Two coats of paint on all the walls, even the one that was white already. Now the trim is so old and grubby I can't leave it, so today I invest in a quart of high gloss white and go after the windowsills and door frames.

I'm waiting for the rug I ordered from Flor.com to come so I can put it down around the edges while the junk is consolidated in the middle of the floor. Then I can move the right pieces back out to the walls, and continue weeding the collection at the same time.

I think the I'll use the Ikea kids' storage concepts, because they are the right height and I can find boxes to fit into the slots. That should free up some space on the wall behind Al's desk so he has places to put robot parts. Eventually we will both fit into one room. At least, that is the plan.

no pictures, because I can hardly sit up at the computer to write this for you (all 10 of you – hi Mom! hi Andy!)

I woke up bug eyed and managed to persuade my patient husband that we needed to remove the wallpaper from the room that is our shared workspace. I rented a steamer, and got good advice from the grizzled veteran behind the counter, and came home to address myself to it. Patient Al came in and helped, and it turns out that with patience, the steamer is a magical and faintly zen tool. When you move slowly enough, the wallpaper peels off the wall with the ease and grace, and hardly any scraping. We had giant swatches of paper (many of which reglued themselves to the floor). We thought we'd be lucky to get one wall done. We managed to move EVERYTHING and get three walls done, which is better than it sounds because the 4th wall had no wallpaper.

The walls are plaster over lathe, and I can see some horsehair in the plaster. The house isn't that old – we think 1917 – 1919 roughtly – but apparently it predates sheetrock.

We still have to wash (and wash and wash) the glue off, and prime and paint. And half the room contents are on the floor of my bedroom waiting to be put back once paint and new table and new shelves and drawers are installed. I have gone from a torn apart room that was workable, to a completely blown up room that is utterly unusable.

And yet, I am oddly cheerful. And exhausted.

Instead of finishing a postcard, I had a peaceful afternoon. We went to a friends’ lake house, and sailed our dinghy, sailed their day sailer, paddled several kayaks, ate pizza and fresh corn and tomatoes, and drove home in the dark.

I did start a postcard, but the paint is still wet.

Jul 21
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Well, it did rain for two weeks straight.

But also sleeping with the whole family in one room, going to bed at strange times and (especially in Iceland) when the sun wouldn’t set in time for darkness to overtake us, we had the blinds drawn. I, personally, like to know what the weather is doing when I wake up.

In family adventure news, we managed a two tandem family ride today. This is more momentous than it sounds. Little Alice has been so little for so long, I didn’t think she’d ever graduate off the tag-along bike behind my single, and onto the back of the purple mom tandem. Today she did! Finally! I had been looking forward to, planning, hoping for, waiting (more or less patiently) for this to happen since we got the mom tandem (Alice was one). Aerin took over my seat on the blue grown-up tandem a couple years ago.

Gone are the days when we’d tow little Aerin by herself in the trailer behind the tandem (that got a lot of looks).

New days coming.

Now we start training for the 2x2x2x2 ride I have been thinking of for ages: two tandems, two parents, two kids, two trailers – off we go bike camping again. Local at first, but I am aiming for Montana and Glacier National Park.