Monday promised to be a long day in any event. Randy out of the house early to take his car in for some work and wouldn't be home until late. Refrigerator repairman scheduled to come in the a.m. Emergency meeting of the NCHS Board at 5 p.m. to discuss a difficult matter. Oh sigh. And then it got a whole lot worse.
How can I make this long story short? Well, after showering and starting a load of laundry, the plumbing suddenly developed a serious problem. Toilets wouldn't flush, sewer gas came up through the kitchen sink, and (gulp) there was suddenly sewage in both downstairs showers, complete with those little floating brown bits. There ensued several panicked calls to our project manager and a panicked rush to the neighbor's house to use their toilet. Back to the house to await the refrigerator repair guy who, bless him, was understanding, supportive, AND fixed the frig!
Now some background information. When we were first beginning to design our house, I had 2 books that were my main design inspiration, my bibles as it were. One was The New Strawbale House by Catherine Wanek. Catherine's photos are inspirational, moving, and just plain gorgeous. I couldn't help but think, "If I ever had a beautiful house that Catherine would come and photograph, I'd just die and go to heaven." As the project moved along, we learned that our builder is a close friend of Catherine's. When Randy and I were last in New Mexico, we stopped in to meet Catherine's husband and mother. Catherine was away at the time, but we enjoyed touring their B&B and Catherine's mom's strawbale house which appears in TNSH.
So, right in the middle of the shit-in-my-showers situation, waiting for the project manager and the septic pumper to arrive, the project manager calls to tell me that Catherine Wanek is in his office and wants to come up to my house, camera in hand. WTF!!?? Fine, just tell her to pee first. Catherine Wanek is coming to photograph my house and I have shit in my showers. Fine.
Well, I can go with the flow. So to speak. Catherine came and photographed. The refrigerator guy did his thing (the frig is now quiet as a church mouse). The pumper arrived. I left the house to get some lunch and find a place to pee. The project manager cleaned up the showers and toilets (bless him, all you gods and goddesses, bless him). Everyone left and I prepared for the meeting.
And we all got through our meeting, successfully. After which I was a puddle. Take-out from Mickie D's. Sewed some when I got home. Randy joined me with his take-out burrito to watch the end of Dancing with the Stars. And I read some Iliad.
This morning Catherine came back to photograph for another few hours. She's a terrific woman. Nicholas, our big white cat, was a very cooperative model throughout the whole photo shoot. He's social and loves being the center of attention. I think that the chance of Nicky NOT being in Catherine's next book is somewhere around zero.
This afternoon I was able to run a couple errands. NCHS got a great first-page above-the-fold article in the last edition of the Paso Robles Press. Two adorable 5-day old kittens, one of whom is Larry. I tracked down a copy of that paper. Then I took 2 quilts to a quilter for quilting. This is a woman I haven't worked with before, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Again, I'm just going with the flow.
Came home, took a nap, and made dinner, which was a variation on the last dish I prepared.
Oh yes! Here's a contest! Randy and I have booked our big fall adventure. Two weeks in one country followed by 1 week in an adjoining country. Any guesses where we're going? Guess right and I'll bring you a special present from one of the countries.
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