The apartment echo-amplification effect

Over the last few days, as I've kept the windows open to generate air flow, I've noticed something peculiar about my apartment. For some reason, the acoustics in my bedroom (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the apartment) are such that things happening on the street sometimes sound like they're happening in my bedroom. The sound bounces off the wall or something, so that even though the window's to my right, the conversation sounds like it's coming from the left side of my bedroom. Sometimes I'll be in the kitchen and swear I can hear someone in the living room.

It is extremely disconcerting.

I'm slowly getting used to it, but the first time it happened, when I was dozing off to sleep and all of a sudden there were people in my apartment... well, let's just say I was no longer dozing for a while.

Oh, the things we learn to live with...

Adventures in cooking: Tex-Mex Fideo

For those who have been paying attention, my recent cooking attempts have been going well. Too well. We were just about due for an honest-to-goodness, exploding-kitchen adventure. An adventure that results in, among other things, a broken pan, a shirt full of vermicelli noodles, a narrowly averted fire, and a completely inedible end result.

Perhaps I should back up a moment.

Tonight was one of those rare nights since Marc left where I was home alone for dinner. Though I'd contemplated going out, I decided that I should save my money and cook instead. I had a hankering for vermicelli noodles, and I even had a pack of vermicelli noodles, but I had no idea what to do with them other than cook them up and top with peanut sauce. I wanted something better than that, so I found a recipe for tex-mex fideo. It seemed simple enough, and I liked all the ingredients (except the chillies, which I decided to omit), so it was into the kitchen I went.

It started off so well. I got the onions nice and brown, tossed in the garlic and got those nice and brown, and then it was time to put in the vermicelli. Which is when everything went to hell.

( The adventure continues behind this link. )