Home Improvement Dalpiaz Style

Wow!  Sorry I've been away so long.  As most of you know, we travelled to Long Island for a wedding Friday July 15.  Amy was able to join us!  The four of us haven't been together in such a long time, this was really sweet (but short).  Aren't we something when we are all cleaned up? 

And, as most of you know, Kathleen and Nick followed us back upstate on Monday to stay with us for the week.  Nick helped Jim get the Mustang purring, we went on a little Finger Lake Wine Tour, had a visit with the Moore contingent, and made up our own Covered Bridge tour.  Busy week and I've stretched my ability to be social to its absolute limit. 

To prepare for Kathleen and Nick's visit, I decided we needed a little home improvement.  There was some ripped wallpaper that needed to be covered or repaired.  I chose to cover the blemish (typical problem solving technique for me).  It was a two day project.  The first day was Easter Sunday and the second day was Thurs July 14 (Bastille Day and Tessa's birthday).  Note above that July 14 was the last possible completion opportunity before the fun began on Friday July 15. 

See?  No visible blemish (well, unless you look too closely at the paint job).  Looks great and I learned that re-hanging those pictures all at one time isn't as artistic as it seemed when it evolved over the years. 

So it goes with us.  We only start such projects under some kind of deadline and then learn a whole lot about what we don't know.  Kind of like parenting--hang in here with me.  I was listening to a radio show discussing parenting from the viewpoint of economists.  It was more interesting than I am able to make it sound here.  Of course, child rearing can't really be quantified like a bank account but one interesting question arose that I've been pondering:  Why did you want to be a parent (if you did)?  All those miles on the road between here and Long Island and I still don't have a good response for that.  Why?  I knew I wanted children, but I don't know why I wanted children.  Then we tried it:  under a 9 month deadline only to learn a whole lot about what we don't know.  Still learning.