While yahoo-ing my name (Oh right, like you've never done it...), I discovered my profile piece is now available in the Cat Fanciers Association online magazine, Fanc-E-Mews. Click HERE to read the article. The opening picture is me holding Olivia.
I've also added a few pictures of me doing public speaking in the PICTURE GALLERY (see sidebar) under the "Lessons In Stalking" heading.
I have been humbled by the weekly day planner. I can't make it work and I'm giving up now, before I waste any more time. I had visions of grandeur, in that I would plan each day down to the minute so as to squeeze the most productivity out of every hour. Instead, I discovered I'm a rebel. And the rebel part of me refuses to have my every move dictated.
So I stopped by Staples last night and picked up my trusty $13 month-at-a-glance planner that has been my companion for 17 years now. I'm very excited about spending some time later this morning transferring my existing appointments and obligations into the monthly planner. This weekly one was giving me heart failure. I would forget to look to the week ahead and be stunned to find out I had a Sunday meeting or an article was due next Tuesday. The older we get, the more we are set in our ways...
Speaking of getting old, I'm taking up knitting. Yes, you read right. Knitting. My friend Melody has become--I don't think "obsessed" is too strong a word--obsessed with the craft. I met her for coffee yesterday and she showed me her sundry of projects and had me knit a row. And I say this now, with great pride and no fear of retribution: KNITTING IS FUN.
I was so taken I went immediately to the crafts store to buy a starter kit. However, the starter kits all contained incredibly ugly yarns, so I picked out a silky-soft, feathery, deep mauve yarn from which to craft my first scarf. I just need to meet with Melody and have her get me started. Several friends of ours have expressed an interest in learning to knit so we're kicking around the idea of starting the "Hot Women Who Knit" club. Meeting times to be announced. (And everyone just start practicing your happy face now for when you receive a scarf from me next year at Christmas).
Good News: The dryer is fixed. Our contractor came over and had it fixed in no time. Very pleased. Maybe it bodes well for the progress to be made on the bathroom.
Blair rolled in the door about 9:30 last night and immediately asked, "What's that noise coming from the dryer?"
"I don't know," I said. (I was already snuggled down in bed reading.) "My strategy was to ignore it and hope it goes away."
Grimacing at me, Blair opened the door to the washer/dryer area. "Dena!" he said. "The entire hose is disconnected. Didn't you notice the heat pouring out?"
"Yeah," I said turning a page. "I did think it seemed kinda warm."
This is why I should not be left alone with appliances. It's that not I'm incompetent of handling a problem, I just don't care. Mechanical items bore me. Always have, always will.
Which doesn't change the fact that not only did our dryer hose disconnect, it's torn. So we need a new hose. Which, being the easy-solution challenged people we are, brokes an entirely new set of options.
Right now, our dryer vents to our back porch. However, on schedule for 2006 in the "Home Upgrade" category is a new porch/deck/sunroom. So, we're wondering if while we're replacing the hose, we ought to vent the dryer to a new area. What area that might be, I have no clue.
Plus, Blair thought he remembered reading the metal tubing is better than the flexible plastic or whatever tubing we have now. So should be replace all of that? Discussion of which reminded me to remind Blair that we as of yet have done nothing with the heated floor guy's informing us that the state of insulation under our home is "a mess."
"What does that mean?" Blair asked last night.
"It means it's a mess," I answered.
"No, I mean, how bad is that? Is it all over or just in the bathroom area where they were working?"
"I don't know."
"Because I've been under there and I don't think it's that bad. Did he say anything else?"
"Look," I said, "I'm not holding out on you. All I know is he said it's a mess and he seemed pretty upset for us that we had that big a mess to deal with. That's all I know."
But now I'm nervous. Once one thing breaks down in the home, it usually spreads like a bad virus and things start going "boom!" right and left.
Meanwhile, I'll be hanging my socks and unmentionables out to dry.
I touched base with floor/tile/counter people yesterday, and the consensus is we do NOT need a skim coat put down in the shower area. I forget the reason why--something about the liner or installation is fine without it. So that's good news.
I was instructed to have the plumber come and "rough-in" the showerhead, as well as have our drywall contractor come and build in the walls for the shower door. (It's cheaper to build in the walls than it is to order a custom-size shower door). So I just hung up with my drywall contractor who is going to stop by later today to take a look.
He asked if he was supposed to also do the sheetrock for the shower. "I have no idea," I said. "Call the floor/tile lady and ask her, okay?" He was a little miffed because we put him in charge of general contracting the project over a month ago, yet the floor lady was still coordinating through me. I have limited sympathy for his situation. What that tells me is that he hadn't bothered to call them in a month and get them moving and to see what was happening. If he had been on top of it, he would have known that the skim coat was in on the floor. To me, paying for general contracting means I'm paying you to keep on top of things. That's not happening here.
It would be lovely if the plumbing and wall work could be done this week. I have no idea if that's even an option.
Meanwhile, my trip revealed to me a previously undiscovered desire I didn't even know I had. Ready? I want a mini-TV in the bathroom.
I know, I know. But my hotel room in Tucson had one and I got sucked in. When I saw it, I thought "Pfwwt! Waste of time for me--I'll never turn it on." Then one night I was watching a show and went into the bathroom to get my contacts out and wash my face. I turned on the TV so I could keep watching my show and BAM! I was hooked.
I loved watching the news in the morning as I did hair and make-up and one night I laid in the tub and watched 30 minutes of Friends. I'm not sure it would be worth us doing because we don't have cable anywhere except in the front room so I probably couldn't even get the local GSO channels, but it's a thought.
I'm so ashamed...
Author. Humorist. Fitness fanatic. Control freak (working on it). Mentor. Klutz. All-around decent human being.
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