...and not today, as I told the checker at Gelson's as he rang up several gift cards for members of my family.
There's nothing like being so wrapped up in your own stuff that you wait until the last possible minute to shop for holiday gifts (it doesn't matter that I got a 24-hour reprieve when I found out that tonight is not the first night of Chanukah -- I thought it was, so I think I waited as long as humanly possible this year).
As always, I have a ton of excuses.
(1) A whole rash of automotive events that have been occurring this month (I'm including one tomorrow) means that I've got some actual (paid) writing assignments that must get finished before the holiday. And the first one is only half-done...
(2) ...because I've been distracted. The latest occurred when I picked up our mail, which included (gasp!) a notice of cancellation from my auto insurance company because they never received a document I sent them back in October. It all has to do with my daughter's impending driver's license, an event I'll no doubt be writing about a lot in the coming year. I spent the last hour in intense conversation with the insurance company, digging up my copy of the document I sent, driving to OfficeMax so I could fax it to them and then getting confirmation that our policy remains in effect (until our premium period ends, when I've already decided we'll be switching to another carrier).
(3) And then there's the home improvement project we began a couple of weeks ago. Actually, it was a continuation of the major renovations we underwent two years ago; there were some finishing touches that had to be done (plus a major bit of drywall that had to be RE-done). We had originally contracted with someone to do the work back in August, but he flaked out on us. We talked with a second contractor, who also just disappeared before we could get the contract signed. It's just our good luck that we did not find someone who would do the work as promised until December -- and then, the job took longer because the measurements taken by the original contractor were WRONG. But today, the job was finally finished, as you can see in these photos:
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Drywall was replaced, sanded and painted - plus gaps between the wall and the fire place were filled. And while he was at it, we had the contractor add insulation (our 50-year-old home was built without any). Don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt. |
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We had been living without a door on this closet since the wood floor was torn out over two years ago. While we were at it, we had all the rest of the doors in the house replaced. That's when we discovered that the first contractor had mis-measured the other doors. We had to return the ones we had and wait for new ones to arrive (oh yes - did I mention they were a special order? Not that there was anything special about them - we just didn't like the brass hinges that come on the standard doors; our thinking was that brushed nickel would go better with the chrome hardware in the kitchen). Eventually, we'll get around to doing something about the front door. |
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| The 2009 renovation included replacing our broken old slider with a nice, new one -- but the last job ended without finishing the casing around the door, and the dog managed to make it all worse. Now, we finally have some nice molding surrounding it and the husband is now ready to hang the lovely drapes my friend Mary Ellen made us two years ago. |
So another item has been crossed off our home renovation to-do list. Hooray!
Now, we need to put the furniture and electronic equipment back the way they were before we started this latest project. Most of that stuff is in the dining room and kitchen, which currently look like this:
So I'm really, really, really happy not to be making latkes tonight. I have an extra 24 hours to clear all this stuff out and do something exciting - like vacuum.
