'Tis the Season

...to be inundated with catalogs.

I generally get about five or six catalogs per month from stores I actually patronize. Whenever I get a catalog I don't want, I immediately call their 800 number and ask them to stop it. But the holidays brings 'em all back out again in unwieldy masses.

Today is Halloween. A record NINE holiday catalogs are in my mailbox:
Wisteria (home decor/furnishings)
King of Prussia (mall)
L.L. Bean Kids
Plow and Hearth (home and garden decor/furnishings)
One Step Ahead (kids to 3yo)
Leaps and Bounds (3yo on up)
Maryland Square (shoes)
Company Kids (home decor/furnishings)
A Southern Season (gourmet foods and gifts)

Now, if you are someone like my mother-in-law, nine probably represents a slow day in your mail-order life. In the space of about six months, she could bale enough of her junk-mail to erect a skyscraper in her backyard. But knowing her, she wouldn't build it herself at all, she would simply order herself one. With cats painted on it. Personalized with her name and a saying about grandchildren. And I'm sure a music box would be stashed inside a secret porcelain door on the 12th floor. But enough about someone else, this blog is about ME.

I could call these catalogs' numbers and say get me off the lists. If I subsequently need to make a purchase (doubtful), I can easily find their websites. Here's what they'll say when I call, though: "We have removed your name from our database, Ms. Scrooge, but you may still receive catalogs for another six to eight weeks, since we print and distribute them in advance."

How convenient for them to keep them coming through the buyingist time of the year.

A Glass of the House Whine, Please

Sorry I've been out of touch, everybody. Here's what I've been up to:



The family room carpet is done, as is the painting. Now we have to reconfigure the furniture and move it back in. But some of it has to be cleaned first, for the same reason the carpet had to be replaced. Dogs who are five percent territorial, ninety-five percent lazy



So here's where they will now live. Yes, I'm letting them share my study. The flooring for the new dog condo and the neighboring powder room is finished. I love the rough brick look. However, we haven't finished painting these rooms. Then the powder room (on the L) needs a new light fixture, its vanity repainted and knob replaced (see said piece on the study floor, awaiting its turn).

We had the same carpet (in "artichoke"--hard to tell the color on the interwebs) put on both staircases and the top floor landing. Oh, I almost forgot--we still have to figure out WINDOW TREATMENTS for the lower level. This job will never end. But when it does, the roof comes next. We're thinking white with solar PV to tie into the power company grid. Anyone out there done this yet?

Don't Push Me

Hey, Representative Mark Foley:
     Shut the fuck up.

Ahem. In the clear light of day, I see that my comment above, posted last night, was simplistic and vulgar. What I really would like to say to him is don't think you can move the focus and the guilt off of your own dirty self by announcing through your spokesman that you were abused as a teenager. Maybe you were. I am sorry if that is the case. But now is not the time.