Wow. I guess I failed in a big way to update my blog every day. Oh, well. I made a valiant effort. The pressures of hosting my first Thanksgiving at my house overwhelmed me. The good news is that our Thanksgiving was great! Everyone brought something which was so helpful; my mother stayed here and she and Robert and I worked as a well-oiled-cooking-machine! We did a great job. I think everyone liked it and it's a good thing that Thanksgiving only comes around once a year, because I sure was tired.

And for the first Thanksgiving without my father - sometimes I still can't get my mind around the fact that he's gone and will never come back - it was a pretty good one. I think he would have liked it.

Here are some pictures.
Me, Robert and my Mom in the background. She's making gravy and Robert and I have just dissected the turkey:


This is the table:


Here's Robert and his Mom:


And Angie and her parents:

Wahoo! Mike Lowell has agreed to a 3-year deal and is staying with the Red Sox. That is totally awesome!

Here's the article

Last night we went out to The Melting Pot to celebrate my birthday. The actual day is Wednesday, but we thought that going out for a big meal the night before Thanksgiving was not a great idea. So we opted to go out on Saturday. It was awesome! I love fondue and this was very very good. Not as great as the fondues my parents used to make for us back when we used to ski, but almost.

I can't forget to write in my bloggybloggington today. This blogging every day is pretty difficult. It's hard to think of something to write about.

My town, which charges exorbitant real estate taxes and yet provides no services in return, thereby requiring us to bring our garbage to the dump, has recently instituted a new set of "dump rules". These include a 30-minute time limit; a limit on the number of trips per day, and a no-picking rule. It's kinda crazy that a town would have to do this, but apparently people hanging out at the dump all day is a problem in our sleepy little town. This story made it all the way to the New York Times which was pretty embarrassing. I only hope it wasn't a question on Wait wait don't tell me. That would be really embarrassing!

This is a picture I took last January, after a particularly nasty ice storm. The sun coming through the ice enveloping the trees was really pretty. I think we lost power for three days. It got really cold in the house - everything was down to about 37 degrees inside. It took a full 24 hours to heat the house back to warm.

I'm not sure why I chose to post that particular picture, except I've just been shopping for Advent calendars and with Thanksgiving coming up, I'm looking forward to the holidays. I bought one for us, and also for Sarah, Steven and Elizabeth - but mostly for Elizabeth. I think she is old enough to get a kick out of opening up a little door every day on the countdown to Christmas. So thinking about the holidays naturally has me thinking of winter and this picture is what came to mind. I was kind of hoping for a little bit of snow this morning, but it didn't happen. I wasn't hoping for an accumulation, just a bit of snow in the air.

Next week we are having a whole bunch of people over for Thanksgiving. I've never hosted a dinner party, never mind a Thanksgiving. I'm a little nervous, but I think it'll be OK because my Mom is going to help me. She's an expert.

The painters were supposed to come today, but didn't show up. And I don't think it was because of the rain, as there's plenty to do inside as well as outside.

My fireplace doors are in and they look gorgeous.

Work at my house is winding down. Just a few things left to do. I always said that it would be Thanksgiving by the time they were done. Little did I know... But it's because I added stuff on to the job, not because they are slow.

My opportunities for using the torch now are getting fewer and fewer. It's just too cold. Or I'm too old to sit in the cold. Whichever it is, I just don't want to.

So that's about it for today. I'm bummed that Beckett didn't win the Cy Young award, but what can you do?

I don't have too much to write today.

I'm updating early, because today we're flying home! Hooray! I get to see my dogs and cat today. I can't wait. I want to snuggle with Java. She is so funny. The other day, Robert told me, she was barking at a boston terrier slipper that the cat had been playing with and left on her sunbeam blanket. She was mad because it was taking up room on her blanket in the sunbeam and she wanted to lie there. What a silly goose!

This place in Florida reminds me so much of my father. I'd lie in bed and think of him leaving in the morning to go get the paper, or some bagels. I'd look over to his chair and see the book I got him for Christmas a few years ago. This is the home that my parents have owned the longest - because they sold our childhood home in 2001 - and I have the most memories of him from the longest time ago attached here. Plus the memories of that horrible week in February.

Anyway, enough ruminating on that. I'm looking forward to coming home, seeing the dogs, and hearing that Dustin Pedroia was named AL Rookie of the Year. *Fingers crossed*

My mom has a pastel drawing of my dad hanging in her house. It was drawn when my dad was 5 or 6 years old. The expression on Elizabeth's face is the same as my Dad's in that drawing - especially the eyes. It's amazing how sometimes when you look at her, you see him shrunk down.

This has been a very trying week. My mother is now grating on my last nerve and I just can't wait to get home. I keep being reminded of my dad and the days surrounding his death. It's just not fun. I think this is my last ever trip to SW Florida. If I could, I'd leave today.

This is a picture of my Mom and Robert in the hot tub.

Today was kind of fun. We woke up late, had breakfast and then hot-tubbed it until early afternoon. Then my Mom went in for a nap, and Robert and I went to Target to pick up a few things. Nothing major.

I've alluded to my free mattress on more than one occasion. Robert and I bought a new mattress back in April because 1) we wanted to get a new one eventually and 2) the store was having a contest and said if the Red Sox won the World Series this year, the mattress would be free. So we decided that we should probably buy during the contest period just in case. I had a nagging feeling that this year might be a good year for them. Of course, I think that every year, and have since 1978. But this time I was right! Something like three days after we purchased it, the Sox made it to first place in their division and never left all season. They totally rock.

I just picked Robert up at the airport. I'm happy he's here. And I'm happy to be coming home on Monday. It's late so that's it for today. I was going to write about my free mattress, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I feel like I need to pepper this blog with photos, especially because there's not much to write about. This is a photo of the front yard I found on my Mom's computer. It's very foggy. I thought it was kind of pretty.

This morning my Mom and I went to the Coach store and she bought me a new bag for my birthday, which is coming up. It's totally awesome.

As nice as it is here, I wish I were home in NH with my dogs and cat. I miss them. Oh and I miss my husband, too, of course. LOL. ;) He's coming down tomorrow. I can't wait. Then we're flying home Monday afternoon. I can't wait for that either.

I miss Martha, too. And Angie. And Katie. And watching Red Sox games. And my Father. And my glass and torch. And the birds in my backyard. And my free mattress. And The People's Court. And my bathtub. And my email. And Sarah and Elizabeth.

I'm lucky to have so much to miss.

This is my new stoop. I've wanted a granite stoop for a long time - well, maybe about a year now. It got put in on Monday, after I left for Florida, so this picture is the only time I've seen it. Last night I had a nightmare about the stoop, if you can believe it. It's hard to describe the stoop of my nightmare, except to say that it was made from molded plastic, resembled a hollow tree stump with a large root, and would have tripped the first person to step on it. I was in agony. But Robert sent me the picture from his cellphone this morning to ease my concerns and luckily it's nothing like the stoop of my bad dream.

How cute is she?

Here I am in Florida. I thought it would be hard to come back to this house, but it really wasn't. What was hard was flying into Ft. Myers at nighttime; seeing the lights of the houses below; and remembering old times. Like the time when we flew in at around 10:00 p.m. and my father was so happy that we were all together he blasted his then-favorite song "Run Around". I just thought of him the whole time we were landing and how happy he'd be when we'd come down to visit. That was the hard part.

The flight was OK. I read a very nice little book called The Alchemist on the way. It's one of those spiritual - inspirational - follow-your-bliss kind of books. Perfect for the flight down.

Oh and the Red Sox signed Curt Schilling for another year. I guess I'm OK with that, all politics aside.

I'm off to Florida. I'll update later.

This counts as a blog entry, btw.

The extra hour we got today was used well by me in sleep mode. It was delicious to sleep in today. I think we slept until 8:30 (9:30 on the body-clock). Now I have a bazillion things to do today before going to Florida tomorrow. I know it will be difficult to face going into that house but it's something we all have to get over.

My father would have been happy that I'm going down to Florida to help my mom. I remember two years ago when I went down after she had knee surgery. He was happy that I was there to cook for him and keep him company. I remember making him some chili - which he loved. I was going to make him some the week I came down to take care of them in February, but he ended up being in the hospital so I couldn't.

I know things are going to be OK around here while I'm gone. They won't fall apart just because I'm in Florida and not here. My brain knows that, but still....

It is a most disgusting day. High winds and heavy rains and almost freezing temperatures make me want to hunker down. Did I? Nooooo..... We went to Costco because we needed 15 lbs of pasta and a half-gallon of olive oil. LOL. It was crowded and noisy and not much fun. The one great thing about Costco is that we get Barney's medicine for $63.00 and at the pharmacy in town here it's $80.00. It's a huge savings.

After Costco we went to Chili's for a late lunch - early dinner thing and now we're home. Our house is pretty cozy. I'm going to go wrap myself in a blankie and sit in front of the TV with Java on my lap and just chill.

I'm going to update here early today because Sarah's coming over this evening. She's a little fussy and demanding so I need to have the place cleaned up and ready for her. Otherwise she's likely to tell me that my house needs "a good scrubbing". She's done that before. She marries neat-nick men who do all the cleaning at her house, but I remember her bedroom from when she was a kid. Ick.

The other day Keith put up the kitchen pendant lamps. They are really pretty and go with the knobs really well. Here's a picture:

And our new mantel was installed last week. It's a completely different color than our kitchen cabinets. The cabinet wood is the sample on top. It's like the mantel is natural cherry with no stain at all. I'm not sure what's going to happen with this, but hopefully it'll get fixed to match.

The outside of the house is almost all finished. They are working on the back and soon will only have one little area to work on, besides the places they intentionally left off to accommodate the air conditioning.

So that's about it for today. I have to go ready the guest bedroom for our arriving dignitary. :D

November is National Blog Posting Month and the challenge is to post to your blog every day for thirty days. I'm going to try it. I'm not sure if I'll do it.

I saw a red-tailed hawk near my driveway this afternoon. I scared it away when I went to shut the gate so I could let Barney outside. Wow. In the past month we've seen a sharp-shinned hawk make a kill, heard a barred owl in the back yard and now a red-tail. It is pretty cool to live in the woods. I love to just stare out the window at the birds on my feeders, and I especially love it when there's a new bird to identify.

I made another knob today. Now that I'm in the home stretch of doing all the knobs over I don't want to make knob after knob. I'm sick of knobs. I'm on a wine-stopper kick right now. I want to make one for each of my contractors as a small token of my appreciation (in addition to the many many green paper tokens of my appreciation). They aren't bead wearers I'm sure, so a wine stopper is about as neutral as I can make.

I'd better save something to write about tomorrow.

Oh and how selfish and cheesy was A-Rod's announcement - during game 4 of the World Series - of his decision to waive the rest of his contract? Like he needed to announce it then. He couldn't wait until the Series was over. What a grandstanding little prima donna he is. And I'm giving a big shout-out to the Red Sox fans who were chanting "Don't sign A-Rod" last night behind Theo Epstein as he was being interviewed.

I'm waking up tired but very very happy today. The Red Sox are World Series Champions! I'm sad the season is over, but glad it ended this way. Oh and if you're looking for a cool present for me for Christmas, get me a creepy Papelbon puppet.

My mother and father gave me a bird feeder for Christmas last year, and we just got to putting it up this afternoon. We couldn't resist making it match our big house, just for laughs. Robert is so funny. This was totally his idea.



Here's what the front of it looks like. LOL.



We'll keep it on there until the house is finished.

I have a stove!

I made spaghetti!

Wahoo!

And I made these awesome knobs with my new knob shaper from Amy. I'm so in love with this shape. I just wish she had come out with it a teensy bit earlier.

There is not much action around here these days. We attempted to have our stove hooked up to the new huge propane bomb next to my garage, but the stove lacked a regulator. Our awesome plumber Artie noticed this like 10 days ago but we were assured by the evil Fletcher's woman that it was there, just hidden under some metal thing. So when the propane man (really a minion of the evil Fletcher's woman) came to hook it up, no gas would come out. So we're still stoveless, sadly.

Arthur the electrician came to hook up some stuff in the new bathroom, so now our tub has bubbles. I haven't seen it in action yet, but I could hear it all the way downstairs. That thing is supersonic.

I am focusing on making focal beads for the show on the 13th. I'm having fun with them and I'm not missing making sets these days. Amy brought over some very cool new shapes and I've been fooling around with them. It's always best to have new and exciting things to inspire you.

Oh and go Red Sox!

I've always wanted to name my house. It's kind of a pretentious thing to do, but I think it's cool. Up the street from us is "Impromptu Farm" and over in Dunstable there is "Sunnyfield," for example. Sadly, I've never been able to come up with a name I liked. Of course, Robert couldn't care less about naming our house until we started re-siding it. He's now calling it "Tyvekistan." We will have this look for a couple more weeks while we wait for the new windows to come in. We are also going to put in air conditioning. New windows and air conditioning were on my "wish list" but it makes sense to do them now while the siding is off. I was planning to do them next year or so but I can see that it will save time and labor to do it all at once.

The yard is still highly wooded, but you can see how the trees that surrounded the house are gone and how much of a difference it makes in terms of sun and light on the house. And it makes such a difference when it rains! The other night it rained and everything was dry by the next afternoon. Before it would take two to three days for things to dry out.

It's starting to look like fall around here. This is my crabapple tree which now has full sun for many hours a day. The berries are red and very ripe.

The work inside is winding down...way down. Wednesday the maids came and cleaned the dust up and then for the rest of the day I was blissfully alone. As much as I like chatting with the workers, it was so nice to be by myself for the afternoon. I have a head cold and wasn't feeling too well, so I took a leisurely bath, and then laid down on my own bed for the first time in 2 1/2 months! It was heavenly. The rest of the day I spent in my pj's and relaxed. Ahhhhhh....

Last night we went to see "wait wait don't tell me" in Manchester. We originally wanted to go while we were in Chicago, but it was the night we went out to dinner with my Boston Terrier friends and they also had a guest-host, so we opted not to go, figuring they'd come to NH sometime in the next few years. Who knew it would be so quickly? Anyway, it was a thousand laughs and neat to see it in person. I can't wait to listen to it on Saturday.

I got a new bench today from Kevin the tree man. I felt bad about it but what are you going to do. He's coming back to do a little more work, so that will help go to pay his granite bill.

I bought this awesome bench less than a year ago. It was installed the weekend I went to Snow Farm back in October. Ironically enough, it has come to an end as I am about to leave for Snow Farm this year. :(

Time for more pictures! The kitchen is pretty much done; there are just a few small things to do to wrap it up.

This is the view from the cellar stairs.


This is the view from the window in the opposite corner:

My new washer and dryer. Yay! :D

The vanity in the downstairs bathroom.

This is the cabinet across from the washer & dryer:
This is the view from the dining room into the kitchen:
This is the view of the whole kitchen from the living room door:
These are the knobs I'm making for the kitchen:
The knobs are based on these pendant lights:

In a few days I'll take and put up pictures of the bathroom upstairs. It's spectacular.

The people who did the work ( Phillips-Martin Group ) were awesome. I have only good things to say about them and their work. And the subs they used were terrific, too. They did the work for the project in this article. Not really to my tastes, but fabulous work.

They are chopping down all my trees today and I'm so sad.

Yesterday was the 17th, or the 7-month anniversary of my Father's death. On every other 17th since February, I was well aware of the date and its significance. Yesterday was the first 17th that I didn't think of the fact that it was an anniversary, until my mother brought it up after dinner. It's not that I didn't think of my father, because I do every day. I just hadn't thought of the anniversary. Which I think is a good thing. Maybe next month I'll go through the whole day without thinking about it.

Day 63 and counting. The hardwood floor in the kitchen is being installed today, and the painters are painting the dining room. We fixed our first breakfast in the kitchen today - bagels and cream cheese and coffee. It was nice not to have to go out. Having water in the kitchen is also a big plus. I've started to put a few things away, and it's challenging to put it away in a semi-organized way. I have to think about it. Hopefully I've put things where they would logically go but if not, I can always re-arrange. My appliances are being delivered on Friday, and as luck would have it I'm going away for the weekend. I so want to be here instead.

No pictures today, but there have been some improvements to blog about - we have water in the kitchen and in the upstairs bathtub. Now, it's not hot yet, but at least it's wet! The tile is in the upstairs bathroom and the entryway. It looks very pretty.

But there are some concerns as well. When the contractors were replacing the windows, they noticed that the house was not wrapped. The clapboards are up against the plywood, with no moisture barrier inbetween. That, combined with the gazillion trees we have, has led to the house being extremely moist and even rotting in some places. So now we're having the house wrapped ($$$) and resided ($$$). Oh and today they found termites! Ah, the joy of home-ownership. Luckily it seems to be confined to one area and it was cleaned up nicely. The exterminator is coming on Friday.

We got our granite on Friday. It's gorgeous. Here's the island with the sink:

This is the stove area:

Another island/sink view:

And the fireplace. We chose a darker granite, because I thought using the light here would be too much.

The kitchen is still in sort of the same state; but more cabinets are up, along with the crown molding. The bathroom upstairs now has a bathtub and soon will have the tile. We had to go pick out more tile for the entryway as the original that we had chosen was discontinued. Unfortunately, I brought the wrong camera upstairs so the photos of the kitchen and bath will have to wait. The camera I brought is the one I use for closeups of my beads, so instead of showing you the kitchen, I'm going to show you my knobs.

Since the stuff got moved out of the garage on Monday, I've been able to do a little work and start on my knob project. I'm making the knobs for this renovation. I picked out funky light fixtures and I'm making knobs to "go with" them. I'm not "matching" them, rather "going with" them.

Here are the knobs in the downstairs powder room. The lighting glass is a fritted light with topaz and black. I needed only 5 knobs for this room so I started here.


And a close up:


And here's the style I'm making for the laundry room. No cool lighting fixtures in there, so I could make what I wanted. I need 12 for this room.

Time for more kitchen pictures, to show the progress so far. We have cabinets! They are beautiful.

This first picture corresponds to the first picture I posted on the July 13th entry. We are looking at the brick wall (now covered up) and the sliding glass door (replaced).

This next picture corresponds to the second picture I posted on July 13. We are looking at the newly expanded dining room entryway on the left, and the doorway to the side door and garage door and the laundry room. You can see the new island where the sink and the dishwasher will be and straight ahead along the wall will be the new fridge and new oven and microwave.

This next picture is the same area as the 3rd picture on July 13, but it shows a different angle. On the left where there was bare wall is now a coat closet and folding area for laundry and across from that are my washer & dryer with actual cabinets above them! I had that stupid shelf system from the previous owner of the house there before. Yay, cabinets!


This next one shows the bathroom upstairs. We have walls!


And here's the shower:


And the vanity:


We are also taking the opportunity to change some of the windows, to let in more light. This house can be so dark, especially on a rainy day. Here's the new dining room window from the inside:


And from the outside:


And here is a picture of the old living room windows. This is a picture of the opposite side of the room, but the window placement was the same. Small windows before:


Big window after!:


And here's why I haven't been making beads. Last week it was the cabinets; this week it's the bathtub:

Obviously, things aren't finished, but they are coming along nicely. We're pretty pleased with the progress so far.

Well, I'm back at home and things are progressing nicely. Today there were a ton of people here, painters, contractors, installers. All over the place. I'm relegated to the basement with the dogs, where it's cool, so that's OK. The new window in the living room is incredible. I should take some pictures. Maybe later when they're gone.

Oh, it's been a while since I posted anything but I've been having much fun. At least since I left the mess back home. On Wednesday I flew to Minneapolis to go to the ISGB Gathering, the annual convention of beadmakers. It was a ton of fun. I did a whole bunch of glass and tool shopping as well as bead shopping at the Bead Bazaar. It was a perfect weekend, except we didn't get enough sleep.

On Monday, Robert and I both flew to Chicago and spent 2 nights there. We went to the Field Museum of Natural History, the Chicago Art Institute and Second City Comedy Show. We stayed at the Westin on Michigan Ave. It was very nice.

Right now we're in Naperville. My class starts tomorrow. Robert is going to go to the Museum of Science and Industry while I'm in class. Then tomorrow night, we're getting together with our Boston Terrier Friends. I got to meet them in person last year; Robert will be meeting them for the first time. We've been friends for over 7 years on-line. I started visiting the AOL BT Board just after we got Java and that's how we met.

So that's the update. Apparently at home, all the plastering and drywalling is done. The new window in the living room went in today and the new sliding glass door went in yesterday. I can't wait to get home and see it.

OK, I took some pictures. This is the kitchen, looking towards the living room. On the right is the door to the cellar, ahead is the door to the living room and to the left is the door to the porch. We are covering up the brick with wallboard and the fireplace will have a granite surround and a gas insert inside.



This is the kitchen looking the other way. On the left is the door to the dining room. That has been expanded since I took the picture, so it's about twice the width that the picture shows. Ahead is the doorway to the back door and the garage. The wall straight ahead is where my refrigerator and range were.



This is my laundry room and 1/2 bathroom. On the right out of the picture is where the washer and dryer are. The coat closet that we so cleverly turned into a pantry used to be here on the left. Now it's just bare walls.

This is the new master bath we're building. You can see the size of the old bathroom comparatively - it's that square of linoleum on the farthest left side of the floor. Or better yet, look at the window and the surround drywall on the left. That shows the size. Add one of those little single shower stalls and that's the old one. We'll still have a nice-sized bedroom when we're done.

OK, it's day 3 of the renovations. I thought it would be done by now, or at least half-way done. Where is Ty Pennington and the Design Team? I thought I was supposed to get a trip to Disney World. Move that bus! Seriously, though, it is getting old and it's only day 3. Day 3! The floor in the kitchen is gone and we're walking on 1/2 thick plywood. It's kind of squishy if you step when there is no joist. Eek! I guess the work is coming along. I just wish it were done.

My kitchen is gone. The cabinets are gone. The ceiling is gone. The sink is gone. The refrigerator is gone. The closet in the entryway is gone. Gone, gone, gone.

Happy 4th of July! I know I'm a little late, but better late than never. We had a nice little holiday. We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and went to my mom's house on Northwood lake. We stayed Tuesday and Wednesday nights. This was the first time we slept over, as usually there isn't enough room - there are only 2 guest bedrooms - but this time I slept with my mom and Robert slept on a blow-up mattress in the living room. So we had a fun time swimming on Wednesday morning, and both nights we watched other peoples' fireworks. I think the neighbors must have spent in the thousands for their show last night. It's amazing the fireworks you can buy at the store these days. I can't believe it's not illegal.

This morning we woke at the crack of dawn and drove home for my dentist appointment. No cavities! Then I picked up the dogs - who were incredibly happy to see me. Then lunch with my friend Amy at Olive Garden. Yum!

Barney's eye is feeling much better. You could tell last week that he was in a great deal of pain because of his eye. He was lethargic and not playful at all. He barely even barked for his meal. Now he's a different dog. He's playing with Java and very interested in chasing squirrels again. Hopefully his pressure will be OK when we have him checked on Saturday.

Today was one of those glorious summer days that you wish every other summer day could be like. The air was fresh and not too hot. Just wonderful. It made me glad to be alive.

And I have to tell you about the coolest thing ever. I bought a new hose and hose reel so I would be able to water the mountain laurel without getting dirty. My old hose was covered in pine pitch or something, but it left me water-logged and filthy by the time I was done. The thing that is so great is the hose reel. It winds itself up using water power. You just flip the switch and the hose winds away. It also washes the hose as it's wound up. I am in hose heaven about this gadget. Come over and I'll give you a demo. Seriously.

Barney has glaucoma. The poor thing was fine one minute (Sunday night) and the next (Monday morning) his right eye was swollen, milky and very painful. The vet said that we caught it early and that it is only in one eye at the moment. I do remember it being a little red last week, but it didn't seem to be a major thing. He still has vision in that eye and we're hoping to keep it that way. We've put him on steroids to reduce the swelling and we've put his left eye on prophylactic glaucoma medicine to try to stave off problems. He went to the opthalmologist today and she couldn't find a cause of the swelling, so it's a treatment of the symptoms kind of thing right now. I'm afraid of him losing his sight. Bostons have such bulbous eyes anyway so they can be prone to eye problems. My poor little man.

Martha told me that I don't blog anymore. I just haven't had anything to say. We had a really nice time this weekend with my mother. We were able to make her birthday very special and she was able to talk about my father in a happy way, which was really nice to see. Father's day for me was horrible. I couldn't stop crying all day. Robert didn't know what to do with me. I'm not the kind of person who enjoys being comforted while I'm crying. In fact, I hate it. I don't know why. If I had my way, I would never cry in front of anyone ever. Maybe it's a weakness thing. So I'm bawling and he can't come over and soothe me because he'll get yelled at. LOL.

Soon I'm going to have to empty out my kitchen and bedroom so that the remodeling can begin. It hasn't even started yet and already I'm itching for it to be over. I'm not looking forward to the disruption at all. So the beadmaking is going to be sporadic at best this summer, because of the remodeling. I can't imagine trying to control my dogs around the workmen, etc. They'd be trying to kiss the men and jumping all over them. Plus, once I get back to beadmaking after the remodel, I'll be making all my drawer pulls and cabinet knobs. I'm very excited for that. Most of the kitchen is neutral, except for the pendant lights and the knobs. It's going to look awesome.

Father's day will mark the 4-month anniversary of my Dad's death. Now the ads for Father's day sales, gifts, restaurants, etc. are all over the place and just serve to remind me that this is the first Father's day when I don't have my father with me. Not that we made a huge deal out of this hallmark holiday or anything. I would make a point of seeing him and bring a card, sometimes a gift. Usually we'd gather at my parents' house and it would just be a nice day of being together. My mom's birthday is in the middle of June, so the two days frequently were close. My father would say "where's my gift?" as if he were really expecting us to get him something. He was a hard person to buy things for. If there were something he wanted for himself, he would buy it. Chances are we couldn't have afforded it anyway. I can remember a couple of Father's day presents I gave him in the last few years. One was a key chain with a bead on it that was supposed to look like a golf ball. He said he liked it. The other was a wine bottle stopper with a glass top that I made. He liked that one.

On a happier note, my mom's 70th birthday is this weekend, so we are taking her out to dinner to a favorite restaurant. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, and Amy tagged me, so I will have to figure out who to tag next and what to write. Soon. Soon.

This morning I dreamt about my father. In my dream I knew he was dead, so when I saw him, I ran over to him and gave him a great big hug. He was wearing a peach-colored golf shirt. I hugged him and told him how happy I was to see him. But he didn't really respond to me, except to say that the coffee smelled good. All my family was there and they could see him, too, but he didn't see us. I think this is only the first or maybe second time I've dreamt about him since he died. So immediately on waking, I burst into tears. I still cry when I think about it. And I had been doing so well recently. It's like all the pain has come back. Usually those kinds of dreams for me are comforting -- almost like you've had a visit with your loved one -- but I think in this case the emotions are too new and raw so it was upsetting rather than comforting.

I don't know what happened to summer, because we're back to the Fall weather that makes me long for warmer climes. It's pouring down rain and is only 55 degrees. I had an OK weekend. We stopped by my mother-in-law's house on Saturday and she showed me some of the flowering trees she has that do well in shade. It was nice. She also showed me the cluster of lady slippers that she has in the woods. I've never seen anything like it. Wow.

Anyway, we decided on a Mountain Laurel. They are beautiful and grow nicely in shade. We had a ton of them outside the kitchen window at 226 where I grew up. So it's a good tree for a memorial to my father, I think. Yesterday we went and bought one and hopefully someone is going to come plant it for us. I would do it myself as it's not that big, but the place where I want it to go has a juniper bush that needs to be removed. I don't think I'm up to doing that. Messy. Ick. Here's a picture of what they look like: