very simple

Actual work begins on Monday, but my contractor dropped off his equipment today so that they could get started first thing at the beginning of the week. We were originally going to start tomorrow, but realized that it was kind of stupid to start on a Friday, and then sit for a weekend (essentially losing my ability to use the apartment for several days without any productive work able to happen). Sadie was fine locked in the kitchen, although she did manage to get inside my cabinet even though I had tied the door shut. Sneaky girl. She was fast asleep in their after pushing out a bunch of groceries to make room for herself.

Actual text from my contractor: “Mission accomplished. I know it looks like enough tools to build hoover dam but trust me I’ll use every one of them.”

It’s not particularly exciting, but I actually got out of work before sundown yesterday, so I took a picture.

Last night was another late night at work, and I got home about 10pm. Sadie gets very agitated with me when I don’t come home on time (it’s funny – as much as cats seem indifferent to their humans, she is much less high strung if I’m actually home all day), and I don’t even want to contemplate what the next two weeks will be like when she gets locked in the kitchen to keep her away from the contractors who will be redoing the bathroom. But the kitchen is much larger than the cage she’d be put in if I boarded her, and at least this way she’s still in a relatively familiar place, so that should temper things.

Anyway, got home last night and Sadie was doing an excellent impression of a whirling dervish. this is what happened when I caught up with her for belly rubs. Then she went completely berserk when I ordered sushi for dinner.

I know I’ve taken pictures of the helmsley building before, but I’m stuck late again in that office that is not my own but which affords me such a great view.

By the way – we’re three days from spring, and it’s snowing.

Missed yesterday, so you get two today to catch up. Ended up having to go in to work this afternoon (it happens), but we weren’t in our office – we were back at another office down the street with great views. Here’s the bounty.

the remains of my fancy glassware. A few pieces have been casualties of my attempts at rearranging furniture. and Sadie. always Sadie.

The prolonged, multi-year planning process is finally over, and I begin renovations to my bathroom next week, a full two-years after my upstairs neighbor destroyed my ceiling and one year after I began interviewing contractors in earnest (it’s a really small bathroom and just not worth the time for many of them since there’s no actual plumbing work to be done). One guy wanted to charge me $25,000 for a job that amounts to replacing the drywall and tile.

In any event, I got all my paperwork submitted about two weeks ago, and I got Board approval yesterday. So we start next Thursday. It should take about two weeks at the outside, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

In any event, here’s a sample tile for the floor and shower area of the new and improved space. We’re doing 12×24 “planks” instead of the old school subway tile that’s in there now.

muji statue of liberty. quick pic before I crash for the evening.

Stuck super-late at the office tonight. It happens. But of course I had to find something completely innocuous to take a photo of on my desk so as not to accidentally give away any confidences.

Gifts for my brother. My little brother is currently working in Senegal, and my parents and he are meeting up in Amsterdam next week to hang out before he moves on to a possible new adventure. In the meantime, it’s really hard to get moleskine notebooks where he is, so I picked up a little care package of them for him. These, plus the dozen or so muji pens I also got him should be enough to tide him over for the next…month or so!