When life hands you lemons....

Some mornings I'd rather just not start the day...sigh. Especially as now I've lost an hour. It's much more pleasant to lay in bed listening to the birds while Ngaire sits silently at her post watching for cats.

I've been pretty tart and puckery lately. I'll admit it. Our bit of home renovation began to get on my nerves. I had to have a couple of quiet tantrums to get my point across but things are coming out very nicely indeed.

We were both pretty grumpy this last weekend. Achy and tired from crawling around and around the living room floor. The Tramp installing the baseboard and me filling, sanding, caulking and painting. The house is still at sixes and sevens which is driving us both crazy, but even though some bits are not quite finished...


the doors, baseboards, and window trim are done. So I think we've made a bit of lemonade in the living room. :-) Even better is the anticipation of a trip with friends to the new Ikea Charlotte.


On Saturday afternoon, in the midst of all this, The Tramp turned on the kitchen faucet and discovered we had no water. Oh geez. What now? This time the blessing came in the guise of a home warranty policy...


and wonderful neighbors who snaked a long hose over from their well to keep us going for as long as we needed. More lemonade. :-)


The plumber came on Sunday morning and pulled up one nasty old well pump...


as well as funky pipe and even funkier wiring. So we continued to haul buckets of water to flush the toilets and run down the road to Mom and Dad's for showers until the new pump was installed on Monday. We also opted for a larger pressure tank to be added at the same time. For the first time we have water pressure. Some serious lemonade here!

While the plumber went around to check all the faucets and clean out the aerators, the kitchen faucet fell apart in his hands. Our water is acid and faucets don't last very long. Fortunately we had a brand new faucet we've been dragging from house to house and never got around to installing. And now it's in my kitchen! Everything around it is still old, but hey...I'll take it!


Unfortunately, in the middle of all madness on Monday, came the tartest lemon of all. Little Belle died suddenly and unexpectedly. She was at the vet for a routine teeth cleaning and didn't make it. I was in the midst of a massive migraine as it was and already pretty useless. The Tramp somehow managed to keep track of the plumbers and all the well, pressure tank, pipe and faucet issues; gave his strong shoulder to my parents and I while we coped with the loss of Belle; and also put in a nearly full day of working-from-home, answering calls, returning emails and dealing with what-all he deals with every day. I slunk away and hid in bed in the dark and left him to it. I really don't know what I'd do without my Tramp.

That, my friends...

is

Strawberry Lemonade.