The Tease of Things I Don't Need

The (China) Cabinet of C.L. & A

A long, fun, tiring day today.

After having cleared numerous obligations on Saturday (though not the postals ones I'd intended to in the morning, before the post office closed) most of Sunday was spent over at Crypt Leak and Abbygal's place, visiting with them, their furry brood, and tearing a piece of furniture apart.

This'll give me a little extra project during this week. As I'm almost obligated to display a pic of it once it's back together, in place and in use, the sooner I get to it this week the better. Here you see what it looked like before they emptied it and it fell to our implements of destruction. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

As I have to take Wednesday off to go through an orientation at the high school with Trav, then taking care of another matter over at the middle school, and then getting to a doctor's appointment... hmm... maybe Tuesday night won't be the best time to start that. Monday night I'm expecting to play a clix tournament, so... Wednesday evening? We'll see. The general aim's to have it in place and in use by the kick-off to the Labor Day weekend.

It's a nice piece -- or at least it was before we went at it hammer and tong -- and should work well once it's all back together.

I was entertained royally by all that breathed there, given the tour, and fed well. Blue corn chips with green salsa & a salsa/guacamole blend (the latter the first time I've met a guacamole I liked), and then flatbread pizzas made with wonderful ingredients including some herbs from their garden. A reduced-acidity vinaigrette that A. had further reduced into a syrupy consistency, lending it a unique sweetness, was provided to be drizzled on the pizzas to each of our tastes. A superb combination, much-appreciated.

After C.L. and I determined that short of some assistance from Hank Pym we weren't going to fit the upper, cabinet portion into the van intact, we set about dismantling it. I sweated like G.W. Bush left to fend for himself in front of time-travelling reporters shipped in from the mid-1970s (duly equipped with seemingly out of fashion journalistic ethics and functioning testicles) as we worked, and the cabinet soon fell to pieces in our hands. The base slid in nicely, all the bits were packed, and by that time A. had icy, raspberry-peppered smoothies waiting for us. That she suggested them immediately after regaling us with something she'd just learned about the hagfish - namely that it spews a protective mucous by the bucketful - was noted without excessive suspicion.

We settled back in, cooled off and talked for a while, indulging all of those impulses for vile gossip.

Reviving a long dormant tradition of re-enacting an old John Belushi sketch as The Thing That Wouldn't Leave, I waited myself into a dinner invitation. Once I'd cleaned them out and the light was beginning to fail, I finally relented and returned the shreds of their weekend to them.

All the bits and pieces are safely inside now, though we haven't bothered to put the middle and back bench-style seats back in the van yet. That can wait. The sheets (the two afghans I had in there weren't enough to protect all the pieces) and the handtruck I borrowed are back in the van, so I can turn them over to C.L. tomorrow.

A fine Sunday, and while I can't say I'm looking forward to Monday at least I won't be in New Orleans for it.