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The bar is finally gone. Matt and Jeannette came over this evening and took the stupid thing away. This breaks the logjam that's been holding up our plans for the spare bedroom. I think the next step will be to throw out some more of the junk that's in the basement. After that, we'll start moving things down there, sorting the keep/don't keep as we go. The main things going down there will be the bookshelves (and books!) from the living room and the bed from the spare room.

I spent part of this afternoon making a list of the junk that absolutely must go. It was longer than I expected and, I think, than Scott expected. A lot of the items are small-- The toaster, the kerosene lamp, the old kettle, that sort of thing. Others... Well, we have an old fridge and a dead exercycle on the back porch and a huge (about 8 foot) metal bookshelf in the spare bedroom (It's not dreadfully stable, so we don't want it in the house with a little one around). Apparently the recycle/reuse center will do pick ups, so that's probably the route we'll go for most of the stuff.

We're also looking at getting rid of about 7-8 bags of books. I'm debating trying to sell at least some of them, but it may be too much trouble. We'd have to spread them over at least three destinations-- Aunt Agatha's for the mysteries (for store credit only), Dawn Treader for the fantasy, SF and kids' books, and still a donation somewhere for the romances (Dawn Treader won't touch them. The owner's always felt that they weren't worthy of shelf space).

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We refinanced our house on Thursday. The guy from the title company actually came to our house which was unexpected but welcome. We'd told the mortgage company that we could only close in Ann Arbor due to transportation difficulties, so they arranged for this guy to drive down from Farmington Hills. I think it's rather silly given that there are title companies in Ann Arbor, but... It was actually more convenient. Scott even got a shower in before we started signing papers. We should have enough extra money from this to redo the bathroom and to replace our car (iffy brakes are another one of those things that are all very well under current circumstances that become unacceptable once the baby arrives). If we're very lucky, we might have enough left to have some of the window redone.

The windows have been a source of increasing concern to me for a while now. There's one in the dining room that's never closed quite right that also doesn't have a storm. There's one in our bedroom that's cracked and another there that keeps mildewing all around the frame (we could prevent that if we stopped using the humidifier, but then we'd both have trouble breathing all winter). And I don't even want to discuss the bathroom window; I've ranted about it enough. (It's in the shower enclosure for god's sake!) Scott's been putting that insulating plastic sheeting over windows the last couple of days. I'm hoping that it will help the chill in the basement a little and that it will prevent some of the mildew in the bedroom. Sadly, some of the windows are a little big to be dealt with that way.

Our goal for this weekend (apart from getting rid of the bar) is to find a headboard for our bed. We never bothered with one before because it would cost us more, but... Now, I'm wanting to prop myself up while sleeping to help with the acid reflux trouble I've been having (which I expect to get worse as the pregnancy progresses). We have one of those sitting pillows, but it tends to slip and get wedged between the bed and the wall. At that point, both pillow and wall start to mildew (again something that turning off the humidifier would help, but...). The best solution seems to be putting in a headboard to keep the pillow from hitting the wall. We're probably going to go for something metal and slatted because we'll still need to get at the window frame to bleach away the mildew and because that will assure that the pillow can breath even if the frame's as cold as the wall and thus mildew promoting.

(no subject)

Scott's planning to consult with my mother about the bathroom work. She's done this sort of thing many times over the years and so is something of an expert. She says she'll come to visit and help us get everything done, but she's balking at dealing with Michigan in winter. She hasn't dealt with a northern winter in about a decade and does not want that to change. The problem is that as we get toward March we run into my sister's wedding (she hasn't set a specific date yet. Grumble... I think she's still kind of focused on figuring out how to keep our father from attending).

Speaking of my sister, she called yesterday. We didn't talk for long before she had to hang up to deal with something at her shop. She wanted to find out how my pregnancy's progressing. The answer is that, well, it's still happening. I'm over the morning sickness (but well into the reflux). The fatigue still pops up pretty often. My breasts still hurt, and my lower back is already unhappy. (The back thing has kind of settled into a low level ache that flares when I do a lot of bending (lifting seems to be irrelevant) or stair climbing. I can still manage the treadmill without aggravating it; I just have to deal with the stairs before and after. Sigh... I occasionally wish we had a place to fit the stupid thing up here; sadly, I don't see it happening.

I expect that I'll be running through the swimming argument some time during this pregnancy. Every new doctor, nurse or physical therapist I see seems to consider swimming the ideal exercise for me. I generally just cite the water phobia even though that's not the major reason (I'm not phobic of swimming pools, after all); it's just the reason that they can't argue with. The real reasons have a lot more to do with access. In order to get to somewhere that I could swim (and home again), I'd have to take the bus and walk a good bit. If I'm going to hit my exercise tolerance getting there and back again, I don't see the point. Also, I have a LOT of hair, too much to comfortably fit under a bathing cap. When I wash it, it takes 3-6 hours to dry. If I can avoid it, I don't go out in cold weather with wet hair. I don't blow dry my hair for two reasons: 1) If I blow dry it, it splits, breaks and generally disintegrates, and 2) I'm not willing to spend 45 minutes (I exaggerate not!) with brush and blow drier when I could be doing something interesting, productive or even just not hot and smelly (What is it about hair driers? They all have the same burnt organic matter odor. I used to think it was from having hair sucked into the in vent, but... That doesn't seem an adequate explanation).

At any rate, swimming is a form of exercise that doesn't much appeal to me. It is, however, the form that just about everyone thinks ought to be perfect for me. Sigh...