More mayhem (good, and bad, but okay)

With all that's been going on around here, I'm way behind posting pics of the Casa Chaos projects and events. When I get a chance, I'll upload pics of some recent events, including Forest and Claudia's hospital stays and some other much more pleasant events along the way, like Angelica's housewarming (with some nice pictures of her beautiful new place).

The long weekend was lovely, up until the end, anyway. I spent a good part, probably the majority of Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday working on my house projects. I finally got the hall bathroom mostly finished, specifically I finished building and installing the vanity and basin sink. I am somewhat embarassed to admit that I started this particular project just under a year ago. Okay, okay, sometime these things take longer to get around to than you originally planned... ;> I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Here's a lower view, showing the decorative piping, and also some work yet to be done -- I'm going to build a small wooden surround to hide the older and fairly non-decorative supply pipes and valves (though the antique copper drain pipes will show). It's hard to get a clear picture of the great wood grain in the birdseye maple from which I made the top shelf and front facing. I was originally going to make it all dark-stained softwoods, but I needed a narrow piece of board for the shelf, and I remembered this piece of beautifully-figured maple I'd set aside a while back, so... One of the things that's not very clear in those pics is the cool Restoration hardware decorative ironwork shelf brackets I built into the vanity (eight-pointed stars, spirals, etc), and also used for the shelf supports on the other side of the room (shelf for the necessities -- extra roll of TP and magazine/books, natch). The center section of the vanity, right behind the basin (and two smaller rectangular panels underneath the left and right side of the shelf) are made from the same ceramic tile Claudia put on the floor, so it helps tie the room together (thanks to resident-artist lylythe_strega for that design suggestion). I got a spiral-motif decorative ironwork TP holder from a local blacksmith, and that matches the spirals on the mirror. Yes, I am a design geek. I think the total cost in materials for the sink/vanity was $250 or so (thank you Overstock.com, back when you used to actually have low-priced overstock), and the rest of the bathroom (tiling, mirror, other hardware) was maybe another $250-$300. Plus many, many hours of labor... The only things left to do are finish the under-sink housing, replace a couple of pieces of floor molding, restain the picture frames a darker color to match the wood in the room, and C is going to repaint at some point. This is all taking far longer than I'd have wished, but everything does get done as we like, a little at a time...

Tuesday night, I took my son up to the paddock with several big boxes full of mighty mayhem to set up our fireworks show. I wanted this one to be one huge blow-out, and I had quite a spread planned of ground displays, fountains, tubes, rockets, cakes, mortars and a wide variety of other good pyrotechnic stuff. Forest was old enough this year to help set up (carefully) and even, with guidance, set off a few of the smallest displays. At dark, denizens, guests, and family came up to the paddock for the show, I handed out some sparklers and roman candles ("please point *away* from the displays... ;>), and the light show began. I started out with the smaller stuff, and it was going along well, we were all having a great time, aside from me managing to torch the backside of my thumb pretty well at one point due to an extremely fast-acting fuse (must have been a stale batch of fusing, grrr, but they do get that way after a while, another good reason to use an electric ignition board, which I didn't have a chance to set up this year) The 1cm blister is not at all pretty today, but at the time I surriptitiously stuck my finger in the fire bucket and kept on moving -- the show must go on, and a few minor singes being par for the course ;>)

I was just getting to some of the bigger multiple-break mortars and skyrockets, when Claudia yelled for me, and I ran over and found her supporting my mother-in-law, who'd collapsed suddenly, not quite unconscious, but close, and confused, sweating, a little nauseous. We got her down the hill, I checked her vitals and found a fast and thready pulse, BP 78/56 and off we went to the E.D. at a high rate of speed She was feeling better in the car, but you don't take chances with this kind of thing, especially with someone who's in their mid-70's. After EKG, CAT scan and some other tests, she was given a clean bill of health -- most likely cause, being run ragged all day and night for days on end by my very active six-year-old son, a very long, full and exhausting day, much, much good food and drink, standing for an extended period with head craned way back, plus all the smoke and fumes. It was the first time something like this has happened to her, but, well, our hospital is blessedly thorough, and they eliminated any of the more worrysome scenarios. So, scary, but in the end everything is fine, and we all eventually even got a few hours of sleep last night. Not the kind of excitement any of us had had in mind, tho'...

I've spent far too much time in that hospital lately. Each time, everything has gone as well as could be hoped for, and I am ever more grateful to have such a world-class facility just 20 min away, but you know, I'd love to have a long, long time where I spend no time there worrying about my loved ones. Can I have that? I hope so.