The Kitchen

 So, it's Thursday and the clouds are still here, it's not raining, however, so I guess that's a dim bright spot.  Tomorrow, things will be a little brighter.  Partial sunshine will do that, however as we move into the weekend rain showers and possibly a soaker or two will move back into the region.  Temps will spring into what are consider normal highs and lows for the season. 

One of the things that's bothered me about my trip to Greece was the return flight.  Having to wait in Madrid for 13 hours before my return flight to the states was irking.  I'm not a sitter, or waiter, and having to do so weighs heavily upon my impatience.  Doing nothing.  Ugh.  And since the layover was from 11 PM until 12 the next day, it wasn't as if I could leave the airport and take in a single, solitary sight.  So, I revisited the return flights and discovered that if I left Athens at 0830, I could be back in the states on the same day.  Realizing this, I had no problem in changing my return itinerary.  Now, I'm leaving Athens at 0830, and flying to Heathrow, where I'll have a 4 hour wait, until flying to Philadelphia.  Believe me, cutting out that 13 hour layover turned out to be such a relief.

Here are two pictures of my new, old kitchen.  I still need to put the quarter round down, and there are a few touch-ups I need to get the paint brush out for, but otherwise it's finished.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  The flooring is Lifeproof, Chelsea Pond and, as I might have expected, it's a color that is no longer sold.  Good thing I bought 2 extra boxes.

John Eastman was disbarred yesterday, or at least a judge ruled that he should be disbarred.  He's a Trump zealot, who was once a law clerk for Clarence Thomas.  Now tell me, doesn't that make perfect sense?  

And even though there's a gag order on the Orange Anus, he's still spouting out his hatred, aiming his attacks at those involved in his porno trial whom he thinks the most vulnerable.  He will continue to do this until he's actually punished.  That's the only way his attorney's might convince him to shut his mouth.  In my opinion, that would be outstanding.  He's always believed his words and actions are above consequence.  Wouldn't that be a delight, having him handcuffed  and taken to spend a night in jail?

Lunge into this

 So, I accidently slept in this morning.  I forgot to set the alarm and subsequently didn't get out of bed until nearly 7.  That almost an hour and a half later than usual.  I got over 7 hours sleep, so I suppose I must have needed it.

Outside we have a slow drizzle that's supposed to turn into steady showers which will continue most of the day.  Two of my friends from work are getting married today.  When I was told the wedding was supposed to be outside, I wondered why they'd plan something like that this late in mid-October.  I wasn't invited, which is fine since we're more of acquaintances than friends.  

I bought a plant stand for the side window in the kitchen.  It was so cheap I needed to wear rubber glovers because the stain rubbed off on my hands.  Right now it's wood tone, I'm going to take a sponge to it, clean off as much of the stain as possible and paint it the color of my kitchen cabinets.  

So, I've reached one of those painful decisions we all need consider at some point in our lives as we get older.  After crawling around on the floor working on the kitchen renovation, and knowing there's going to be much, much more crawling around, I've decided that I really need to start doing squats and lunges.  You have no idea how much I hate doing leg work, but I need to work on building up strength in cire muscles and there's only one way to do that.  Merde.

The news from Gaza is bad.  It's only going to get worse.  Unfortunately, the only way to break the power of the jihad is to crush Hamas.  Casualties will be high.

For amusement in this country, we have the Republican party.  I don't believe they understand that their incompetence makes them look... well, terrible.  They put together rules that permitted Matty Gaetz to fire that nincompoop McCarthy without a replacement in the wings.  Scalise was going to try and win the gavel, but he has some form of cancer and Republicans don't like people who are sick.  Now, little Jimmy Jordan has managed to get the nomination, however there aren't enough stupid people willing to vote for that little asshole.  So, what do the Republicans do?  They take the weekend off.  I'm sure they're burning up their phone lines trying to get their act together, but don't expect anything resolution any time soon.  They're going to lose their majority because they simply refuse to work with Democrats.  There was a time when that was not the case.

Wrestle This

 Today's supposed to be just like yesterday, temps climbing into the low 70s (F), or to the boarder line of the upper 60s (F).  Nice.  I do need to go out and trim back the roses.  That shouldn't take me long.  

The kitchen's moving along nicely.  Today is going to be a paint day, and we all know how much I love to paint.  Rooting around in the basement, I found a half gallon of Kilz primer that I bought back when it was still cheap... or maybe I should say inexpensive, around $18 a gallon.  If I bought it today, I'd be paying between $27 and $31.  This is an example of a cost increase just so Behr can hit their 5% growth because for them that's the only thing that's important in life.

I had lunch at Black & Bleu yesterday with my cousin.  Usually the food is super great, I ordered a spicy shrimp and chicken dish that was only so so.  The waitress warned me it was going to be spicy, as though it were going to be spicy hot and... well, it wasn't.  I keep forgetting that for some people spice is terrifying, and the idea that their tongue might tingle frightening as all get out.  The dish is not something that I would order again.

I leveled the dishwasher yesterday before going to lunch.  This morning I will be securing it in place and running my first, half empty load just to insure that it works.  My flooring should be arriving tomorrow at the store.  I could have paid extra to have it delivered.  Sorry, I'm not old and feeble yet.  I can still carry in a 7 boxes of vinyl plank flooring.  As I'd said, originally I was going to go with some thing more white and marbly looking but when that was out of stock, chose something at the other end of the spectrum, Chateau Pond.  The blues and browns will coordinate well with my backsplash and countertops, and will make my white cupboards pop.

Of course, the Republicans proved again yesterday that they have absolutely no idea how to govern.  They nominated Steve Scalise to be Speaker of the House.  For those of you who don't know Stevie, he claims to be David Dukes without the baggage; David Dukes is a well known white supremacist.  His competition was little Jimmy Jordan, who used to be an assistant wrestling coach at OSU, and who had no problem looking the other way and helping to cover up charges that the team doctor was molesting a number of the wrestlers Jimmy was coaching.  I would not be surprised if little Jimmy has a Napoleon complex.

Consequences

 Tuesday.  This morning the temps outside were a cool 43 (F).  Like yesterday, they're predicted to rise up into the mid 60s (F), and tomorrow into the upper 60s (F).  However, by Friday they're supposed to fall into autumn.  I'm curious as to which weather pattern is going to persist.  For the last 2 years we've had cold Decembers only to have the temps rebound and give us warm winters.  I could go for that again.

Some changes in the kitchen.  The flooring I was going to order is out of stock, which could be a sign I wasn't supposed to buy it, so I chose an alternative, Chelsea Pond, something completely opposite the marble look I had initially I'd chosen.  And I've gone from a marble countertop to one made from a slab of granite, mostly because the marble I had chosen is, again, no longer available.  I will take the samples I'm not using back to the store since I can only use so many paperweights.

I'm sure not all of you are aware of this, but Glynis Johns, who played Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins, turned 100 on October 5.  Here's belated, but hearty congratulations to Glynis on her becoming a Centenarian! 

And I understand that Kev McCarthy might be throwing his hat into the Speaker's circle again, mostly because the two fascists, tiny Jimmy Jordan, and white supremacist Scalise can't get the necessary 217 votes to move into that position.  For all of their desperation to be in power, Republicans demonstrate over and over again that when they are, they simply cannot govern.  

Very shortly, I don't doubt, Israel will begin their mop up process in Gaza.  This will not go well for the Palestinians.  I feel bad for that because not everyone of the is a member of Hamas.  As for Hamas?  When ever a terrorist group tries something on this bold of a scale, I always wonder what they were thinking.  When terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11, did they really think that was going to make America crumble?  Did they not realize there were going to be consequences?  Maybe Islam should stop focusing on hating the Jews.  That will not happen in my lifetime, just as the Republicans in this country will never realize their dreams of authoritarianism will never come true.

Plumbing the Issue

 Well, it's Saturday which means it's a workday.  Will it be busy?  I've no idea.  What college football games are on TV this afternoon.  If Penn State is playing business will be off since this is Penn State country.  Also, we'll have the weather to contend with: rain.  That's right, it's raining again.  Temps are supposed to go from moderate to chilly as autumn continues to creep into the picture.  This week's high are predicted to be in the mid 60s (F) and next week's in the mid 50s (F).  Of course, who knows what's actually going to happen with the temperatures since we're coming off of the hottest summer on record.  

The plumbing in the kitchen renovation is fine... except for the cold water tap.  Down in the basement, those Pex pipes and Sharkbite connecters are busy drip, drip, dripping away.  The hot water's fine, and so's the drainage, it's just the cold water where there's a bit of a leakish problem.  Biting the bullet, yesterday I called Bowman Plumbing and a nice young man drove here to give me an estimate.  I pointed to the dishwasher and told him he might want to add that installation into the quote.  A few minutes later he handed me the quote.  I smiled, and nodded kindly, saying "that's nice," to be polite.  The cost for installing the dishwasher alone was $652.  I pointed to it, saying "that's awful pricy," and he said, "well, there may be issues," so I told him I have a friend who can do it for free.  With the dishwasher charge removed, the cost was still $1250.  I told him I'd think about it.  I want to have a small section of pipe fixed, not to have most of the copper piping replaced.  I feel bad that there are people out there who would have simply said "Okay," knowing that price might be creating a financial burden for them.  Don't put yourself in debt because the plumber or electrician you call will charge you as much as possible because they know most people will simply hand their credit card to cover the expense.

Here's an updated kitchen pic taken before they added the trim around the window.  That's a sample of the marble countertop sitting there on the temp countertop.

And, of course, the Republican shit show continues in the House.  First they were going to have an informal thing on Fox TV, I guess sort of a Meet and Greet the Fascists, and then they weren't.  They've been forewarned that putting someone farther to the Right (notice I'm not saying Conservative) into the position will get them nothing.  Will they listen? Gimme a break.  We're talking about Republicans here.  A majority of Americans are not buying their pseudo- authoritarian, wannabe regime oriented politics.  Ouch.  Let's be honest here, has that ever stopped them before?

"Winging it"

 So, I'm writing this entry from the writing laptop down on the desk, rather than the gaming PC.  The weather outside is nice, temps are supposed to climb into the upper 80's today.  We have a 2% chance of rain.  This is a good thing because the drywall for my kitchen renovation is outside.  I really didn't want it taking up space anywhere inside; 4 x 8 foot sheets take up a lot of space.

Demolition is supposed to take place this morning.  I make that sound as though it's going to be a major even.  In reality, the current kitchen cabinet is going to be ripped out.  Drywall is going to be screwed onto the wall behind it, and the new cabinets (including the space for the dishwasher) are going to be installed.  The sink cabinet is a priority, so I can do the plumbing for the new sink.  The dishwasher installation is probably not going to happen until next week, after everything else has been completed.  The flooring installation will be the last thing I do.  I haven't even ordered it yet.

I did take a picture of the pipes beneath the current sink after I'd cut them last evening.  

So, what will I be doing while the contractors are hard at work?  Sitting at my desk working on The Body in Motion.  

Of course, Kev McCarthy got fired yesterday by his party.  Anybody who didn't know this was going to happen when he was elected Speaker of the House is way too naive; this was predictable, except for the obtuse.  The chaos that has ensued is amazing, and adding to this, the Republicans have decided to take the rest of the week off.  That's right, they need to take a break to... try and focus?  Perhaps.  They don't seem to have a plan, so I guess this means they'll be "winging it" until 2024, when a number of them will be voted out of office.  

I did have to laugh at how many Republicans were blaming the Democrats for not saving McCarthy's ass, this was after McCarthy was corrected on CNN on Saturday when he claimed that Democrats had not helped in passing the stop gap measure to keep the government from shutting down.  Like most Republicans, he lied, it was every Democrat voting for that piece of legislation which got it passed.  Maybe if Republicans just stopped lying, instead of being in constant attack mode.  Of course, they've been in attack mode for so long, I doubt if they know who to do anything else.

Plumb This

October has arrived.

Sunday has arrived!  The temps are supposed to climb up into the lower 80s (F).  I don't doubt there will be those out there calling it the beginning of Indian summer.  Wrong.  Indian summer happens after the first frost, which is when the temps drop down to around freezing, 32 (F).  That's probably not going to happen for at least a month... if it happens then.  Climate change, you know?  If this year is similar to the last 2 we're going to have a bit of a deep freeze in mid-to late December, possibly another 2 weeks of really cold temps in January, but the rest of the winter will be mild, at least for Central PA.

For those who don't know, today is Homemade Cookie Day.  Guess who is not going to be making any cookies?  I did completely debox the dishwasher this morning, and it looks as though I might be doing that install myself.  Yippee!  And it also looks as though I'll be doing the plumbing for the sink, as well.  I figure, if it can save me $400 why not.  I have done plumbing before.  I also have a somewhat Ace in the Hole, as Jon, the PT who's giving me PT advice on The Body in Motion, is also a plumbing specialist.  I guess I'll find out just how good he is.  At his suggestion, I've already bought some supplies.

And, as you all know, Congress avoided the dreaded shutdown again.  This was after Mitch McConnell said the Senate Republicans would not vote for the 45 day extension.  What is telling is that in the House of Representatives, Republicans voted with the Democrats to move this piece of legislation forward.  90 Republicans voted against it, including Green and Gaetz, voted against it.  When push came to shove, Centrist Republicans pushed back against the shoving crazies.  Their party is in disarray.  Chaos reigns.  Will these hardliners learn their lesson?  Nope.  These are the diehards of the "just say no," party, the ones who so desperately want to say "shut up! we're in charge."  Their end is nigh, brought on by the Spawn of Satan, Donald Trump.

The Bastard Republican Child

 Friday... and it's raining... again.  There is a steady drizzle falling which is going to keep me from mowing my front lawn this afternoon.  Temps were supposed to shoot up into the low 70s (F), but now I see on my Accuweather app that they're not going to get out of the 60s (F).  Now the sunny days and warm temps are supposed to happen while I'm at work.  Isn't that how it seems to go?  

Yesterday, I feel I got a lot done.  Today hopefully is going to be a repeat.  Some painting needs to be done in the kitchen: cabinets.  The only demo happening will be the removal of the sink cabinet, which will happen first.  Then the drywall will be hung.  After that, the new sink base will be installed (the drywall behind it doesn't need to be finished, and the other 5 cabinets will be installed.  I'm not going to order the new flooring until that's done.  Tuesday, Lindsey is bringing the drywall, which will mean more clutter.

I really do hate clutter.

I made a three bean salad yesterday with just a touch of jalapeño pepper heat and a bit of shredded Swiss cheese.  

I did get a big laugh when I saw Raw Story did a piece on Newt (Just Say No) Gingerich's confusion with the current GOP.  You'll notice that I did include the famous lesson he taught: Just Say No.  Back in the 1990s that was his call to arms.  Hold the Democratic president hostage until he concedes.  Now, it seems as though old Newty wants to disparage the spawn of his political loins.  The fact that he failed to grasp his tutorage would lead to the inevitable breakdown of the GOP, indicates how little time and forethought he gave to this policy and where it would lead.  Now, instead of shrieking "what have I done!" he's looking at the hardliners in the House and whining "what's wrong with you?"  It was he who set the Republican party on this political course, and now that they're about to sail off the edge of the political world he wants to refute the reality that he is the father of this bastard Republican child.

A Haunting in Venice

 The skies are a bit overcast this morning.  They're predicted to be that way most of the day, with a high in the upper 60s (F).  Tomorrow a chance of rain is going to move into the area, but after that our temps are predicted to climb back into the 70s (F).  This is fine.

The electricians were here yesterday and did their thing.  I now have a stove vent / fan combo, and two  outlets have been removed, three added, dedicated wiring for the dishwasher is in, and a ceiling light installed in the cycling / running / computer room.  The light was a bit of a stickler.  Ripping up the plywood floor in the attic, they discovered that the wiring was... antiquated (nice way of putting it), so they shut that off and rewired.   Electrical and Plumbing are the 2 biggest issues when renovating a 118 year old home.

Lily handled them well, barking when necessary, observing them from a distance while they did their work.  Running up and down the stairs tuckered her out and she was up in bed by 6:30 PM.

I went to see A Haunting in Venice last evening, Kenneth Branagh's foray into Agatha Christie.  This one was far better than A Death on the Nile with more interesting characters, a better developed storyline, and a lot less absurdity in the denouement.  This one has a bit of a spooky twist, with Poirot being invited to a seance, and, of course, murder and mayhem follow him.  Michelle Yeoh is good as the all too wise medium, as is Tina Fey, playing drama.  For those Kyle Allen fans out there, I hate to tell you this, but he keeps his shirt on.  This movie was very entertaining.

There was a GOP noise fest last evening while I was at the movies.  I missed nothing.  Well, I did miss Chris Christie calling Trump Donald Duck, what an insult to the duck.  I did watch a short clip this morning of DeSantis saying something, but because he's such an ass I kept the sound off.  Smart move.  Just being able to observe his face with having to listen to his voice made me realize how unintelligent he looks, his eyes are too close, his nose too big, and he resembles a badly drawn cartoon.  From what I've read, not one of them dented the lead Trump has to get the Republican nomination.  The GOP is going to nominate the Orange Anus, no matter how big of a liar, and fraud he is proven to be.  To nominate anyone else would be admitting they the worst possible choice in the world when they voted him president.  Their inability to deal with the truth is going to cost them dearly at the polls, and even then they will not learn their lesson.

Lie to Impress

 Today... let there be sunshine!  And it was so... at least for the time being.  We might end up with overcast skies later in the day, but right now the sun is shining.  Temps are suppose to climb into the upper 60s (F), which is nice.  No rain is in the forecast, that's nice.  We've had so much lately.  To think, one of my retail associates told me that "we need rain."  I suspect she must get her weather information from Fox.

Quite a bit was accomplished yesterday in the kitchen renovation.  Shelves were taking down, the shelf / pot hanger was installed at the window.  And the dishwasher was delivered.  Originally, I had hoped that my contractor's boyfriend was going to install it, but his life is complicated and she told me he might need to bring his young son with to do the job.  So, I've started watching YouTube videos on installing dishwashers.  To my surprise, it's not that complicated at all.  

In 45 minutes, the electrician is supposed to arrive.  Once he's completed his work, the only left to do will be the cabinet / dishwasher install, the flooring, and painting.  Yes, that's right there is a lot of painting: the new wall, the cabinets (ice sculpture white), and the new baseboard.  I'm certain there will also be touch-ups on the previously painted walls.

And wasn't yesterday filled with delightfully bad Trump news?  The fraud case!  For over a decade he's been lying about his wealth because he's always wanted to be far more richer than he actually was.  For those of you have nurtured any doubts, his motto, his creed, his philosophy has always been this:  Lie to Impress.  I found it fascinating to see the ridiculously mundane excuses his legal team was using to try and delay his trial.  Thanks that yesterday, all that remains is sentencing, and hopefully Donnie and his spawn will get raked through the coils.  While his base is going to shriek and moan, this may speed up the exit of non-Republican supporters.

I found this amusing too:  over in the UK, social conservatives are upset with the government because Boris lied to them about Brexit.  The benefits he promised are not flowing in their direction.  Their middle-class lives have not changed for the better.  Keep in mind, Boris stacked his deck with one of Trump's favorite playing cards, the joker.  Boris, too, believed he could lie to impress.