You Should Get An M., Too

Why do hotels go to the effort of putting huge flat screen TVs in each guest room, and then offer only a measly selection of low-definition channels to choose from? I was almost forced to watch a rerun of Two Broke Girls until I stumbled upon HGTV - it was not listed in the hotel room channel guide, so I can only assume that some higher being saw my need and came to my rescue. A frosty glass of rose (imagine an accent on the e, since I can't figure out how to put one there) can help with a lot of things, but not even that can make an episode of Two Broke Girls palatable.

So clearly, I'm in a hotel right now. Again. It's my fifth night alone in a hotel room over the last 9 days, and while I do treasure the occasional night away, I've way exceeded that limit. Thankfully, I drive home tomorrow (I'm not TOO far away), and then I'm done with work travel for a couple of months.

While I'm away from home, M. is overseeing the transition of this:

My living room

into something that will hopefully look more like this:

Not my living room (source)

See the piles and piles of boxes in the first picture up there? During my trip last week, M. rented a truck, picked them up, and then carried them all one by one into the house. He hauled over 1500 pounds of materials all by himself. Now he's home alone again, handling emergency installation questions and decisions on the fly. Like the one where the workers had to change plans and lay some of the flooring on top of CARDBOARD (the same cardboard that the wood planks came in) because our subfloor was way too low in one part of the space. CARDBOARD. When the workers pulled up the carpet, it was discovered that some of the joists have sunk, and it was being masked by extra padding under our wall-to-wall carpeting. M. had to decide, once the carpet was already up, whether to stop the installation completely and put new carpet back down, to stop it and get a new subfloor installed ($$$), or go with... cardboard. Then, once he chose the cardboard option, sign a waiver saying that it's not the company's fault if we aren't happy with the installation.

If I was the one home, I probably would have panicked. Thank goodness he is the one that handled it instead. Love you, honey!

I'm not completely confident that I'll be walking into a house with fully installed, gorgeous hardwood floors tomorrow evening, but I'm HOPEFUL. It's too late to turn back now!

In other news, Finn starts Kindergarten a week from today. I have no idea if we are ready, but Finn clearly is. He is done, done, done with daycare, and excited to start at his new school. Friday we have an orientation for parents at the school, and then it's off to the races! Should be interesting to see how we adjust to a new daily routine - ALL of us.