Hey, look, some people like home decor updates, okay?

It's been a little intense around here lately.  I apologize for the lapse in posts.  I assure you that the Book Group and the podcasts will keep coming as planned.  I have a larger post on Walt Whitman in the works.  But I wanted to take a moment here in the middle of the morning to post photos for those who have been keeping up with our home projects through the miracle of the internet.

Here is the room we just painted after Laurie completed the little homey touches one strives for in a guest room.  This was taken about a week ago and since then Tony has moved back in temporarily.  But this gives you an idea of what the room looks like and what it will be like when someone visits.  It's a cute little room.  The quilt was made by my grandmother when I was a very small child.  Each square is a letter of the alphabet with fictional characters and brands that appealed strongly to children in my generation.  At the top is my name, the names of my extended family members, birth date, time, weight, etc.  My grandmother made another quilt which is red and was made for my wedding although it's carefully stored at present, awaiting either a proper hanging display arrangement or a home on the bed in winter in some unlikely future chunk of space-time when we don't have pets.

Also, please bear in mind that we are still going to paint that closet door white.

If you come to visit, I cannot guarantee that Napoleon will be in your room, but I also can't guarantee that he won't be.  Which may be why we're still waiting on someone to take us up on our hospitality.  This is the view if you were standing next to the bed and looking to your left.

So, I won a contest.  Author Chuck Palahniuk tweeted a give-away by Doubleday of two posters for the first one-hundred people to send them an email expressing their interest.  On a lark, I applied and was counted among the winners.  Much to the amazement of both Laurie and I, not only is it a very attractive poster, but it also matches the entire color scheme of our home perfectly.  I was further amazed that Laurie was in agreement that we should frame it.  I think we're going to hang it in the dining room, but that's still being decided.
Also, as usual, you can click on the images to make them larger if your desire to read the poster exceeds your desire to squint.

I am assured that the frame will press out those folds in the poster.

That's all I have for now.  I hope that all of you are well.  Again, sorry for the diminished posts on this blog.  I will now go so far as to make one of my rare promises and say "More soon."

Photographs from our life

So, a friend of mine suggested I write a blog entry about Friedrich Nietzsche. I am working on it. As you can probably well imagine, I've been thinking about it for many days. Also I am gathering enough questions to produce another Bull Roaring blog entry. As soon as I get enough questions we'll have more of that.
But rather than going several days between posts (and leaving us the foul taste of Walden in our mouths) I thought it might be fun to post a few photos of some of the things Laurie and I have been doing.


The big news is the dining room (formerly the "other" living room.) As you probably noticed in our Christmas pictures, we have brought a dining room table into that room. We have now (and by "we" I mainly mean Laurie. In this particular room project I seem to have been little more than a furniture mover) stripped the old, disgusting wallpaper (long time readers will remember that was the wallpaper that we said, when we first had a walk-through of this house almost three years ago, would be the first thing to go.) We've painted the upper wall a sort of burnt sienna and the lower and trim a sharp white. Also, Laurie has a new hat.


We've moved the bookshelves back since I took this picture, but it gives you an idea of what the room now looks like. The front room, which you can see in the background through the arch, is going to be painted gold very soon.
















Of course and as usual, I am spending a lot of time walking in Bidwell Park when weather permits.

















Laurie and I have some foul hell-beast living beneath the house (not on purpose and it is not the animal in this picture.) We are fairly certain that it is an opossum. So we went to the feed store to rent a trap. At the feed store we encountered the largest cat we've ever seen in our life (which is the animal in this picture. You'll notice it's about one-fourth the size of Laurie.)
So, I've set the trap for several nights, caught both of our outdoor cats at least once, and still the Stygian beast claws at the bottom of our bathtub to the gross chagrin of our menagerie of pets.
When I do trap it, I will drive it 15 minutes away in some direction and let it go.



The other news is Agnes, our cat who you'll remember we rescued over the summer. She is doing remarkably well and adjusting wonderfully. Her eyes are bright and she jumps up on our laps now, we've even caught her playing a few times. She had a horrible life outside and we're really happy that she's doing so well in our home. She does have an ear problem of some kind (you'll notice her left ear is down) and we're taking her to the vet next week.