When The Cat Is Away, Murphy Will Play

Keeping warm with a furnace

Who is Murphy?  Murphy's Law, of course!  As stated in my last blog post, David, Madeline and I just returned from Indiana on Monday......just enough time to unpack suitcases, do laundry, and re-pack a suitcase for David.  David departed  for Turkey on Saturday morning.  He is traveling to Istanbul, Turkey and Bursa, Turkey for work. 

The Blue Mosque - Istanbul, Turkey

I am happy to report that this is the last major trip on David's agenda until after "Porkchop" is born.  All of us (David, Madeline & I) are happy about this as David's travel has been fairly regular as of late.  Although there are two other travel items (May & June), they are domestic trips and fairly quick jaunts. 

Bosporus Straight - David's apartment is next to tower in middle of pic.  Tower is Galata Tower

David's apartment is on the 4th floor of the peach building that is jutting out.

The international travel, of course, had to go out in grand fashion.....and this is where Murphy's Law comes into play.  As usual, *something* always happens when David leaves town.  Last month, when David was in Germany, we got a fairly large snowfall.  Certainly my pregnant butt wasn't about to heave snow and so I simply waited for the "solar plow" to melt the snow a few days later.  This time around you could say that I have been a bit more inconvenienced.

Grand Bazaar - Istanbul

The first (and most minor) breakage was Madeline's baby monitor.  Although Madeline rarely gets up during the night, I like to sleep with the monitor on due to the location of our rooms.  I want to be able to hear if she does awaken during the night or, heaven forbid, if there is an intruder.  Luckily, we have a second "listening" receiver that can replace the broken one......an easy fix but a minor annoyance to add to the list of other Murphy's Law items since David departed.

Turkish food - Appetizer (middle) a pastrami quiche and Main Course a Shepherd's pie type thing with lamb

During this week that David is gone, Madeline's school is on spring break.  I normally use the 3 mornings per week that Madeline is in school to tackle items that I need to catch up on around the house.  No school for Madeline means no break at all for Mama.  Although I am not a big advocate of an "electronic babysitter", you can imagine that turning on an educational PBS show here and there can come in quite handy during a week such as this.  Unless of course Murphy visits.....that's right, our cable is on the fritz.  This means no DVRed kids shows for Madeline as well as no pay-per-view chick flicks for Mama in the evenings once Madeline is in bed (a treat for me when David travels).  Not good when you call the cable company and, after completing some diagnostics over the phone they say, "That doesn't sound good".  And so, I have to wait until the cable company can come out on Tuesday.

The biggest inconvenience, however, was the furnace.  Yep, our furnace (which is just over 1 year old) broke.  Now, for all my southern friends, you might not think that this would be an issue for the end of April however, here in Buffalo, temperatures have been below normal with highs in the upper 30's/low 40's.  Although David was able to lead me through some diagnostic things over the phone from JFK airport, I ended up having to call the heating company.  Although the heating company responded quickly, they weren't able to obtain the replacement part needed (gas valve) over the weekend and so Madeline and I spent the weekend without heat.
 

David on Skype from apartment in Istanbul

As far as David's travel goes, he is keeping busy with meetings while in Turkey.  He feels better about checking in on me while he is gone and I enjoy hearing about the different things he gets to see on his limited free time.  I especially enjoy seeing pictures of where he is as well as our time to talk over Skype when he is done with his day.  Although David and I have traveled to many places together, I look forward to a time that we can travel together again.  Maybe one day, after retirement (if that ever happens!!) we can travel the world and explore exotic lands together.  Sigh....nice to dream about. Instead of Murphy's inconveniences, I just need to count our blessings, in particular being married to someone with whom I would want to travel the world.