A mess, but coming along.

The house is mostly done. We've got some more boxes to unpack, and some furniture of Eric's to get rid of, and a place to find for storing blankets, but the kitchen and dining room and bathroom and bedroom and computer room and sewing room and library are functional. And that's all anyone really needs. The TV isn't hooked up, and at this rate may not be for weeks, especially if I never finish sewing the curtains. But priorities, people.

Also the pipes leading to the washer leak. But we're on it.

The Fourth of July was memorable for the bad and overly loud band (the Nutones) and the family that was lighting sparklers and trying to burn the grass with them. Oh, and nice fireworks and kettle corn. The Toledo celebration isn't bad at all.

We've made ridiculously rich chocolate ice cream, the sort of thing that couldn't be used in Death by Chocolate because adding more to it would actually make it distasteful.

And then there's the car. A description pulled from my e-mail to M:

Last Monday I backed out in a hurry because I thought I was going to be late for work and failed to see the black Jeep Rover that's always parked right across from our driveway, and crunched into it. I pulled over and dashed a very quick note on a
scrap of paper. Walking to the Jeep I noticed there wasn't much damage, a little paint scraping. Walking back to my car I noticed a huge dent in my rear bumper guard and a broken taillight cover. (The light itself still works...I think.) I turned out to be exactly on time for work. That night I came home, talked to Eric about it, and
when we went out to go to his mom's there was a note sticking out of the mailbox where there hadn't been one before: "I live at 153 Cornell. You hit my Jeep Rover. Call me to discuss," with name and phone number. I was annoyed because why hadn't she called me, and why hadn't she knocked. It was too late to call then, but I called about four times on July 4 and got a busy signal each time, then called July 5 and left a message, then called July 6 at a different time and left a mesage. No reply, and I decided I'd given it a good-faith shot and stopped calling.

Today, I heard the phone ring while I was at work, and when I checked it for some reason I decided to check voicemail, even though there was no little icon. Four messages, two of them from Jeep Rover Owner. So I called and said I hadn't received her earlier message, which I'm not sure she believed, and said if she got an estimate I'd give her or them a check. She seemed a little taken aback, but I'm not sure why; it's not like I'd give her a blank check or she'd have me take her car in. Anyway, it was extremely minor damage, probably just requiring sanding and repainting, so I'm not expecting it to be too much...but we'll see. And then there's my car, which at least needs its taillight cover repaired. Plus new tires and a flush and fill and maybe new spark plugs, but that was from before. Grrr. However, the lesson is that a Jeep Rover really is build tough. (Though I think that's the Ford slogan.)

So there you have it. Things are a mess but coming along.