I Am Woman -- Hear Me Snore!

Being productive is exhausting. I am quite tired, but I have gotten a lot done with the house over the last couple days. After the long process of removing a huge plastic flower pot and the downspout that the previous owners had routed through it (yeah, it was truly weird), we gained some insight into our basement leak problems. Part of the problem might require an expert to fix. But one problem we discovered is that the cement drain which a repairman patched recently has another huge crack/hole that he missed.

So, handywoman that I am, I borrowed my dad's caulking gun and just went to town Saturday evening. I mean, I caulked. I didn't literally go to town. Caulking is much like decorating a cake. And my skill at caulking is much like my skill at decorating cakes; my handiwork doesn't necessarily look great, but it tastes good -- er, it's functional. We'll see at the next rain whether my cake decorating did any good.

Then last night my husband and I ripped up the dining room carpet and removed the staples and tack strips from the hardwood. Under that hideous carpet we found one of the few pleasant surprises this house has had for us. The hardwood is really in pretty decent shape. Oh, it's not perfect, especially around the edges, but when we stand in the next room and look at it, it looks really nice. Tonight the plan is to start on the living room. We might find that the rest of the hardwood is a mess, but at least the dining room, where carpet is just not practical for us, is in good shape. If we have to re-carpet the rest of the house, then so be it. We're hoping, however, that dim lighting (which is the only kind of lighting we have in this house) and some area rugs will hide most of the problem spots.

After all my Bob Villa-ing yesterday, and after the shot glass of Benadryl I took for the cold or allergies I'm fighting, I slept great last night. So great, in fact, that for the second night in a row, I must have bitten down on my tongue for the entire night. My tongue is sore. I mean, it's really, really sore. It hurts to eat. It's too embarrassing to mention to a doctor or dentist, and I can't think of any -ectomies I could have that would take care of the problem and leave me with any kind of quality life anyway, so I'm just going to have to eat soft and bland food for a while until it heals and hope I will soon go back to my usual habit of grinding my teeth without the tongue clamp-down.