0088 - Time keeps ticking along

Finished painting the purple portion of the walls. Looks pretty good. Cutting in on a white ceiling when you have a dark color is always a challenge but it turned out okay, and even though it's not an entirely clean line, it isn't noticeable.

All the work I had done to clean the house was undone the minute Brian hit the door yesterday. I think he's like that kid in the Charlie Brown cartoons that always has the little tornado of dirt circling around him... coffee spots all over the counter... cat treat crumbs and pawprints on another part of the counter... big muddy man footprints on the carpet I just spot cleaned... clutter.... I give up. The master bedroom and bath are clean and that's the only thing I have control over. I'm just glad to have a place to stay, and we get along, so it's all good.

There are now eight cats (plus Gracie) in the house. The four that were here all along are not particularly pleased with the situation, there was a lot of hissing and growling yesterday, and this morning Trouble was chirping at the door for me to let him in. Yeah... a cat that chirps, it's adorable. I think he just needed a break. Today they all seem to just be avoiding each other. The only one who seems unfazed by it all is Simon. Simon is still doing what Simon does... lays in his spot... walks around... hisses at anything that passes by... waits for his treats. Gracie doesn't know how good she has it with a room all to herself (well, when I don't have the kittens in here, but I only do that for a little while). I think she's just happy not to be in the truck for a while.

Mom and dad are coming by tomorrow for lunch. They take little road trips here and there, and have decided to head to Fredericksburg for the weekend. Since they'll be in the area I'll get to see them for a little while. It's nice to be able to do that while we're still basically in the area. Once we hit the road again it will be difficult to know when we'll see people (unless we get the house).

Mike is in New Mexico. Hasn't had much sleep. I worry about him when he goes without sleep for as long as he has. He'll be home either tomorrow evening or early Saturday. I wonder about the feasibility of our 'take the RV wherever the work is' plan with this job. Of course, when we have the RV we don't have to come back to a homebase unless we want to, so that's less travel I guess. I just don't know how many boomerang trips to Dallas there will be, seems like they finish a job and return to Dallas then go to the next site.

Thought we were done with the IRS, but the letter that came wasn't a determination like we expected, it was an 'oops, we didn't quite get to that, we need 45 more days' letter. Our tax attorney says that's probably a good sign as most no's are handed out pretty quickly, and it's the yesses that take a little while. It's not certain that we'll come out ahead, but I am going to be positive about it. It's been about a year and a half now... what's 45 more days...?

Still cooking at home. Tonight it was patty melts and homemade fries. I cooked mine a little too long. Brian bought a truck and has been waiting on the dealership to detail it, so he isn't home yet. That means I'll get a second chance to try again. It was still good, the fries just had a little bit of a burnt taste. The double cooking method did seem to crisp them up and put some fluff in the middle, I just don't think I should have turned the temperature up like they told me to. Patty melt was good, and I understand that part of a patty melt is Swiss cheese... think I would put pepperjack or cheddar on it next time. Swiss just doesn't add much flavor.

I ordered a book about renovating old houses. Just putting it out there. We want this house. :) I really hope that once we qualify for the loan, we aren't disappointed. Yes... I am slightly obsessive.

0087 - We went for a ride today

And I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

(calm down Brian, we were parked)

Quick! Someone call CSI...