Trials and Tribulations

The other night I started writing and realized I'd gotten hung up on my kitchen renovation, which has been frustrating the hell out of me. Most of the house is now painted, except for touchups. But there's still a lot of shelving to go up, plus the wear on the floors from so much traffic while I was producing Paumanok Preserves has to be fixed. Hopefully, Bri will have to all done by the time I get back.

One of the problems with my 13X13 kitchen is that there just is no place to put all my equipment- which I refuse to part with! So what if I have 3 3-qt. pots, 4 20-qt. pots, five frying pans within an inch of each other, four strainers and five colanders? If you love to cook as much as I do, you'll understand perfectly an entire rack of baking and roasting pans and a selection of 12 or 15 pie plates! The only trouble is, there's no place to put it all. So I decided the ceiling had to do its share.

Unfortunately in this old farmhouse, I have 7'6" ceilings. A few months ago I came across a neat solution in designer Ty Pennington's magazine, but couldn't recall which one, or how he'd constructed the fixture. He'd taken an old rung ladder and hung it from the ceiling, to use as a pot rack. Okay. I could do that! I had two antique ladders. After two hours of going through back issues, aggravation mounting, I happened to glance up at the computer in front of me. OMG! GOOGLE! Two minutes later I had the article on the screen to email to Bri. Bri figured out how to attach my ladders close to the ceiling,using chain loops. I couldn't wait to start hanging pots: but every S hook I tried wouldn't go around the fat rungs, and pot hooks hung down so far I was playing a saucepan xylophone symphony every time I walked under them. Suddenly, I had a brainstorm- possibly brought on by banging my head on stainless steel a few times. Stainless steel shower hooks! If I used pliers to open and reshape the tops, the pots could hang from the reversed loops! First I went to Riverhead, to Home Depot. No luck. Then I came back to my town hardware store. Nope. Finally, I braved the potholes, stop and go traffic and construction in the opposite direction, to Kohl's. (I could have flown to Europe in the time I spend on the road.) They had the standard stainless hooks, plus fancy twin hooks I knew would fit over the sides of the ladders. I bumped home with my bounty. Within minutes I had Ty Pennington at home!

I'll be happy to post a picture as soon as I figure out how to get them from my new netbook to my pc. -(

The rest of this week has had me running around like a berserker. Is that a word? I had to pick up my extended prescriptions, miniature versions of makeup, personal hygeine items, candy and other snacks for the plane, go to the post office and the bank (for francs and euros- the exchange rate is horrible!), drop stuff at the Historical Society thrift shop, entertain a kitten buyer (twice), make second and third trips to the vet (of course the kitten I'm selling scratched her eye), return stuff that didn't fit (again) to TJMaxx, pack, try to find comfortable wash and wear bras that fit (no luck), figure out how to set up en email account on the netbook (done, with Bri's help),sort things out with Teri, who will be cleaning right behind Bri; and repack! Naturally I ended up with an extra bag, I hope they'll let me on the plane!

But I am really, truly packed, at last. I even squeezed in six cartons of Eve 120 Extra Lights. Two cartons are holding up Boyo's carrier. I'm using the soft carrier so once Boyo is settled with Monika, his carrier will be my "accessory" bag. But the soft carrier is exactly that: it's soft. And it collapses on the cat. So I jury-rigged it. I stood two cartons of cigarettes on end in the back of the carrier and duct-taped them in place. As long as Boyo doesn't decide to rip off the duct tape and explore the boxes, it should hold up. If he tears them open, he'll be curled up in a bed of cigarette packs. What, then, do I say to the customs inspector? That we stopped at Sleepy's for cat-size box springs?

You'll note that it's now nearly five in the morning. My flight leaves at 5:45 PM. I'm leaving for the airport at 1:30. And yes, I'm getting nervous! I still don't know how to use my new telephone. The GPS unit for Europe arrived yesterday, delivered by a woman FexEx driver. She found my house with no trouble. The male drivers leave my packages at Donna's, or on the stoop of our empty tenant house. Goddess Bless women delivery drivers! I've never used a GPS, and now they tell me I have to program it! At least the instructions are in English. I also got my electronic translator. Once I got the batteries in in the correct direction (only the second try!) I managed to figure it out. But by the time I use it to attempt a conversation, I could probably pass a Berlitz course. I'm also going to learn how to use the netbook "on the job." If you don't hear from me for acouple of days, you'll know I didn't pass basic training.

At least you'll get pictures! I did make that special trip to Cometa Camera in Amityville to buy my new 18-200 lens, which I can't wait to use. Monika and Christine Ruessheim are taking me sightseeing Monday afternoon, if I'm not falling all over myself from jetlag. And so the old broad is "on the road again"!