project 365 #154: django and new toy after an hour

project 365 #154: django and new toy after an hour
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry

Yesterday I indulged in some serious retail therapy, or, well, it would have been retail therapy except that what I was doing was replacing several of the pairs of shoes that Django has chewed to shreds over the last year. Still fun but not quite as fun as, say, buying totally new and different shoes. And I bought a bunch of frames at K Mart and right now, in between bouts of struggling with Adobe Illustrator, which I am attempting to teach myself (I am "working" at home today, woot) by making some big signs for the museum, I am framing art. Except that naturally I bought all the wrong size frames even though I had a list with me and now I have to go to Michaels and get more frames. And find that one drawing that has vanished into the moving vortex - the only drawing that I want to find and, naturally, the one I can't find. Argh.

Last night was another party party night with S & Z & H & D & J & me all whooping it up on the incredible wobbling deck. It was lovely but of course I had had nothing to eat all day and so I gave up and went to bed while the party was still going on. This is rude but alas, sometimes necessary and miraculously I feel okay this morning, if a bit annoyed since M is out of school as of today which means that he and his friend C are taking up altogether too much space in the house clumping around, eating extravagantly spiced up ramen and leaving the bowls, along with almost empty glasses of coke and gatorade, everywhere. The steps are all fixed up and my nice landlord D performed miracles and even built a really goofy little railing where the old steps were on the deck to keep us from drunkenly falling off it. And my friend D is here right now; the fence is done, although Django can still get out of it, goddamn goddamn, and he's putting in a new dog safe - i.e., cheap and destructible - screen door. Things are looking up.

project 365 #152: auds django and theo on my bed

project 365 #152: auds django and theo on my bed
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry

My daughter A came over last night. She's in the terrible throes of mid break up (again. Yeah, but maybe it will stick this time?) and was feeling at loose ends and lonely. So, since M was over at his friends' house for the night, we sat around and drank beer and talked and it was very nice. I did have plans to do nothing whatsoever last night - I have discovered the Sci Fi Channel and it is good - so it took me a little while to switch gears but then it was fun.

Supposedly my new landlord is going to call me or appear at any minute this morning to fix the steps to my deck of death. We call it that, or sometimes the Collapsapalooza stage because, as I explained succinctly to someone at DL the other night, it was built by hippies. Out of hemp. Well, no, not actually out of hemp - out of untreated lumber of various sizes and a whole lotta nails. This being Asheville, however, you can say "It was built by hippies." and everyone immediately understands what you mean: a certain unique je ne sais quoi approach to home improvement, done with a fine disdain for the structural engineering of The Man. My various carpentery friends have been under the deck and declared it not quite on the verge of imminent collapse. I would be more inclined to believe them if they didn't emerge from under there so quickly, looking a little worried and suggesting mattresses or bales of hay under it. Yeah. Maybe a lot of small trampolines. Then they ask me if I have any lumber lying around and say that well, probably it wouldn't be a bad idea to shore it up some. When there are more than 3 people out there it sways like the Titanic during those last fateful moments, which is a bit unsettling and makes me dubious about the current plans to host the blogapawhateverwhatever annual party here in July. Bloggers Killed In Freak Deck Accident makes for a good headline and possibly even a Metafilter thread full of dots but it's not really what I want to do this summer.

Also, young M went right through one of the steps the other day, which is why I played the Summon Landlord card which is also why I rolled out of bed this morning and started cleaning like a lunatic. Now he is 15 and thus inclined to thump about a bit, but still. The board just broke right in half and all the steps look to be in the same condition, which is extremely unnerving all the time and particularly if you happen to be wearing a skirt and high heels and are cursing the dogs at the top of your lungs for wiggling out of the (still incomplete, sheesh) fence when you have to go to work. Not that that has happened. More than five times.