and so my day goes. the cold pack does help with the face swelling, and i’m amazed at how much i’m able to get done in little 20-minute bursts of activity. the pain isn’t so bad, either, so all in all, not the worst day. it’s all way better as long as i don’t eat anything, and i’ve been trying to figure what i can eat that’s soft and also not hot. so no hot oatmeal, but i guess i could have some lukewarm oatmeal. no hot soup, and i waited to drink the lapsang souchoung that it was room temperature, but at least i got to drink it.
bev invited us to her house on st. patrick’s day for a delicious corned beef and cabbage meal, plus more desserts than i normally ever get including many delicious cookies plus lots of green m&ms. her friend larry was also there, and it was nice to meet him except he was clearly very serious about the game of scrabble, and at first seemed shocked and horrified that bev kept LOOKING UP WORDS in the dictionary before putting the tiles down, but then he let it go and enjoyed himself. larry is nice, and funny, but DON’T EVER THINK THAT BEV IS DATING HIM, because she IS NOT. she continues to make that very, very clear to me.
she made a nice irish soda bread that i liked so much, i decided to make one myself.
it was incredibly easy to make, using only five ingredients – flour, salt, baking soda, buttermilk, and raisins. delicious. i might start baking it all the time, then will get sick of it and stop for a while. but SO easy!
we’re about done with all the remodeling and everything. here is the cute little computer nook, with all my cookbooks on the big bookshelf. i’m very happy with it all.
here’s a new rug based on a vintage poster. i love vintage posters – i always used to look at them when i went to the rose bowl flea market in LA. the actual, genuine posters were amazingly expensive, but fun to look at.
another rug based on that same poster, with the two darling kitties on top of it. from the moment i set it down, all the animals keep taking turns lying on it.
yet, he IS the cutest kitty ever. but you already knew that.
i can’t ever bring myself to buying a plain rug, when there are so many pretty patterned ones out there. all the new rugs came from overstock.com, which has such a huge selection that it’s kind of daunting trying to pick one out.
i am especially pleased with the front hall – this is the view that you’d get if you got a massage, and were coming down the stairs. so much better than the linoleum!
here’s a closeup of that fabulous table that used to be grandmother’s. when i was a kid, it sat in her breezeway decaying. the breezeway, as i remember it, was this little unheated room between the main part of the little one-bedroom house and the garage. lots of stuff piled up in there, including the table and her victrola, which is now in our living room.
the music room! you remember the photos when we were painting it – i still can’t believe i have no photos from when it was an office, but mostly just piled with papers and CDs and miscellaneous crap.
the big painting is one that mom painted a very long time ago. the big dresser used to be randy’s. i have to either find a small slipcover for the chair, or buy a new chair. i keep searching online for slipcovers but they’re mostly for giant overstuffed chairs, or they’re so expensive that it would make more sense to just buy a new chair.
kevin gave me this beautiful cup and saucer last christmas, in 2011. it has sat in a box on top of the victrola all this time, because i never knew where to put it where i wouldn’t somehow break it.
that’s a little postcard of the queen that came with it. the cup and saucer is in celebration of her diamond jubilee, and i know that jim thinks i’m a little daft because i like the royal family so much, but i don’t care. it’s not that i’m that crazy about them, but i do like all the trappings that come with them.
this is a plat that dad gave me a long time ago, one that i’ve managed to carry around the country wherever i’ve lived and not broken.
i think he also gave me this little tin plate, or maybe i just took it – that’s a picture of warwick castle on it, and i went there a long time ago so was excited about the plate.
mom left this big plant when they moved out and i hated it for a long time, but when i brought it in for the winter i started to like it, and now i think it’s great. i think it will live there for now on, unless it doesn’t get enough sun.
so my 20 minutes off with the ice expired about 12 minutes ago and i was first typing with just one hand but quickly got annoyed with that, so now i’m trying to rest the cold ice block on my chin, balancing it on my chest, but this, too, is getting on my nerves, so that’s all for the typing for now.
ok then,
mrs. friday afternoon hughes.