Radio Silence isn't so bad in some ways...

I still haven't heard from the contractor.  Odd, because radio silence was the one thing he promised he wouldn't do to me if I hired him.  Huh.

Oh well, at least there's no deadline for this project, so I guess it doesn't matter when it gets done.  It's hot and humid this week... the kind of hot and humid that makes it hard to sleep... and I keep telling myself that this time next year I'll be able to work and hang out (possibly sleep on a couch) in a nice cool basement.

Also, I'm trying to pick my battles.  If I don't nag about being here all the time, hopefully he'll be more receptive when I go all OCD on him over other things.

I am back to the drawing board with lighting.   I wanted a chandelier in one corner.  I was leaning towards a whimsical, mobile-like fixture that had frosted glass bubbles hanging from it, but couldn't find pendants for above my desk to go with it.  I had a few other chandelier options in mind, but could never seem to find pendants that went with any of them.

Then I found these pendants, and the angels did sing.  They don't go with any of the chandelier options I had in mind, but I've decided that these are the pendants I have to have, so now I need to start over with all the other lights.

One of these will hang on either side of my monitors, over the built-in desk.

(psst, those are loose crystals at the bottom of the glass)

And then, after all that, I realized last week how low the ceilings are.  With all the natural light that shines in there, I never caught on to how low the ceilings are; but for some reason, the boob guy who built this house made the ceilings only 7'9" in the basement.   So chandeliers won't work unless I want to frequently bonk my head.   Like I said before, back to the drawing board.

Tonight, the dogs are taking an unscheduled nap.  In another room.  I can't sit for 5 minutes without jumping up and dealing with one pet or another lately. Tallulah won't stop barking at Lewis.  It's a friendly "we're playing and having so much fun!" bark, but it's been going on for days and she won't stop.  And, she's bloody loud about it too.  If I split them up, I have dogs on either side of whatever door is keeping them apart, scratching and whining to let them play.  If that wasn't enough, Winter is mad at the world, hissing and spitting aggressively at the dogs every chance he gets and needing to be separated.  I know there are all kinds of training tricks to deal with these things, but the truth is I'm tired.  I just want it to stop, without any effort on my part.  

On top of that, the dogs keep wanting to go outside.  They are like bobbsey twins, so wherever one goes, the other follows... but they haven't synchronized their potty schedules, so they're in and out like yoyos.  I'd be OK with them hanging out outside, but there is a pair of gigantic crows that moved in nearby and who keep looking at Lewis like he's lunch.  He's doing so well at his house training, I feel like I have to let him outside when he asks to go out; but the crows mean I have to go with him until he gets a little bigger.  

It look me three hours to watch a 1 hour tv show last night.  So, tonight the dogs are in their crates, Winter is somewhere else - away from the dogs - and I'm giving serious thought to getting a spray collar to see if that will convince Tallulah to play quietly.  

And a scarecrow.  Apparently, I need a scarecrow.