Skipping Town

The Mystery of No Cold Water has been solved! I was working from home on Thursday, in the middle of a call, when a plumber called up to me from the attic stairs. "Let me ask you this," he said. "Do you have water in your garage?" This is the kind of unhinged question one gets regularly when renovating a hundred-year-old house. "Um, yes," I said. "But we've never used it." "I think I've fixed your water," he announced, pride in his voice. He took out his phone and showed me a picture: a selection of pipes with a knob in the middle, taken from the dark recesses of our basement pantry. He gave a detailed explanation of how the pipes connected, what the knob did, why one of the pipes had been closed off and diverted, etc etc, but the overall point was that he turned the knob and now the water is cold where it should be. HE TURNED THE KNOB. We've been living in this house for five and half years with no cold water and all we had ...

Lucia has been on Instagram for a few months now, and the algorithm has taken note, feeding her content fine-tuned to her interests and personality. It's evil/amazing. Anyway, she came to me last week and announced she'd seen something on Instagram and had a new craft she wanted to start doing: junk journaling. The pride in my heart! Junk journaling is something I, too, have had on my radar for a while now. We looped in Greta, who was also excited about it. And so it shall be. We never need to look very hard for an excuse to buy an ungodly amount of stickers and fun paper items, and to screech at Andrew in horror as he tries to put a piece of "garbage" in the recycling. "I need that for a craft!!!" is his favorite recurring instruction.  Monday night, Lucia had what I can only describe as a junk journaling-related manic episode at 11pm. I went in to say goodnight to her and found her in a highly excited state, sitting in the middle of her floor, surrounded b...

On Saturday, I went to Beth's to watch the Lilith Fair documentary with some college friends. It was exceptionally strange to watch what was essentially a historical documentary, complete with grainy video footage and photos of young people in outlandish outfits. It looked like something from the distant, distant past. And it was! It was the 90s which, to me, seems like twenty years ago, but which was actually thirty years ago. More than a quarter century. There were no digital cameras. Etc etc etc. The dark ages. Later, when I asked my kids if they'd ever heard of Lilith Fair, they shook their heads pityingly. I, however, do remember Lilith Fair. More accurately, I remember having tickets to Lilith Fair, driving to Pittsburgh with Molly and the Ainsley sisters, then sitting for hours in a long line of cars stuck outside of Starlake, until it began to pour and we heard on the radio (!) that anyone waiting to get into the venue should instead turn around and leave. We stopped at...

There's a lot going on, sports and kids' schoolwork and our work and our torn-up kitchen and travel planning for Spring Break. And Andrew left today for eight days, part weekend with college friends, the rest business trip to Peru. The girls and I remain here, basement dwellers, ready to shop for a week's worth of frozen prepared foods at Trader Joe's because cooking is just something I cannot do on top of everything else. Convenience foods will get us through. The kitchen is progressing. This week they put all the insulation in the walls. We selected our fireplace--more difficult than it may appear; there are a lot of options called "fyre features" (their spelling) with apps and automatic everything and glass beads instead of logs and I just cannot. I emailed Andrew a copy and pasted list of language from the brochure and typed, simply, "no" after each sentence. We did eventually find a suitable option (it does come with an app--inescapable--which w...

Saturday was a big day for Lucia: she got her driver's permit! She and Andrew went to the DMV first thing in the morning, and she passed her test. She has not yet had a chance to practice, but she has taken a big step forward.  While they did that, I took Greta to Steel City so she could participate in a fund-raising Erg-A-Thon. She erg'd the distance of a half marathon and was very pleased. (I spent the time reading at the Oakmont Bakery, then grocery shopping.) Lucia babysat on Saturday night, while Andrew watched sports and Greta and I watched Stranger Things.  Sunday, Greta and I went out early to check out the Carnegie Library book sale, which we'd never been to before. Though the long line out the door boded well, the sale turned out to be quite small. Andrew and I had brunch with the Clarks at Cafe Margaux. Later in the afternoon, Andrew, the kids, and I went thrifting at the Red, White, & Blue in Sewickley. We all got some fun things. It's a great thrift sto...

It was a long, busy, cold week. Greta is between winter and spring sports seasons, so it was a little bit of a juggle to figure out her 3pm pickup each day (luckily Andrew had lots of flexibility this week to get her). Lucia is between seasons too but is going to musical rehearsal every day and then running by herself afterward. Greta went to her first Science Bowl meet on Friday. Andrew somehow got a 24-hour stomach bug late this week, so we cranked up the air purifier, I grudgingly wore a mask around the house, and I slept in the attic. Having a battered immune system is such a hassle. However, knock on wood, I'm otherwise feeling completely fine, except for some minor swelling of my fingers (I checked with the nurse; nothing to be concerned about)--and finished the first cycle of meds on Friday. Now I have a week off (the four-week schedule is three weeks of pills and one week of no pills), and then the next cycle begins with another fulvestrant injection and a new round of kisq...