Tonight is my parents' 52nd anniversary, so I'm taking them out for dinner at a restaurant of their choice. (Please don't be Dixie Cafe!) Had hoped to get some pool time in before that this afternoon, but the friendly acquaintances I was wrangling an invite from are an hour late getting back to me and we're not close enough for me to just show up uninvited at their door in swimtrunks.

Jesse, any reason not to inform your Dad's family?

Basically, she doesn't want them to worry about stuff (because they get really worried and are really far away), so she waits until it's resolved, ideally. I'm not saying this is how I would act, but it's not my call. I realize this is the classic family shit that makes people crazy. "Everything's OK, but...."

There's no such thing as unskilled labor... the pros know tricks.

I know that's true, for sure. Maybe I'll wait and see how the estimate for the kitchen comes out before I really press it.

Ack, kids are in fine form today! Cody--probably unwisely--took them off by himself to UCLA for a bit of time in his office and maybe some time at the pool. Which means time for me to buckle down and grade! Just a quick drop by b.org, then nose to the grindstone!

Ugh, so weary. Hec took Matilda out and away, and I used the quiet time to repaint the hallway ceiling, which had been flaking and crumbling and looking more and more like ass. They're buying two new sets of string lanterns now to hang in the hallway, and I just felt grimly certain that if the new lights went up before the ceiling was repainted, up they would stay and the repainting would never, ever happen. But now it's all done, and it's warm and muggy enough that it should be plenty dry by nightfall, and then we can have a nicely lit hallway just like regular folk.

But, man, am I tired and sweaty-stinky.

In the absence of pool lounging opportunity I am drinking a coconut-pineapple Sparkling Ice after doing a load of laundry and steam-cleaning the floor and rug of my home office.

Having now drunk all the sparkling water in the entire universe, I'm off to the hardware store to get screens for the windows (went to do this earlier but got distracted by the garden dept.; at least our back porch is now decorated with plants that are both pretty and, at least purportedly, mosquito-repelling). Over the next week, tackling the closets and the living room ceiling. This house is gonna look pretty if I have to destroy everything in it.

It also depends on if people took down wallpaper before putting up more. The house I grew up in had about 10 layers in every room, and it took years to take it all down. The ceiling in my grandpas bedroom still has wallpaper because when we tried to take it down, the curling started to come down with it!

Yeah, I know the family put up what's in there now (35 years ago), so my mother or aunt should be able to tell me something about what's underneath.

We found about five layers of wallpaper in the bathroom of my Grandmother's house. The bottom layer had big fishies on it and my own name written in careful 1st-grade all-caps print. I should have taken a photo of it.

Timelies all!

They just cancelled our flight back to DC. Shit.