Back to work. Went out and got a mattress for the downstairs bedroom -- haven't decided yet whether it'll be our new one -- we'd swap ours for it if so. We'll put it downstairs and if we like it better we'll switch. I don't know... ours seems fine I guess. We also bought a light fixture and some curtains for the same bedroom. Vicki got some a new bed covering set.... should have known that the spending wouldn't end with the remodel itself. ;-)
Friday the contractor called and said the plumber couldn't run the outside faucet in the back the way we wanted. Their alternative was to run it out the side of the house -- 100 feet away from where I want it. We weren't communicating well over the phone. Turned out he forgot our slightly unconventional (but up to code) plans. Fortunately, we live 5 minutes away so I dashed home and 'splained to them what the original plan was. Which is all fine and good and the plumber will be there all day today doing his voodoo. However, it is raining pretty hard and the hole he's working in will be filling with water. Hope he has a pump. He's a plumber... he's gotta have a pump.
Bart apparently still thinks he needs to invent his own litter areas. Last night it was our bathroom again. Plus he got downstairs again (we left the board down) and did it in his favorite corner. Cleaned it up with Simple Solution ®. I think he's all mixed up with the house in turmoil. We're going to fire up that special Bart Litterbox again and hopefully he'll use it.
One thing we learned about the water heater was that we need to turn down the flow-rate to the laundry machine if we want to do hot water washes because I'm sure it's 4+ GPM. This means if we want to do warm water washes we need to crank the cold down as well or the cold will overpower the reduced hot flow. I cranked the hot down, but not the cold yet.
I rooted and grew three sprigs of the citronella plant in the hydroponic garden over the winter and they grew big enough to make a whole new hanging basket. It was so neat last summer, trailing down 5 feet to the floor. Very pretty foliage. The original, which I severely neglected this winter, somehow survived and is doing surprisingly well. I cut some of the roots out of it (it was root bound) and potted it in some new potting soil and added some of that water-holding stuff to it.
I took the roquette and arugula and planted them in the garden outside after tilling it up with Ryan's tiller. Also wandered about the yard spraying broadleaf weeds. They were dying this morning. That's a good sign.
Had jambalaya over at the neighbors' house last night... we brought cornbread and key lime pie. It was a nice dinner. Had a lot of fun.
But... hi ho, it's off to work I go.
