I am sitting here with Kleenex stuck to my face. Abbey will occasionally play with my nose and eyelids while I am asleep, and I am always gratified by how careful she is to use Soft Paws. Twilly has never had any undertanding of this and today, while sleeping (for the last time EVER)on my face, decided to stretch when she woke up. She got an artery. She got a trip across the room. She thinks I am mean. I think even though it's one of my favorite colors, I do not like RED dripping everywhere.

Doug went mad yesterday. We played obsessive vacuuming and then we put a coat of varnish on the floor. It looks very knotty-pine. Part of me would have like pickled white but no one I know would have spoken to me ever again, since I am the last American still fancying whitewash.

Then he and I and Sarah played "Teaching Doug to Speed Piece a Quilt." He says he is unlikely to make a quilt but who can say? The man has a new fancy sewing machine and an eye for bright colors and we know where that leads. He was too old to get sewing 101 in school, so he is now learning about trimming off selvages and the need to wash and iron before cutting.

Then we went outside and played with my new crowbar and took more of the doomed section of deck apart. Later there was arnica and dinner and a hot tub and stupefied exhaustion. Now the new room all has either one or two coats (of three or so) of varnish and ALL of it needs sanding.

My house may be fairly horrible for the NH Sheep and Wool. Sometime between now and May 7 are two trips to Northampton, MA, and one to Boston, at least two coats of varnish, a cleanup in the in-law apt, and some browbeating of the contractor. Although I think furnture can go into the new room as soon as the last coat on the floor is dry, even before the heating....

I do not obsess.