home improvement projects

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Wednesday Randomosity: Assorted Tidbits and Updates Edition

It’s Wednesday and we are somehow nearly halfway through January. Let’s have some bullets, shall we?

Rough Return to Routine: Re-entry post holiday break has been A Challenge. In trying to leave my cozy cocoon, I have a lot of empathy for creatures who swathe themselves in gauze only to be forced, weak-limbed and light-stunned, back into the real world.

Part of the problem, of course, is that we got on a totally awful sleep schedule during the break, and that has been challenging to reverse. I like to think of myself as a morning person, but really, I’m fine staying up late and sleeping late if that’s a workable schedule. As it was for fifteen straight days. I tried, oh I tried, to ease us back into eight-thirty bedtimes and six am wakeups, but it did not stick for anyone. (On my end, I managed to get back to five-thirty wakeups, with a lot of help from the cat, but I have not managed to get to bed before midnight more than once or twice.)

The other part of the problem, in my opinion, is that there’s been no gradual reincorporation into normalcy. It’s just, like, BAM, back into it. It’s got to be even harder for my poor kid, who’s the one enduring school and all her activities; I’m just driving her around, and that’s messing me up completely. The past weekend was PACKED with stuff. Between Friday and today, my kid has had two appointments, a sleepover with her grandparents, five extra-curricular activities, one performance, and a birthday party. That doesn’t even count three days of school. We didn’t get home until after ten Monday night and when Carla had a hard time waking up yesterday morning, even though I let both of sleep in an extra forty-five minutes, I did not blame her one bit.

The cat has NOT been happy with all these shifting schedules, let me tell you. He doesn’t seem to be finding as much interest in his normal suite of toys and playing. His eating schedule is all out of whack. He – who is normally a pretty silent cat – has been wandering around mewing plaintively, and then flopping at my feet, and then either purring when I pet him or biting my hand (usually he just lies there contentedly while I pet him). Is he sick? Is he hurt? Is he bored? Is he confused about where the other two humans have disappeared to? Is he depressed? Or is he just complaining about the lack of a steady, reliable schedule?

What I’m Reading: I did not mean to vague post the other day, when I mentioned the book I was considering DNFing. It was, indeed, Heart the Lover (bookshop.org / amazon). But I soldiered on and as soon as I got to page 20, I hit my stride and then I couldn’t put it down. It felt, in some ways, very similar to The Goldfinch (bookshop.org / amazon) – where bloomed, out of a perfectly readable and engaging story, an epiphany that felt life-changing. Now I have the difficult task of finding a book to follow that one. Any suggestions? I feel like the next one is bound to pale in comparison, so maybe I will just pick up a book I don’t have high hopes for.

I am listening to The Long Night by Christian White (bookshop.org / amazon) (I love the rhythm of the title and author pairing, and the unintentional rhyme) and it’s an excellent fast-paced thriller. I recall reading a few reviews that criticized it for being confusing, and I have reached the point where I understand what all the complaints are about; yesterday, I paused the audiobook and stood in my kitchen, knife poised over a half-sliced cucumber, trying to get everything straight in my head. I think I understand? Well, we’ll see.

Things I’ve Bought Lately: I did a mini refresh of kitchen staples: new pot holders, new trivets, new spatulas, new whisk. It is quite pleasing to retrieve a hot pan from the oven with a fresh pot holder, free of holes and stains and burn marks. I also went a little wild and replaced my microplane… and my new one is so much better I am kicking myself for not replacing it earlier. The only kitchen refreshments I have left to buy are a new kitchen mat and new cutting boards. The cutting boards are throwing me for a loop. I don’t think I want plastic ones, but I definitely want cutting boards I can throw in the dishwasher. Instagram has recently been serving me all sorts of content about titanium cutting boards, but I’m suspicious. Perhaps I want these paper composite boards instead?

In non-kitchen purchases, I bought myself a new foot file.

It works great.

But. It reminds me a little too much of my new microplane. Worry not; I am storing them in separate rooms of the house.

Resolution in Progress: One of my New Year’s resolutions is to appear in more photos this year. At an event earlier this week, I tried to gamely follow through. I forced my husband to take a couple selfies (ussies?) of the two of us. I forced someone’s husband to take a picture of a bunch of the women together. The one of me and my husband resides safely on his phone, where I may one day in several months revisit it with kinder eyes. However, I cannot bring myself to send the group photo to any of the other women because I hate my image so fiercely. I need to. I am going to. The other women all look darling. And I can kind of talk myself into thinking that I look so terrible in large part because of where I am in the group – on the side, right up at the edge of the photo – and also I am holding two bulky jackets and that just doesn’t look cute at all. But I think I need A Plan for appearing in photos in such a way as to encourage additional photo taking. Perhaps I need to study up on photo poses and push past my fear of annoying people to request specific angles and multiple options from whichever poor soul winds up being my photographer of the moment.

Things I’ve Done in 2026 That I Haven’t Done Before: I got bangs! This is a very recent development, so it’s possible that the excitement will fade. But right now, I love them. It was extremely gratifying to pick up Carla from school and have her immediately crow, “You got bangs! They are so cute!” and then fervently wish that she could have bangs. Also extremely gratifying was my husband’s reaction, which was smiling and intense scrutiny for a few minutes until he said, “The bangs look really good!” The last time I had bangs was in… fourth grade? Fifth? I am not counting the over-hairsprayed swoop of side bangs I wore all through middle school.

Special Projects: My dad and I installed a new light fixture in the cat’s litter box room. It took us three separate tries (Day 1: not enough wire connectors; no switch. Day 2: drill didn’t work. Day 3: finished!) but we installed it together and I did a good bit of the work. I’m not saying that I could install a light fixture on my own, but… maybe I could? I did get pretty good at wiring a switch. Things I will need if I ever want to do this by myself: electrician’s pliers, wire stripper/crimping tool, and a voltage tester.

Things I’m Eating Lately: Family friends had us over for dinner recently, and they served us this cucumber salad alongside roasted salmon, and it was so good I immediately bought a cucumber so I could make it myself. My friend omitted the toasted sesame seeds, so I did as well. I’m otherwise in kind of a food rut these days, so we’re doing a lot of Ham Sandwich for dinner around here. Ham Sandwich with a side of cucumber salad.

The Dress Hunt Persists: I am still seeking dresses for two upcoming fancy events. My husband (who was a little leery of me ordering a bunch of dresses online and returning the ones that didn’t work) and I went to An Actual Mall the other day, so I could try on dresses in department stores. That was… awful. The selection was awful, the sizing was awful. I hate trying things on in department stores. Everything about it was demoralizing.

So I finally ordered some dresses, which was my original plan all along. Two have already arrived and they fit and they are fine. The magenta one is better; I like the sleeves and the back is cute and the hem falls at a nicer place on my leg. But the silver and black one is also fine, if a tad bit too long. It should be okay if I can persuade my feet to endure heels for a night. Two others are on the way: this one, which I shared with you back in December, and this one, which I think looks fun and pretty. We’ll see, but at least I have two acceptable options, which is a huge relief.

Skin Sitch: My skin situation seems to have calmed down. My guess is that it was entirely hormonal. I have normal monthly fluctuations in my skin, but once in a while, everything seems to be so much worse than usual. Fortunately, it’s returned to normal.

Speaking of skin, I am loving my current skincare regimen, which consists of a twice-daily peptide serum, a twice-daily application of moisturizer, plus hydrating face sunscreen serum each morning, and a retinol / hyaluronic acid serum at night. (Why is everything a serum all of a sudden?) My skin feels SO SOFT when I wash my face in the mornings, and I have had two people comment on my skin in recent months. The compliments both came via salespeople in department store perfume counters, and were likely sales motivators rather than the truth, but, wow, did those women know exactly how to make me preen. (I did not buy anything from either of them; that’ll teach you to be nice, salespeople.)

My Cat, Still Catting: My cat remains a daily delight.

Okay that seems to be a good round-up of what’s going on around here. What’s going on with you?

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What to Do with a Weird Space Specifically Designed for Something Else

As I write this, it is approximately 7:15 and I have been awake since 3:27. My kiddo woke me up, and I am always happy to wake up if she needs me, well, not happy, but you know what I mean. But then I couldn’t go back to sleep. I distracted myself from fretting about, well, you know, everything, by focusing on how hot it’s going to get here in the next few days and how I can avoid using my oven. Then, at four-ish, I decided it was time to stop pretending I was going to go back to sleep and I collected the kitten and watched an episode of Psych. Then I fed the kitten and started my tea and opened some of the boxes that arrived yesterday (two of the board games from my gift ideas list, one cat grass kit). Then I had to rescue the kitten from a piece of tape that had, presumably, escaped from one of the boxes and affixed itself cruelly to his undercarriage. Which is when I discovered that he… well, he needed a bath.

So to recap: It is 7:15 and I have been up for nearly four hours and I have already washed and blow-dried a cat.

On the plus side, he is very pleasingly soft and fluffy once he’s all blown-dry.

Anyway, I need your help. 

We have a bar area in the basement, and it’s beautiful. But a) we don’t really have people over to do whatever one does in one’s home bar, and b) I would like to keep the basement as kid-friendly as possible as Carla gets older, so that I feel safe having The Teens over to our house. 

Right now, it’s very much A Bar, with room to display glasses, two wine racks filled with wine bottles, and three cupboards that are supposed to hold a variety of glasses. My husband used to display his collection of European beer glasses on the display shelves, but we relocated those to the cupboards once we got a kitten. 

The wine in the racks is not drinkable. The previous owners left it here, and noted before they did that it was not drinkable; it was purely for aesthetic purposes. Where a person obtains decorative wine bottles – which, to be clear, are full of real if not drinkable wine – I do not know, nor do I understand why anyone might pay for wine they knew they would not drink, but to each his own. My father, who knows wine, tested a couple of bottles just to make sure the previous owners weren’t, like, super wine snobs and the wine was fine if not great, but he agrees that it is not drinkable. This is to say that I feel no qualms about getting rid of the wine, except that it does seem like kind of a colossal waste. (I had the brilliant  insane thought in the middle of the night that perhaps I could donate it to a church that offers communion. I have had communion wine and it is not what I would refer to as drinkable either. But a) that’s probably dumb for a billion reasons and b) even if it isn’t as dumb as I really think it is, I would not know how to go about offering or transferring my bounty to a church anyway.) 

Anyway, if anyone knows any uses for undrinkable wine, let me know. 

What I really want to know is what else I can use the wine rack/glasses display area FOR. It turns out I am completely unimaginative in this respect. My brain has zero issue coming up with wild and horrifying explanations for whatever made that creaking sound in my living room at 3:45 am. But try to come up with alternative uses for the bar space, and I’ve got nothing.

My husband keeps his Nespresso machine in the bar area. Maybe we could use the wine racks to store mugs? Sleeves of Nespresso pods? (I’m joking about the latter.) Maybe we could remove the wine racks on one side and put in a shelf and an outlet and keep the Nespresso machine there instead of on the bar? 

It seems like “removing the wine racks and replacing them with shelves” might be the best plan, if that’s even possible.

My friend Jen (HI JEN) is expert at hosting The Teens at her house, and I seem to remember that she has a fancy smoothie machine in her basement and maybe a popcorn maker. I wonder if the wine rack spaces are deep enough to hold either or both of those things? Maybe we could put in a microwave? 

The glasses display area also seems like space that could be repurposed. I mean, I like my husband’s beer glasses collection just fine, but it does get dusty and it seems like a bad idea to have a bunch of glasses hanging around out in the open if you plan to have The Teens over. (Also: the kitten.) But what else could possibly go in that space? 

I have googled a bit, trying to find examples of other people who have similarly transformed their bar areas into something less alcohol-focused… but I haven’t really found anything that struck me as useful. 

What would you do with this space?