My bank account needs a tourniquet. I've been hemorrhaging money for days. $500 to the car (deductible plus brake job and oil change), and today nearly a grand to Home Improvement Man for the balance of the lighting and electrical work. Still have a few hundred more to go, to finish the patio (when the frost-resistant tile is in stock at Home Depot) and fix the sprinkler system. Then I will buy some sod and revive the atrocious front landscaping, and I'm DONE until next summer. Enough, already! But boy, it looks great - when the under-cabinet lighting went in (the job took 5 hours) we closed the blinds to check the lighting and stood there admiring it, and he said "It really looks like a kitchen from a magazine." I agree. It's like we transplanted a sleek little New York loft kitchen into a middle-aged tract house in Central Florida, but it works and doesn't look out of place. It's bright, crisp and elegant. I done good. We'll add a few more snap-in lights to the light strip to brighten a couple of slightly dark areas (at 4 bucks a pop I can go for that) and it'll be drop-dead perfect. Now I just have to scrub floors and move the bookcases back and a few other finishing touches.

I am rearranging the two back bedrooms, because UPS's tracker says the futon is going to appear on my doorstep tomorrow. Another afternoon of heavy lifting followed by an evening of furniture assembly. Imagine my joy. This means the bookcases in Girl's old room need to take their new rightful place in the dining area of the kitchen, the yarn needs to move into Girl's old room (I have less than one year to knit it up in case she needs the room back for a bit after graduation). Then Boy's old room will be a functional and stylin' guest room with sleek armless futon sofa and double dresser and cable TV.

I'm not pining for Girl to move in again, I love my children but I'm happy to have raised independent-minded adults, but should she need a post-graduation parking place until she finds a job, the guest room would function nicely as a comfortable private living area with computer and television and sofa. We would each have our own space and be able to stay out of each other's way if we get on each other's nerves, meeting occasionally in the kitchen. I think that's the only way for two adult women to share turf - she is my daughter all the way, she wants her own space to decorate and cook and entertain in as she pleases, and I am hoping she will find a great job after graduation and not have to move in at all, but should push come to shove, it'd work until she finds the job. We must always have a Plan B, and this is a fairly good one.

I am crocheting like a mad thing on that shawl. Only crocheters/Continental knitters (and I am both) may really feel my pain here, but I sliced the tip of my left index finger yesterday and keep splitting it open, so I have been forced to create a fingertip wrap bandage for it. My yarn controlling finger is wearing what feels like a plastic trash can. I can crochet around it, I haven't tried knitting with it yet. I think I'm going back to my original plan with that blue Cascade 220 -it felts so gloriously, I think the blue bag with the green trim is still the way to go. And I definitely want that Amanda Backpack pattern - 3 skeins of Cascade 220 and it's cute as a bug.

And tomorrow is freaking Monday again. How did this happen? Why didn't I win the lottery? This is just wrong.