My life as a toothpaste tube.

If the picture above symbolizes my energy level before the Fentanyl, Oxycontin, Morphine, & Methadone experiment....the one below is my energy level after.

From barely there to totally twisted, tweaked, and wrung out. (And a different brand and color, but who's counting?)

This week i have helped paint the house's front porch from top to bottom (new siding so new everything-gets-painted) and today i will help with either painting the trim on the house or cutting siding for the third outside wall of the house.

above: the new roof & dormer construction, with new siding, new windows, and new paint.

Therefore, i must assume i am beginning to come back from the dead! Maybe i will live past this Opiate Interruption after all. Woohoo.

Skimmer's recap: Ah come on, buck up!! This one was stinking short!!

Making laundry fun.

Now, i am not one to ordinarily sing the praises of my whitest whites and cleanest jeans, but OH, WE BOUGHT A NEW WASHER AND DRYER!! And laundry is fun again--not that i can dredge up a time that i was ever thrilled with it--

Due to our ongoing remodel, and the various tentacles of it that stretch into many parts of the house, the new water heater (the on-demand, hanging on the wall kind) "needed its space." Technically, it needed more room in front of it to satisfy the hunger of the county inspectors to make people change things to suit their rules and whims. So, since the laundry area and the water heater were sharing, we decided to get stacking front loaders for the laundry to give the water heater some room (if not privacy.)

Who would have thought it could be so thrilling to replace the washer and dryer? i must admit to having felt quite spoiled for years, since even in our first apartment as a married couple we had our own washer and dryer in our own attached garage. Oh sure, over the past nearly 31 years washers and dryers have come and gone--hand me downs, occasionally purchased, but always the same types. But THIS time....it's a brave new world!....stacking, front loading, water saving--the kind they've been using in England for years (the smartie pants.) PLUS, i have this all new and cool shelf system just to the right of the units, leaving plenty of breathing space between the shelves and the water heater. It's all very cool.

It's pretty sad, though--here we are, doing the 50's commercial-speak, admiring our bright whites, and being serious about it. Even Dynamo, our most curious dog, has sat in front of it a few times and watched the washer spin, wagging his tail.

For a few more weeks at least, laundry will be fun.

*WE* PASSED INSPECTION!

...Electrical, that is... and by "We" i mean "Dean"...

In the looong, slow process that is our house remodel, the electrical inspection was this week, and everything went just fine! Dean's been dreading it for a year, he says.

So now that means *we* (and by "we" i mean "Dean") can move on to other things that show, like siding, and sheetrock. And i can once again dream of walls where the window is the only place the sun shows through.

Coveting my neighbor's bathroom.

Okay, so i don't covet my neighbor's wife, or husband for that matter, but her bathroom and kitchen? ah yes.

Adina has a new kitchen. It's all stylin'. Gray checkerboard backsplash and dark manufactured granite countertops. While i find my Formica-like countertops practical, they just look so practical. They're in that awkward stage of being old enough to be old but too new to be cool retro. Back in the day, 20 years ago, my kitchen was all shiny new too, and really i can't complain too much, it's all very functional. It's just 20 years old, slightly older than my youngest child.

But now, Adina's bathroom.....aaah....all glistening white and pure and new....from the ground up, new. New shower, new floor, new lighting, including a light in the shower. Granted, their old bathroom was functional, i mean, it had the usual necessary fixtures. But it was in need of some serious love. And now, in its newly reborn form, it is spa-like. (At least that's what the decorating shows would call it. i must admit to personal ignorance on the subject of spas.)

My bathroom, where i attempt to put on makeup and otherwise beautify myself, was new at one point. It was never spa-like, as that was not the preferred look of the 80's. i got rid of its big hair and legwarmers when i peeled off the wallpaper and repainted a few years ago, but that does not change the fact that there is no window and definitely no light in the shower.

So here i am confessing my bathroom covetousness. It especially overwhelms me in the shower, when i am shaving my legs by Braille.