it’s officially the start of summer, because i start “flexing” every other friday. the deal at work is this: we still have to put in our 10 days worth of hours, but if we can do it in 9 days, we get every other friday off.

now, about 90% of me wanted to stay home, sleep, eat, play wii, etc … but with 72 degree weather, and working for an organization with “nature” in the title, it seemed like the slacking could wait until those 102 degree days in July.

so, i hopped on my bicycle, and headed up the C&O Canal Towpath that runs along the Potomac towards West Virginia. The trail head is four hilly miles from our place but, once on the path, it’s mercifully flat for the rest of the 35 mile round trip.

there really are about ten days out of the year where D.C. is the most beautiful place on earth, and i just got lucky with one of them.

after a week of searching, we found the water heater … and i snagged these never-before-seen pictures through a three inch hole in a cabinet only findable after removing the refrigerator.

if you look at this picture from when we moved in, the water heater is to the right of the refrigerator, under the marble counter top.

it’s startlingly hard to believe who would think it was a good idea to completely enclose the water heater with cabinets, marble, and 2 exterior walls (less the 3 inch hole blocked by the fridge, of course) … but at least we found it and it doesn’t look too, too ancient.

We’re in Houston for Memorial Day/the lady sparkler’s Birthday, and spent last night with Nadine and Nadav at Minute Maid Park. (Tasha’s parents had a prior engagement to see Pink Martini.) Great park, great game … which Houston won 4-3 by gunning down the tying run at home plate, with the bases loaded, for the final out.

Speaking of sports, i just read a story out of Washington State where a senior softball player in her final game blew her ACL after hitting a home run, and was carried around the bases by the opposing team. Incredible. I cried like a baby.

Speaking of crying like a baby, the only other time i’ve gotten misty during SportsCenter was a segment about an autistic teen who scored 20 points off the bench in the first and only basketball game of his high school career. (turns out that segment was nominated for an Emmy, so i wasn’t the only one bawling, fwiw.)

(p.s. insert your “evan/girl” or “tasha/pants” jokes in the comments.)

your not going to believe this, but we can’t find our hot water heater. you would think this would be something that would be hard to miss, especially in a 700 sq. ft. apartment, but it appears that we are “special” people.

last summer when we moved in, our building inspector came in and showed us around the place. he talked us through the a/c, the furnace, the annoying glass-top stove, etc. about half way through, he said “oh, it looks like you guys have communal hot water, so there must be a building-wide water heater down in the basement.”

we didn’t think anything else about it.

… until yesterday. for reason’s too boring to explain, I was emailing with some people from the condo board (more on that later) and asked how the communal hot water worked.

they said there was no communal hot water.

so, i just came home and started looking around for where a hot water heater might be stashed. looked in the closets. looked in the laundry. looked through a this weird, tiny little 9″ x 9″ access hatch located behind our refrigerator (actually, it was too small to look, so i stuck a camera through and took the picture above.)

nothing. not just that, but i honestly don’t know what to do next.

in other news, the reason i was emailing with the condo board members was because they saw fit to elected / appoint me to the board three days ago. a board member was itching to get off — he had moved out of the building and is now renting his place out — and i was a warm body who didn’t know better to say no.

the funny punchline to this is that they asked me to be the treasurer. now, for those of you who don’t know a thing about me … i’ve never been paid to manage a budget, haven’t taken a math class since 1991, and had a legitimate shot of being a triple Theater / Russian / Geology major. (notice the one thing in common? no math.)

anyway, i agreed to serve on the board, but politely turned down the treasurer position, saying that we would be open to a “gross negligence” lawsuit if i said yes. volunteered to be secretary, or internal communications specialist, or streak through the hallways naked … basically anything that didn’t involve math.

*sigh*

funny that it hasn’t sunk in before now, with the life insurance policy, the joint bank accounts, the house, the mortgage, all the name change paperwork she filed, and (not to mention) that whole ceremony/reception/honeymoon thing, but …

… it turns out we really are married.

what made me realize this was, tonight, when i noticed tasha’s name change application to “facebook” had finally been accepted (they hand-review each name change to limit fraud).

funny that i lobbied her to *keep* her old name, and have so far kept up my boycott by continuing to scream “Spindler!” at her, regardless. she’s been unswayed, however, and i guess if facebook sees us as evan and tasha parker, who’s to argue?