Teri, Rene, and the Closet Maid

The kids crashed our snooze party early. They trickled into our room as if it were a work day. The first crash must have been before 7am. Mindy shooed them away once or twice and I another. Just after 8am I gave in and got up & out of bed. I had to prep coffee before doing my exercise routine. That didn’t take too long. Soon I was outside with Ykraps walking the neighborhood. It was very cold! And the cold coupled with the wind was nothing short of brutal. The wind chill plunged the temp to 12 below. The air temp was only 3 degrees. Once back, Mindy & I enjoyed some hot coffee. While relaxing to coffee we clarified the day’s plans. I would be working on the closet project while Mindy entertained her friend Teri and her son Massimo. Mindy planned to make chicken and dumplings, too. I wasn’t sure how long the project would take. Before heading out for a run, I agreed to keep the kids company while Mindy showered. Come 10am she was done and I left for my run. By then it had warmed to 7 degrees with a wind chill still well below zero. That proved of little consequence. I was bundled for the cold. Something about running in the extreme cold excites me. It was very pretty. And believe it or not, I worked up one hell of sweat. While I was running, Mindy and the kids all but emptied the closet. Too, Mindy made bacon and scrambled eggs for my consumption only. It seems she planned for Teri to bring her & the kids Wendy’s. After finishing my eggs and several cups of coffee, I headed up to get started on the closet. I removed that last of my stuff still lurking in the closet and then wrecked out the original closet maid shelves keeping in mind that I would be reusing all of the material. After tearing out the old, I filled/repaired all of the existing holes before moving forward with the new design. That took only about 30 minutes soup to nuts. Next, I used a level, measuring tape, and pencil to mark lines where all the new shelving would mount. That in effect served as a template on the closet walls. I hung the highest tier first and then moved onto the new shoe shelving. After that, I hung the new lower tiered shelving as well as the six new sweater shelves. It was after 4pm when I finished. I couldn’t believe that the day was all but done. Mindy stopped up a couple of times – once to check my progress and another to deliver food. I did stop down just as I started to say hello to Teri. But when I went back down just before 4pm, she had already left. I was up there for about 5 or 6 hours. All I had left to do was to suck up all the debris with my new shop-vac and to hang my tie rack. But the tie rack would have to wait until tomorrow. I was fried! When I returned the shop-vac to the cellar I saw that Mindy’s friend, Rene was over. She was over to have dinner with us while her boyfriend plays down in Miami. So, in a nut shell, Mindy played with her friends all day while I worked my tail off. Seem fair? After walking Ykraps I jumped in the shower to free myself of the drywall dust, sweat, and little bits of fiber glass insulation that flew around after drilling holes in the outside wall cavity. I was downstairs for good just after 5pm. I was more than hungry. The chicken and dumplings that Mindy made through the day wee smelling mighty good. Just before dinner was served, I poured myself a pint of hand crafted brew while Mindy and Rene each enjoyed a glass of red wine. Rene whipped up a fantastic Greek salad to complement the dumplings, too. By 5:30 or so we were eating the chicken and dumplings. Very tasty! After wrapping up dinner we talked for a good couple of hours. Rene shared a lot about her life and love (she dates Mayor Coleman’s son). She’s very Greek, cute, and interesting. While Mindy and Rene looked at old photos, I did some reading alone in the family room all the while enjoying yet another brew. Rene stuck around through the childrens bath and bed time, but left soon after. Mindy and I chatted while sitting around the fire. At 10pm or so I tuned into Talladega Nights, starring Will Ferrell, on pay-per-view. Mindy headed up to bed. Sadly, the movie reception was a digital mess. In fact, it was so bad that I could hardly follow the story. I tried resetting the box a couple of times but that netted no results. I went ahead and allowed it to whirl anyways, figuring that I had already bought it. I planned to call Time Warner early next week to complain. Around midnight I headed up to bed.