Hangin' in there

I have decided that next year, DH and I are spending our Thanksgiving in Maine. I'm having lobster for Thanksgiving dinner, and am going to spend the night gazing at a roaring fire in a seaside bed and breakfast in downeast Maine. This year is simply pushing me over the edge.

The plumbing has yet to be installed in the kitchen; I'm told that they'll be here on Tuesday to put it all in, plus finish a couple of things that need doing (cabinet doors, heat vents, etc). Tuesday night and Wednesday all day and night I am going to be washing dishes, counters, pots, pans,... more or less every kitchen related implement that I own. I am not looking forward to it. Not having basic plumbing in my kitchen for 3 months has actually made me clincally insane. And no, it is not helpful to have people note that the first Thanksgiving didn't feature indoor plumbing either.

That stress aside, I am not really sure why I feel like I am clinging desperatly to the dangling threads at the end of this rope. DH and I rented a "Rug Doctor" today to clean the living room carpets, which have been lovingly decorated with puke stains by my cats. We knew that it was too late to hire a professional, and didn't really want to spend the money to buy our own steam cleaning vacuum, so we went ahead and rented this little thing. Damn it all if it doesn't do a real good job. It's not perfect - it didn't get out all the stains entirely, but that would have taken a miracle - but it was really worth the $50. We did the living room floor today the stairs and the upstairs hallway tonight, and tomorrow morning before we have to return it we'll hit our bedroom. I'm darn impressed, I really didn't think it would make that big of a difference, but it truly did.

Also, the new oven was making a horrible rattling sound when it was on, which prompted me to call JennAir last week to schedule a service call. I don't know what I was expecting (I think I thought they were going to find a screw loose, tighten it, and then be on their merry way), but they sent a service guy out today who basically took the whole thing apart, replaced a cooling fan, and re-installed the whole thing. It took him like 2 hours, but the oven doesn't make a sound anymore. Again, I was duly impressed. I really didn't know if they would be able to make it soundless, I kind of figured it would always be a little noisy (it's a convection oven). But tonight I baked a pizza for dinner and I had to keep checking the oven to make sure it was in fact on. So that was good, too.

DH and I bought a rug from Target for the den, and arranged the furniture in there such that it looks not too bad. The dining room has its table back, which has had the leaves put in for Thanksgiving and is clothed for the occasion. Tomorrow I'll tackle the bathrooms (ick). Things aren't spiraling out of control like they seemed to be this afternoon. Actually, I had my first White-breasted Nuthatch visit my feeder today, which was quite exciting. I've had loads of Chickadees and Titmice and Snowbirds, and even a couple of Cardinals and Blue Jays.

So why am I still feeling so stressed. I haven't gone grocery shopping for Thanksgiving yet (+4 stress points), the kitchen isn't finished (+7 stress points), and ... wait for the kicker... I was guilted by my father into inviting my sister and her husband for Thanksgiving dinner (+100 google stress points, game over)

It's less stressful if I just leave on that note.