Day Seven

One of the blessings of being on vacation is that I may eat when hungry and sleep when tired, with no necessity to radio for backup. Yesterday I ate breakfast a little before 6:00am; it was the leftover Brazilian cheesecake from Thursday night, and it was splendid. Just what I needed to fuel the Painting of the Last Wall, ta-daaa!

When I ran out to the home center on Monday (?) night to pick up the new paint roller, I bought a 9” refill. When I painted the south wall, I discovered that I really should have bought a 6” refill; I had to roll the excess paint off sideways. But at least the roller showed no inclination to leap off the frame. [I take my happiness where I find it.]

I am pleased to report that the bookcases glided easily over the laminate flooring. I was torn between refilling them and painting the last wall. Look at the elegant supports for the shelves in the larger bookcase:



I finished painting the wall [and touching up a couple of spots on the other walls] around 10:00am, at which point I was ready to run the tub and sluice off. But my phone rang; it was a friend who needed to run a quick errand, so I grabbed the baby wipes and made myself marginally presentable if not entirely daisy-fresh.

After I took her home, I dashed over to Arlington, grabbed a quick lunch while waiting to see the NailDude, took those two older-than-she-is issues of Carina to Fourthborn on her lunch hour, and got my glasses adjusted (again).

NailDude asks, “What kind of paint is this on your nails?”

I tell him, “House paint. I just finished painting my bedroom.”

To which he responds, “Thought so. Just checking.”

I had to make another run to the hardware store; I only had three of the four carriage bolts I needed to attach the headboard, and the hex slot appeared to be approximately midway in diameter between my 3mm and 4mm Allen wrenches. [Yes, I know what an Allen wrench is and how to use one. (I just don’t know how the 4mm wrench could not-fit the first three times I tried it and work like a champ after I came home from my expedition.) I also have channellock pliers, because I’m cool like that.]

ACE may allegedly be the place with the helpful hardware man, and both of them truly were, but it doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t have the part I needed. Nor did Home Depot. But I do know where to go when I’m ready to insert shelf clips into the cupboard I got from Brother Stilts, and I know what they are called. [Silly me, I thought “You know those little things that go into the side of a bookcase and hold up the shelves? No, not like that, the kind that look like dowels on one end and tiny shovels on the other? Those. Do you have any?” was perfectly clear.]

Harbor Freight. I should have gone to Harbor Freight. They have everything, including lots of male customers who know how to fix everything except teeth. I bet Harbor Freight has one of these bronze(?) tapered metric carriage bolts with hex slots, 6mm by 3.5 inches.

Behold: the headboard is plausibly attached, and the 7’ ficus is semi-dusted, semi-fluffed, and incarcerated behind it. One day I might even haul out my glue gun and reattach a few leaves.



The wall is nowhere near as bright a pink as it appears here. Just in case you were wondering.

When I left the house this morning, the bookshelves were nearly filled, and I’ve begun to decide what should go atop them. And now that the walls are painted, I can finally start going through the boxes which are in my studio and hanging up all manner of pictures and wall quilts.

Today, thus far, has been a Plan B sort of day. I was planning to go on the ward temple trip, but one of the girls needed a quick favor, so I put on my Superquilter cloak and flew over to her house. I had RSVP’d for a bridal shower this afternoon, but I got home shortly after the shower was to begun, and I was too pooped to pop. I called the hostess, and she handed her phone to our friend, who has several more kids than I do and thankfully agrees that family comes first.

I am going to wrap the wedding present I am taking to tonight’s reception [different friend; I am such a social butterfly!], and then I am going to set the alarm and take a nap. And if nobody at the reception has an overwhelming urge to go to the dance in Richardson, I think I will bag the dance. My knee is a little tender after all the driving I have done this week.

This may have been one of the best vacations ever. My primary goal was to spiff up my boudoir. It is seriously spiffed. I have not been so busy that I need a vacation to rest up from my vacation, but I think for the most part it has been time well spent. A nice mixture of company and solitude, action and rest, friends and family, creativity and sorting/redistributing.

I think it’s going to be awhile before I am ready to paint the living room. Right now I just want to curl up on that bed and sleep for three days! [But I’ll settle for a couple of hours, for now.]