Breaking and Entering, flat tires, and thank god for fires

We've had an interesting week...Because we live in a 100 year old house, it has finicky locks. In fact, we've locked ourselves out of our house a total of 4 times now. The first 2 times we were lucky, because we accidentally left another door open. The 3rd time was right before we were leaving for the weekend, and we were outside getting a picture set up with the tripod, when the wind blew the door shut. And it automatically locks. Great. So we had to call the manager of the house to come let us in (thankfully they were still open as it was Friday afternoon...never know around here). I knew our luck would run out, and last week, as we were leaving for work, I of course forgot my pager so had to come back, and realized my key wasn't turning the lock. Apparently there is some round part on the inside of the door that if you push it, it's like a deadlock from the outside. Stupid. So we were officially locked out. I was late for work. My resourceful hubby was able to get in through the back window, climb over the stove and open the door. Nice. We are extra careful now.

Over the weekend we were having a nice drive along the beaches toward Wellington. One of the hazards of driving on the left side of the road when you are used to the right, is that you tend to take left handed curves a little sharply...yeah. So that's what we managed to do, completely busting the tire of our rental car on the curb. We listened as the air whistled out. Luckily, we befriended the "chemist" and she let us use the phone to sort out the fixing of the tires. All in all, from the time of the flat, to the time we got a spare, drove to the tire shop and had a new tire put on, it took less than 1.5 hours. Pretty impressive actually. The rest of the trip was uneventful thankfully. It did hail in Wellington, which was quite unpleasant. And I've never experienced the wind like that. Even in North Dakota where there are no trees. This wind was fierce.

Finally we returned home, and it was the coldest night yet. I think it got down to at least 40 degrees, maybe less. And whatever temp it was outside, it was equally as cold inside. I actually wore a winter hat to bed. I'm hoping the weather is going to turn around soon. But it definitely makes me glad I won't be here in the winter. Cheers!