazed when I walk into a fancy new building with clean shiny floors only to feel the tiles wiggle and grind beneath my feet.

Luckily, I don't feel like the quality issue applies to food. Sure, the apples aren't all uniformly perfect, but they are authentic, if you will. It's like shopping at a farmer's market, where everything is grown organically and harvested by hand. That is one thing I'm definitely going to miss whenever we do move home; the abundance of cheap real food (although the excessive variety we've grown accustomed to in the States will be welcomed). Have I mentioned how buttery and delicious the potatoes are? I never used to like potatoes all that much, but I blame the russets! What a sad excuse for a potato! And it is mandarin season here so we buy a kilo from the little produce stand on the corner and nearly polish them all off in one sitting. SO good!

I'm rambling. But I'm stuck beneath a sleeping Lev with only my phone as entertainment and you all are sleeping, so IG and FB are failing me. Did I just say I was bored? That might be a first since moving here! Ok, I'm done now. Let me know when you decide to come visit and give me a day off :-)