Tuesday, March 08, 2011

smell of spring and color of ballet

How do you want the door to open in the bathroom?
Say what?
From the left, or from the right? Andy wants to know.
I’m not fussy about door directions.
In the new bathroom configuration, opening it to the right makes it awkward to enter.
Well then, it’s easy: to the left!
The light switch is on the other side.

So the light switch will have to be shifted. I hate creating this extra work for Ed, but to opt for the easier path is really to let go of this one opportunity to set the house in order.

I make decisions sometimes over the phone, sometimes quickly, sometimes not so quickly at all. Take the color of paint: bleached linen or ballet white? I can’t help but think that bleached linen sounds just so right! Farmhouse-like. Who wants to paint the walls a color called “ballet”? And yet, when I pull out the samples, tough guys like Andy and Ed, and more gentle types like my daughter point to “ballet white.”

So, ballet it is.

In the meantime, there is a flurry of activity in the condo selling department. And there is a packed week of teaching. And there is Spring Break, which plucks me out of Wisconsin, beginning Friday.

Things are rather hectic.

I take a stroll between classes for my usual espresso. I know daylight savings time is coming around this week-end. Surely the lake is nearly at the melting point?


DSC05886 - Version 2


No, not yet. But there is a bounce in the air. A spring smell perhaps. Lovely.

Ed, it’s International Women's Day today.
You’re kidding, right?
No, really. In Poland, men give their female occasional traveling companions flowers and gifts.
Is there an International Men’s Day?
I don’t think so...
Let me check: here it is! November 19th.
That's bogus. But if you want, I’ll give you flowers and chocolates on November 19th.
Don’t you dare.

Oh well. I didn’t really expect flowers or chocolates today.

4 comments:

  1. Your mention of paint colors instantly brought to mind a funny scene from an old movie:

    Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is one of my favorite movies. Jim Blandings (played by Cary Grant), feeling the constraits of a small, New York City apartment on his growing young family, decides to move them all to a more spacious spread in rural Connecticut. Jim’s wife, Muriel (Myrna Loy), is in charge of the decorating.

    In my favorite scene, Muriel Blandings is discussing with the painter her color choices for the walls, as workers scurry about in the background. This is the dialog between Mrs. Blandings, the painting contractor, Mr. PeDelford, and his painter, Charlie:

    Mrs. Blandings – Now, Mr. PeDelford, we’ll discuss painting.

    Mr. PeDelford – Okay.

    Mrs. Blandings – I had some samples. Here we are. Now, first, the living room. I want it to be a soft green. Not as blue-green as a robin’s egg.

    Mr. PeDelford – No.

    Mrs. Blandings – But not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow. But don’t let whoever does it get it too blue.

    Mr. PeDelford – No.

    Mrs. Blandings – It should be a sort of grayish yellow-green. Now the dining room, I’d like yellow. Not just yellow. A very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshiny. I tell you, if you’ll send one of your workmen to the grocer for a pound of their best butter and match that exactly, you can’t go wrong.

    This is the paper we’ll use in the hall. It’s flowered. But I don’t want the ceiling to match any colors of the flowers. There are some little dots in the background, and it’s these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now, the kitchen’s to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic, hospital white.

    Mr. PeDelford – No.

    Mrs. Blandings – A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now, for the powder room in here, I want you to match this thread. And don’t lose it. It’s the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it. As you can see, it’s practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy Winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me. (leaves to speak to another contractor)

    Mr. PeDelford – You got that, Charlie?

    Charlie – Red, green, blue, yellow, white.



    That scene makes me laugh every time.

    Happy International Woman's Day! And enjoy your trip.

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  2. Dande made me laugh this morning.

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  3. Dande made me laugh this morning.

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  4. dande - absolutely hilarious and very a propos! I have to rewatch it. Today! Thank you!

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