CheckList

* Not only have I scheduled the 17yo's senior portrait, we have also successfully agreed on and shopped for clothing for said photo shoot. May not seem like much of an accomplishment, but we still like each other and have not inflicted pain and abuse upon each other in the process.

*Five days to Gordon Lightfoot!!!

*Sadly, there will be no bike ride today. Chilly, windy, looks like rainy.

*Am I really such a horrible neighbor? The house next door has a realtor's moving van backed up in the driveway, although there has been nary a for sale sign posted in the yard. This family has been there barely a year, just like the ones before them. We had many friendly chats out in the yard with their two adorable younger daughters bouncing about and demanding attention. And I know that they replaced carpeting and flooring before they moved in, kind of expensive improvements when you don't own the house very long. Wonder what's up.

*As today's title implies, I have a check list of tasks that I really must accomplish before I have a houseful of people in a month. Only a couple of them are terribly time consuming, those being finishing the carpet install in the basement bedroom/office and hemming the "new" living room drapes. As a seamstress and decorator, I recommend that drapes hang for a while before hemming. As a procrastinator, I realize that fifteen months is more than enough of a while.

*The snowball effect has reached its ferocious tendrils into the laundry room. I just knew I shouldn't have purchased that bright pink office chair for use at the sewing machine. I did find it on clearance for about twenty bucks, which was a great bargain. But now I have purchased other pink items, a clock, a storage ottoman, a desk lamp, to go in there as well. I have fully rationalized the acquisition of these things, the clock that is currently in the laundry room hasn't worked for over a year, the desk lamp that is currently in there will be recycled into the 17yo's room and the storage ottoman, well, it was cute! And on clearance! Get out of my way if you are between me and a clearance-priced, hot pink area rug! Don't say I didn't warn you.

*I'm enjoying immensely going about my business with a condom in my purse. I am past the urge to blurt out to attractive strangers that I possess this item and that I know how to use it. I think it lends an aire of mystique to my sometimes lackluster ambience.