The kitchen is the heart of the house, and I'm having a month-long heart transplant.

You don't realize how much you use the kitchen for non-cooking things until Persons in Toolbelts take it away. Never mind the normal kitchen activities like cooking and making coffee, it's the other things that suddenly bring me up short. Do you put the mail on the kitchen counter to sort it? Put the pet dishes on the counter while filling them? Wash hands at kitchen sink after yard work? Put the dog's leash down when you bring him in? Set the paper there to un-bag it? Slice a lemon for your iced tea there? Put your purse there, your keys, your sunglasses, ANYTHING? Whoopsie. And right now there's no electricity to the lights at the front of the house, from garage across to kitchen, because they are on the same circuit as that big wad of wires sticking out of the wall in the photos below, so the breaker is off until my new hero Home Improvement Guy comes to fix it today.

I knew that when that bridge of cabinets was removed we'd have wiring to contend with - there had been a fluorescent light over the sink - but I had been told that Home Depot's cabinet people would take care of that. Uh, Wrong, Kitchen Designer Lady. They don't do 'lectricity. So they left a big wad of wires sticking out of the wall and I was quite perturbed about this. I called the very nice guy who is going to do the overhead lighting and task lighting and told him about the big wad of wires, hoping he could deal with it next week before the cabinet install, and he immediately said he'd come over today and fix it. He was going to email me the estimate/details about the rest of the lighting work anyway, so he will bring over the estimate to discuss it, and fix this for me while he's here. He's my hero - his immediate and unsolicited offer to come over THIS MORNING to fix my wiring woes - on a holiday weekend, no less - has definitely earned him the rest of the job.

After unknitting my mistakes on the Trinity Stitch Shawl I knew better than to pick that thing up again last night. So I started a crocheted All Season Shawl - but instead of the Softball Cotton I impulsively pulled some ebay-acquired Cotton Fleece from the stash. I don't know why. My intention was to use the Softball Cotton, but the Cotton Fleece called me instead. It's an off dye lot batch, a soft denim blue, and I'm thinking of this as the Backyard Shawl - something to wear while sitting out there in the evening/early morning. I like this pattern, it's easy and repetitive in that rhythmic way that makes it a good soothing choice when various stress issues wake you up at 3 a.m. Photos later maybe.

Not that we need a shawl when outdoors at this time of year. It's already brutally hot, in the mid-90s. There isn't enough water pressure to run the sprinkler system this morning, so the front yard will have to wait until tonight to get a bit of water, which will kill it off further. Right now I'm going to go take a long hot shower, inventory the paint tools I have in the garage (now that it's light enough to see out there without the overhead lighting) and make a detailed list for Lowe's. I'm going to wait until HI Guy comes with his estimate, because if he needs me to pick up the overhead lighting fixtures I should just go ahead and do that today while I'm there. The paint will go quickly when I finally start it. It's the prep work that kills you.