We're in!

Now we just have to get out...We managed to fill up a 16 foot truck and we still have to go back today for more and to give the place a quick scrub down. Because we were nice tenants like that. Living in a place 10 years, you treat it like your own, at least to a point. We've replaced outlets and plumbing, Adam painted it when he moved in. We called Roto Rooter when tree roots invaded the pipes periodically, and we kept said tree's branches clear of the power lines. And we never asked the landlords to fix these things, nor did we ever ask for compensation. We've been grateful for cheap rent and plenty of space in a town where both are becoming a novelty. We've been happy to be quiet tenants who never complain, and we've mostly been left alone to do just that.

We like the person who manages the property (she works for an owner who doesn't like making repairs)-- she's really gone to bat for us, getting things done that we'd just figured would be fruitless requests. We're sorry that she's going to have tenants who will demand basic upkeep (as they should!) and make it even harder for her to get the owner to cough up the money. Or have college students that party and trash the place. I was never crazy about it, but it's been a good house, all things considered. Frankly, with a little attention on their part, they could be charging a whole lot more.

Adam and I spent yesterday trying to muster up some sadness at leaving-- some kind of teary-eyed regret. I know he and his daughter have a lot of memories there, and I do too. I've lived there longer than in almost any other house. But it just wasn't coming. I think we're ready to move on.

Ghosts! or, you know. Mice.

I've long suspected we had mice-- or at least that some other creature was wandering around our house in the wee hours. I did at one point get a call from the electrician where he said, "You wanna see some big ole bugs?" and he proceeded to direct me to a water roach nest in the back yard. We mercilessly sprayed them down with Raid, against the electrician's suggestions of pouring gasoline on them (probably would have worked better, but sadly, would have been more expensive), but I imagine we may have to deal with their infiltration into the house at some point...

Anyway, when I was painting the bathroom all those weeks ago, each time I put a new coat on, I would clean up the floor-- on my hands and knees!!-- until no more drips remained, and call it done. I then would leave the paint tray in the floor so it could dry up and I wouldn't have to deal with paint disposal or with spraying red water all over my grass. Then I would leave the house.

And when I'd return, after a week or more, I'd find smeared drips on the floor. Every time. I'll admit, I may have missed them when I was cleaning, because, let's be honest, my eyesight's not what it used to be, and that's a busy floor. But they were mouse paw sized (or so I judged using my forensic mouse paw expertise). I went with the theory that either we had mice or the water roaches were doing some scouting missions.

This weekend we found mouse droppings in the garage.

And last night, I had ANOTHER anxiety dream, in which I returned to the house to find all my base shoe tumped on the garage floor, stuck to each other and covered in dirt. The mice had rioted. Then I decided that mice couldn't have done this and it had to be

A possum infestation.**

Ugh. We have to get our new mattress and soon. 5 nights on a worn out futon mattress and last night in my old one is going to give me a heart attack. And a herniated disc.

**Incidentally, my dog kills possums. He's kind of a badass like that-- the uber protector dog in a relatively compact little package. Unfortunately, that means I have to clean up the dead mess. Do. Not. Want.

Success.

Finally, things are lighting up, firing up, running and scrubbing as they are meant to. Which is a good thing, because we are a mere 3 days from M-day.

Adam's folks were awesome enough to drive their van down Saturday loaded with stuff...And it's finally not just nameless, faceless boxes-- it's personal.


It's making it feel so much more like a home. Well, that and the fact that I've been staying down there for almost a week nursing my mom and my sister through the flu.

And while the folks were here, they helped us get some final coats of paint on the walls, and Adam's dad coached him through the last of the appliance installations, thus, the lighting and firing, etc.:



When they turned on the dishwasher, and told us it was on, Adam's mom and I went literally running into the kitchen to see-- 'cause we sure weren't believing what we heard. Which was nothing-- that thing is soooo quiet. Unlike the icemaker, which tumps a load of still black ice (black from all the "pipes-sitting-unused" crud) and then loudly hisses water into the tray every so often. But I'll get used to it. Been a long time since I had such a convenience, so I'm not bitching. Just acclimating myself to new sounds.

Sunday, we got our base shoe cut and painted. We'll get these nailed up and then tackle painting the rest of the trim one room at a time during the spring when we can open windows and get some fresh air-- in case you missed it, our POs screwed us over a few ways with the baseboards, as in, they didn't remove them to drywall. Hence, baseboard and other trim painting will be done in situ. In place. On the wall. In the house. It's oil paint, so it's pretty stinky. We'll need a good solid spring breeze to keep us from passing out in the fumes.


Lots left to do, but at least we'll be in the house soon.

Oh-- and I got to try out the new shower curtain, bath rug, and shower head, and they were simply wonderful.

Adding to the collection...

Just got this at Linens N Things:


President's Day Sale, 20% off = $15.99 for the waffle weave of my dreams.

Found these shower curtain hooks yesterday at Bed Bath & Beyond:


Not on sale, though not so expensive that I can't get them. But I'll certainly hunt for a bargain before caving to full price!

It's the one room that we can finish, for the most part, sooner than later. This, then, is the reason for my over-indulgences.

"Blue is your best color...No, red I think."

Whoever said it was a white sale?

Whatever it is, there are bargains all over, yet again. I found this burgundy bath mat (colors may appear pinker on screen) at Target for $17. Normally that's WAAAY more than I'd spend, but it was on clearance, I think it's just the right color, and it's one of those double-thickness luxury spa bathmats. I'm looking forward to plopping my wet feet on it soon!

(Update: UGH! SO much pinker on the monitor; such a lovely rich DARK burgundy in real life...)

The other rug is a 6 foot runner that I plan to use in the kitchen in front of the sink. It was on clearance for $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond, and I think it'll add a nice splash of red to the house-- we have so much yellow and green that we really need some balance.

I also found a burr grinder at Wal-Mart (who I hate, but which I occasionally can't avoid) for $13. If I'm going to get an espresso machine, that'll be a necessity. But with my luck, I'll never get around to buying an espresso machine and the grinder will just mock me from the countertops. So I declined.

And Adam and I narrowed our sleep choices down to two Denver mattresses that WE LOVE. Now, granted, we haven't actually bought them yet or slept in one. But the sales people were great-- knowledgeable with no pressure whatsoever. The prices were unbeatable, and frankly anything is better for my back than what we have. I just can't do a firm mattress, I guess.

The worst anxiety dream I ever had involved getting a Sleep Number bed and being unable to get the right number-- I tossed and turned all night. The best from the 3 or so anxiety dreams this week involved random neighbors showing up with a giant reciprocating saw-- a 10-foot blade-- and cutting our fence down to nubbins, claiming it belonged to them. They even cut down the length and gate that we built.

See? I need a new mattress!

Ok. It's back to packing-- our poor dining room has turned into Box Central. In the process, though, I was reminded of how much I like our dining room table-- it's been covered with so much shit the last few months.


T-minus 11 days to move.

Notes from the Lutheran Women's League Fundraiser Cookbook, in pictures.

Actually, this is the best recipe from the original edition of Diet for a Small Planet, but which was left out of the 20th Anniversary Edition.

I'm not sure what it's called-- my pages from the original are crumbled to the point where I can't read the name. No worries! I have the recipe memorized. It's a cross between a spinach pie and a quiche...It's cheap, it's quick and it all gets dumped into one bowl.

Here's the players:

2 or 3 eggs (I use 3)
6 Tbsp flour (no particular kind-- th recipe says whole wheat, but I use whatever's in the cabinet. )
1/2 tsp salt
16 oz spinach; fresh is obviously tastier, but c'mon. Sometimes you gotta go frozen.
8 oz shredded cheddar
16 oz cottage cheese
Some wheat germ-- a couple of tablespoons. I've also used breadcrumbs in a pinch.

First things first, start thawing the spinach and put the oven on 350. Crack the eggs, and beat in the flour and salt with a fork. It looks pretty gross.


Now add the cheddar and the cottage cheese:

Now it looks lumpy and kind of gross. Trust me that it gets better-- I promise. And how much do you love the pink cracked formica, eh? Clearly the pink follows us.

Anyway, Now your spinach should be thawed. Add it to mix.


Now spread it into a greased (or Pam'd in my case) 9X13 pan. You can use a pie pan, but it has to cook a lot longer. Sprinkle some wheat germ on top. We finally emptied our jar tonight-- keep it in the freezer, and it will last years. A little goes a long way...


Into the oven:

Klassy, right? You see now what we're moving up from...

And wait.


When it's a little bubbly on the side, it's ready. Dish up.


Ok. So it's not particularly pretty. But it's pretty yum!

Adam prefers it on Day 2 cold. I like it hot, though. And how can you go wrong? It's got your greens, your perfect proteins (eggs) and your combined proteins (dairy and wheat germ and flour). A vegetarian's dream. Not that I am one, but sometimes, a one dish meal that doesn't involve meat and requires minimal clean-up is what I need at the end of a long day spent mattress shopping.

Done and done.

Ha! If only...

Actually, we are spending this weekend at our rental house packing. We haven't done nearly enough of that and there's 10 years of accumulation (including grime that needs to be taught a lesson) which means we have our work cut out for us.

So no work on the house this weekend, but we have made some decisions. Lights for the bathroom have been ordered:I got them from Target Online, and they cost more than I wanted to spend. But I think they're really the best we've seen so far. I'll also still get my waffle-weave shower curtain, in a hotel crisp white, and we're going to go for a burgundy rug. Target had some lovely ones on clearance a week or two ago, so I'll go see if they're still there. And NO FUZZY THING on the toilet. I'm breaking with tradition, blazing a new path. It's a banner day. I think Adam will be pleased at this decision.

Then for our towel bar to be mounted under the wall cabinet, we like this:
Adam lusted after it, then I managed to find it at the Moen ONLINE OUTLET STORE!!! for $29 (originally $47 or something), and that is the cheapest I've seen it. Who knew nice towel rods were so pricey? I will be checking the stores one more time for a cheaper knock-off before committing.

Drawer and cabinet pulls were bought a while ago, but I'm waiting to slap a fresh coat of paint on the cabinets first:
We may have ended up buying these in brushed nickel (can't remember), but they'll be behind the door, so I'm less concerned with their consistency in the shiny chrome business.

I'd also like to have a nice new shower rod that isn't a tension rod-- if the tension kind aren't in there perfectly, then the first time you pull your towel off, you end up in the tub unconscious and wrapped in your shower curtain. Or so I've heard; no personal experience to back that up...Anyway, I have to admit, the one that was in there was in pretty good, even if it was a tension rod. I started to paint around it, and then caught myself-- "Stupid you! Take that thing down and paint the whole wall!!" That's what I did. And I found a little circle of this wallpaper underneath. Clearly, this thing hadn't been off the wall in many, many years. At any rate, Lowe's had some chrome rods that attach to the wall on clearance for $5, but I'm not sure I want to screw into the window trim, which I think I would have to do. More investigation is necessary.

But we're coming together.

An amazing find!

Or so I thought.

We realized this weekend that neither of us had been up in the loft of our garage yet. There's no ladder or stairs, and there really hasn't been too much urgency to get up there. But I saw the corner of an old-fashioned storm window, so I dragged our short ladder to at least get my head beyond the loft floor.

And I saw this:

How exciting! It looks like it's filled with books!! Since our immediate previous owners were the government, there's not been much left of the real people who lived in the house. This was the first interesting sign of life that we'd seen. But I had to take these pictures holding my arm up and aiming the camera blindly and we didn't really have time to mess with it, so I decided to save it for another time.

An hour or so later, I returned from one of our many trips to the store, and Adam told me he had climbed up and pulled the box down-- it was a set of encyclopedias. Copyright from the 1920s. Useless, but interesting, nonetheless. I ran out to the garage to have a look at our booty, and what I saw looked strangely familiar:

Yep. In his haste, he missed the L in the Roman numeral copyright date. They were the exact same set of 1979 Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedias that my family started collecting not long after I was born. You could get them at the Safeway (we lived across the street from it) with green stamps, or the equivalent, and they sold yearly updates. We got a set of dishes for my first college apartment the same way.

So, although they are 30 years old (yikes!) and might otherwise be interesting for nostalgia, they're the same exact damn books I looked at and did my school reports from before the invasion of the shiny new internets. Not even different encyclopedias.

What are the odds.

*Actually, the odds are pretty good-- that Safeway was only about 6 or 8 blocks from this house. Come to think of it, I sure moved around a lot to end up pretty close to where I started. I'm not too sure what to think of that.

Sadness is a big ass billboard.

Our "new" old house is almost an hour away from where we currently live and the job that I love. People around here aren't really commuters-- after all, the state of Arkansas has only 3 million people, and there are only a few metro areas scattered around the state. They look at me, shocked, and shake their heads that I would be insane enough to move further away from work.

I have several reasons for finding this situation preferable to living within the growing Northwest Arkansas metro sprawl. For one thing, I've said before, houses are about 1/4-1/3 the cost if we move southward. Another major factor is the traffic-- if we'd moved only a few miles north, my commute would have been easily 30-45 minutes in heavy traffic; 50 minutes south is pretty low traffic, therefore low stress. I can listen to NPR, drink my coffee, and have Me Time to unwind at day's end. (I'm not being completely naive, here, I swear-- I did this commute the opposite way when I first moved and before I went back to school. I know what I'm getting into).

But what I always say, and something they always agree with me on, is that at least it's a pretty drive. The highway runs through the Boston Mountains, which are Ozark Mountains foothills. It's one of the most beautiful valleys in this country, certainly in this part of the world. Ozarks are like miniature Appalachians-- soft, rolling, ancient mountains covered in oak, maple, dogwood and redbud trees that turn beautiful shades of red and yellow in the autumn, with humongous expanses of horizon. Acres-- miles-- of sky and hills and dales. Only a handful of small towns along the highway, most of which are literally, one intersection, no traffic light, gas station/grocery/car wash/bill-pay all in one kinds of towns. Place is rural.


And that, my friends, is why I'M SO PISSED about the 3 GIGANTIC BILLBOARDS that went up sometime since Wednesday. They are ugly beyond belief. I hate them. And if that is what is going to happen to my morning commute-- to a stunning piece of the country not overly manhandled by the world at large-- if that is the result of the not yet open lake resort on Lake Fort Smith...well...

do. not. want.

Such a shitty beginning to a Monday morning.

Ace-

-tone. Acetone? Good old nail polish remover for dissolving stupid silicone caulk?

Silicone caulk, you are my sworn enemy

Help! Somebody save me! I'm suffocating under a thin film of silicone residue!

Seriously, I started to panic about the caulk bead we put on the sink and went back to the house to work on it. The problem is this. As we were applying, as I work on it now, no matter what I do, it smears. It smears all over the counter in a thin, hazy film. We had to caulk because a couple of our short tiles dipped below level so there was a very small gap. And the thing is, I don't know what to do.

Here's what I've tried: not much. I tried some mild soap and water on an off chance it might work if the caulk hadn't fully cured. Then I considered turpentine, but it's oil-based, and I don't want to stain the granite. I have some caulk remover solvent stuff, but it takes 3 hours to work, and I'm a little scared to leave anything on granite that long. It says it cleans up with soap and water, so I assume it's not oil based, but who knows.

Then I just started scraping with a razor blade. But I couldn't find my window scraper, so I was just scraping with box cutter blades, and now my fingers hurt and have lost the will to live. And anyway, when I get a little blobby and brush it away, guess what? More smears!

Anybody know what I can do? If you tell me that continuing to scrape until the end of time will work, I will gladly do so. I just want to know if this is a futile effort or if I'm gonna get somewhere. Anyone used the solvent on granite?

help?

We're that much closer...

As I mentioned, lots of little accomplishments this weekend, and a few really big ones.

For one thing, my $70 shower head purchased for $12 was installed:


7 different settings! It's so exciting.

We also put our first housewarming present together. Our realtor gave this to us on the day we closed, but we were afraid we'd ruin it, so we hadn't put it together until now:


This location, beside the pantry, will likely be its long term home, hopefully to house an espresso machine. Eventually. Until then, we're going to use it as an island to try out how we like the size and arrangement before we build a permanent island.

The kiddo got some raking and bagging done...I did a little sunlight scouting in the backyard so we can choose a place for a vegetable garden. And I spied a robin-- I don't care what some groundhog in Penn says; a robin and some 65 degree weather says spring. Period.

Now for the big stuff.

Ta-da!!!
Da-dum!
Woohoo!


And hallelujah. It's about time.


Ok. So full disclosure. Not everything is entirely hooked up. Sink and faucet are in-- it was a many, many hours long fiasco, though we finally got it done. I put a bead of caulk around the edge and I'll deal with shaping it up using my fingernail, a caulk scraper, a razor and some solvent. We cut one little piece of PVC too short, so we'll have to redo that one length. But the garbage disposal is otherwise together. Fridge is in and connected to the icemaker line. Dishwasher is hooked up, though not screwed in yet. And the stove is just sitting there, attached to nothing.

We may have a slight placement issue with the stove and dishwasher. We measured many times, but eh. We still got it wrong. We have a few ideas and solutions up our sleeves and we'll deal with it later.

But it's shaping up!!

Oh yeah! And Adam did most of the gruntwork here, and the kiddo was a huge help on the yard and island. I just pointed out when someone was doing something wrong.

A shout out to the hardware store...

Lots to report from this weekend; a few baby steps and a great big stride in the kitchen department.

But first! I just want to thank Yeager's Ace Hardware. God love 'em, they put with us coming in 5 times today between their limited opening hours of 11-4. By the last trip, they were shamelessly making fun of me.

Yes, they may be an Ace, but they are FAR from big box. They were local for a very, very long time. And everyone in that place knows their shit. The high school kids are learning a ton-- and it shows! And the old-timers never skip a beat.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah. I need one of these...but bigger."

"We have them right here!"

...

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah. I need some of that...but not so much."

"Well, I sell it by the foot!"

Every damn time. At one point, I had two people coming at me from perpendicular aisles to help and each one thought I was talking to him. And they both actually COULD help me!

I love them. No Big Box, no sir.

They are as good as you get.

All the crap that just won't go away.

Ok. It's more like all the crap I can't bring myself to get rid of. Like this little gem from the 80s:

Fond memories of frizzy hair, big bangs, and pictures at the JC Penny Portrait Studio... And then there's the reminders of what could've been...


Mom did a little cleaning the other day and came across the wallpaper border I had picked out for my room when I was 10. It never made its way to the wall. I took it home with me. Maybe I'll stick it in the box of ReStore items. Some little girl getting in touch with her floral side for the first time should have this. I lost contact with the Laura Ashley in me long ago. Honestly, I kind of hope she lost my number.

So as you see, we are finally in the throes of packing for real. Notice has been given. Boxes have been salvaged from my office move. And frankly, boxes are like the best thing ever for a certain sector of the family population:


And I had one more picture of The Senator (the tabby in the back) loving on the box, and one of Chester (tabby in front) curled up inside the box on all my toiletries, and one of the little tuxedo Birdie (aka Holstein Kitty) posing with our old school bookcases, but my stupid computer crashed and erased everything on my memory card.

Anyway, that brings to me to the one thing I wish I could get rid of. The "bookcases"; the good old cinder block and plank bookcases. Adam refused to give them up almost 5 years ago when I moved in. He got rid of almost every other piece of furniture in the house, but he couldn't let go of the cinder blocks. And, in all fairness, they are functional and handy, and they aren't in our public spaces. For a while, we tried negotiations: he'd get rid of his bookcases, if he could, in turn, burn my wicker/reed bookcase in the yard. But the negotiations broke down and we called it a draw. I don't know what their place will be in the new house, but I see that they are definitely coming with us.

His sister managed to spruce hers up with fabric on the cinder blocks. Maybe I'll try that along with staining the wood. Would that be wrong?

Damn weather...

Thanks to everyone whose been checking in; we were very glad to not be on the receiving end of a tornado last night. We're in the heart of Tornado Alley, so almost anytime there's rain, it's a distinct possibility. We consider ourselves very lucky.

It did, however, take an hour and a half to drive 8 miles this morning on a 70mph interstate because of the ice that resulted from the temperature plummeting 40 degrees. After I passed the wreck that caused the pile-up I just felt terrible. The car didn't even resemble an automobile anymore.

Arkansas has a long, history with tornadoes, mostly by the rivers-- you know when they're coming. It's quiet, like people say it is, and still. But the air feels different, too. And they are devastating. Fort smith really got on top of things, finally, and installed tornado shelters at every elementary school (or are in the process of doing so-- most schools have them) and they are open to the public; you're never more than a few blocks from a shelter. Also, after a big tornado in 1996 in which the Tulsa Weather Service didn't properly warn us, we've become a little gunshy and take all the precautions we can. I have, at times, even considered installing a safe-room behind the garage.

1898 Cyclone (pics from NOAA photo database)


1996 tornado-- (pics from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:


Lets all try and send good thoughts out into the world today.

And stay off the roads, people.

Whew!

I've been having anxiety dreams about the tile. The night we laid it, I dreamed that they all slid off the counter and I came back to the house to find them all piled on the floor. I also dreamed that they cracked in place.

Last night I dreamed that when I got to show Adam the grout, giant crevices had formed between each tile-- like 2 feet deep and 6 inches wide!

But they're all in place. I'm in between coats of sealer right now. Hopefully that'll work out well too.

Fingers crossed.

Birth of my patio...

Just found this by accident in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

100 YEARS AGO Feb. 1, 1908 FORT SMITH — The work of paving the streets of Fort Smith will begin March 1. The brick plant is now turning out 65, 000 bricks per day.

A friend of ours, who happens to know a surprising amount of town history for someone who dislikes the place so much, told us a little about this just a few weeks ago. Apparently, the brick plant just outside of town was having trouble shipping the bricks-- the roads weren't paved and couldn't withstand the weight of the carts. So the brick company offered to pave the roads (free of charge, I think) in return for the rights to drive their shipments on them.

I've mentioned before that our road was still brick up until about 15 years ago or so. I remember riding my bicycle on those bumpy bricks when I was a little kid-- it's part of why I loved this street and why I wanted to live in this neighborhood my whole life. When they finally tore it up to repave, a local antique dealer got most of them and through him, they made their way to the home's owners at that time. They created this magical little brick patio that we are so looking forward to using when the weather turns warm (that's a "street lamp" that you see in the foreground, btw, not some weird pipe).

We've made some alterations-- the picket fence was riddled with live termites, so we built a 4 1/2 foot privacy fence (I think it hides the yard just enough, which makes it like The Secret Garden for me); and someone broke the little flagstone bench, though there's a bigger more usable one in the yard. And we'd like to replace that scraggly business you see on the upper left with a Japanese Maple. I just need to watch the yard at all hours to see if it gets reasonable sunlight. On the right, those are 4 o'clocks and lantanas-- I adore them and they withstand the Arkansas heat so well; but they'll choke out everything else so they need some supervision (they were easily 8 times bigger when we took over the house than they are in that pic-- I spent an entire Saturday clearing them out, along with some massive canna lilies, so the Terminex guys could get close to the house).

But the patio itself will stay the same. Most of the bricks are stamped "Fort Smith"; some are from Pittsburgh, some from Coffeyville. I hear that the Ft. Smith bricks go for $5 a piece. Guess we know where to go if we can't make the mortgage...

Grouting the tile...and my fingernails, and cuticles, and knuckles...

I like Saturday mornings on HGTV. It's one of the few times during the week when they have shows that are at least remotely dedicated to DIY issues more laborious than correcting bad taste or selling homes.

This morning, one show featured a couple who'd had a tiling disaster; more specifically, they'd had a grouting disaster. Great, I thought. I'm grouting the kitchen tile today-- this way, I'll know what not to do.

Oh, I found out what not to do-- and in the process scared myself so shitless of the whole project that I ended up cleaning the haze too quickly and having to regrout the left half of the counters.Also, I went with charcoal grout rather than the midnight black we originally bought. The black grout was the same brand as the first troublesome batch of thinset we used on the backerboard. Since I had no idea whatsoever how to do this or what the stuff was supposed to look or feel like, I decided that the little picture-directions weren't going to cut it for me. I need words. Adam is sick this weekend (please don't have type 1 flu, please don't have type 1 flu, please don't have type 1 flu). So I had to make the executive decision of going with "charcoal" colored grout from Home depot. With directions that use the alphabet. I hope it's not too light.

Otherwise, all went well, I think.
(It's not as light gray as it appears with the camera flash) I also got some touch up painting done. Yay for me. More to do tomorrow.

To fuzzy the toilet seat cover, or not to fuzzy the toilet seat cover

So I'm sitting here nursing a headache and trying to work myself up to getting back to work, when I started to wonder-- do people use those fuzzy toilet seat covers anymore?

I always have-- they're warm. They're fuzzy. And they add one more little splash of color to an otherwise blasé beige/white space. Without consideration, I had sort of figured I'd get one for this bathroom. And yet...

It just doesn't seem right. Am I rebelling from my previous ways? Have HGTV DIY design shows crept into my subconscious and convinced me of their gaucheness? Am I weary of trying to precariously navigate my way through a color scheme I don't understand? (I always handled clay much better than paint-- it's monochrome but textured.) Is it the fact that the fuzzy toilet seat cover is shag carpet for the commode? Or is it simply the fact that I really, really, really want a white waffle-weave curtain and a white soft rag-rug-- YES I KNOW I WILL BE WASHING IT 4 TIMES A WEEK, MOM!-- and the white fuzz on the white porcelain would be sort of pointless? I mean, like I said, I like monotone with texture, but maybe not 70s texture...

Or maybe it's just the fact that the elastic always wears out in about 6 weeks and I keep having to pick it up off the floor sopping wet after someone didn't close the shower curtain all the way...

Ugh.

The prospects of a snow day were so promising on the way home from work yesterday.

Even though we'd stayed thismuch above freezing all day, the snow started coming down hard right around when I took this pic. I was wishing and hoping the water would freeze and the roads would cover over with snow. No such luck.

We're pretty big babies about the snow down south, so all the little kiddies in the entire region are out of school. But I still have to make my way to work.

Bleh. At least it's Friday.