Category: Life

Last night, Jack and I went to “Kimball’s”:http://www.kimballstwinpeak.com/index.html, our local art theater, to see animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville. (2003) My first reaction: This is possibly the strangest thing I have ever watched. But the dog was accurate.

a working garage door. Our garage door has been a little on the shabby side for some time now, and stopped going up without binding in mid-January. We have been used the garage for going in and out of our house since we moved here in 1992, so it felt very awkward having to use the front-door instead. It took me a week just to find the keys that worked in the front door.

However, this morning a new door was installed. The salesman had recommended we replace our old masonite door with another, since evidently steel doors can present more of a problem in high wind areas since they are more rigid. Now I have to prime and paint it.

create your own visited states map

Seen at Nancy’s “Calligraphic Button Catalog:”:http://www.nancybuttons.com I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

I was happy yesterday when my farrier called and decided it was too snowy to shoe the horses here at home. It seemed too damp and cold to be standing in the barn holding a horse. I usually don’t feel I need to be here when she shoes, but I wanted to be here the first time she did Hap since he has a talent for extracting drama from every new situation.

Recent forecasts of snow have only resulted in one or two inches so I was quite surprised that we actually ended up with six inches. Aside from one quick trip to the grocery store, I spent the day organizing, cleaning, and nursing a beef stew on the range. The stew was excellent, and not harmed by Jack getting home a lot later than usual due to icy roads.

Today is the first day of “COSine”:http://www.rialto.org/cosine/, a science fiction convention being sponsored by our club here in town. I volunteered to pick up our Guest of Honor, “Barbara Hambly”:http://www.barbarahambly.com/, at the airport. I have been reading her books since her first fantasy novel, The Time of the Dark, was published, and am looking forward to meeting her.

In Bathrooms, bleh I whined about painting our bathrooms. Last night, I finally finished Jack’s.

More than ordinary procrastination had kept me from finishing his bathroom. I had some joint aches this weekend, especially in my left thumb and elbow. Among other things, I thought the painting I did on Thursday might have caused them. (Fishing ice out of drinking buckets with my bare hands probably didn’t help.)
Continue reading Bathrooms, Bleh, Reprise

As a cheaper alternative to sending your dogs to obedience school, agree to dogsit a year old, hyperactive, fifty pound puppy that can scale five foot wooden stockade fences. We lost Gracie from the dog run three times in the same morning. (Obviously, she is a faster learner than I am.) After I gave her back to her owners Monday morning, our dogs looked like miracles of canine deportment.

I am painting two of the three bathrooms in our house. I painted the third over five years ago. It took me that long to forget how tedious it is to paint bathrooms. When I painted the kitchen a very pale yellow, I had one full gallon left over, and we decided it would look good in our bathrooms.

Fortunately, I only have one more roller coat to go in my bathroom, and Jack’s bathroom is completely festooned with masking tape and newspapers over every flat surface. I think Jack’s bathroom will be easier to paint than mine, not least because his has a natural light from a window.

We are replacing the icky old towel bars and I have a new medicine chest to replace the mirror that used to be over my vanity. As always, I was relieved to see that I actually do like the paint we chose in the room. The old color was a cool shade of white, and the pale yellow warms the room considerably.

Yesterday I finishing shopping and wrapping presents. Considering that some years I am still wrapping presents on Christmas morning, I am quite pleased to be done so early.

The weather has been mild, and today I will go play with Lily and take a birthday present to a friend. Tomorrow, Christmas Day, we will be going to Jack’s sister’s for dinner.