7:31 am: I am certain today is the day I will get the hallway painted. I race to the kitchen for more coffee to steel my resolve.
7:32 am: The dogs are so alarmed by this sudden activity that they start rioting on the sofa.
7:49 am: I spend 10 minutes looking for my glasses before discovering them on top of my head.
8:11 am: I reconsider racing to get more coffee after reading a virtual tome of doom and declarations of special gifts and decoded conspiracy theories by someone who appears to be a manic-depressive, such tome posted on a blog which shall remain unnamed to protect the innocent although the blog’s initials do contain the letters M and L and W and, no, the manic is not who you might think it is.
8:13 am: I remember I am supposed to be painting the hallway.
8:22 am: I decide on breakfast: three tiny Aracauna eggs from chickens I’ve been formally introduced to, but am not close to, lightly scrambled in olive oil and cumin, and served with slices of perfectly ripe avocado.
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8:54 am: While reading about Araucana chickens, I discover that they’re in part responsible for confirming the so-called legend that the New World was visited by Polynesians long before Columbus. I alow myself the luxury of self-congratulatory chest-puffing.
8:56 am: I play Papa Was a Rolling Stone to see if I can get a rise out of Ernest and Calliope.
I do hope that Ernest and Callioe appreciate a rousing waking-up song like “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”. I don’t know what their sleep cycle is like, but that music would certainly get my blood pumping!
I had ginger snaps and yogurt for breakfast. I find the contrast between the dark molasses-y taste of ginger snaps contrasts nicely with the slightly sour taste of yogurt. It also settles my tummy remarkably!
They like Copperhead Road even more.
Report after the first night sleeping on The Mattress:
The Mattress is very interesting. It’s relatively soft, though supportive, but it’s going to take some getting used to. When I make the bed, I’m accustomed to sliding one forearm under the mattress to lift, then use the other to smoothly slide the sheets and blankets underneath. A normal mattress comes up all in one piece. Trying to tuck bedding under The Mattress is like trying to lift Jabba the Hutt.
I woke up at one point and thought the spouse had gotten up, as he sometimes does in the night. The bathroom light was on and I didn’t see him in the bed. Then, as my eyes adjusted a little, I realized that oh yeah, there he was over in the next zip code. King size beds are BIG!
But the doggies love it. They both slept with us all night. Natalya kept snuggling closer and closer, and at one point I woke up on my stomach, dog scooched up tightly next to my left leg hip to ankle, and my right leg hanging completely off the bed in thin air. King size beds aren’t big enough!
I’m *very* interested in mattresses right now. I’m going to be needing to outfit the future sunroom with a convertible - I think I might have that one figured out - and there’s a very large bedroom which is the one I was using as the computer room - imo, that room is a problem in winter because it gets so cold, but perfect in summer because it stays so cool!
I’m loving the air mattress on my gorgeous retro wicker bed and am probably going to go for a high end futon for the sunroom. But the other bedroom is a problem. I want to put a *great* bed in there.
That’s all in the future, however, after I get my french doors, the other door for the kitchen, the new sump pump, some electrical work, etc …
Novaform makes a slightly less supportive, and somewhat less expensive, mattress as well. We looked at TempurPedic
$3500 - $4000 for just the mattress!!!! and at some of the high-end conventional support mattresses that cost about half that.
Spouse wanted something that would be quite soft (arthritis in his shoulders) and I needed something supportive for my back, so this looked like a good compromise. I sleep on my stomach and was afraid it might be too soft (visions of sinking into a U-shape with feet up over my shoulders) but it seems okay this morning. My back is complaining a bit, but I expect that’s because I’m not used to moving furniture.
My back cannot stand hard mattresses! For my whole life, if I sleep on a hard mattress, I can barely get out of bed in the morning. Soft ones, though - the ones that are supposedly bad for your back - I do great on them.
9:49 am: I remember hearing that, on average, one person a week goes through a woodchipper. I race to Google to determine the veracity of this claim.
9:53 am: If Google news is correct, it appears it may be true that, on average, one person a week dies by going through a wood chipper.
9:54 am: Determined to resolve my anxiety over the wood trim in the hallway, I strike the first blow by slathering primer on a doorway.
Ooh, ooh, I forgot to tell you. Until you can replace the sliding glass doors, you might want to take a look at some kind of security film installation (Glass Gard, Shatter Gard). It turns the glass panels into safety glass — if you fall into it, the glass might shatter but it holds together and is much less likely to be dangerous. #1 Son mentioned it last week for our sliding glass doors, and I’ve been meaning to tell you about it.
Thank you thank you thank you! They have those horrid old vertical blinds over them now that I refuse to open because, having watched one shatter when my sister just touch one, I refuse to allow *anyone* (much less the dogs) anywhere near them.
That would work!
Since spouse was hit by the car last spring he’s been pretty wobbly on his feet. Our sliding glass door opens to the patio just off the garage, and I’ve been horribly afraid that one of the dogs would jump on him when we come home and knock him through the glass. So I was excited when #1 Son mentioned it.
French doors would be nice there, but like you, we have too many other things that need doing right now.
I’ve made the french doors a priority because I’ve seen first hand how easily they shatter - I was even the one who took my sister to the emergency room! I’d heard that they break at the least bit of a touch but didn’t believe it til I saw it with my own eyes.
::puts on lecturing hat:: Seriously. They’re dangerous. When I acquire the cash, they’re the first major reno I’ll make - after the sump pump, of course!
11:02 am: I admire my handiwork in the hallway and allow myself a second round of self-congratulatory chest-puffing for my brilliant decision to paint the wood trim.
11:03 am: I remember I haven’t cleaned the houndie grrl’s ears yet this weekend. She immediately intuits my plans and scampers out the doggie door into the cold.
11:28 am: After removing several of the absolutely gorgeous and extremely heavy copper fixtures, I rush to Wikipedia to begin work on editing an entry about a cousin of mine. I enjoy yet another round of self-congratulatory chest-puffing for being kin to someone in Wikipedia.
11:29 am: I suddenly remember I was going to research vintage light fixtures on eBay.
11:30 am: CRAP! The bills! I have to make sure I’ve paid all my bills!!!
Cooking today: I have two lovely little free-range chickens in the oven, destined to become
- dinner
- chicken salad
- chicken tetrazzini
- and stock
I have a pork tenderloin in the crockpot. Beans and rice are soaking for later cooking (to be red beans and rice, only I was out of red beans so I am using Anasazi beans instead).
The two lovely little chickens were stuffed with four livers inside their cavities, so I sautéd those with a little butter and had them for lunch. Yum!
oooo, lovely! I think my meat next month will be some nice chickens.
1:05 pm: Having paid bills and eaten lunch, I contemplate my projects and suddenly realize that, instead of installing a second door in the kitchen, I should simply install a new door at the back door and one with a doggie door so I don’t have the keep the current door open. Then I can use the current door (which is an absolutely lovely thing) to replace the awful door to the sunroom.
Here’s the one we installed: Storm door with doggie door.
See, that’s the one that’s on there now, but it isn’t enough to keep the cold and heat out, so I have to install yet *another* door with a doggie door.
Which is why I considered putting another door in the kitchen with a doggie door in it, so the dogs could go thro the door in the kitchen with the doggie door and right into the utility room and out the back door with the doggie door located *there.*
But I hesitate doing that because the washer and dryer are in the utility room and, considering how poorly that door is keeping out the cold, I worry it will cause the pipes in that room to burst if I take off the other door and not replace it with anything.
argh!!!
Here’s the set-up now:
doorless doorway goes from kitchen into utility room where the backdoor is.
or, to be more accurate, backdoors.
one of the backdoors is that larsen door and is working pretty much like a screen door.
then, on the inside is a beautiful glass door, very heavy, which would be great except it has no doggie door in it and I have to have constant access to the doggie door because, otherwise, the houndie grrl just pees wherever.
Ah, I see. Our winters aren’t nearly as cold as yours, so that’s not an issue here. We have the storm/doggie door leading from the den to the deck (one floor above the aforementioned sliding glass doors). It kept the AC in quite nicely this summer, and since we don’t need much in the way of heat, if it lets in cold air this winter it won’t be a problem for us.
Yes, you need a second doggie door, it sounds like. Create an airlock.
Airlock, exactly.
I love my little house and am grateful for all the wonderful improvements made (new metal roof, all new windows, etc etc etc), but I tell you, sometimes, I’m just baffled by the things that were done here! Especially because I’ve found so much evidence that their critters weren’t exactly appreciative of not having access to the doggie door at all times. yoikes!
3:06 pm: The houndie grrl has absconded with the kitchen drain and deposited in her stash of stolen goods by the shed in the backyard. When I go out to retrieve it, I discover that she’s made a futile attempt to bypass the Tabasco anti-houndie grrl defense shield on the outside faucet cover. True, she managed to yank the Tabasco laden string off, but the cover remains intact.
3:07 pm: I enjoy yet another bout of puffery at the success of the defense shield.
3:47 pm: I successfully, albeit only partially, bleach the mildew out of the driveway.
WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I finished correcting my article and just sent it off to the journal in Santiago, Chile!! What a relief! Hope they accept it. Now I can…
1)move on to writing that report.
2)correct homework.
3)draw up next week’s test.
Congrats, Maracatu! I’m confident they’ll accept it.
I share your pain about the upcoming week. I have an entire seat in the car full of grading that I haven’t even touched. I’ve been waking up at 4 am to do all my grading and test writing and etc., but I just can’t do it anymore. So I just told myself 5 pm is my deadline - I have to start then.
I will tell you about my saga for a good mattress. My SIL turned me on to it. BIL has a bad back, SIL sleeps on stomach like me. Solution was a $235 piece of 6″ dense upholstery foam in Queen Size ordered from an upholsterer (not from some fabric store). We have slept on it for 2 years and it still is resilient and supportive but giving. I do flip it end to end and side to side once a month. It is the lightest weight but I can raise it up all at once. I can make the bed by my self whereas when we had the Beautyrest I couldn’t. I kept the box springs from the Beautyrest and put the upholstery foam mattress on top. My SIL has one of those solid wood beds and her mattress sits on that without a box springs and it is still very comfortable. You may really like this solution.
I’ve thought about doing that. Fortunately, I’m a lo-o-ong way from having to make that decision because there are so many good alternatives out there.
The one thing I know is that I’m really hesitant to get a regular mattress because they get so nasty so fast. Dust mites make me sneeze, and I’m so much happier on the air mattress without an entire thing full of dust mites below me that, at the moment, more air mattresses is at the top of my list.
But I have time - lots of time! - before I’ll be deciding on that. Good gawd, it took me all day just to paint one small part of the hallway, after all - it’s got tons of wood in it, and it’s so much harder priming it that plain walls.
But it looks much better!
I know what you mean. I always enjoy the air mattress when we camp. It is so comfy. I slept in a hammock in Alaska when I was up there commercially salmon fishing when I was young and a traveller. I do keep the foam mattress in a cover and wash the cover about once a month. It seems to help.
Biscuit, I can really sympathize with your priming and painting trim. When I moved in my house in 97 and moved out in 07 I was a trim painting fool! All I can say is mask it off, put lots of drop cloths down, use a REALLY good paint and use a 1 1/2″ cheap brush. Oh, you can put your brush in a ziplock bag in the fridge for a few days and use it again (just let it warm up to room temp). I use cheap brushes cause they are cheap and work just as well and I don’t feel bad about throwing them away at the end of a project.
Great tip about the brushes. Primer eats them up. I was just in the bathroom looking at the pitiful things and thinking I’d be better off just chucking them all.
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