Reading: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam

Moving: Hauling and painting and weeding and clipping

House: Another coat of glossy white on the bottom sashes of the bedroom windows, the backyard edged, some form of climbing plant removed from the garage, the gutters, and the back gate.

3 June 2000: Brazil

Where is Robert DeNiro when I need him? We probably need to have our ducts serviced.

RDC ripped out the hideous minty seafoam green carpeting from his study today. The hardwood floor beneath is actually cleaner looking than that just outside in the hallway, but whatever doofus painted the walls the even more hideously minty seafoam green paint apparently eschewed drop cloths. Also the person removed the molding, laid the carpet, and replaced the molding, so we have to move all the molding back down. Everyone said everything would take twice as long and cost twice as much as we expected, but this getting into thrice and more than thrice.

So anyway I noticed some debris in the heating vent on the floor from which RDC had removed the fake brass cover, and reached in to clean it out. A bunch of fuzzy dust, papertowels with seafoam green paint, and beneath all that, a Coca-Cola can. From before 1985: it said Coca-Cola in script on one side and Coke in print on the other.

Ripping the carpet out of the closet, RDC discovered three Lite-Brite pegs (white, orange, and pink) and scraps of a previous carpet in the tacks: '70s orange shag. Scraping cheap paint off the molding, he discovered that that room has been yellow, orange (to go with the shag carpet, presumably) and institutional green.

Terri said Thursday that she was advised against a fixer-upper because every house is a fixer-upper. Damn straight. So I'm sitting here in my study with most of the books on shelves but in no kind of order that bibliotecha (heh! Franglais, just for me) moi could live with for long, looking at the wall behind my monitor. It's a dusky blue, kind of the paler blue in whatever military dress uniform has pale blue shirts and navy trousers. Is that air force? Navy dress is whites and army is khaki, right? No one edged the window or the ceiling. And who thought that this blue went with the pine green swirly carpet?

We won't repaint or recarpet this room for years, but after I unpack thoroughly not much paint will show. And it's mine, all mine.