Let the Record Show

I love our apartment. Really I do. It's cozy and beautiful, it has a great layout, it's in a nice neighborhood, and the management is just the right degree of attentive. But ceramic tile and cute archways don't make for good blogging the way that cracked walls, broken water heaters, out-of-control boilers, intrusive maintenance guys, neighbors' leaky toilets, and giant bugs do. Also good blogging: this place smells like pee. Now, don't go jumping to conclusions--our cats use the litter box every single time. But some people's pets use the side of our building, and our windows, well, they're at ground level. I knew all about this months ago and had gotten over it because it's never really been an issue. Once or twice I noticed a faint urinous smell seeping under the windows, so I tossed an odor absorber onto the sill and it went away. But last week I walked in the door after work and was immediately smacked in the face with the smell of pee. Eric had the same experience that night, and if Eric notices an odor, it's pretty smelly.

So there are odor absorbers in the window sills that haven't quite accomplished their task yet, and every time we come home we gag a little on the smell and light a candle until our noses get worn out on urine and stop registering it. It's gross, but it's got to be temporary, right? I'm blaming it on the weather: today it was at least thirty degrees warmer than it was a week ago, and half a winter's worth of animal pee is melting and warming and reeking right outside our windows. Eventually it'll freeze again, and later there will be rain to wash it away.

And then our apartment will be perfect again.