shadowkatt celebrated the Chinese New Year with the folks from the martial arts studio tonight at an Italian restaurant. There was one other female at the party, but otherwise lots of testosterone. They all seem like polite guys, happily.
We’re at a rather awkward stage as parents and teen—we want to know what’s happening with her and to make sure that she’s okay, but she doesn’t want us in her “space.” It’s quite the dance.
sambear and I had dinner at Fuddrucker’s, then took care of some errands. We got replacement filters for the ice maker’s water line and our humidifier. The pump in the fountain from which Shelley drinks was about to die, so we ended up getting a pet fountain that has a filter built into it. I’ve wanted to try one for a while, and it cost about the same as a new pump. Yes, I’m all about the filters. The HEPA air cleaners are up and running, too.
The ice maker filter had to be fetched from Home Depot. I drooled over hardwood floor options and kitchen cabinets. Oh, and there was a clothes dryer that was absolutely awesome! It was really more of a drying center than just a clothes dryer. I can’t find it on their website, but it had a whole drying cabinet and lots of options for fine-tuning exactly how you wanted things processed. You could dry things on multiple racks (like sweaters) or hanging up. It even had a canister where you could put a fragrance if you wanted everything scented a particular way. I think it cost $1400 or so—something ridiculous. But it was impressive. I can’t remember the brand, so they probably need to work on the presentation a bit.
Some of the washers and dryers talk, supposedly. I do not want appliances talking to me. If I ever heard such things speaking, I’d probably put in a call to 911 and ask to have those nice young men in the white coats come to pick me up.
We also went by Barnes & Noble. The 6th and last book of the Sun Sword series by Michelle West is finally out, and I got it! The whole series is very intricate. I can’t seem to find my copy of the first volume for some reason, though. I wish I could find the four books in The Book of the Sundered series (published as Michelle Sagara), but they’re out of print. We wandered through the home section. I want to find a book like The Sybarite’s Bathroom Book, but haven’t seen such a thing. Perhaps we can write one after we achieve bathing heaven in the new house. I can’t help but remember some of the bathroom descriptions from Heinlein’s books, and I am inspired.
