September 10th

Hank

In early November, Husband and I moved into our new house.

It has been busy, busy, busy since then. We have fixed a gas pipe and regular water pipes, cleaned hinges and found cabinets not being held up by hinges at all. We have primed and painted the pantry, the kitchen cabinets, the hallway, bathroom cabinets, and our massive hall cabinets and drawers. We have applied contact paper and fixed toilets and kitchen faucets. Husband and his friend used a metal lath to make a male-male faucet screw so that we could use the faucet neck that I picked out without realizing that there was a difference in how they were made. We have mowed the lawn, whacked the weeds, laid the insulation (okay, Husband did most of that). We have created a cleaning cabinet, created a dryer vent, replaced the shower heads and unplugged about six million drains.

It has been alot of work. And then we had cats. Cats who needed shots, who needed to be fixed, who needed some dental care and regular baths. Cats who shed their fur in clumps all over the house, all over the couch, all over the kitchen, all over my bed. Cats who jumped at the first light in the window in the morning and landed on my head. Cats who turned over for a belly rub as soon as I woke up and then scratched at my heel if I passed them by. Cats who laid in my laundry basket and my clean laundry, in my drawers and in my closet.

It was an incredible amount of work. And then, last week, we added a puppy.

Dumb Animal

It has, again, been a ridiculous amount of time since my last post. Not too much has happened since then but today I finally came back to this blog and realized that I had never posted the promised kitten photographs.

Here is my kitten hiding in the toilet and leaving fur on the seat. Ew. She thinks she's sneaky.

And here is my kitten as I like her best. Sans toilet water. The cuteness is overwhelming, isn't it?

The Cat's Meow

The new house has been filled with all sorts of surprises. Some have been good, like discovering that the owners left us a tool box filled with excellent quality tools, or finding a nice cast iron frying pan in a (bathroom) cabinet. Some of the other surprises have been of the middle of the road "eh" variety, such as finding that some of the handles on cabinets were painted and not screwed in, or realizing that the spare bathroom toilet would stop spouting smelly gunk as soon as the wax ring was replaced. And still other surprises have been, well, not-so-good. Among these was a gas leak that took Husband and my father three days of trenching and pipe relaying to fix, a window screen that NO MATTER WHAT will never stay in because it has nothing to latch it on except balance, and a KitchenAid dishwasher that stank to high heavens for at least two weeks while we tried everything to stop it. It would not drain. It could not drain. It was a friggin' nightmare.

But the biggest surprise of all came just the other day. I couldn't find the kitten Anastacia and I decided that before I went looking all over the yard for her, I'd use the bathroom. So I walked into the bathroom, lifted the toilet seat and found...

AN UNHAPPY KITTEN IN MY TOILET.

Sitting there. Drenched. Sullenly saying "meow" and too traumatized to move. The picture will follow as soon as I figure out how to get my pictures off my camera and onto the computer with the new setup.

Last week, the house closed and overnight we became homeowners. Husband and I cannot get over this. At every opportunity, we remind each other that HEY! HONEY! WE HAVE A FRIGGIN' HOUSE! I think the last time I felt this cool was when I made the high school basketball team - before I found out they didn't reject anyone =P

Anyway, we spent the weekend cleaning the place up and moving all of our wood furniture in so that it could be tented this week. It has all been more excitement than I can handle and since I have this afternoon to myself? I plan on sleeping. Moving has completely tired me out.

Misplaced Confidence

A few days ago, Husband agreed to pick up an evening shift at his second job. When he came home after his day job, he made a beeline for the bedroom to change clothes. By the time I made it back to the bedroom, he'd nearly entirely stripped.

- I should go to work like this, huh?

- Um. In your boxers? No.

- No? I guess you're right.

- Yeah, Husband. I think I'm right.

- It wouldn't really be fair to the female customers, after all.

- What do you mean?

- Well, if I went to work in my boxers it would be as if I were cooking a juicy steak and when someone mentioned that it looked delicious, I said "here, come closer, I'll let you smell it, but no tasting."

- Oh, I see. So you'd show up to work in your underwear and the women would be clawing at you and you'd have to say "Ladies, ladies, I'm taken."

- Precisely.