Bat mitzvah prep, then off to the farm show

[nlbarber]

Elder niece's bat mitzvah is on the 28th, and before various relatives descend I have a list of things I want to get done in the house. A long list. Which is, however, shrinking rapidly due to Real Life. (Note that a similar list exists next door where niece lives, resulting in such recent events over there as a new driveway being poured, the house being painted, etc.) One could count my kitchen renovation completion as one item that's done. A scarf/curtain has been added to the Weird Room window, new curtain rods and curtains are up in my bedroom, the old "cookbook bookcase" has been replaced by a smaller bookcase from Target, and the old bookcase moved to the guest bedroom. I wanted two new torchieres for the Weird Room, bought 2, but one was broken. We'll see if there's time to replace it. Moving the bird feeder was on the list and got done, and now I'd like to plant autumn ferns around the base of it (ferns have been purchased, but not planted). I finally finished the garden walkway from the house to the shed--that had been worked on sporadically for years.

But yet to go are lots more items, both enhancements and maintenance. And all this effort is made more difficult (or impossible) by my being at the farm show this week, manning an exhibit for my office. And by the fact that said farm show is in my home town, so I'm staying with my father, and that he will come back with me on Friday--so before I left the guest bedroom had to be made habitable, which ultimately meant that several Piles of Stuff moved from the guest room to the study Sunday night, as there wasn't time to deal with them properly.

So, still on the list and might happen:
-install curtain rod and curtains in the kitchen
-clean up study (including the newly added Piles of Stuff from guest room)
-sort old children's books so my brothers and I can decide which ones have enough sentimental value for one of us to keep them
-trim the worst of the overgrown shrubs
-hang a quilted batik square and three prints in the Weird Room
-straighten up the garage, disarrayed by the last work on the kitchen and by piles of stuff moved out there during other house-clearing to be stored for next spring's neighborhood yard sale
-find a new reading light for the living room and move the current one to the study
-mount the new kitchen radio/iPod player under a cabinet
-replace the broken torchiere

Won't happen before bat mitzvah:
-new gutters and repair of rotted soffits and fascia boards caused by old gutters
-order Roman shades for kitchen picture window
-order some sort of shades for living room windows

The new carpet purchase for the living room was on the list, and the carpet got installed today, according to my sister-in-law who supervised the job. She also discovered that the plan to shut the cats in the Cat Room is a non-starter, as Fish, the Cat of Very Little Brain, can open the Cat Room pocket door in nothing flat. So much for the use of the Cat Room as an isolation area...