I spent the first night in the newly painted room, after Mom finished up the bookcase shelves and I scrubbed the floor. Dad and I moved the bed and the desk. Everything else will get moved tonight. And then… more scrubbing in the second bedroom! I already have a blister.

Still painting. It took me three hours to get home from Columbus this afternoon, but we did manage to get a lot done. To do yet: second coat of paint on the bookshelves, and cleaning & waxing the floor.

All the furniture must be out of the second bedroom by Thursday morning, and then we get to do it all again Saturday. Onward!

Well… paint fumes and a sinus cold just don’t mix. It’s really hard to bend down to do the baseboards when your head feels like it’s going to fall off.

Let’s see. I have pictures, which I will upload when we’re finished. There have been no disasters as of yet; in fact, things seem to be going quite well. (knock on wood.)

The color ended up being a pale, pale blue, which actually looks white right out of the can. I think a couple of my pictures will reproduce the color well, so you can see. The woodwork is white, of course, and we’re even painting the bookcases.

And when we’re done with my room, we move on to the next. Or, in truth, we move everything out of the next bedroom and go from there. We’re supposed to be painting next weekend as well. The bathroom will be dead last, after we’re all finished and never want to see a can of paint again.

The next bedroom will be more difficult, even though my bedroom hasn’t seen a coat of paint in 20 years. We get to remove all the gunk leftover from when it was Em’s room, which will be quite interesting and time-consuming. Luckily, Em will be there to help. (Lucky her.) In fact, we should have four or five people to help in the next bedroom. Which will be nice.

I have to go to a meeting in Columbus tomorrow for work. Luckily, I get paid for travel time. That means I don’t have to go back to work at all tomorrow, and should get home a bit earlier, since I have to leave the house at 5:30am. Which won’t be fun to do with a sinus cold.

I’ve been writing too. Trapped, of course. I really want to finish it, but I haven’t seen the ending yet. I take that back. I’ve seen the ending, but I haven’t seen what leads up to that ending. Yet. I remain ever-hopeful, though.

Anyway, I just wanted to update before I fall asleep in my tea.

Painting today. Here’s to hoping everything goes well and the weather cooperates.

I’ll update later, maybe with pictures.

I’m going to the writers group meeting tonight, and bringing The Twa Sisters with me, more so they can have a sample of my writing style than any critiques. Since it remains my one and only short story (and unsold, at that) who knows? I might get some good comments on it. Printing it out now.

I’ve been cleaning the back bedroom all day long. Removing all furniture except for my desk, Ethan’s bed, and a chair. Scrubbing the walls. (Filthy walls!) Spackling the cracks. This is all so we can paint this weekend. Here’s to hoping the weather cooperates! My entire “office” is in boxes in the other bedroom, and you can hardly walk. It can’t stay that way for long, because I will go nuts. I really liked having a clean room.

Now I’m reading The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman, but I’m almost done with that, and I’m not intending to check out any books from the library tonight. I am, however, intending to write tonight. Trapped has been giving me fits all week. I think my characters are mad at me. (Especially Alan.)

Oh, and good news! I found the brooch that has a part in Trapped while I was cleaning. It really wasn’t lost after all. This means, of course, that I can now do the cover art like I wanted to. Yay!!

Reading Up Country by Nelson DeMille at the moment. I am almost finished, and biting at the bit to write, but I wanted to finish reading first.

I wrote another essay, but I haven’t had a chance to do anything with it. Vicki thinks I should submit it somewhere, and I may yet. We shall see.

Evidently we may be painting this weekend in the back bedroom. This will be interesting. My job is to spackle the cracks in the walls and ceilings and move most of the furniture tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

And it’s official… if things stay the same, I should have all my credit cards completely gone by next April. So that’s where I am at the moment, financial-wise. Of course, if I make more money, they’ll be gone sooner. So that’s also in the cards, so to speak.

Sff.net seems to be down; hence the missing pictures. Vicki, I’m not ignoring your email. I just can’t send or receive anything! Argh.

I’ve updated stick-to-itiveness with the results of The List of 40.

I didn’t do too badly, all in all. I’m not going to lie and say everything on the list was crossed off, but most of the list has vanished. And it did help to focus on a list of things to do on my days off or in my spare time.

The next list begins Sunday, April 27. I’ll post it this weekend.

We had a very quiet Easter yesterday. I went to the Easter Vigil mass with Mom on Saturday evening at Ripley, and we didn’t get back until 1am. So it was nice to sleep in a bit Sunday morning. But I have leftovers to eat today, like Mom’s famous fruit salad, so I’m not complaining.

Out of the five books I checked out from the library on Thursday, I have two left. One will take me a little more time to read (Up Country by Nelson DeMille) but the rest went pretty fast. I’m saving the Cat Who book I haven’t read until last.

I didn’t write all weekend. I’m seriously considering taking a week off after I finish Trapped, just because I don’t have anything due soon and I will be rearranging my ‘office’ area and bedroom (again.) But we shall see.

If I don’t manage to post, I hope everyone who reads this blog has a Happy Easter!

I got sick Thursday night and was sick all day Friday, even though I did go into work. I feel better today, but it’s still there, at least a little bit. More of a headache than anything now.

The writer’s group was interesting enough to return, so I guess I have something to do every Thursday night from now on.

And I must get going… I’m supposed to be dusting and sweeping for Mom.

I have a list today, and it’s about halfway done. At the moment, I’m finishing up in the little dining room, and then I get to go fold laundry and pick up in the living room. Joy.

I’m going to check out the Brown County Writers Group tonight. I will report when I return, or, failing that, tomorrow.

The List of 40 ends on Sunday. I will post my final report on stick-to-itiveness, I imagine.

I fell asleep writing the other night. When I opened up Trapped to write last night, the last sentence made no sense. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised.