Thankful

Today is a day to reflect on and give thanks for those things and circumstances that make our lives what they are.

While some days my complaints are many, I have much to be grateful for.

I am thankful for the family ties I have, limited though they may be. I am doubly blessed by having a battery of friends who more than amply fill the gaps. Collectively, it is their love and support that I think is my greatest gift.

I am thankful to be employed (and, at long last, full-time again!) at a time when so many are without jobs. I'm equally grateful to have leaders within my company who believed enough in the value I could bring to restore my position.

I am thankful for my basic good health – and for insurance that allows me to address those issues I do have.

I am thankful to have a home, despite its never-ending list of projects and issues.

I am thankful to be an American in a country where democracy – despite many ongoing attempts to squelch it – still exists. For all of its flaws and persistent issues, I think it's still the best thing going.

And finally, I am thankful for all of you, that steadfast following of blog readers who bother to keep up with my incredibly sporadic posts. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing today, I hope it is a day filled with joy, peace and love.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Giddy

So often in the past year or so I've been freaked out by something. So often that I should be used to it. Apparently, I'm not.

Today was no exception. This time though it was in a GOOD way. Guess who returns to work full-time on Nov. 15? Go ahead. Guess. I'll wait. Yes, that's right: ME!

After 14 months of keeping my chin up and my mouth shut, (16 months if you add in Ozzie's cancer diagnosis) I get something really and truly GOOD.

I'm not going to take it for granted. I am though going to enjoy a little bit of easier breathing. It's not like we've been destitute; hardly! But, it was a loss that pretty much wiped out my "disposable" income and brought my savings efforts to a complete halt.

I am humbled. I am grateful. And best of all, I am downright giddy! It's a feeling I could get used to.

So, to keep that feeling going, I'm going to "feed" it. And, I'm going to feed it a pumpkin pie Blizzard. Consider it a celebratory treat!

Worst Case Scenario

For the past few weeks, the mother has been on my case about two things: getting the shed doors fixed and getting Ladybird ready for winter.

On the latter, I had a "car episode" earlier this month in which I managed to find – in the space of 10 minutes – that BOTH cars had technical difficulties. I'm happy to report that both cars are once again mechanically sound, an experience that left my bank account a few hundred dollars smaller. But, neither was a "worst case scenario." Whew! And, I still have some to winterize Ladybird now that she is done logging hours in the shop.

On the shed … the weather hasn't been in my favor. I tried for almost two weeks to find the winning combination of 1) a day I could take off work (it's open enrollment season and year end, so very busy) 2) a warm, dry day and 3) a combination of 1 and 2 on which Lawrence was also available. Finally, yesterday was that day. What I thought would take a few hours took four times that. And, what I thought would be our biggest problem wasn't. It was worse. Much worse.

It was so bad in fact that Lawrence uttered a phrase about as negative as it ever gets with him: "That isn't good." Remember when I "pimped" the shed during 2008 (inside) and 2009 (outside)? Lawrence quickly added: "It's a good thing you did what you did or this wall might be gone." This wall referred to the outside front wall, on the side nearest the house. As he pulled away the last piece of plywood from the inside, I saw that the original wall had completely deteriorated, compromising both the outer and inner layers in which I'd encased it. OY!

And I thought the front beam, running adjacent to the opening for the doors, was the worst of it. NOT! For about the past year or so, the rotten wood has taken to raining down every time one of the doors is opened or closed. Not a good scene.

The good news is that Lawrence was up for the challenge and completely oblivious to the thundercloud that loomed above us, starting around lunch time. At that point, the shed was opened up like a tin can, with both doors and the wall in question removed. The sky began to blacken and the wind picked up with ferocity. "What are you going to do to keep the rain out? You aren't going to get those doors back on ahead of the storm," the mother said.

Lawrence, never missing a beat, both answered her question and ignored the comment that had followed it: "I'm going to shut the doors," he said matter-of-factly. I love Lawrence!

About 90 minutes later, he did just that.

We replaced the outer wall and part of the inner wall behind it. He replaced the door frame, put both doors back in, adjusted the main door so that the damn thing finally closes properly and then helped me carefully replace the outside boards. I now have some caulking and painting to do (hoping for a 65-degree or more day soon to do that) but the structure is once again sound. It was a lot of work, but man is it a great feeling to open the shed door and not have rotting wood debris raining on your head!

A Year

It's been a year …

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of life without Ozzie. Hard to think it's been that long. Other times it's harder to think it hasn't been longer.

How I have missed having this view of the world to greet me each day.

Shades of Morning

The morning sky is falling into place.


It takes shape a layer at a time. A layer of purple, a layer of blue, a layer of orange. A layer of pink is thrown somewhat unevenly across the top. Peering at it from my 19th-story perch, it’s as if even the sky is amassing blankets (albeit mismatched, multicolored ones) to brave the brisk pre-dawn air.

I got an interesting perspective on the arrival of daybreak, hiking in from the Landing. When I hike in from that train stop, I am practically ON the river. The walk in leads me up an ascending hill that runs parallel to the Arch (and that makes my heart pound by the time I crest the top.) It takes me past one of the best preserved streets in downtown St. Louis. (Fourth Street, from Washington to Pine.) Well, one half of it anyway. Except for a modern-day parking garage interrupting at Olive, the half of the street that I must cross to looks almost exactly as it has since the 1920s. (And even then, some of its occupant edifices were already in middle age!)

The combined view of nature and historic architecture (and a sudden blast of wind in the 40-degree air) provide a better jolt than the tallest cup of caffeine. I am awake, aware and alive. Even briefly, it feels good to be in my shoes. (Especially since they are my black patent leather loafers that I have affectionately dubbed my “cop shoes.” They are far from the most stylish of my footwear but are among my favorites. An affable, though not always tactful, colleague once asked me if I’d been in the military since my shoes were so shiny.)

As I go to claim my coffee, Josh, the foreign-born clerk, is dutifully reading the morning paper aloud. As I shell out my money, he gets a serious look on his face. “Let me ask you something,” he begins. “If there is to be a cold front, should the temperature not be cold? Yet they say the temperature will be in the 70s.”

I don’t have a degree in meteorology but I do my best to convey a reasonable facsimile of what I heard the weatherman say last night: the front is supposed to move through rather quickly, being pushed out by warmer air. This seems to sate Josh’s current quest for knowledge.

And so, armed with coffee, I am off to pursue my own.

Scrubbery!

It was a busy, busy, busy day at the office. And things didn't slow down when I got home.

The mother was dutifully painting the foundation. So, I joined her outside and got to a task that I didn't get to as part of the annual outdoor cleaning: the fence. Our eight-panel, vinyl privacy fence. Our fence that was filthy and, thanks to me, covered with black scuff marks along the bottom fifth from getting too close with the mower and weedeater.

It was a beautiful afternoon as the sun triumphantly emerged after a morning buried in clouds. And I spent it with a bucket, a hose, a full-size brush, a scrub brush and a fistful of Mr. Clean Erasers. Washing all eight 4x6 panels. Both sides.

This is Step One in repairing said vinyl fence. (The fence, which much like Pearl, was battered by golfball-sized hail during Easter Week 2011.) I have to carefully fill several holes and then caulk them. Luckily, it's only on about three or four of those panels.

That's tomorrow's to-do for when I get home. Fun times.

5 Signs of a Serial DIYer

Think you can spot a serial DIYer? Well, maybe you can.

Here are five warning signs to help you easily pick us out of a crowd. You might know (or be) a serial DIYer if ...

1. Disposable drop cloths have a permanent space on your shopping list. (And among the Top 3 items.)

2. Paint, fillers, caulk and adhesives have their own kitchen cabinet.

3. A drill is as permanent a bathroom fixture as the commode -- and used nearly as much.

4. Watching Doppler on The Weather Channel qualifies as "exciting television."

5. And finally, staff at the local Home Depot and Lowe's stores know you by name AND what you're working on.

Inside and Out

"So you're working on your house …"

That's what the guy two seats up said to me after listening intently to a conversation I'd had with one of my fellow bus riders. (A rider I knew from when I rode the bus every day for a few years.) Because of the threat of severe storms for most of last week, I took to riding the bus again.

I gave a one-word response: Yes.

"What are you working on?"

The temptation to tell him what I am NOT working on was almost too hard to resist, but I managed. Again, a one-word response: Everything. 

And lately, it's true.

Yesterday, for example, we scrubbed the house. This annual event -- usually done in July -- is a pain-staking procedure, in part because the mother has a method and you do not deviate from the method. (The good news is that I was able to go off on my own and run the activity my way while she dealt with other stuff. That's the ONLY reason the house itself got finished.)

Today will be about putting everything, which is now ideally dry, back into place and scrubbing down the few things that didn't get scrubbed when we ran out of daylight. And about mowing. (I tried to tell the mother I should mow FIRST and THEN scrub the house, but … I didn't win the argument.) So, today, I will hear about "the mess" that will inevitably occur when I mow. Sigh.

I snuck in some time one day last week to do a few nip/tucks to the last of the bathroom trim, so ideally, that will go up this week. And then maybe I can focus on ONE thing again for a while.

Plan E

They say the fifth time is a charm.


OK. Maybe they don’t say that, but it seems to be the reality for trying to finish the bathroom. “Plan E” is what I’ve settled on, having gone all the way through Plan F with options.

The weekend was gorgeous. Sunny. Dry. Highs near 70. Saturday was a little blustery with winds gusting up to 30 mph but Sunday? It was perfection.

The mother wanted to scrub the house down (an annual occurrence) but it was too cool in the early mornings (45-50) to play outside with water and I needed to catch up on the recently reappeared yard AND cut the final trim boards for the bathroom. (I would like to finish it this century.) I spent all weekend outside. The weather made me not resent that too much.

You may recall that the trim along the top of the shower surround is the LAST job of any real consequence (besides hanging a few of the mother’s manillion decorative items).

You might also recall that Plan A was to use porcelain 1x6 tiles to both fill the corner gaps and to give a finished look to that edge. I wisely changed my mind. Plan B was to use the trim that I’ve use in myriad other ways throughout the bathroom. (Thin wood trim that matches the chair rail I put up.) The mother put the kibosh on that.

Plan C was something else I don’t even remember but something that never got out of my head. Plan D was “cellular vinyl” exterior trim. My plan was to use it, miter the corners, the thickness of the two boards, ideally filling the rounded corners of the surround. Except that didn’t quite work.

Plan E then become a combination of Plan D and an abandoned element of Plan: corner joiners. This little blocks, which come in a variety of materials, shapes and styles, allow you to join up two corners without mitres. I didn’t mind the mitering; it just left an awkward gap. The joiner fills it pretty close to perfect.

On Sunday, I managed to get the odd little trim pieces cut AND the three pieces for the shower. Carelessly, I left the one that I had carefully cut to allow for the showerhead, temporarily in place while I measured and then cut the longer piece that it will join. I came in from cutting the long piece to find my perfectly-fitted piece laying in the bathtub … and neatly snapped in two where it fits around the showerhead. So, I’m hoping that when I install that part, I can meld the pieces back together with some caulk and a little paint.

For now, Plan E is still the plan. Plan F involves pieces that won’t work. So, should my nifty little knit together idea fails, I guess there will be a Plan G.

Wishful Thinking Again

I wish I could say that my absence from the blog has been due to all of the incredible progress I made, allowing me to finish the bathroom.

Instead, I spent most of the weekend lounging or in bed, battling yet ANOTHER sinus infection. (Thank you, uber screwy weather.) I didn't even mow for fear I'd further aggravate things. So, nothing got done. Nothing.

It really sucks, too, because the mother has moved on to a multitude of other inter-related and unrelated projects. (She truly is ADHD.) As I type this, I'm sitting here with a flannel sheet wrapped around me, feeling crappy. (A bad day at work didn't help either.)

It poured this morning and was still raining steady when I left work. Now though, the sun is trying to come out.

It can only get better, right?

Say That Again

The mother: I really like how that’s looking. Me (in an astonished tone): What? The bathroom? The mother: Uh-huh. Wait. Who are you? And where’s my mother?! For the past few weeks, all I’ve heard come out of the mother’s mouth is: “It’s too white. I hate white.” Funny. This is the same woman who fought with me three years ago over painting the faux tin ceiling panels black. And the same woman who, just a month or so ago, put up almost as big a fight when I said I wanted the chair rail and quarter-round black, too. Even so, she's still partial to the off-white/beigy/pale yellow color that was there before. Generally, I leave designing to the mother; I’m more of an order-taker in that department. Occasionally though I feel strongly about something. And, I felt pretty strongly about off-setting all that white with some bold statements of black. (And thank you, Karen Anne, for your choice of the word “stunning” in describing the new black trim. I am still grinning over that one.) I’m down to a few pieces of trim. Trim which managed to set off another battle between the mother and I. This time, I wanted to use a thin rope-style wood trim – painted black – to serve as a transition between the wallpaper and the tub surround. This wasn’t an issue with our old tub surround as it went up almost to the ceiling. (This is a shot from 2009, back before we got the new tub surround.) See how the surround is separated from the molding by a thin strip of wallpaper? That's no longer the case. You may recall the debacle that ensued when this surround was replaced on the hope of putting in what was an awesome surround -- but that wouldn't fit! So, right from the start, the bathroom design had changed and I inherited 16 more inches of wall space to cover on the three sides of the shower. But back to the trim. I wallpapered that inherited space from the new molding that meets the ceiling down to the top of the new (now 3-year-old) surround. It wasn't a pretty transition so it needed something. "If you put that wood up there, it will rot," the mother insisted. I don't think it's quite that tragic but admittedly, it will get an occasional water splash and it will always be subject to steam. What could I use? This was a dilemma over the holiday weekend. My first thought was some of the boards I'd used on the shed. Nothing fancy there though. But as I walked away, something at the opposite end of the molding aisle caught my eye: cellular vinyl DECORATIVE exterior trim. YES! Essentially, it's hardcore plastic (PVC). And paintable. And not that expensive. (A little over a $1 a foot.) Double YES! That's what I painted Monday afternoon ... and have yet to install. I'll get to it. I've just pushed so hard that I gave myself a little downtime. It's been so funny to look at pictures like this. The bathroom HAS changed. In some ways, a lot. In some ways, not that much. But, in putting together ALL OF THE ELEMENTS old and new ... the change is pretty impressive. Photos to come soon, I promise!

Hey … What's That Green Stuff?

Oh. My. God. IT's GRASS!

For the first time all summer, we got serious rain. And we got it not once, not twice but three times in the same week. Following last Friday evening's soaker, all of a sudden we had a yard again. For me, not having to mow and weed eat has been the silver lining of the season's extreme temperatures and subsequent drought.

I never realized that I really did miss it.

Especially now, now that the yard is mowed and neatly trimmed and the associated mess cleaned up and (as of this afternoon) hauled away. Driving up to the house today, it was nice to see. Of course, it required a detour from my existing to-do list. That seems to be a theme around here though.

It took a good chunk of Sunday to complete. And, because I was busy with that, and because the wind was a little on the blustery side, I didn't get the last of the trim for the bathroom painted. (I sprayed it.) I rectified that today. It's all getting good and dry now downstairs. Now, to get it cut AND up.

I did manage to accomplish lining out the rest of the hardware for the bathroom (glass Victorian knobs). A quick trip to Home Depot remedied that this afternoon. (I needed, of all things, a wingnut.)

So, I'm happy to report, the bathroom is officially in the home stretch. Super YAY! Stay tuned for details …

A Not So Funny Joke

Do you remember how comedians used to regularly start jokes like, "My wife is SOOO fat …" and wait for the corresponding, "How fat IS she?" response from the audience? Remember those jokes?

My bathroom IS one of those jokes. And I'm not laughing.

Yesterday afternoon I was moving right along, managing to cut the quarter-round with only ONE mitred angle error when I made a rather nasty discovery that begins with: My bathroom is SOOOO small. How small is it? So small that I can't get a 46-inch piece of quarter-round to the wall in a single piece – without dismantling plumbing at one end or the other. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!

There's another option, of course. It means cutting the piece. And that sucks. I've not decided yet whether I'm going to do it or not or if I'm brave enough to put on my plumber's hat. (I'm of the school that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm of that school because the lessons I've had have taught me time and again to NOT go mucking with things within This D*mn House that are otherwise sound … it's generally not a risk worth taking.)

How can a 30-square-foot room be this difficult? The finish line is definitely within reach but looks like it's going to be one helluva home stretch.

A Bit O' Bathroom Bling

Now that Blogger has decided to start working again (after not letting me post for a few days -- third or fourth time this has happened this year!), here's a post I wrote yesterday.

I know I've been very quiet but I've been incredibly busy. The bathroom is … not done. But the finish line is SO close, I can almost touch it!

We're down to some smaller details after a whirlwind of weekend activity. (Amazing how fast four days can go.) I also had a change of heart this morning. I have decided NOT to put the 1x6 ceramic tiles along the top of the shower wall. Instead, I'm going to go with a thin wood trim that I've already used elsewhere in the bathroom. (I haven't told the mother this yet but, other than the fact that it will have to be painted, I don’t think she's going to object. I may even try to sneak in the painting myself so she has absolutely nothing to complain about.)

I can't describe how exciting it has been to watch each little thing we've done FINALLY start to come together. It's hard to imagine that such a tiny room could be so much work, but it really has been. In fairness, we've been slowed by a combination of things over the past few days, too, including weather (much-needed rain which has severely aggravated my arthritic left wrist and hand), doing a host of small things in the kitchen which is the next target, and waiting for paint and/or caulk to dry. It also didn't help that I came home from work Thursday and began fixing the bathroom floor. This included replacing tile and then ripping out bad grout in certain areas. After a whirlwind shopping trip on Friday, I grouted those areas and then after leaving it exposed overnight, covered it with paper to protect it during Saturday's session with Lawrence.

One of the biggest accomplishments of Lawrence's was installing the new bathroom lights.

I'll leave you with a little preview that mixes his handiwork with that of mine and the mother's during this major transformation of a tiny little room. I'll apologize now for the somewhat poor quality. I was tired and having trouble with light and shadow.
Here you see the wallpaper, new switchplates (with handy dimmers installed) the new black chair rail against the freshly painted white beadboard.

Can anyone say BLING?! (The bling was installed by ME!) You also get to see the ceiling (NOT new) with the egg and dart moulding (NEW!) and the mother's handiwork with the decorative back she painted for the light. 

It’s amazing how accustomed you become to things when you live in a work in progress.

For instance, we stopped putting toilet paper on the holder not long after Toby arrived in 2006. (He liked to shred the rolls.) We eventually graduated to setting the roll on top of the holder as he grew and his interest in TP did not. In May 2009, when I began tearing wallpaper off the bathroom walls and prepping the ceiling for the original Michaelangelo project the holder came down all together so that the beadboard could be repainted.

The holder went back up yesterday. More than once, I found myself turning this way or that to find the TP – instead of looking on the wall directly in front of me. (The mother did it, too, and it was a great source of comedy throughout the day.) But the holder is back up. New switchplates and the new chair rail are also in place. A pimped out plain old cabinet (sans doors) is back up and the mirror that covers the in-the-wall medicine cabinet over the sink is up again, too.

Even so, I didn’t get as far as I’d liked over the weekend thanks to both the mother and Mother Nature. As she usually does when a project is edging closer to the finish, the mother found yet a new project to tack onto the to-do’s. After being devastated that a pretty new cabinet just would NOT fit behind the toilet on a wall that runs between the shower and the sink, she thought of a way to jazz up the existing cabinet. “Could we put some beadboard panels along the sides?” she asked me on Friday. (We means me, of course.) Fortunately, I had a piece of scrap birch beadboard to accommodate the request. On Saturday, I fought the wind (gusting to 30 mph) to cut those panels. The mother than wanted to put some of the thin wood egg and dart molding (purchased for the bathroom but now designated for other projects since we bought the matching molding for that ceiling) along the new beadboard edges.

Even if we could spare it, it’s too thick, I said. Then, I remembered the NEW thin wood strip – still unpainted – that I had bought for the bathroom. It’s one of two I’d bought. The other, already painted black, is going to help me cover some bare spots in the ceiling in front of the gingerbread fretwork. When I brought the piece up and laid it onto the side of the cabinet, the mother was sold. She promptly painted it black. So cutting, sanding and installing beadboard panels and cutting and installing trim on the medicine cabinet was the bulk of Saturday.

While I had the saw set up once again yesterday to cut the chair rail, I had planned to also cut the quarter-round. I would just wait to install it until I finished the floor. That was the plan. But while I was testing the chair rail and making some final cuts, the sky began to blacken. And the wind, which was already pretty powerful, began throwing things from my temporary work station. Rather than rush through a mitering job, I began cleaning and picking things up. Meanwhile, the stormy activity continued.

It would be almost three hours before it actually rained. I could have gotten my boards cut.

Oh well. I guess it just wasn't meant. But, with a little more patience and a bit of luck maybe, just maybe, this thing can get done this weekend. THAT would be spectacular!

Wrappin' Up

This day began with a beautiful orange and pink sunrise and it's winding down with a similar sunset. (The sky is becoming more beautiful by the second as I type this.)

It also represents the wrap on what's been quite the week. That's a lot of why I've been so quiet. There's a lot going on both at home and away.

The bathroom is really coming along. It's pretty exciting to watch it taking shape, little by little. The mother has been working like a fiend on touching up this, touching up that and digging for all the stuff that will soon adorn its walls. This weekend, I hope to install the new chair rail, work on repairing the floor and possibly even put up the tile around the tub surround. Once the floor is done, I can put down quarter-round.

I'm also going to see if Lawrence can return next Friday, make an adjustment to the new light that is in there above the mirror over the sink and also install the new ceiling light.

Little by little. So as soon as we get closer to a wrap, I'll put up some pictures. Maybe, if we can get a little farther this weekend, I might share a preview.

It will be incredible to bring this project – that began more than three years ago – to an end. Then, of course, it will be on to the kitchen!

Leaps and Bounds

I am sleepy, in need of a shower and totally exhausted. My hands, feet and back ache to an indescribable degree; my legs are covered in ladder bruises. I am, however, very happy.

That's because we've made major headway on the bathroom. Finally! After almost three years in idle mode, work on the bathroom got kicked into high gear starting on Thursday. As soon as I got home from work that afternoon, I jumped right in – and I stayed in an almost perpetual state of motion FOR DAYS.

There is still plenty of work to call it "done," but both paint and wallpaper are on the walls and one of two new light fixtures is in place. The egg and dart molding is up (YAY!) finally giving the faux tin ceiling a finished look. Like I said though, still plenty to go so I don't want to share photos until it gets a little closer to the finish line.

Ideally, by this weekend it will be VERY close to done and finished shortly thereafter. The satisfaction of getting this far this fast after waiting so D*MNED LONG … there just aren't words.

But it's back to the grind tomorrow after a four-day "weekend" so here's hoping that the natural high continues. I'm sure that effort will be buoyed by the fact that tomorrow I'll be heading to a Cards' game with friends. Tres excited!

Slow Going

I finished painting the scrap wallboard and started cutting and installing it. That was "the idea" I've alluded to: cover the bathroom walls (that I so miserably failed to skimcoat) with scrap wallboard left from other projects.

Each wall has its own little oddities in making a decent cut.

I cut one piece backwards (way to go, idiot!) but even before doing that, it was obvious that I was going to be just a little bit shy on material. D*mn. Sucks that I'll need to buy a whole board when I really don't need that much. Luckily, it's not expensive (less than $12). It will just be a PITA to get home. And part of the beauty of using up my scrap was that well, I was using my scrap! As it is, I'll still have scrap, albeit in much smaller pieces.

I managed to get the first few strips up before dark Saturday. (I got a late start, thanks to a few sets of showers in the morning.) And Sunday? Well, it rained in the morning and looked liked it could most of the rest of the day.

By the time the sun popped out around 4, I passed on the chance to use up the few hours of daylight that were left. In other words, I was a slug on Sunday. But, I needed it. In fact, it was good that I'd gotten a few extra hours of sleep because early Monday morning, I got bounced out of bed by thunderstorms. Luckily, it was nothing severe.

So, I'll start slogging my way through the rest of the job a few hours at a time – until Friday – when I'm taking a vacation day. And then, on Saturday, Lawrence will be back on the scene. There's a lot to get done between now and then, so here's hoping.

The Juggling Act

I’m at the point where there are just too many balls in the air.


Bathroom. Kitchen. Future plans. Work. Freelancing. Regular routine (laundry, shopping, paying bills, general house maintenance, car upkeep). And somewhere in there I need time to bathe, eat, sleep and maybe live for a few minutes.

And let’s not forget yard work. After begging off Saturday to work with Lawrence and then starting my own work on the bathroom – for which my idea WILL work, more on that later – and then spending Sunday fighting allergies and dealing with much of the above, mowing didn’t get done over the weekend. We’ve gotten a bit of rain in the past week and the weeds, which is the only thing that has thrived all summer, are taking over. And, it’s been about a month or so since I’ve even bothered to mow.

So I spent four plus hours yesterday paying for that. It was nice to walk outside this morning and see a neatly trimmed, albeit dead, lawn. Miraculously, though admittedly a bit achy, I am not in agony. I haven’t checked my biorhythm, but I’d be willing to bet I’m on a higher energy cycle. (I haven’t collapsed like a house of cards, so that’s my first clue.) I’m extremely grateful for this because otherwise I’d probably be in a heap somewhere! (Not a complaint; merely an observation.)

I’m luckier than most in that I am absolved from the bulk of housekeeping (outside laundry and trash). The mother takes care of that and she also takes care of Toby about 90 percent of the time. Even so, I still feel like I’m stuck in a giant taffy pull most days – and I’m the taffy! The silver lining is that it’s made getting a dog a lesser priority for now. Way too much chaos, especially for a creature that has probably been abused or neglected, to endure! I'm anxious though to get things calm enough to actively pursue a new furbaby.

To save my own sanity, I spent a little time on Sunday creating some greeting cards (an off-shoot of my scrapbooking hobby) and planning a few more with some birthdays coming. And later today, I’m taking the mother shopping. She hasn’t felt that great the past few weeks and so I’m taking her desire to actually go somewhere as a good sign.

Here’s hoping that the balls can stay in the air on their own for an afternoon.

The Lawrence List

Lawrence will be here a little later today! I honestly don't remember the last project we did so it will be nice to have him back on board.

The forecast calls for a chance of storms but ideally, those will hold off until later in the evening by which time we'll be long done. I'm still trying to fine tune the to-do's for the day.

If it's not raining – and before it gets blistering hot – I want him to fix one of the scallops on the front of the house. (He put them up there; he can fix it.)

I'm going to have him take down the light fixture above the bathroom sink. And the mother wants him to put some dimmer switches in.

And I'm going to have him confirm if my wallboard idea, to get me out of skimcoating the POS walls in the bathroom again, is the epiphany I thought it was.

I also need him to confirm if the bit o' bling light fixture that the mother bought to put over the sink is going to fit once we put the egg and dart trim up. If it even fits, it's going to be tight.

I want him to put the cover back over the exhaust fan in the bathroom. I took it down to clean it and because the little plastic grooves that hold the flex pins in place are broken, I can't get it to go back up. I think a few screws will get it fastened.

Other stuff, I just need to pick his brain about. It should be a productive day.