Then. And Now.

There I was, nosing about in my largely ignored Myspace page, when I came upon a bunch of my old blogs from last summer, the summer o' the Great Kitchen Project. Boy oh boy, was I not a happy camper. So, just for fun, I'm re-posting a couple, as a little trip down memory lane, and to remind myself just how good I have it.


World War II....kind of.... Current mood: crazy
Oh. My.God. You know how Dresden, Germany looked after the Allied boys from RAF Bomber Command, in their Avro Lancasters & De Havilland Mosquitos finished with it in 1945? Okay..well, that's kind of how my kitchen looks right now. Holy shitting fuck. Seriously, it's something else..... It's actually my 40th birthday pressie coming true. Lee said he'd reno the kitchen (a long-awaited dream of mine...I used to go into IKEA and moon about in the kitchen section for hours at a time.) for my big 4-0, and now it's happening. I'm kind of traumatised, to be honest. I'm really stupid that way. I was actually shedding a couple of sentimental tears over my old oven being wrenched out of the wall, when Lee (gently) pretty much shoved me bodily out of the house.
The girls & I are staying at my sister's, who is currently sailing on a cruise ship to Alaska with her family. Her little, just-grown-up cat Kota spent much of last night making bread on my flesh, lying across my head and chewing on my face. That, combined with the sheets which refused to stay neatly attached to the bed, plus my usual insomniac tendencies made last night an evil nightmare. AAAARRRRGGGHHHH! Not sure which is worse, home here in the war zone, or at Wyn's palatial house with the love-starved cat!
I'm really excited for the final kitchen outcome, but it's more than a little freaky in here. I've had to stop home tonight and give the girls to Lee, 'cause I have teacher-training yoga tonight. I'd normally just be reaching for the bottle o' vino right about now, but rolling up pissed to one's teacher-training yoga class would be more than a little frowned upon. I've lost my yogic calm somewhere with the old cabinets & counter-top.....Somebody help me! Lee's all about the kitchen & I'm all about a minor flip-out.Gonna try to get out of the house without actually looking into the kitchen. Just the dining room full of the contents of the kitchen. Fuckity fuck. Ok. Bye.


A riff on snacks, cats & no kitchen Current mood: resigned
Ok. So just to bring everyone up to speed on the kitchen reno/housesitting sitch--
-Kitchen still Dresden-like. (Just to even things up on the WWII analogy front, it is also east end of London -like...I can kind of hear a Winston Churchill inspirational radio broadcast when I look at it.) The doorway in is suddenly much wider & my cute husband is thrilling to his carpentry/framing skills. I miss my husband. And my animals & my bedroom a/c.
-I have eaten the following from my sister's pantry: oreos, approx. 5 or 6, a packet of some sort of flavoured rice mix, some antediluvian iceberg lettuce, pringles & frozen pizza. I can feel all the additives coursing through my system, urging me to replenish their levels with yet more pringles & oreos. I shall put it on my "to do" list for tomorrow. I plan to get that out of the way well before yoga.
-Baby cat Kota continues to be a nocturnal menace, but man, I have rarely seen a more exquisite cat. SHe resembles nothing so much as a little blue-eyed lynx. Older cats are grouchy, but sweet.
-I failed to figure out the shower in my sister & Wally's bathroom, and thus resorted to Kelsey's. I now smell of 'Mary-Kate & Ashley" body wash.
-Girls are in Fruit Loop cereal-cable TV-junk food heaven. They never want to leave.

That's all for now. I have run out of wine.



We've maxed out WWII, and thusly turn to literature... Current mood: crazy
We are pretty much through with the "kitchen= WWII" references. I'm off in a new direction. Luckily, this is slap bang in the middle of my field, 17th century literature. Goodbye Dresden, hello Pilgrim's Progress. Lee must then be the unfortunate pilgrim, Christian, and he has mired himself in the Slough of Despond. Yep. On the way to the Wicket Gate, Lee/Christian sinks further under the weight of his burden. I can hear his power tools whining as I type. Poor Lee, poor kitchen, poor me. Pilgrim's Progress for a new generation. Come & see it for yourselves. Actually, don't. I really wouldn't recommend it. You can nearly smell the putrefaction of that Slough. I guess I'm kinda the pilgrim, too, as I attempt to feed & water 3 children (I have a classmate of Raine's every day this week. Great timing.) and myself in the rubble and constructional wasteland that is the kitchen. (There you go--I'm onto another one. Stand up, T.S. Eliot!) I am trying to view this all as an exercise in acceptance and patience. My yogic yamas & niyamas ask that I do indeed embrace acceptance, etc. I'm tryin' over here, I'm tryin'. Lee is so steadfast in his commitment to this project. I do have full faith in him. I don't, however, have all that much faith in myself that I can endure this chaos & confusion for most of the rest of the summer. My kitchen contents sits in teetering piles in the dining room, the living room & the basement. My sink is arse-up on the back patio. I have nary a work surface, and I am stacking boxes of blueberries, bags of mini-bagels, assorted produce, etc in the open tops of drawers, alongside some rather alarming looking tools & whatnots.Lee is swearing a whole bunch, but he soldiers on. I wanted to drown Raine, Cleo & Claire in the paddling pool this afternoon, what with the "Mummy can we have..." "Mummy, I really need...". "Fiona, where is...." AAAARRRRRRGGHHHHH!!! I don't the fuck know where anything is, NO, you can't have --- because for all I know, it's buried under a bag of icing sugar, three wine goblets and a bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap, and if you really do need-----tough shit, 'cause it could be anywhere, my little friends, anywhere... The heat is giving me a dreadful headache, and now i have to go and change the girls' bedlinens, put them both through the shower, wash some dishes (and a bag of cherries) in the bathtub, and then go and shove sharp things into my eyes. Listen. kiddies, to Auntie Fee's parting message. "Careful what you wish for"....(Apparently, I brought this on myself, what with foolish 40th birthday requests.)P.S. It's still going to be a great kitchen when pilgrim yanks himself out of the quicksand!


So how about all of that, huh? This summer is a veritable oasis of calm! But I still need the wine.