Busy Wednesday

This is a yellow rose from Austin, Texas.

Today was insanely busy, but in a good way. I slept in a little later than I had wanted, spent a bit less time on the Wii than I wanted, and got no breakfast.

Then I drove down to get Jack and then to his Mom's, where we took her toy poodle Jill to get groomed. While the doggy was at the groomers, we ran a few errands with Mary, did a bit of fun shopping, and then took her to the Chinese buffet, which we all loved.

Jill did great at the groomer's much to Mary's delight. The last groomer had cut the dog and then blamed her (the dog) for it. This didn't go over well with Mary. So now she has a new groomer, and Jill seemed delighted with the whole thing.

We got back to Far Horizons in time to meet with George about the cottage. I have still not ordered it, but we did discuss some options, and so I'm closer. I have decided on a floorplan, anyway. With 400 sq feet to work within, there are not just a million choices, but the one that I've picked seems to be workable and I think will be a fun place to spend my winters. It has a loft which, while you can't stand up in it, can be used for a little TV room or an extra bedroom for my peeps back east to stay in when y'all visit!

I think that I'll go with stainless steel for the appliances, though I'm still tossing around the idea of using white or black... I just think that stainless looks so good. I'm going to have Corian, but I have not chosen the color. And I'm getting Craftsman style cabinets in ... either cherry or light maple. Tile floors, except for carpet in the bedroom. And I'll probably make it a dark-colored tile. Lightness is really not a problem down here, with all the sun we get!

I think that I'm going to have the shower plumbed, but nothing installed, and then Jack and I will put in a shower that's properly done... and tiled. There is a place where I can put in a flat-screen TV, and I'll do that, but not likely a huge one, since the room is just 12' long. ;)

I am not going to have window coverings installed in the living room, because I want to put in shades of my own choosing, probably ones just like I have in this cottage, the bottom-up, top-down kind.

I want to ask about having a French door put in, instead of the sliding door. I have to decide on exterior colors. And we still have to talk about lighting. I realize that this is nothing like all the decisions that face people who build real houses from scratch, but there are still many details to ponder. Exciting!

Swallowing the Toad

Well, ok, so this is a frog, but it's close enough.
Today I decided to get done first with my least pleasant task -- business-related calls. I had to call about two retirement accounts and getting them rolled over where they belong. And I had to call my financial people to make sure that I was getting them sent to the right place.

I had to call about the AT&T acquisition of my Verizon account, something that still has me bugged, and I was not able to get good resolution on that.

And I had to call the IRS to reassure them that I am not a deadbeat, that I DID send them the check, and to ask them how to proceed. And then I called my financial place again, called my bill-paying arm of my financial place, and finally I will be getting a copy of the check to send to the IRS... whew! I do wonder if other people hate this sort of interaction as much as I do. How I would HATE having a job that meant talking to people all day about financial stuff!

Then Jack and I went to explore the cottage that I'd bought, which is going to be sold out of the park, and we went through it to see if there were anything left inside that I want to keep before it goes away. I put a few items into the shed and now, as far as I'm concerned, it's ready to go! Next I have to figure out just what sort of park-model I'm going to put in there and get it ordered.

Jack had made lentil soup and we had that for lunch. Delicious! Dinner was pizza. :)