If you are or were having problems with the site today, 9 12/19/2005, well, I’m sorry. I was attempting to upgrade the blog software, and lost a configuration file.

Of course, the file was not on the backup. We are reviewing our procedures to prevent problems like this in the future.

Those responsible will be sacked.

I’m getting a tad bit concerned about my upcoming Praxis 2 exam in Spanish, so hubby suggested I talk to myself in Spanish to practice.  Since I don’t normally talk to myself, I started talking to the dog in Spanish instead.  Well. . .every time I talk to her, she stands stock still and stares at the ceiling (especially funny when I’m pointing to the floor and saying something like “suelo” – the word for “floor”.)  So now I’m talking to her all the time in Spanish, and the poor dog doesn’t know what the heck is going on.  Sometimes she starts getting excited and jumping all over as if she’s looking for something, but in very short order, she’s scoping out the ceiling.  I can’t imagine, but perhaps her first ten months of life (while she was being abused, before we got her) she heard Spanish.  Or maybe she’s just. . .a dog.

The carpet was finally installed in the girls’ rooms.  After assembling and moving furniture, the end result is that there are huge piles of boxes in two more rooms.

We got new window treatments for the bedroom.  The hardware package was incomplete.  Went back for brackets.  Installed.  Pieces for installing panels not included with panels.  Hubby bought them.  Still sitting waiting for me because today I went out browsing and looking for a nail place (which I didn’t find because the ones I did find didn’t do the type of manicure I wanted) and then picked up a spice rack that would hold my spices so I could find them, after which. . .

I discovered that not only were there not enough bottles (I knew that there wouldn’t be) but that there are less than half the bottles I need, and the bottles come filled with spices of indeterminate origin, so they have to be emptied and washed and refilled and relabeled, but there’s room for another rack in the same shelf and the rack is cheaper than the individual bottles, so I’ll go back and get that and some spare bottles.  However. . .

I didn’t have time to go back to the store before the kids arrived home, so I started to rearrange and found that I could fit two more racks of bottles if I moved the shelves up, except that there weren’t any holes for the brackets where I needed them, so I had to find the right size drill bit, tape to mark the depth on the bit, measuring tape, level, and I managed to just get it done when. . .

Audrey arrived home, and we talked about her science fair project, which involves growing plants, but the plants won’t reach the stage she needs before the fair date, so we looked up related projects on the internet and planted the plants and found wood sticks for marking the plants that are too big for the clear dome to go over the tray.

Whew!

So, I have curtain parts in the bedroom.  Boxes and furniture for the girls’ rooms in their rooms and the family room (and the storage unit) and the wire shelves from their closets in the laundry room.  Spices all over the kitchen counter, a planter on a cooler by the sliding glass door.  Four more presents to wrap and one more late to be delivered, nothing unpacked from the sewing room, boxes with stuff that needs to go into the furniture that’s still in the storage room.  Plus, my nails are still short and my fingertips are all split, and don’t even mention whether or not we’ll be getting the Christmas Tree up this weekend.