And On and On It Goes....

The refrigerator door arrived, unannounced, yesterday when FedEx left a box as tall as I am on the front doorstep.  It was supposed to arrive today (Well, yesterday, originally, but that was re-scheduled.  No one told FedEx I guess.)  Now the repairman is here, and surprise, surprise, the electronics in the current door are not the same as the electronics in the new door, so he is disassembling both doors to switch out the guts.  He called his dispatcher to say that he would be here for "several hours."  Oh, joy.

GE.  We Bring Good Things to Life.  Eventually.

And Ah Hay-elpd

says Baxter.

I am blocking the Color Affection Shawl and as always, Baxter finds the whole process fascinating.  First he dipped a paw in the sudsy water where the shawl was soaking to test the water temperature

and then he checked out my shaping.

 But then he started pulling out the pins to let me know I was doing it wrong.  Since I can read the tape measure and he can't, I told him to stop. He jumped up on his perch (the ironing board) to supervise.

In the end, he approved, so now it is drying.  The yarn is Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock and Baby ---wonderful soft yarn and I love her colors.

The shawl seemed to be drying as I pinned it out, so I think I will be able to fondle try it on later today.

Common Sense is Not So Common

so said Voltaire and he is correct.

The new refrigerator arrived Thursday.  My husband and I finished painting the kitchen and breakfast room yesterday.  We cleaned up.  The job is finished!!!

Not so fast.

Do you see the black plastic covers over the edges of the top door and bottom drawer?

Well, look what is missing here:

Yes, there is a piece missing.  Probably a 2- or 3-cent part.

My husband called GE, e-mailed the photos, and yesterday we had a reply. There is no way to order just that little plastic piece.

The GE rep has ordered us an entire new door.  Crazy!!!

Later this week, the kitchen project will be finally finished when the new door arrives. We can't blame China, or the factory in China, or a worker in China. The refrigerator was made in Kentucky.  But I suppose we can't blame Kentucky, or the factory in Kentucky, or the worker in Kentucky either.

Let's blame the designer/engineer!!!  Or the billing department?

(Or me.  You would think I would have noticed this when the refrigerator was delivered.  Nope.)

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My poor cats.  Look at Molly.  She was exhausted yesterday after helping Baxter supervise the kitchen-painting.

Sound asleep.  UNDER a rocking chair.  Never a good idea.

Calling Paul Harvey....

There is a story, which some sources say is apocryphal, about a bet Ernest Hemingway made that he could write an entire story in under ten words:

For Sale
Baby Shoes
Never Worn

There is a world of possibilities in those six words.


I suspect that there is in these six words as well:

Random photo from the interwebs

Wouldn't you love to know the rest of the story?

Finished!

and I love the cabinets!  They look like new furniture, so yes, it was all worth it. Of course, I no longer want to cook in my kitchen; it would be awful to risk damaging the finishes, don't you think?

 Yep, Baxter has to check it out.

 

I still have cleanup and re-organizing to do, but at least the most difficult work (which was done by Juliet Jones Studio) is finished.  Juliet is great and can do everything from finishing out new construction to remodeling to faux painting to trompe l'oeil.

Best of all, from Baxter and Molly's perspectives, they have been released from imprisonment in the basement and can snoop to their hearts' content.  And walk on the counters.  And climb on top of the refrigerator.  And open the cabinets.

In other words, back to normal.  

A Pause for the Philosophical

All of the events of life can be seen as learning experiences if we just stop to think about what we have learned from the bad as well as from the good.

What I have learned from the kitchen cupboard project:

1.  Home improvement projects are not fun.  This one has been a nuisance and an inconvenience.  Everything people do on HGTV looks like so much FUN!!! so I don't understand what is going on here.  hmmmmm... Possibly the police visit and the gas fumes might have something to do with it...

2.  Mission creep is a real phenomenon.  The cabinets get painted; the walls need re-painting.  The cabinet doors need to be re-hung; many of the old hinges are broken-buy new hinges.  For no reason whatsoever, the door on the refrigerator breaks; buy new refrigerator.

3.  Baxter can get on top of the refrigerator.  No problem, says he.  And so there he is, time after time, just lying there.  After some thought, I've realized that he does this for one of two reasons:

     a.  Because he can.
           or
     b.  To taunt me.

I'm going with b.

The doors and drawer front panels go on tomorrow, God willin' and the creek don't rise.

It's been pouring for hours.

As Roseanne Rosannadanna Always Said

We are still in the process of having the kitchen cabinets re-painted.  Yesterday and today's work consisted of spraying the cabinet boxes and front frames with a top coat to protect the finishes.  The painter has used all green products up to now so there have been no fumes at all.  It's been a nice way to get the painting done.

However, the oil-based product used for the topcoat reeks of chemicals and the painter uses a gas mask, the kind you might see in a The World is Being Destroyed by ....  kind of movie.  I don't have such a mask, so I put the cats in the basement where my husband works in his office and ensconce myself upstairs in my knitting/computer/tv room with the window open and the door closed.

Today after the painter left, I opened the front door and the back door so that the fumes could go out and ruin what's left of the atmosphere and I hid in my lair.  After awhile I heard male voices, very LOUD male voices, yelling: Hello? Is anyone here? What is going on?  Things like that.  I peeked over the stair railing to see two armed, uniformed police officers in the front hall.

A neighbor, who was still in our driveway, had called the police after seeing the front door open and not getting a response when she called our names from outside of the house.

We explained everything, the neighbor identified us as the residents who do live in this house, we all laughed and now it's over.

Sweet Baby Cheeses!  Scared me to death!

It will all end on Monday.

And then my heart will go back to its normal rhythm.  I hope.

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Aaannnd.... It's an hour later and I wondered why the house smelled like gas.  Turns out it WAS gas. The painter must have knocked a knob when she was cleaning up and so the stove has been spewing gas for....oh, three hours or so.

I hope we live to see Monday.

Barbie and I

have something in common!

We both knit!

She is obviously more ambitious than I am though.

It looks as if she knits entire outfits; I mostly knit small
projects.


The Color Affection scarf is coming along just fine.  It's all in garter stitch, so it's easy, but it does require carrying three strands of yarn along the third section.

Bummer.

Why I Cannot Cook

My kitchen:

However, we can't live without coffee.

Ye Newe Coffee Shoppe (aka laundry room):

MOLLY!!!

My kitchen is a mess today because I am having the cabinets painted.  The doors and drawer fronts are all off; half of the contents of the cupboards have been removed so that the painter can paint the frames and lips of the cabinets. Stuff is stacked all over the countertops and on the dining room table.

I just went into the kitchen and found that Molly must have decided to contribute to the mess.

Gee, Molly.  Thanks.

I Need to Tell Everyone

that my younger daughter has NEVER been arrested.

She told me that she was on Google and, yes, she is:

HOWEVER,

she might have warned me that she posted her fake mug shot from a fund-raiser at the LA county jail.

I'm just so proud.