So the cats can't eat it, that's why.

Y'all miss me? I'm sorry! I had five glorious days off and just couldn't be roused to write, even though stuff has happened that I could easily have written about. My thanksgiving was pretty good - just your general family gathering, I suppose. Good food, lots of wine, a small argument with my mother about why housing the turkey in the downstairs bathroom is a "tradition" we should change, especially if my mother-in-law is in attendance. I mean, how do you even explain something like that in a way that makes sense? My mother was confounded that I wanted to change the way we've always done it. My sister was the hero, calmly clearing a non-bathroom turkey resting spot and insisting it would work just as well. It did. I think the best part of Thanksgiving was the turkey shaped birthday cake my sister made in honor of Dusty's birthday. It was all kinds of delicious.

The rest of my long weekend was all mountain bike rides, sleeping in, watching too much television, making a pile of holiday-show jewelry. On Saturday Kate and I did some shopping and then met up for coffee with some of my coven (Kenny calls the Craft Mafia ladies my witches, which I think is funny) and then trotted home to make soup. On Sunday I woke up (9-ish! So awesome) and it was about 40 degrees and pouring down rain. It was nature's way of telling me to finish painting the damn hallway. I really want to paint my bathroom (yeah, the one I got skim-coated back in June, shut up) but I told myself I had to finish the hallway first. I think I started painting the living room (and by extension, the hallway) back in 2005 or 2006. I stopped at the end of the hallway wall on the right and just never picked it back up. I finally primed the last chunk of it a month or two ago and yesterday, finally, rays of light and angels on high, I fucking finished it. Even the ceiling.

Now, I wasn't actually planning on painting the ceiling even though it looked bad because it seemed like it would be a pain in the ass. Plus, who even looks at the ceiling? However, when Kate came over Saturday and I showed her what I was going to do the very first thing she did was look up and say, "Are you going to paint the ceiling too?" Uh, yeah, I guess I am now. So I did. And it was a pain in the ass but it looks so much better.

The wall part of the project went really quickly - 20 minutes tops. The other four hours was spent painting trim and doors. Can you wrap your mind around a tiny L-shaped hallway with FIVE doors? Five doors with inset panels and fussy bead trim. Plus base boards and door jams. Oh, and with doors you think you're finished and then you remember the other freaking side of the door which hasn't been painted or primed and is still the same muddy grey-blue color that pervaded the house when you moved in. I have spent the past five years trying to eradicate that color from our house and keep finding sneaky little pockets of it. It's everywhere! WHY.

This is what I'm talking about:


OMG, right? This is what our living room looked like when we moved in. So much primer, people. SO MUCH PRIMER NEEDED. And now it looks like this:

And this is the hallway before:

DOORS DOORS DOORS. And during:

And now, ta-da:

So, see? I abandoned you all for a good reason. Next up I'll be painting my bathroom two different shades of turquoise. I'll keep you posted.