2/4/08 The Return

Still not screaming, but Katrina is much, much more herself today. Melissa brought her home to me this afternoon, and she bopped around happily reading books, playing with balloons, getting into Gabriel's new Lego kits (he got two for his birthday and loves them).

Tonight was so completely back to normal -- the mad scramble -- that it's almost hard to remember that just this morning, I took my mother to the airport. It was such a wonderful visit that the fun of it all far outweighs the sadness of knowing it will be months before I see her again. One good thing about my long morning commute is that I call family a lot more often now -- might as well make use of my 30 minutes of captivity!

After dropping Mom off, I ran some errands, including a trip to Home Depot Expo. It helped remind me why I never bought anything there for the last remodel: too overwhelming, too underhelping. Why does every place display the most outrageous and funky bathrooms they can, instead of the 99% that the rest of us would actually use?

I saw my actual chosen rangetop, and didn't love it! I've seen it in range form, and in drop-in cooktop form, but not rangetop form. It looks so plain (even though I chose it partly for its looks), and I didn't like the knobs (even though I'd already tried them), they're a little thick and the plastic part is a little rough. The Viking knobs have as perfect a feel as they get, and suddenly the imposing grates look cool. This sort of indecision and doubt is exactly what undermines project schedules. I'm not changing cooktops now!

OK, fun's over. Back to work tomorrow.

2/4/08