Amy Currioman

When we were faced with expanding our house, I had the pleasure of drawing the blueprints myself.  I especially enjoyed designing the new kitchen and bathrooms.  I hired our new neighbor across the street to custom build our bathroom cabinets.  He had spent some time in vocational training as a cabinet maker, and he offered to build our cabinets for cost.  They came out beautiful!  I hand painted the knobs and pulls to coordinate with the wallpaper.

And the luxurious towel warmers made me feel like pampered royalty!  There simply are no words to describe how wonderful it feels to get out of the shower or bathtub and have a warm towel ready for you.  I only wish that I’d had enough space and budget to put in a large spa tub too! 

For some strange reason the dehumidifier that I’ve had for a few years has decided to trip the circuit on the surge protector it is on every time I turn it on. So I’ve decided that it is time to buy a new dehumidifier. I really hate to have to buy a new one; they are so expensive! But without one the basement gets that musty smell that permeates everything that is stored down there, even though I have a couple of fans running down there to keep the air moving. Maybe the basement is just so big that I need larger fans; I really don’t know. I have to say it is a royal pain in the neck to have to go down there every day to empty the dehumidifier, but there is no drain or window that I can have it drain through. So I’ve been spending about an hour online looking for the best price on a dehumidifier, and getting more and more depressed! Those buggers are more expensive than I remembered! Geez, I get tired of “biting the bullet!”

This morning when I left the house I noticed the air was heavily scented with a sweet scent.  I looked around trying to figure out where the sweetness was coming from.  The only thing that I could see in bloom was the honeysuckle that has overtaken the fence that lines the property boundary line between us and our neighbor.  I never realized that honeysuckle had such a sweet scent that could be sensed from so far away!

I remember as a child my Dad showed me how to pull apart a honeysuckle so I could lick the drop of nectar from it.  I used to enjoy doing that a lot as a kid.  I haven’t done that this year yet, but I did do it last year when I was showing my own kids how to do it.  I was disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm for what I was showing them!  Oh well, maybe when I have grandchildren they will enjoy doing it with me!

My horoscope said nothing about how great today was going to be. First, I went to Starbucks and they gave me a free chocolate cherry mocha coffee. They had made one for someone else who decided they didn’t want it and the barrista didn’t want to throw it away, so she asked me if i would like it. Heck, yes!

Then I went to Home Depot to get a couple of rakes for my overdue yard work and went to the self checkout. The rakes both had the bar codes on them, but the second one would not scan. the checkout display said to wait for assistance. I waited and waited and even with 4 idle workers milling about, no one came to help me. So I got a little ticked off and loudly asked “Where’s my assistance?” the clerk came and tried to scan the rake, but it didn’t work. So he went somewhere else and left me standing there along with a growing line of other impatient customers. When he came back he tried to scan it one more time. It still didn’t work. He leaned toward me and said softly, “I’m not going to charge you for this rake. It’s not your fault the scan won’t work and I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long.” He smiled and handed me the rake – another freebie!

Our Christmas tree this year – most of the ornaments were hand made, mostly by myself or family members or friends.  Isn’t it pretty?  I even crocheted the angel topper and the tree skirt myself!  This year the tree is a small 3 1/2′ artificial tree that had light bulbs already strung on it.  I just didn’t want to bother with stringing lights this year myself!  And we decided on a small tree to put on a table to help keep the dogs from bothering the tree.  The last couple of years one of our dogs decided that chewing the strands of lights was a good idea!