Updates

Just a few short updates on everything going on this month:

We did it! My friends helped me complete 400 Postcards to Swing States this past Sunday afternoon! We had a little postcard party over at Barbara's house. Out of the 400 postcards I committed to, I had already finished 275 (!!) ahead of time, so I only brought the remaining 125. Karen H. brought an additional 100 postcards she needed help completing (for down ballot races in the non-swing state of Ohio). We made short work of those 225 postcards, and had a little time left over for talking and eating the potluck snacks we'd brought. 

It's a relief to have it done.

Left to right, clockwise: Maggi, Marian, Barbara, Paulette, Karen, and Yours Truly, struggling to get a selfie that included everyone.

I may or may not have mentioned that I'd planned to have the Postcard Party at my house. Obviously, that didn't happen. Barbara was kind enough to offer to host because our small renovation project is still not done. Yep. Still not done! Our house remains in disarray with one room emptied out and being worked on.

This is what happened. The guy took longer than he expected, and at the end of the week he'd allotted for us, he was only about 70% done. He had other job commitments starting that Monday that he couldn't get out of. It's meant some delay in the finishing work, and he's been coming over for an hour or two here and there when he can. It's been dragging on a lot longer than I expected, though.

To be fair, Rick's doing really good, careful work. He's taking his time and every part that he finishes looks great. He pays attention to detail. We're also getting an absolute steal on the price of his labor. Since he'd never tried coffered ceilings before, he wanted to get some experience with them, and I think he lowballed the price a little bit because he was unsure of how it would go. Well, it looks terrific! So, if it takes him a little bit longer than we expected, so be it....

but DAMN I'm tired of all the furniture from that room being crammed into the rest of the house! We can barely move! It's okay for a week, but when it's stretching into the third week, it gets old, fast.

Then to add insult to injury, day before yesterday we discovered an ant infestation in our pantry and kitchen shelves. We had to move all the food out, and everything stored in the kitchen cabinets where we saw ants, because the exterminator guy is coming later today...my house is a shambles. Seriously.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that my skin is almost healed (and much, much better). Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement on my last post! Once I got started on antibiotics and prednisone I started to feel better, fast. That's a relief, at least.

I'll sign off with a picture of the front porch that I've been getting ready for Halloween. Several of our neighbors have been decorating, too, which is fun. As soon as I buy some candy, we'll be ready for trick or treaters.