weekend items

I enjoy the list format, so you may be seeing a lot of that on this blog. This is a completely tedious post and I apologize in advance for that.

1. The woman across the street is also a lady living alone with dogs. Friday morning I was putting out the recycling and she was taking out one of her dogs, and we were both wearing purple velour pants. "Look at us in our finery!" she said.

2. Later that day Claudio and I had our divorce court date. It was almost entirely painless. At no point were either of our names pronounced correctly, and after the fifth or sixth mispronunciation I started to get a case of the solemn-occasion-inappropriate-giggles.

3. Once you accept that your landscaping aspirations have leveled out at "less crappy", facing your crappy yard is much less intimidating. I hacked at the foliage somewhat and it does, in fact, look less crappy. I'm from the desert! I'm not used to grass that reaches Heart of Darkness levels in two weeks.

4. I decided, in a blaze of misguided domestic ambition, to strip the paint off the kitchen cabinets and either leave the wood, if there is decent wood beneath, or paint them a color which is not Sea Foam. I did strip one, and it turns out that there is decent wood below, so the plan is to strip them all and re-finish the wood. This is a ridiculous undertaking for someone who has never done anything like it before, but I'm committed now. It also led to this conversation at Home Depot:

Me: I am looking for the product that strips paint from wood. I don't know what it's called.

Home Depot employee: ... Stripper.

Me: As usual, I have overthought things.

5. I finished The Duke's Children, the final novel in the Palliser series. It is very melancholy.

6. I then read Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne. Also very melancholy, but very informative and fascinating. I can recommend it.

7. Now I have to decide if I am actually going to re-read Wolf Hall in preparation for its sequel, or just study the relevant timelines on Wikipedia. Slothful book blogger! No biscuit!