We have paint samples up.

The kitchen is nearly ready for cabinets.

My eye was expensive, but I'm a rich asshole so I can afford it. Turns out "your eye jelly has popped loose and dragged your retina with it" happened to my father and my grandmother, at least according to my sister. And because it happened in New Mexico my grandmother's was diagnosed as macular degeneration and left untreated for too long to do anything. I also got to see some photos of what Gus the Dementor actually looked like and the impression that I was looking through miso soup is borne out by the evidence. Was. That's an important milestone, too. I still have a tattered veil of unfocused crud floating around but it's much more manageable.

I'm doing three interviews this week, one for the second time. I've actually been recognized for my voice on the street a couple times which is kind of crazy because we get like 40 downloads. But according to Nielsen we're also getting between 4k and 6k listeners on the radio, which my receptionist assures me "oh, honey, radio is dead."

My daughter wrote three heartbreaking poems about how much she hates her teachers. She wanted to turn them in for an assignment. I gave her the inaugural dose of The Angry Kid's School Survival School and pointed out that allegory has deniability, written documents require a response and forcing change is only possible if the people being forced are actually capable of it. I suggested the teachers become forest creatures and she jumped on it. The poems are still heartbreaking but they're about squirrels.

My mother's late-life gift has been to be every bit the bitch she was to me to my sister. This has opened my sister's eyes about how yeah, she had it rough but also yeah, it sure as shit could have been rougher. It's also kind of amazing that no matter the flecks and spatters of our familial shitshow, everyone else who touches it is somehow worse off. Apparently my aunt is coming out. She has a dementia diagnosis. She will be accompanied by my cousin, whom my sister called a "polyamorous narcissist" which sounds like a pejorative but is part point of pride, part crutch. "According to my therapist, unlike most people I have a hard time when my needs aren't in focus so it's really important that you focus on my needs." She has a daughter who was told, at age six, "mommy goes down into the basement every morning because she likes to have sex with Aunt Artemis." Now, age twelve, the daughter steals for attention. My sister is reluctant to allow either in her house for obvious reasons. The less obvious reason is her own daughter told her, age six at the time, "please can we never visit these people again." I'm really thankful that there's a second cousin in the mix here who I don't even know what she looks like, despite the fact that she's three months older than my daughter.

I have one contractor who's great at finish work. I have another contractor who's great at overbuilt structural work. The first contractor told me how much he hates it when framers put nail boards everywhere because they make drywall a pain in the ass. The second contractor implored me to let him put nail boards everywhere because he didn't want to put any nails through electrical while putting up trim. I had to remind him that he wasn't putting up trim. "I need to make this cumbersome for everyone because if I don't I'll destroy it" is a great way to tell someone you shouldn't be doing the work.

We failed inspection last friday as we expected to. Inspector is a lovely lady who walked in and said "wow, what a beautiful room this is" followed by "so what did you end up doing because your drawings are impossible." So we've got a game plan and she got a 2 hour house tour. She especially enjoyed the secret staircase. "I think everyone should have something in their house that's baldly illegal," she said, and grinned.

We have paint samples up.

This is as close as I can get to guarded optimism.