Dining room

The dining room is almost done. I painted this afternoon; we agreed on a light sandy whitish-brown (Sarasota Sand). It's very neutral and very different from the other colors we've chosen. It's subtle, but it warms the room up. I was going to hang the new pictures I bought in the dining room tonight, but I don't see that happening now. I'll get to it after church tomorrow.

I'm going to do the office, foyer, and hallway to the garage the same color. That won't take much more. In fact it will probably take longer to move furniture and tape trim and the ceiling than it will actually take to paint.

It's been good weather for interior decoration--cool, sunny earlier today but now rainy. It's getting to be Christmas shopping weather.

I know, you haven't even thought about Christmas shopping. Yes, I have. In fact, I'm almost always Christmas shopping. If I see something in January that I know somebody will love, I buy it and put it aside. When you don't make a lot of money, you have to shop early and utilize lay-away! Besides, I'm going to Mom's next month, and the goal is to take presents with me for that side of the clan. The sooner I get extended family out of the way, the more time I have for the hard people: Eric and the kids. You'd think they'd be easy, since they're the ones I live with! Don't I wish!

Monster Creation 101

I think a while back I posted about Tess and ice cubes. Somebody dropped one and it was an instant kitty toy. The trouble was, she'd get tired of them and pretty soon I had puddles on the floor. I started putting them in the water dish, and she had fun poking at it with her paw.

Then she figured out she could get her paw under it and pop it out. That was great fun until it slid underneath the water dish.

No problem. She figured out how to grab the finger holes with her claws and slide the dish so she could get to the ice cubes. That left more puddles! Bigger puddles!

The trouble now is that she's dragging the water dish around the kitchen, spilling the water, looking for the ice cube that isn't there. I've had to clean water up twice this morning and I'm still eating breakfast. I put a towel under the dish; maybe that will at least keep the puddles to a minimum. Stay tuned for further developments.

At least part of the kitchen floor is clean now.

NaNo prep

I've got:
- The t-shirt and coffee mug on order.

- The plot ruminating and taking shape, and the two main characters named.

- A room at a B&B for a weekend set up.

- Two more weeks to plot.

Still left to do:
Plan November's menu and do as much shopping and cooking as I can before Halloween.

I think I'm in good shape. Now that I've said it, something will throw a monkey wrench into the works. Just watch.