That Darn Cat

Will and I (well, mostly Will) have been working on the hardwood floors in our apartment for the past 2 weeks or so. On Monday night we were finally ready to varnish the living room floor. The floor had been sanded, stained, vacuumed and wiped down. Will put on his mask and went to work applying the varnish to the floor. He was almost finished and was working his way out of the room when something very bad happened... Rory, our sweet little grey cat who hasn't been spending much time downstairs because of Maddie, decided that she needed to come downstairs and check out Will's varnishing job first hand. She appeared out of nowhere and somehow made it all the way across the living room... across the newly varnished floor... before we could stop her. Will (still in his mask) started yelling which scared Rory and cause her to continue walking around the room even further from us. We tried to call her and tempted her with treats but she wouldn't budge. Will had to walk across the wet floor to get her (and he almost slipped down... which was very funny but I couldn't laugh because he was so frustrated.) He immediately went back to work trying to smooth out the little kitty footprints and the bigger New Balance footprints. I rushed Rory upstairs to the bathroom to wash her feet off.
The next morning Rory sat on our bed and bit her nails as we laughed about her first pedicure the night before with clear nail polish.
Will is now adamant that we are never getting any more animals.

But Before Moving

Before we completely move out (as in cut all ties to our wonderful apartment in Dogtown), I have to finish re-finishing the floors in the living and dining rooms. Whoever varnished them last did an absolutely miserable job with seemingly zero surface preparation and layed it down with very poor quality of technique. This came out when our 150+ pound dog arrived and scraped up lines of varnish with her pitiful attempts to move from the laying to standing position. Each swipe of each of her nails on each of her paws each attempt to get up...acted like dragging an awl across old paint.

I began the project officially tonight, and I estimate that I am about 8% done sanding, which means I am about 3-4% done with the whole refinish. I suppose this is excellent practice for the new home (which has 4 rooms needing it instead of 2 here...and they are all larger in the house). Why oh why did I ever let Cheryl know I know how to do this kind of stuff....? :)

THE CONTRACT!

No, Cheryl and I have not accepted starring roles in the next big Morgan Freeman movie...instead, we've put a contract on a house. We have talked about house-buying and all that goes into and along with it for a long time. I remember talking about it even during our engagement 3 years ago. This means a lot more to us than simply "owning" a place to live; it means a strong sense of stability in what otherwise is still an extremely transitional time in our lives. It means recommitting to relationships with friends and family in St. Louis, and making sure to do the same with those elsewhere. It means being able to be truly involved in a local church. It means...a mortgage.

Enough about all that, though--I'm sure you all want to hear about the house! It is in Webster Groves (go Statesmen!) in "The Triangle" just south-southeast of Old Webster. It is an Arts&Crafts home built in 1920 and has a great screened-in front porch. We'll post more pictures in the coming weeks/months, but it is a fixer-upper to be sure (which is something we were actually looking for!). Someday I need to post a list of all the work we plan on/need to do (and highlight the ones that Cheryl has assigned to me...). :)

The closing date is currently set for Sept. 29th (just two weeks from today), and we are anxiously awaiting results from a few electricians bids on some major work in the mean time. On to the photos...

The lap dog

I think Maddie sensed that I had a bad day yesterday. Last night I was sitting on the floor brushing her and she curled up and put her head and 3 of her feet in my lap. I laughed out loud when I realized what she was doing. Maddie can't really fit in anyone's lap and so she was trying to get as much of her body in my lap as possible. She's so sweet. And funny!

From Bad to Worse

Yesterday started out as an okay day.... except that I had to tell my high-strung landlord that we may have to break our non-existent lease and move out at the end of October.
I was late to work (which isn't that big of a deal because I can stay late to make it up) due to my conversation with the landlord.
Lunch was a high point... turkey sandwich, doritos and a twinkie. (There's a school at my work so I can eat free lunch in the cafeteria. It's not exactlly healthy. But, did I mention that it is free?)
AND THEN....
At 3:00 it all fell apart. One of my boys (or clients) got mad at one of his child care workers and they came to me to work it out. Well, the boy was not ready to work it out so I sent him back to his apartment. When I went to check on him a few minutes later, he let me have it!!!!! (Okay, I should probably mention that this boy has some serious problems with his anger and impulse control.) He directed all of his anger at me and was yelling and crying and called me EVERY name in the book. (I had to asked Will what some of them meant ... probably shouldn't have done that) While I attempted to calm him down, he continued to cuss me out for about 5 minutes. NOT exaggerating.
At 4:00 I had group therapy with them and the boy was fine. He acted like nothing happened. So then I thought the day was improving. Then one of the child care workers (a man) asked me how old I am. I asked him what he thought (MY MISTAKE!) and one of my boys answered 26. I love that kid! Then the man said 37 or 38!!!! .... sigh.
At 6:00 I accidentally locked myself out of my office. I felt my pocket for my keys before I shut the door and I thought I had them. I ended up having the gym keys in my pocket and my office keys were on my desk... behind the locked door. And no one else who was left in the building had a key to my office. Since its a residential facility, all of the doors remained locked all of the time. My purse, car keys, cell phone, everything was locked in my office! Thankfully I found a coworker who let me use his phone to call Will. Will was out at his parent's house and had to go all the way home to get a key to my car and then all the way up to my office. I had to wait outside an hour and a half for him. (I must say that the weather could not have been better.) I hope that I never make that mistake again!