Springtime

Spring is here, and I have proof:

1. The lawn crew is mowing the complex today. Lovely hours of lawnmowers and leafblowers making noise outside.
2. I kicked the stronger houseplants out onto the deck Sunday.
3. I washed the winter coats yesterday and they're in the closet until fall.
4. I started taking the amazing Target-generic Claritin over the weekend. And will be doing so until the first good frost, in about October.

Of course, moving the plants has good and bad issues. It freed up some space in the living room, but also brought back the fact that all of our exterior doors are messed up because the building has settled (not uncommon in the complex, and ours isn't as bad as some I've heard of). And that they all need to be re-hung, which isn't a DIY thing for us right now, since it involves yanking the whole freaking door out of the wall, and it's warm enough now to have it done. And while we're having that done, all four need to have new knob/deadbolts put in, because right now we have three doors with impending issues, and one door that isn't usable at all - we've got one broken deadbolt, which we put on one of the doors opening onto the porch. It's permanently locked right now; opening that door means getting a screwdriver and taking the whole lock shebang apart. New lock/deadbolts (there's a word for this, I know) means re-drilling the holes in the doors, since the old mechanisms are all older than Moses and have a non-standard-sized hole and setback. "Non-standard" as in, I couldn't even find one on Ebay or Google. I swear, when they built these units, they got some of the parts uber-cheap because no one else had used them in decades. As in, DH found the bolt parts in a hardware store once, and they were sold as patio door fixtures. Ask me about that weird light fixture in the hallway that no one sells a cover for. It's on the list of things to replace before we move.

Anyway. There's no room to do all four doors at once, so I need to get motivated and get the living room cleared out enough to do that door, and possibly the front door the same day, depending on whether we find someone who knows what they're doing. Oy. You have no idea what a job it will be, getting this room cleared out enough to pull an 8x8 double door out of the wall.

Today has been unproductive. Instead of taking El Burrito to the library today, I called DH to come home for lunch while I ran out. Library day is Tuesday, when the Friends have their cart sale. Unfortunately, the sale runs noon to 3:00, which coincides almost perfectly with El Burrito's nap window. Sigh. And today he was tired before noon and generally being a Fussy Butt, so I decided not to attempt it. So, I went alone to the library, spent $3.50 at the sale, came home with the copy of Shopaholic and Baby I'd been on the waiting list for, stopped at the store for bread so I could have lunch, and went on a whild goose chase at Michael's for some things my mother needs. I couldn't find the things she needed, so I need to wring some less-vague descriptions out of her and go back. Who knew there were so many kinds of double-sided tape?

On the "progress" list, I recycled 19 pounds of paper and magazines yesterday, and we now have hotel reservations for the road trip concert next month. That took longer than it should have, too. Something's going on in Nashville that week, and everything downtown is booked solid, unless we want to pay $250+++ per night (plus 14% tax). Plus, there are days when too many choices is much much worse than having only a few choices. A list of 50 hotel possibilities, after you narrow down by availability, price, and location? It's insane. At some point, you end up just closing your eyes and picking one at random. So we now have a room at the Best Western near the airport, apparently next to a nice lake, about ten miles from "downtown."