Busy Weekend and My Own "I Did It!"

We worked on home projects this weekend. Bill fixed a problem with the pool (amazing how quickly the water becomes green when the chlorinator runs out of tablets!), and I pruned and/or uprooted some vines that had threatened to take over the fence around the pool, the deck, and several bushes. Bill put up track lighting in the hallway to our bedroom, in anticipation of putting up a wall of family photos. (His frames of Kiwanis pins are on the opposite wall.) We love our new well-lighted hallway!

I finally started working on (machine) hemming the sheers for our bedroom windows (so that they clear the baseboard heaters). Now I need to clear off the ironing board, which has become a holding station for things on their way downstairs, out to the garage, etc.

I also assembled shelves (brought from Lancaster) for our "Christmas closet," the place we store gifts that we have bought for specific people or to hold for future gift-giving, when we find something we know will be perfect for "someone," we're just not sure whom. We still need to make a list so that we can add to it any time we put something in the closet, so we don't lose track of things, but we're well on our way to organization! This allowed me to move in some gifts that I had been afraid of losing in the pit of the smaller closet that previously served that function (in addition to holding random other stuff), which, in turn, freed up some space on shelves in my part of our bedroom closet, which allowed me to move some things up from the floor! It also allowed me to clear out a cardboard chest, which I've now FreeCycled. (It's like a reverse game of dominoes.)

But the most exciting news is -- inspired by Joanna's own "I Did It!" post -- I played the piano for the first time in years! I warmed up with the theme from Romeo & Juliet and then moved on to Haydn's "Gipsy Rondo," my all-time favorite recital piece (from year 4)! It wasn't very smooth, and my wrists felt very aware of movements I hadn't made in quite a while, but my fingers remembered a lot of it (sometimes faster than my eyes could see), and it felt good to have started up again. (I played Kerry's baby grand, since it's in the living room -- my spinet is in the basement for now -- and the touch was unfamiliar, so that gave me another excuse for rocky playing. But I sat on my own piano bench, with the needlepoint cover that my mom made, and that was great!)

Tomorrow, we leave for the Kiwanis International convention in Orlando, followed by CSTA-related events (CS&IT Symposium, board meeting, NECC conference) in San Antonio.