New Kid in Town

DANTE, our new boy!

I'm becoming kind of a lazy blogger. We've been mad busy. First of all, last Wednesday was our 25TH Wedding Anniversary! People are really impressed by that. My friend Kevin started volunteering at a nearby shelter that day and called me that they had a standard poodle! A friend for Leo, YAY. I was practically breathless til I could get there to see him. I went with Kevin on Thursday and met this poor guy who had been found in the woods in extremely bad condition. He is not a standard poodle, but probably a labrador/poodle. We went back on Friday with our dogs, everyone seemed to like each other, so we took our new boy home and named him Dante. He is ridiculously smart and sweet.

We are also busy getting ready for the kitchen demolition tomorrow! No more white plastic cabinets. The plumbers start on Tuesday, followed by electricians, followed by us. I bought my kitchen paint yesterday. I finally remembered to buy the low VOC paint, and it's a light mauve, sort of a lilac color. (Sherwin-Williams Duration Paint, Wallflower) Here's the wall where the

base cabinets and sink and dishwasher will be.

Today, I finished painting the secondary front door that I'd not-quite-finished after we moved in. I glued and clamped a small crack in the yard sale chair I got for J's room. I've started painting it orange, definitely a two-coat job.

I'm not sure why I was so convinced that I had to hand-sew the trim onto the shower curtain. I machine stitched it on last week and it came out really nice. Then I started to hand stitch each little hanging loop, which was incredibly tedious. Somehow I ran out of loops, I don't know what happened to them because when my mom was here, we counted out the number I needed to sew on. I have to go back and hope they still have that trim.

Maintenance Worker

Today the husband told me he was going to bring by an associate of his who's in Boston for a couple of days. "But don't clean up." As if.

I got outside pretty early and got to work on the front bed, raking it out and--finally found my fancy limb trimmers--cutting back the rhododendron and evergreens. Spread several bags of black mulch--quite a change from the bright orangey-red mulch at my old house. It looks really nice. I also got the back "beds" raked out and cleaned up a bit. I planted one little azalea that has been a house plant for a month or so. The pupsters were out with me part of the time; they are such angels. They have learned so well to stay out of the street. Sometimes Tony the terrier will wander down the sidewalk and pretend he's deaf when I call him home. He's like my Grandma was, selectively deaf.

Anyway, I came in and straightened up the house. The husband brought his friend over, one of his favorite things to do. He hates how ambivalent I still am about this house. I think I'll feel better when the kitchen is in place. But it will always be a money pit, which is what I didn't want. I got a nice catalogue today with some really pretty Colonial Revival light fixtures, but too $$$. I have to get the lighting figured out for the kitchen and I seem to be on my own with that.

Well I still have my priority, which is travelling. I am working out our itinerary for our trip to Costa Rica and Panama this summer, and decided that we should finally learn to SCUBA dive. If now now, when? Right?