I have nothing to add--except to say how much I'm enjoying your entries. All my creative energies this month seem to be pouring themselves into the remodeling project. It started out as the demolition of a rotting porch and the addition of a new one, but anyone who has undertaken a facelift knows that every change exposes a flaw you didn't know was there before, right?

The former roofer neglected to vent the exhaust fan through the roof--so all the grease of the past ten years or more has landed in the attic. The water pipes are crooked as old roots. Alamo Heights says we have to have a new survey so that they will know that I'm not encroaching on the streets of "the city of beauty and charm." The Bexar County Tax Assessors Office--alerted to my existence because of a permit request--tells me that my house is on the wrong lot!

Precious Mary Beth came over on Tuesday morning to help me think through some of the decisions. The contractor was in a pushy mood. "How many times are you going to change the contract?" he asked. (It was my first change) Suddenly I heard a choir of men's voices, all of them accusing and impatient and pissy. I cried! His Big Man Know-it-All Voice had evoked my Little Girl Always Changing Her Mind self. Mary Beth surveyed the situation knowingly. She held my hand--figuratively speaking--and helped me stand up straight again, like a big girl, like a grown up.

Then I met Lea for lunch--and you can all imagine her advice for dealing with big men with loud voices! I'm buying me a WWLD bracelet as a reminder of Lea's Lessons in Talking Back to bullies. (That is, What Would Lea Do?)