I feed my horse on corn and beans

This used to be my playground

The cat is sitting in a puddle of sunshine mewing miserably. She just HATES all the construction going on in our house - the power tools, the sawdust, and, apparently, the fact that her litter box is not where she expects it to be. I can smell it, you stupid little mammal, and when I find it, if it's one of our beds, I will be ANGRY. I don't care how traumatized you are. You should fear nothing more than you fear me.

Ok, yes, I also am sitting in a puddle of sunshine mewing miserably. I have a head cold and no cable, and I can't even watch old episodes of Cagney and Lacey on Netflix Instant because the Netflix player plus my Linux laptop equal HATE and ERROR and 404 HA HA YOU THINK YOU'RE SO SMART, YOU REJECTOR OF PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE YOU and THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.

AND I am miserable because we have been unable to use our kitchen, dining room, basement, or living room since mid-January, and we're hiding out upstairs, in three little rooms plus a bathroom. Also, we've been staying at my parents' house a lot. Which - wait, no, that part is great. Really! They have cable and wifi and electric blankets and they keep the heat up nice and comfy high and we don't even have to feel crappy about not pitching in on the cleaning because they use a housecleaning service! The kids are happy to see so much of their grandparents - Mao has become devoted to Alton Brown, whom he watches with his grandfather, and about whom I cannot figure what is all the fuss. Guy's not THAT funny, or THAT original - and yesterday when I really needed to sleep all day with this cold, I slept all day without being awakened by power tools or cursing or Contractor Jake who whistles ALL THE TIME.

I've also been spending a LOT of time in the car. Mom & Dad's house is clear across town, plus I'm running around looking at flooring and countertops and tile - Christ, I think that part's done and I could not be happier - and, let's face it, our house is just not that pleasant during the day.

As a result, when I was going to pick up Bob today to make a final countertop decision, I glanced over at the passenger side of the minivan, and suggested we just meet at Home Depot.

Check this out:



That is my front passenger seat. I had a couple minutes in the Home Depot parking lot, so I picked the pile apart a little (like Alton Brown examining the components of pad thai).



Nori crackers, because I have a bad habit of skipping meals, and then getting so hypoglycemic that I think I don't need to eat, and then getting homicidal when... well, just getting homicidal.




Walter Dean Myers, Sunrise Over Fallujah. Reading for Great Books for Kids.



Christopher Moore, Coyote Blue. My reward for reading Sunrise Over Fallujah.



Curtains for the sliding door in the dining room. Measured, pinned, and ironed, waiting for me to find a sewing machine that I can figure out how to use. There's also a bag of grommets in the car associated with this project, but I did not take a picture of the bag of grommets. But I think I will look for excuses to say or type "bag of grommets" for the rest of the day.




Miscellaneous chocolate from a checkout line. Usually I can resist the checkout line chocolate, but I am feeling weak.




An extremely large fungus the kids found in the woods with Grandma.




Lunch to take to work on Saturday.




Laptop case / briefcase. Has the Project Folder in it. The Project Folder has every receipt, every measurement, every paint color, surface, plan, drawing, specs for every appliance, pages torn out of catalogs to remind me what I'm going for here, and tickets to Aruba in case I really have to bail on this renovation.




My camera bag. Eleanor From High School recently reminded me that I used to have a red shoulder bag that I carried with me everywhere and that I called The Red Bag Of Courage. I think this is the new Red Bag Of Courage. I love this camera bag.




Not a comment on our renovation - it's where we are in the Little House books. But it could also be a comment on our renovation. Cabinets are going in today - maybe we only have three more weeks to go. If it goes longer than that I think I'll start peeing in the corners too.