It's ALWAYS Something!*

*Or how Murphy's Law has been kicking my ass

Christmas Trees: My great idea of waiting to get a Christmas tree was A) stupid, B) stupid and C) yeah, stupid because my thinking was that if we waited, the tree would be fresher. Uhm. . . No. Apparently every tree place gets their trees in November, do not get new shipments, and if you WAIT to get your tree you will have VERY LITTLE to choose from. Friday night we went to the place down the street that we've gone to since we moved here and they had nothing we could use. Saturday night out of desperation we went to Lowe's and bought a much shorter tree than I would have liked, but because God is a kind God (or maybe he and Murphy were battling it out for me), the niceDouglas Fir was VERY CHEAP. We also bought our knobs, pulls and faucets there.

I love these faucets!

Knobs, Pulls and Faucets: I was SO HAPPY to get my new bathroom fixtures. Saturday night after My Sweetie went to bed, I took out the really ugly faucet (there are two in there but one of them was really gross). Murphy being what he is, the old faucet was made in such a manner that the water supply hoses (copper ones) were actually built into the faucet. Okay, so yes, I should have maybe checked that out beforehand. So I had no water supply hoses. I decided not to freak out. I figured I'd send MS out to take care of that the next day and meanwhile I would install the knobs (18) and pulls (3). Finally all was well. Wait! Is that Murphy hiding in the shower? Oh yes. The knobs went just fine. The pulls, not so much. My original holes for the old pulls were 3 inches apart. The new pulls' holes were 2 1/2 inches apart. Today after My Sweetie came back from Home Depot with my regular old 1/2 inch to 3/8 inch water supply hoses and filler putty, all seemed well. I figured I would fill the old drawer pull holes with putty and drill new ones later and just throw those faucets together in a snap. We installed the new faucet and I filled the holes and decided it was bathrrom break time. And by that, I mean we needed a break from working in the bathroom. At this point we decided to trim the tree. That was fun - and creatively hanging ornaments to make giant gaps in the tree (you waited too late to buy) look less noticeable was very entertaining. I had a long relax time after that. We watched the whole 3 hours of the "Survivor" finale and I made spaghetti and meatballs. After My Sweetie went to bed, I decided to replace the other faucet and get all the tools and stuff out of the bathroom. Did someone say Murphy's law? Well, if not, I was gonna. The holes drilled in my bathroom countertop (counter top? I'm not gonna look it up!) for that other faucet were WRONG. The new faucet did not fit in there. It was obvious visually that they had drilled the cold water hole closer to center than the hot hole (geez I hope no one finds this site by googling "hot hole"). So I got the file and filed and filed and filed and filed. After 12 eons and breathing probably deadly dust, I was finally able to fit the faucet in there. Tuesday night I will drill the 6 new holes in the three drawers and install the 3 pulls. Then that room will be finished for now. Tonight all I have left to do is my Christmas cards. About that...

Christmas Cards: Every Wednesday after I finish my Meals on Wheels route, I stop at a convenience store and buy a USA Today, a pack of Camel Lights and maybe some gum. I am a creature of habit (and the acronym for that is COH, not OCD). At lunch, I like to sit at a restaurant bar and read my USA Today. Unfortunately, this last Wednesday there was an article about funky family Christmas pictures. Being a graphic artist and Photoshop expert I thought, "Cool!" Well, Murphy's Law being what it is, our printer was out of ink. I figured I would make a funny picture and then get the ink. EVERYTHING went downhill from there. The computer kept freezing. I was getting VERY frustrated. My Sweetie even went out early Saturday to buy the ink, but he didn't replace it. And therein lies another Murphy's Law problem. My history of replacing ink cartridges is BAD - picture Frankenstein trying to sew a button on a shirt. Late Saturday night, after finally getting Photoshop to work again, I replaced the ink cartridges in the printer. It was all bad from there. Today MS told me he fixed the problem and I printed out the pictures for the Christmas cards, but the blue color is WAY off (for those of you reading that will be getting Christmas cards). Speaking of Meals on Wheels...

My "Training Day." I mentioned in my last post that I was nervous about having a stranger ride along with me for MOW. I couldn't have had a better person. Our route was "adopted" (usually by a church group or scout troop) for Christmas gifts. What was meant to be a large trash bag filled with smaller packed gift bags (marked "male," female," and "either") ended up being a large trash bag full of empty gift bags marked "male," female," and "either" and LOTS of random stuff. The lady I was training pretty much took it on herself to take care of the Christmas gifts. She was AWESOME. She kept apologizing about not looking in the bag earlier to see the mess. I kept telling her how helpful she was. I would have been doing ALL OF THAT by myself. At every stop, she made gift bags while I put the meals together. I gave her suggestions for some of the clients, but she pretty much did it on her own. After I took her back to her car, I went to lunch, did some Christmas shopping, then met my daughter at a restaurant bar. We had a blast. Where was Murphy on Wednesday? I know he doesn't take Wednesdays off.

And then some: Rufus wasn't TOO bad with the Christmas tree, although he attempted to climb it a few times. He has figured out now not to hang around the tree, The pork roast was excellent and my favorite re-run of it was making North Carolina style barbecue for lunch on Thursday. I also forgot to mention that my big annual family Christmas barbecue buffet event is this Saturday. Woof, it's a lot of work for a few hours of fun but I hope everything goes well (at least my bathroom will be great!). It's all about the lists and I've made most of them. Still, Murphy's Law has been kicking my ass lately and it's wearing me down. Hey Murphy! GO AWAY!!