warm and costly

Weird weather we've been having. It's so warm that the cat water was water, and we have huge puddles in their customary places--surrounding the car and all across the driveway near the street. Emmett and Grant got new shoes recently, so it's important that they run through water and ruin them.

We've made some advances in Decorating on a Budget. We bought a couple of side tables and a rug from Ikea this past weekend, and our living room is starting to look a little more pulled together.

It's nothing great, but at least it's not ALL from the D.I. now.

The guy is coming to do our window measurements today, so they can start being made. I think I'm going to splurge and get crank-out awning windows on either side of the fireplace in the parlor. It's probably stupid, but I want both windows to be uninterrupted squares of glass, because it fits the house better. And John really wants windows that open, so we can create airflow for the swamp cooler. The windows in there now are sliders, and we can't even open them because there's a glass shelf in front of the window that we have to pull out to get to the latch to open the window.