The Best-Laid Plans...

Yesterday M & I spent hours scrubbing the heck out of the house in the once-monthly deep clean, both of us rushing to get it done in one day so she could work at the theater today and I could have my retreat.

Today, instead of sitting in my bedroom knitting and listening to my laptop read to me, I am typing this while watching a plumber ripping out the hallway ceiling, plaster and lathing and squirrel-chewed acorns bouncing off the tarp and onto the carpets and tile. I'd got about an hour's quiet knitting and breakfast in before M noticed the puddle in the hallway... and the fact that it wasn't from last night's mopping but dripping fresh from the light fixture...

It sucks that my retreat has gone, or at least been seriously shortened, but I do remind myself that it would have been a lot worse if I'd planned on getting 1000 errands run. Or if the plumber hadn't been able to find it. Or if there had been some specialized something going wrong. Right now, he's drinking tea and I'm typing, waiting for the glue to set so we can test the juncture.

Any house owners out there have any good ideas for temporary ceiling fixes? I'm not calling a plasterer right away, but I'm not comfortable with a gaping hole either, not with squirrels and mice running about the walls.

(no subject)

From bentleywg, a tour of 21 accents in a two and a half minutes. She is most definitely NOT from South Carolina or Texas (damn close but no cigar) or France - but other than that, I'm impressed.

(no subject)

My review for The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is up on Reviewing the Evidence. Only *now* do I see that I repeated myself, but oh well.