Since I didn’t have enough going on this weekend…

I decided to redo our bedroom closet.  I blame the 2010 Ikea catalog.  Ever since it arrived I’ve been paging through it and thinking which led me to browsing the website and even more thinking. All that thinking led me to suggest an Ikea trip on Friday even though I knew it was the very last place on earth we should be taking Monkey that day.  I did not buy a single thing (for the closet) but the damage was done…all that thinking had led to ideas.

Here is a picture of our closet.  Please take a moment to prepare yourself for the horror.

That is the ONLY closet in our bedroom.  It is 47″ wide, 19″ deep and 97.5″ tall.  Monkey’s room has two closets of this approximate size and then there is the linen closet in the hall.  That’s it folks.  Old houses have c-r-a-p for closets!  And this picture is the improved version.  When we started there was just one single rod in that closet, we added the shelves/rods you see here…and that lower shelf?  It ends right there only 1/2 way across the closet.  Oh, and, above the top shelf?  About 2 feet of totally empty space.

So using all my ideas I spent several quality hours with a tape measure and graph paper trying to figure out some sort of better solution.  Because the closet is so shallow (just barely wide enough for hangers) none of the traditional solutions would fit. 

When it was all said and done we moved the top shelf all the way up by the ceiling.  Since Duhdee is tall he can easily reach that rod.  We’ll hang his shorter hanging stuff up there and our long hanging stuff will be to the right (we don’t have much!)  As close to the bottom as we could manage, we put in another shelf and rod that goes the full length of the closet.  The long hanging stuff will come just to the top of that bottom shelf.  More shorter hanging stuff will be on that lower rod.  All that unused space at the top will now be between Duhdee’s short hanging stuff and that bottom shelf.  We can put some storage boxes there for additional storage and we gained an extra 21″ of hanging space too.  That’s the best we can do since we cannot enlarge it in any way.

Of course, not a single Ikea idea was used but I still blame the catalog!

This is just the first step in our bedroom make-over. Then we’ll paint the walls.  Take another look at that picture above…do you see that whitish area on the wall to the very left?  That’s a REFLECTION.  Great Grampy insisted we use high gloss paint.  You can see your REFLECTION in our walls.  That, coupled with the blue, means that room feels as warm and cozy as an ice cube.  We’ve wanted to repaint pretty much since it dried but we ran out of time and had to move on to other rooms so we could move in.

I guess technically the next step is redoing the wiring so it is 1. up to code and 2. so “we” can install a flat screen and media center which will allow me to lounge in bed watching all my DVR’d shows while Duhdee feeds me peeled grapes (a girl can dream, right?) but that’s not my job.  Duhdee is on his own for that.  I’d electrocute myself and probably burn the house down to boot.  *Shrug* No one is perfect.

We here a Chez Monkey are big, BIG, Alton Brown fans.

Duhdee records all of his shows on our DVR  for easy reference.  I’ll buy the cookbook coming out this fall.  Whenever we want to try a new food we check with Alton first.  The geekiness combined with the yumminess is just irresistible!

So, when Duhdee bought himself a new toy I thought, “Alton would not approve.  It is a uni-tasker!”  The new toy was delivered today and tomorrow Duhdee will be preparing us WAFFLES!  Yes, Duhdee is the sort of guy who buys himself a “toy” and it is actually a professional waffle maker….and he buys it from Woot! at a killer price even…this man is a keeper!

I immediately started chiding him about his slick new uni-tasker.  Duhdee took the position that sometimes you just need a uni-tasker, nothing else will do…that Alton would agree.  Five minutes later I was on the Alton Brown website buying Duhdee two new t-shirts and some nifty plunger cups…not because Duhdee was right (and he was but do NOT tell him I admitted that TYVM) but because, as I said, the geekiness is irresistible.

And, yes, that is our entertainment here on a Saturday night..that’s just how we roll here at Chez Monkey.

It’s a very good thing we stayed home!

My oldest baby, Copper, is really sick with Lyme Disease.  It came on suddenly early Friday…really early, like 2 AM early…and he’s not doing so well.  Tons of pain, even with pain medication…to the point that he can’t stand up on his own and has trouble keeping on his feet once we help him up.  All of his systems are a little bit off so we are having to walk a fine line between pain management and doing permanent, possibly fatal, damage to his kidneys and/or stomach.

Poor bubba.  Poor Umma.  Rich (but very experienced and compassionate) vet, heh.

Broken promises.

I keep saying I’m back and then promptly disappear again.  I don’t know what is with me these days!  There is lots going on but I just can’t seem to write about any of it. 

Let’s start with the important stuff first.  Monkey is doing awesome.  He is still on summer break, they don’t go back to school until September 14th!  That just seems so late but what do I know?  I’m starting to feel a bit anxious that maybe we shouldn’t have held him back for another year of pre-school.  I guess I need something to worry about when everything is going smoothly!

He is really talking up a storm these days.  One night last week I got home about 20 minutes after he had gone to bed (I worked a lot of late nights last week 🙁 ) but I could hear him still moving around a bit.  I went in to give him a kiss and he said, “Up, down! Ball. Unnderrr! Bubbles!”  I was a bit confused and made a few “how interesting” comments, gave him a kiss and walked out to talk to Duhdee.  When I told Duhdee what Monkey had said, he put it into context for me.  They had played ball, Daddy had thrown it up on the roof and then it came back down.  It bounced under the deck at one point.  Monkey had soda (he calls it bubbles) at dinner.  He had TOLD ME ABOUT HIS DAY!  Oops!  I ran right back into Monkey’s room to let him know that I understood what he had been trying to tell me.  Umma’s just dense sometimes.

The only issue with all this talking is that he is now attempting to repeat just about everything he hears.  Umma and Duhdee are learning to censor themselves in ways most parents have mastered by the time their kids are 2…it’s hard work!  Duhdee let slip a minor cuss word during one of our family walks and we immediately heard “Cap!” (he is still missing the “r” sound!) from behind us.  I also need to work on controlling my facial expressions when he drops these words.  They just take me by surprise!  If he ever sees me laugh at one of them it’s all over, he’ll do anything to make me laugh.  He did crack up one of the neighbors.  On that same walk we stopped so the dogs could avail themselves of a conveniently placed tree and Monkey dropped the f-bomb.  I heard a bark of laughter from inside the house we were passing.  They had a little girl with Down Syndrome so they totally understand what’s going on but really…it’s so HARD not to crack up when these naughty words pop out of our little angel’s mouth.

This past Saturday, we drove up to visit Grammy & Grampy in New Hampshire.  Monkey tends to be fairly reserved when he is away from home.  He talks less and hides more.  I’m not sure what got into him but he was just full of it!  He followed Duhdee around and helped with the tools.  He played ball.  He pet the dogs…he was just…Monkey.  He was the Monkey we see all the time at home.  It was really nice to see him relaxed and engaged with Grammy & Grampy.  At one point, while we were in the playroom, Monkey found a nickle on the floor.  I held my hand out to take it from him but he pulled it back, walked around me and handed it to Grampy.

What else?  I’m starting to worry about our old dog.  Minor things seem to be going wrong on a regular basis…limping, abscess, more limping…it’s made me realize that he’s getting up there (14!) for a pooch and I am so not ready to lose him.  He was my first baby and I love him to pieces.  Monkey also love him a lot.  Our other dog worships him.  I don’t know how to even attempt to explain death when the time comes.  Has anyone had to do this? *sigh*

OK, not ending on that note….garden!  We have finally, finally suceeded in growing a darn cucumber!  No matter what happens out there for the rest of the year, we WIN!  I never thought it would be so hard but between blight and rodents I’ve never been able to successfully grow them.   There appears to be a squirrel with a taste for tomatoes in the next door neighbor’s yard so we’ve started leaving any that fall off the vine or otherwise get damaged on the border for him, a tribute…bribe…whatever!  It’s working!

I think that’s about it.  This weekend is Labor Day weekend, the very worst weekend of the year, in my opinion.  All of the college students in the Cambridge/Boston area will be returning.  It’s a good weekend to avoid the city…and Ikea…and Target…and…pretty much everywhere else.  I don’t know what we’ll find to do.  If we let Monkey decide we’ll all stay in our lounging clothes (he has specific clothes in mind, too) and not step foot off the property.  Ever.  Maybe it is the best idea for this weekend…