Innovations

Remember the picture of the staged room with the lavender hat accent?
The general consensus via informal bloggie voting was that I should switch the hat out for a lime green one.

And so I did.
I thought it looked better that way.
You know who had an additional thought on the subject.

He was right, as usual.

The addition of a faithful orange cat to the display is fierce.

Using a live cat as part of one's interior design is truly an innovative decorating idea.

We've come across several innovative ideas lately.

Bernie just had to crawl under the table and use his back to lift the table up a half an inch so I could slide the moving coasters under the table legs. Once the coasters were in place, I could glide the table around the room easily.

Isn't that a great innovation?

Now I do have to admit that using live cats as part of your decorating scheme does come with challenges. The cats tend to move around at will; draping themselves first on the bed, then on a chair, and then under a chair

Tiggie tends to favor being boxed in by chair rungs when new people come by the house.

Lately there has been a steady stream of people coming by to measure and paint and whatnot.

Tiggie feels much safer under a chair like this one.

This chair works too; although with the stabilizing bar in the middle of the box, he does have to keep his head down when he wants to observe from under this chair.

Yes, using a chair as a fort is another great innovation.

After we got our new carpet installed, we were greatly troubled to see that our area rugs suddenly were buckling and bumping up in a most unattractive and unsafe manner.

We were constantly tripping on the lumps and bumps. After three days of tugging and pulling the area rug flat, only to have it buckle again right before our eyes, we went down to hardware store and got a carpet to carpet liner.

The liner is slightly tacky/sticky, and is designed to hold the area rug flat and stuck to the carpeting.

We were smoothing it out when our two boy cats came through to snoopervise.

They of course walked right across the liner...and we held our breath.

Maybe (we though to ourselves...) maybe this liner will work like flypaper, only for cats instead!

It would be perfect to solve our problem with decorative cats migrating throughout the house!

The kitties would just be stuck on the liner, not hurt or anything, but held firm until we gently released them to chase their greenie treats and use the litter box.

We thought the liner was a very innovative idea, for either holding an area rug in place, or holding a decorative cat in place.

For now though, we are just using it to hold down the area rug.

Once you start looking for innovative ideas, you come to realize that such ideas are simply everywhere!

Take going to the grocery store for instance.

Hasn't hard cooking an egg been a complicated and challenging task in your life?

It has been in mine. I regularly set a half dozen eggs to boil, then wander off to blog, and then later discover that I have boiled the pot dry, the eggs have exploded, and the pot is half melted on the stove top.

Bernie just hates it when I do that. The house stays smoky/burned egg stinky for days each time it happens. The marital bliss is impacted negatively as well. It is, in short, a bummer all around.

The other problem with hard cooking an egg for making deviled eggs is that inevitably at least a couple of the eggs just will not peel nicely. I know, I know...the trick is to use eggs that are about a week old if you want them to peel nicely, and to plunge them into cold water right away, blah blah blah...but even using all the great tips on how to peel an egg smoothly, there is STILL always one uptight egg in the bunch that just simple doesn't want to come out of it's shell.

Well, get a load of this innovative product:

For a mere $1.80, you get a half dozen medium sized hard boiled eggs, ALL READY PERFECTLY PEELED!

They taste great too!

Is this a wonderful time to be living in or what?

Coasters to move furniture easily, cat stick paper, ready to use hard cooked eggs...why, the only thing more you could possibly want is to be able to go look at houses on line and see each room in 360 degree virtual tour, (just give it a moment to load, then click on the words VIRTURAL IMAGES on the black bar just below the picture) while never having to leave your own home.

Pretty innovative I'd say.

Definitely cool.

(And, oh yeah, Texas housing prices are totally cool. You can tour other houses in Texas on line from this website. And yes, Houston is still looking for good workers; there are lots of jobs around here. If we had family here, we wouldn't be taking this job loss situation as an opportunity to to leave here and join our son in SLC, and be closer to our folks in So Cal.

If you know of a family, especially a young family who is out of work and wants a great house for a very reasonable price, tell them about Houston. "Houston is Worth It", as their motto goes.

As all the financial reports are reporting in terms of job loss and real estate losses: Houston: Actually, we DON'T have a problem!)

Happy Birthday Hal!

All of us here in Texas wish you a very happy 79th Birthday.

(and Tiggie wishes you could be here so he could take a nap with you again. Tiggie says he has stop smoking now, so he would only stay out in the yard with you when you have a "nasty" just to keep you company.)

Thank you for being such a great Father-in-law for the 31 years....

See ya next week!

Before and After part 3: Web album of the rest of the rooms

I'm using my blog as therapy at this point; it is a place where I can work through how I am feeling about all the changes that are happening in my world right now, and also as a place to record the process to some extent.

Like most women, my home is very much a part of my identity. While "things" are not as important as people, things carry poignant memories, and are not easily discarded. Even something as simple as moving a picture or a chair is felt like a restructuring of life.

Sometimes I like to move furniture and pictures around. A new perspective can be gained that way, or perhaps it is a way to close a chapter of life or to begin a new chapter. I've had seasons of my life when I moved furniture and accessories around pretty frequently, and other seasons, such as the years here in Texas where I have hardly moved a thing.

My guess is that being in such a very different place than where I spent my first 48 years of life made me feel like I wanted stability rather than new arrangements. Ten years in Texas and I still have a hard time saying "I live in Texas." I tend to say "we are living in Texas now..." instead.

I knew we never intended to live out our old age in this particular house. So everyday it seemed one of us would say "this is such a beautiful house. What an amazing blessing it is to have the chance to live here."

Sometimes I mentally note that I am grateful for the fact that I am not living in a war torn land, or in a place with disease or famine. That blessing strikes me as incredibly undeserved. I am so very thankful for my blessing upon my circumstances as well.

Today I read about a couple who "downsized" to a 6,000 sq. ft. house, before they ultimately downsized to two bedrooms in a retirement center. After they moved into the their quarters they found an abundance of time for friendship and activities, which they counted as a good trade for their cast off possessions.

It amuses me to remember that one of the reasons we bought this house in the first place was so we could easily entertain large groups, both for business and socially. We did have quite a few parties with twenty or thirty people milling about and enjoying themselves.

What amuses me about that is that in college I used to have groups of fifteen for parties and bible studies in my dorm room, a room that was roughly the size of my current guest room, or master bathroom! The surprising difference was that people dropped by my dorm room, and I had plenty of friends to hang out with throughout the week.

Few (if anyone!) ever dropped by my big old house just to say hi. Granted it is a haul to get out here, 11 miles off the freeway, but still, I do have neighbors and only one of them has every dropped by regularly.

I'm know I am rambling here. But if you are reading this, I'd like to think that you would, if you geographically could, be a neighbor that would drop by. Soon many people are going to be able to "drop by" my house electronically via the real estate website.

I will not be a hostess to them; they will never know me, nor know how my home really looked before it became a stage. The house will look wonderful; but it is now a bit of pretend.

So...for the sake of my own memories, so I can remember how my house looked before, and how it changed, I put together a web slide show of thirty two slides so I can hostess my blog readers personally through the rest of the house.

If you care to, you can see the pictures without the commentary, and then also with the commentary. My snarky comments take up a lot of room over the pictures and they are what you would hear if you had popped by to see how I was doing with the move.

I have a small favor to ask of you, dear reader, if I may.

If you are someone who usually reads my blog but never or rarely comments, could you please just add a comment to say hi? I know I come across really strong in all this moving, and I indeed am doing well, but I do have my moments when I feel a bit overwhelmed with the process of packing, showing and selling the house, looking for a new job in SLC or California, being there for Bernie as he deals with the stresses of finishing his current job and looks for new work as well.

Like the theme song on the TV series Scrubs says:

"I can't do this all by myself. No, I know, I'm no Superman."

I'm no Superwoman either, and having friends in blogland comment can really make me feel stronger for facing these upcoming days.

Kitchen and Sun room: Before and After

After my earlier rant today (see previous post) about stagers, I feel obligated to let my family know what the house looks like now. So here we go....

Kitchen before, with the wall paper that I was so-so on, but that I kept for eight years...

Kitchen after.

Breakfast nook...table for two and couch. Currier and Ives hunting prints on the wall.

(I've had that couch for over 20 years...I must blog about that couch!)

Breakfast room staged. Table has leaf, the two chair that were in our bedroom bay window are now in the kitchen, the couch is gone, and the picture that used to be above B.'s dresser is now on the wall.

Dishes are my Herbs and Spice set, the china set I selected at age 16 and that B. never liked.

Goblets belong to the stager, as do the napkins and secondary pattern plates.

Kitchen desk area, cook book shelf, rocking chair.

I didn't have a chance to re-do the open shelving area; it has always been objectionable to me as it is a dust collector in the kitchen.

Noticed the canning jars on the top shelf?

They were later staged on the other counter top.

Desk after. Notice the needle point tiger is now on the counter for "a pop of color." The needlepoint celebrated Jeff's love of tigers as a child, and the mascot of the children's Christian elementary school.

No, I would really rather NOT have that sitting on the kitchen counter....

Notice the staging with my wooden salad bowl. It was the one I used to block a hat upon once...

The bright yellow napkin is another color "pop."

Wall with a big picture, the picture has now been moved by the stager to near the door to our bedroom.

Two small pictures instead of one large. They belong to the stager.

I have to admit I really like how this space looks now. While it was nice to lounge on the couch with a cup of tea, the area seems a lot airier now. Lord knows we don't need any "warm and cozy" spaces in hot old Houston!

Close up of the table top which will need to stay in place until at least after the virtual tour is filmed.

(Don't you set YOUR table like this in the kitchen EVERY day...all day long???)

I liked what I had before, I really like what it is like now, for now.

Now that I understand the process that allows you to paint over wall paper, I think I will be much more comfortable buying a home with funky wall paper if needed.

Sun room, before.

Bernie was using it as his office. For the first seven years we didn't have his desk there, and we had a TV where the chair was.

Sun room after paint. Layout similar to how it originally was.

Before. Two sided fireplace: Nice detail.

Bernie's bonsai forest on the table is nice....

Before. Little change really except the chair position and the second plant by the door.

(I think Tiggie is still in the same place now too.....)

I really like the sunny yellow paint, especially in the morning as the sun comes in through the trees and through the french doors.

The grass cloth was nice, and it was one of the reasons why I bought the house originally, but eight years later, I prefer the paint. I think I have just moved on from neutral/natural/bland colors.

All the world's a stage...upon which a tragedy or a comedy occurs.

(Our house is now officially a stage as well. See below for details.)

Yesterday I spent from 7 am until 11 pm racing around getting everything in the house absolutely PERFECT.
Why the big push?
Because I am sensitive.
Or maybe just touchy.
Probably both.

You see, when our realtor came over a few weeks ago to meet with us (she is the same realtor that we used when we bought the house) she said the house looked great, aside from the need to update the wall paper and a few other small thing; things that I was in total agreement about.

She also told me at that time that she is teaching a certification course for "Home Stagers", the name for those people who come into a house that is on the market and help the owner rearrange their items to make the house more appealing.

In case you are unfamiliar with the concept, Home Stagers redecorate homes that are about to go on the market with decorative items, rugs, bits of furniture, or arrange for new furniture to be leased.

This is a very helpful service for those who have furnishings that are the worse for wear due to raising children, or financial challenges, or simply lack of energy, talent or interest in make the interior decoration look the best possible. Even in the most lovely home, a fresh look at everything is useful to elimate that which the homeowner thinks is wonderful, but a buyer might find quite offputting.

When I heard about the class which was to be held last Wednesday, I was so excited. How fun it would be to go into people's homes and gussy up the place. Why, it would be just like play! It would be just like on those HGTV shows where a few touches and changes change a room from blah to FABULOUS! Oh wouldn't my course work in interior design be just the thing to put to use?

I could just see it all now: Me going into some interior decorating challenged soul's home and bippity-boppity-boo, I would turn a homey (or sloven) mess into a masterpiece.

The timing for taking the Home Stager certification course didn't quite fit into my schedule. The painters/polishers/buffers got behind schedule, and next thing I knew Bernie was informing me that our realtor would be over in two days, on Saturday, to sign the contract to put the house on the market.

I was fine with that.

The film crew would arrive three days later, on Tuesday, to take pictures of the house and film the "virtual tour" footage so anyone with Internets access could see 360 degree views of our rooms.

I was fine with that as well.

Then Bernie added one more detail.

Our realtor would be coming on Saturday, while I was at work, (where I am right now...) with her HOME STAGER!

Whhhaaattttt?????

Suddenly the shoe was on the other foot.

How dare anyone suggest that I needed a home stager! With that bit of news I was off to the races, spending every waking moment making every detail of my house perfect.
This effort on top of needing to dust every crevice of the house because of all the dust from the painters/polishers/buffers (dust which is still settling by the way...)

Now I have often heard the expression "Unsought advice is felt as criticism" or words to that effect.
Now I truly understand that phase.

Once in the past I won a consultation with an interior decorator, and found her suggestions for wall colors and rug placement to be most helpful.

It was sought advice that she offered.

To have it suddenly announced that advice was about to be given, asked for or not...let's just say that I had a totally different response.

I guess you could say when it came to decorating advice I was ready to dish it out, but I sure was not ready to take it.

Adding insult to injury: Two women would be coming into MY home, and advising MY husband on how MY house should appear.
If I could have been there, I might have enjoyed learning the "why" behind their suggestions. Now I just imagine them clucking to themselves about how much I sure did need their help!
I imagine them shaking their heads at my inept decorating skills.
Worse, I picture them simply pointing their flawless manicured fingers at furniture and things to be re-arranged from here to over there and my husband trotting swiftly to make their wish his command.
Believe me, B. may be an Very Superior 1930's husband (see previous post) but he is rather disinclined to leap up to move furniture or pictures at merely a snap of my finger.

I can't figure out the right word for how I feel, but it isn't a happy word.
Us women: Possessive of our homes and our husbands.

All the world's a stage all right.
I'm just surprised my feelings are so dramatic about this!

Update: I talked to B. from work to pry from him exactly what sort of changes have been made.

All our art work has now been lowered.
(Hum along with me the song "Short People")
Yup, the stagers were short.
Yup, I am annoyed.
I will be stopping by the Petite section of Macy's to vent my irritations with the world's overwhelming capitulating response to the vertically retarded...enough with babying the bitsy ones!

Is it possible that putting pictures at a child's level might make a tall buyer feel like the room is sinking???

Rant time: I personally hate art work that is at the placed at the level of my throat. If you want the cats to enjoy the art, then put it a little lower on the wall. If you have children or midgets your home, then put it low on the wall. If you want normal sized women (like me and Laura and Sara...) to enjoy the art work, put it a little higher.
If you want men to enjoy the art work...you get my drift.

Surely it is easier for short people to stand on their tippy toes for a moment than it is for a tall person to squat down or bend to a crouching position to enjoy seeing the art!

Rant over, for now.

Our bedroom furniture has been re-arranged. I'll have to see how that looks. Oddly, I'm feeling pretty OK with that idea as I was never totally happy with the really oddly shaped room anyway; it is shaped like a rectangle with a bay window on one side at the end. Kind of like a backwards letter "P".
The bed faces the window, but the wall space for the bed make it center on where the bay window area begins. Awkward...

I didn't get a chance to arrange our kitchen open shelve area; it was cluttered and I knew it had to be cleared, but I just didn't quite get to it last night. I'm OK with them arranging that...whatever is fine.

Apparently our kitchen table is now set with some of their dishes. I'm not sure where we are now supposed to eat. Are we supposed to clear their dishes, reset with my own, then reset with theirs?

Bernie just called to ask me to bring dinner home, as he is afraid to cook now. I countered with going out for dinner. The house had better sell FAST, I'm pretty sure we can't just eat out three meals a day until the house sells.

The sun room, office, guest room and hat room passed with flying colors.

I get off work in about a half hour. Stay tuned for more news and REACTION after I see all these changes in person.

Who knows, maybe there will be even more rants/raves/tragedy/comedy... maybe I'll be up for a Golden Globe award before I'm done!

Ahem...just thought I'd let you know....

Darlin' Mr. B. took the quiz. I sat next to him while he did it just to make sure he was totally truthful.

131 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Get a load of that score!

Scoring:
0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)

25-41 - Poor

42-58 - Average

59-75 - Superior

76+ - Very Superior

(He first took the test and checked all the bad responses just for fun, and got a -29. After that I sat next to him and made him answer truthfully.)

Guess I've got some work cut out for me if I want to be as good of a 1930's wife as he is a 1930's husband!

Inside, outside, upside down...

While my inside space is all a-whirl, I'm still taking breaks to see the outside space.

A trip to the water spigot was diverted by this tiny fellow leaping across my path.

The yellow rock is about the size of a golf ball; Mr. Toad could easily sit on my thumb nail and still have room to spare. A baby bracelet sized black ribbon snake with a white stripe the length of his body slithered away when I went in for a closer look at Toad; the snake was so very tiny I hadn't even noticed him as he was sneaking up on what I'm sure he was hoping would be dinner.

Inside amidst the carpet crew tearing up old carpet and painting crews jabbering away, Tiggie is relaxing in an interesting pose. It must be some kind of kitty yoga stretch; front paw between back knees....

I'm glad both cats are taking all this upheaval in stride.

I just wish they wouldn't snore.

They are parked next to where Bernie is working at the guest room desk, and it gets hard to stay focused when it is warm, and the cats are gently snoring away in the afternoon.

Tiggie did get up to welcome the man who came to give us a bid on moving costs.

Tiggie just fell in love on the spot; followed the fellow from room to room, making circles around him as he jotted notes on his clipboard.

When the man finished his survey, he had tears running down his face.

Poor man...totally allergic to cats.

He really should of said something.

And Tiggie really needs to lighten up with the "I'm here to love you through this" routine whenever he meets cat allergic people.

Back outside: The neighbor around the corner has a Pride of Barbados plant in bloom.

I'm all about the stamen, as usual And the fact that some of the flowers are orange and red while others are just red.

While I was running an errand I spotted this splatter of flag blue flowers beside the road.
I parked and got out with my trusty camera to get a better shot.

The blue stars with white sparkler stamen makes it a perfect Fourth of July garden candidate.

I'm not sure what the name of this flower is, or if it is even available in nurseries. Or even how it came to be growing in a drainage ditch.

I do know that I should know better than to not watch where I am going when I am trying to take a picture while wearing sandals.

I got multiple fire ant bites on my right foot; I who have been so proud of avoiding fire ant bites the entire ten years that we've lived in fire ant territory.

(I figured it was nature's way of making up for the fact that probably every mosquito that has ever lived in Texas has had a shot at my blood.)

Back inside.

The dust from all the counter buffing, wall sanding, and carpet tear up has created a fog of dust in the air.

I soon realized that even my camera lens was affected by the dust.

Today the floor tile guy comes to clean the grout on the kitchen and sun room floors, and to clean the tiles as well. I suspect more dust will be generated; I am trying to hold off on wiping things down until everything is finished.

This is harder to do than you might think.

This week has been all about turning a blind eye to messes every where; next week everything must be examined with laser vision. The house will be on the market, and even a speck of dust will not be tolerated.

~~~

The new carpet looks great, and the new pad beneath the carpet makes walking on it feel like I am wearing the softest shoes ever. I love how it looks.

The soft yellow paint in the sun room looks great, as well as the Khaki in the kitchen.

The counter tops shine as do the sinks and tubs. They look brand new!

~~~

My interview went well. I should hear by Monday if I have the job.

It would be a very cool librarian job if I get it!

Actually, I am a Very Superior wife in any decade!

82 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Sara over at Much Ado About Something posted the above test on her blog.

After seeing her results I knew I wanted to take the test too.

As a Home Economist, I felt duty bound to not only take the test but to ace the homemaking part of it as well.

As a wife of 32 years, I was sure I could rock the wifey part too. Even though my speciality is being a 1910's wife. (See this post for inspiration about homemaking in that decade, just after the story about the raccoons. Having the Raccoons for dinner: all in a day's work for a Superior wife...)

And I'm a pretty good 1950's wife (Cocktails anyone? Jello mold?)

And of course I excelled at being a 1980's wife. Recession memories, pinching a dime, squeezing a nickle...ah, those were the days. Good practice for being a 2008 wife.

Well, I came close to getting an "A" on the test.

But what the heck, it is has been thirty two years since I graduated with a Home Ec. degree, and thirty one years of modern wifehood has made me a bit sloppy I guess.

(I'm sort of wondering about the pajamas vs. nightgown test question though. And also wonder how many people nowadays understand what "marital congress" means. Hint: You don't have to decide what side of the aisle you are on for voting purposes!)

Back to being a 2008 wife. Think green, recycle everything, think twice before running an errand in the SUV, and remember to think fiber when planning meals.

Random patterns

The Louisiana Walking Lily (Iris) has another blossom. Usually they all bloom in one week, in April, and that's that for the year.
The striped design on the petals fascinate me, as well as the color scheme.

The crape myrtle blooming against a blue sky seems to also have a bar or striped pattern.
Once you start looking for patterns in your world, it is hard to stop.

This comic in today's paper made me laugh out loud. Right after we saw it, one of B.'s co-workers sent him a copy of a wedding invitation in which guest were invited to travel to New Zealand to witness the nuptials.
Yeah right.
What ever happened to a nice tasteful ceremony in a local church anyway???
~~~~
Today we have the four paint guys chattering away in Spanish as they work on the sunroom. The counter top polishing team will be working in the bathroom; Bernie and I have moved into the guest bath for now, and will continue using that bath until the house sells. It is smaller, and I figure easier to keep up (see yesterday's post for details) once the house goes on the market.

~~~
We are sleeping in the guest room as well, where B. has set up his work space. That leaves our bedroom available to be an island of sanity; it doesn't get messed up at all, and I can just go in there when I need to escape.
~~~

This morning I will have an interview (via phone.) Things are getting very interesting, in a good but nerve wracking way.

I'll report more as I know more. These things take time; it may be weeks before I know if I got the job or not.

~~~~

Tomorrow the new carpeting goes in, so I have to box up more stuff today; everything in the cupboards in the office, dining room buffet side table, the tea cart, and the living room. It will be a busy day....

~~~~

Finally, Happy Canada Day to the neighbors to the north!

I'll miss this....

I will miss our Master Bathroom.
It is a tiny space by Texas standards.
(Except on the days when I am cleaning it. Then it is HUGE!)
I love my garden tub, with two views to the garden.
Right now the stubby looking crape myrtle tree outside the window is flowering brightly.
Today, however, the bathroom is not available for lounging.

The bathroom is cleared of the violets and counter top item, ready for a crew to arrive and polish the tub, counters and re grout the shower.

Split vanities? Oh yes...one where I can sit and apply my makeup, and a taller vanity and sink by the tub where Bernie can brush his teeth and shave.
We often wonder at the many years we shared one bathroom that had a toilet next to the sink which was next to the tub, and you could reach all three from any fixture, and touch all four walls while standing in front of the sink.

Now we think it is just a good health practice to have the toilet in it's own separate room.
(We are going to have get over this notion....)

My African violets love those window sills. I love lolling in the tub where I can see the trees turn color just outside the windows, and the azaleas blooming in the spring time. I've even enjoyed soaking in bubbles up to my chin by flickering candle light while outside a walloping strong thunderstorm pelted the trees and windows.

It is a totally private yard. I have to wonder why more builders plan house placement so each house has no windows facing another house, except in the front of the house?

(By the by...there are pleated shades ready to be dropped from behind the curtains if one wants to.)

This is our second Texas Master Bathroom. Our first Master Bathroom was in our Dallas house. Our first experiences with Texas Master bathrooms was eye opening: Who knew people actually hosted parties in their bathrooms, and had wedding pictures taken next to soaring columns and waterfall features inside what I always had considered to be a rather private room.

We got used to being spoiled by the Texas bathroom concept really fast.
The Older members of our family came to visit, and raised their eyebrows when they saw the clear glass shower doors and all the wall sized mirrors and lighting in the bathroom.
They acted like we were being immodest or something, because we had clear shower doors.

I kept explaining that we had been married for a couple of decades by then, and had ALREADY seen each other naked...and that when you shower in a shower with clear glass doors the doors steam up anyway, but they declared stoutly that if it was THEIR house, they would have to replace the doors with something frosted and more modest.

One relative said she felt it would feel like showering in the middle of the street.
I've never showered in the middle of the street, so I wouldn't know what that might feel like....

A comment was also made that all those mirrors must make you want to keep in shape.
You'd better believe it....

The wall facing the shower is the wall that is actually mirrored sliding doors, which open into the walk-in closet. So, yeah, you do see yourself coming and going when you are going in and out of the shower.

The funny thing is that now when I have to use a shower with a curtain or frosted doors, I feel claustrophobic.

Funny how fast things change.
And change again when you least expect it.

At least someone is having fun here.

The painters have taped heavy brown paper over our carpet and tile to protect them while they are re-painting.
Our cats are absolutely LOVING this!
Normally Tiggie visits the litter box (see in far back ground) each morning, and then gallops madly around the house for a few minutes.
Thundering cat paw sounds on carpet are louder than you would think they would be.
Cat paws pounding on brown paper it is practically deafening.

Ever seen a cat having a blast with a brown paper bag?
Right now the boys are enjoying the mother of all brown paper bags.

We thought all the people coming and going with paint and ladders would traumatize the cats.
We were wrong.
As long as there is brown paper to race around on, they are totally happy.
(I think it is because they are boy cats, and you know how boys are: they love the sound of loud cars and motorcycles and such. The sound they make on the brown paper is like a cat version of gunning a hot rod!)

And because I need something to settle my nerves, I'm posting this sketch by Carl Larsson of his beloved wife Karin.
Isn't that veil wonderful?
It wasn't until a few years ago the I realized some hat veils were designed to be worn against the face.
It is a very unsettling look in real life, especially if you haven't ever seen anything like it before.
Wonder if this look will ever make a come back in my lifetime.
I'll wear it now, if you will...

Fie on electronic gliches.

Sara was kind enough to let me know that the last pictures of yesterday's post had evaporated.

I don't understand how that works; I post pictures on the blog, they are there on my computer screen, yet can not be seen on other screens.

I'm posting the missing pictures on this post.
Jeff, Bernie, myself and Laura, about twelve or fourteen years ago.
We had no idea that day that today we would be living in three different states.
Ignorance is bliss...

My kitchen counter art, entitled "Low Carb Snack"
I thought that was a funny way of illustrating that diet, having a preying mantis about to snag a spider for a snack.
I still think it is funny.
It's been a bit frustrating here today. Our email company (kingwoodcable.com) got bought by Cebridge. Our email just stopped working when that happened, so we had to start our account again with Outlook Express interface.
Yes, we spent a bunch of time on the phone with Cebridge trying to figure out what the problem was.
Long story short...kingwoodcable will now not allow emails to be sent from our account. We can send them using the web interface...and we still receive emails...we just can't sent them the way we used to.
(electronic blah blah blah....)
Our internet provider has changed, and changed again.
Results is better service.
*NOT*
Customer service has been delightful
*NOT*
I'm just glad I was at work again today while B. fought this fight.
We're switching to gmail. If we email you, you will be notified.
Painting continues, job search continues, heat continues, prayers continue.
Email service?
Not so much.

Somethings never change (even while we are changing)

(Do you remember when I posted this post on June 24, 2007, one year ago today? I've pasted it below to refresh your memory...)

If...you're happy and you know it spin a WEB.

If you're happy and you know it spin a web!

If you're happy and you know it.....

Then your face will surely show it...

If you're happy and you know it, spin a web!

(This spider has been webbed up on the gardenia bush and the top of my morning coffee patio chair since we got back from Switzerland. As long as he is happy, and willing to catch mosquitos, I am willing to let him have the back of the chair.)

Pretty mellow spider.

And the orange smile is just too cute!

Have a happy Sunday. And remember to smile while YOU are hanging out!

~~~

(Fast forward to today: Well lookie here, guess what!)

Smilie the spider is back!

Another song comes to mind, something about "we're all in our places with bright shiny faces..."

I have NO idea if it is the same spider from last year, or if she is the daughter of Smilie, but there she is, in the exact same location, on the exact same date, one year later.

I have no idea where she went during the autumn, winter and spring either. She didn't write, she didn't send even a post card....

I do wonder how many generations of Smilies have built webs on this particular plot of land. Like, since after getting off the Ark? Something to think about.

Finding something to think about really isn't a problem around here. My mind is mulling over what I want to take, sell or give away from all our possessions. That question would be a lot easier to answer if I knew exactly where we were going to.

The question of where we are going to shifts daily. Opportunities for interviews come from many directions, and ultimately we will have to trust God to give us work where He wants us to be.

Meanwhile we are going ahead with getting our house ready for sale. I'm taking "Before" "During" and "After" pictures.

The kitchen "Before":

Above: As seen from the living room

Walking into the kitchen from the living room/dining room .

Breakfast area.

(We keep two more matching chairs in our bedroom bay window area...easy to grab for extra seating when needed.)

French doors are next to the front door, entering the kitchen from the foyer. Cookbook book shelf behind rocker where I always dump my purse as I come in from the garage.

Kitchen desk and open shelving.

I culled about 3/4ths of my cook book collection a few years ago...the Internet has it all!

Looking from the breakfast nook back to the living room.

From the living room...Bernie is standing at the sink

DURING. This is the kitchen as it looks this morning. Yesterday the painters applied an oil based primer to the walls. The odor was potent, and opening all the windows in the 97 degree heat here was pretty icky.

Lucky for me I had to go to work all day...(smile!)

All the stuff from the sun room and kitchen is now piled up in the dining area and foyer. We are being challenged to establish new places for things like our keys, which have always hung in the kitchen right next to the garage door, and wallets, mail...all the stuff that we had designated areas for.

Communication is of utmost importance; we just hope one of us will remember where we decided to put stuff for now!

The sun room looks pretty crazy with the wall covering off...

Above: Kitchen counter art. Title: "Low Carb Snack"

With the kitchen torn up, meals are whatever you can grab!

I know this preparation process is going to go fast, and by Monday it will all be put back together and look fabulous.

No biggie...

I was putting away some small desktop family pictures and came across this shot:

Taken in San Diego about 14 years ago.

I had NO idea that June 24 2008 would find me in Texas, chortling over returning spiders and wondering where I would find myself living next!

Who is the smarter one: the ones who never leave their area, or the ones who leave, and leave, and leave...goes on adventures, and maybe will one day return to where it all began again?

I always thought I was a bit Hobbitish...wanting to stay in the Shire.

But after moving from San Diego to Oregon (for college), back to San Diego for 20+ years, then to San Jose for a year, Dallas for two years, and Houston for eight years...truthfully...I am ready for another adventure!

If we had stayed put in San Diego, where we were both born and raised, and where my parents were born and raised, what would our lives had been like the last eleven years?

No trips to San Francisco for the day, or hiking in the Redwoods, or staying in beach houses in Santa Cruz.

No Master's degree for me. (Being near a library school in Dallas made that possible.)

No trips to Hawaii, Alaska, Grand Cayman, Oregon, the Carolinas, Louisiana, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New England, Minnesota, Switzerland, or Canada. (Bernie's frequent flier miles made flights and hotels available for free or at greatly reduced rates.)

I would have tended my garden and never had known what I was missing.

Looking back on it all, I realize I was SO blessed by the situations that forced us to pack up and leave San Diego.

While at the time it seemed quite terrifying, looking back I see it was just the start of a grand adventure!

(Hmmm...this sounds a bit like a conversation at the beginning of The Hobbit!)