Shannon

Mark is safely retrieved from the Train Station of Chaos and Doom (i.e. chock-full of holiday travelers, in the pouring rain…), and we are headed out at quarter till OMG tomorrow for California, and a full dose of family on both sides. Plus pie. Lots of pie. My basement doesn’t appear to have leaked any […]

I have nice new numbers on my house…and water in my basement. The universe giveth; the universe taketh away. Fortunately (here’s me looking for a bright side!), I’ve known the basement was prone to leak, so there’s nothing important stored on the floor. But still: water, indoors, meh. This is probably not something I can

The reason I’m such a nitwit about the home improvement and maintenance stuff is…well, complex. This is the first house I’ve ever owned all on my own. (And the first time since childhood I’ve lived with some land around my home.) And the only other time I’ve owned (part of a) house, my then-husband was

Today’s progress in the Great House-Number-Replacing Project of 2011: I went to the big-box home-improvement store, old number-stuck board in hand, and sought expert assistance for replacement of same. Helpful Fellow 1 sent me to Helpful Fellow 2 who called for Helpful Fellow 3; HF3 pondered a number of expensive and complicated options before slicing

Despite my best efforts, and two trips to the hardware store, I do not have new numbers installed on my house today. In fact, I have no numbers there at all right now (which I’m sure is illegal or at least inadvisable)…I’m stuck with a partly-dismantled old-number scenario, stuck halfway, no going forward, no going

The Subaru is, yet again, and for real this time (I hope!!), fixed. Turns out there’s an invisible little button on top of the steering column, that you can switch on, and when you do so, the parking lights stay on no matter what. (Not sure why this makes the brake lights stay on too,

Today I didn’t clean All The Things, but I cleaned a Good Many of them, and really, it’s amazing what a straight-line equation it is, the ratio of Clean House to Ability to Think. I might even be able to tackle some writing tomorrow. Which is good, because there is lots of writing to do,

Well damn it’s cold. It’s been coming for a while but today I finally acknowledged it. Or last night–I slept in a long-sleeved shirt, first of the season. And then today I dug out the fleece vest I wore EVERY DAY ALL LAST WINTER, and the fingerless gloves, and the fleece-and-wool hat, and the slippers,

I took a bag of recycling out the other day to my bin by the side of the house, and noticed a fairly impressive patch of mushrooms that had sprung up. I came back in and told Mark about it, and that he should come look at them.* So he came out and looked at

So…I have a new thing. Just getting started, very early days, but: Mark and I spent several hours last week at this amazing fish store, researching; and another hour or so today, selecting the tank, the sand and gravel, the parts and pieces….I spent ALL THE MONEYS on all this equipment, and a few plants