Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

We have finally hung a picture on the wall here in our house. The fact that this is a blog-worthy event eighteen months after moving in is, I admit, rather pathetic. But it is also very exciting. I finally feel like we are really moving in. Slowly but surely we're picking away at the projects that need to be done, and (for now) avoiding the temptation to take on any new ones. This picture is called Hoe Kama Kani , which means "paddle with the wind." We found this picture at a home show in Honolulu while we were students, and I just fell in love with it. I stood there and stared at the picture for quite some time, but I simply couldn't justify the $140 price. The salesman told us that they had a smaller print available for much less, but they had sold out at the show. We could look at it if we came by the studio the next week. Unfortunately, the little 8x10 just didn't have the same effect as the full size print. So as you can see, we bit the bullet, got the big on...

I'm reminded of the old Westerns that show Chinatown with the big cauldrons of boiling clothes. That may not be the most politically correct portrayal , but it's the mental image I got as I boiled my own pots of clothes today. Boiling gets smells out lickety-split, and as it's turned cold here (ie no longer in the 80s) I've been trying to get some of Kara's heavy clothes so she can wear them. It's amazing how much laundry soap came out of clothes that have been in boxes for over two years. I had three pots going for probably 8 hours today. Hopefully I've done what is needed for her to wear some of these things without reacting to them. Also, as of today I am married to quadragenarian. I get my turn at it soon enough.

A month or two ago, I set up a schedule for myself. It starts at 5:30 am, when I get up to get the girls ready for school, and goes until 9:30 pm. From 9:30 to 10:30, I complain about how I'm supposed to be in bed already, but I don't need a schedule to tell me to do that.. My part of the day is scheduled for the hours between 7:30 am and 6:00 pm. At a minimum, eight of those hours are set aside for work, leaving me at most 150 minutes of discretionary time to do things like shower, eat, blog, run errands, keep the washer and dryer fed, pay attention to the yard, and clean the house. Now, naturally some of these tasks spill out into the after dinner time, but for the most part if I really want to get anything done, I need to do it during that so called discretionary time. Today, my discretionary is being eaten by the steamer. You see, I printed out the pictures of our house for Kara, because she wanted to show some people at the clinic who are in a situation similar to ours . A...