Olive Knitting

While in college, my girlfriend Betty and I started collecting little bits of life's wisdom in the form of easy to remember one-liners.

Some in the collection were...


"Fred is so misunderstood." (fred was not the name of the friend in which we were referring, obviously)

the wisdom: just a little understanding helps when someone is bugging the shit out of you.


"if you can't carry it you can't drink it."

the wisdom: always be strong enough for the situations you face. (or "at least be strong enough to carry a case of beer" was the corrolary and, well, if I'm honest, that was the origin of this sage gem).


"How ya gonna pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you ain't got no boots?"

the wisdom: always have a good pair of cowboy boots in your wardrobe. (by the way, this one was stolen by our Pres in his Denver campaign speech. You're welcome, Mr. Obama. Glad it helped you.)


and

"you don't have to tell your parents everything."

the wisdom: you don't have to tell your parents everything.


Following up on this sage gem looks like me NOT telling my parents this...

"the back door to my house has been removed and has not been replaced. I don't know when the new one is coming and so anyone or anyTHING can enter my house at will. I will be in this situation until...well, I don't know how long."

When you are living on the top of a mountain, alone, in Italy this is not at all something that parents need to hear. Despite the fact that said girl living alone on the mountain with no back door is almost 40 years old and is fairly capable of fending for herself...all the same, I think if you are parents, this information is not something you want to hear.

So, having said all of that, I'm as pleased as my dogs with a pail of lemons to say that ... I got doors.

Meet Eugenio...



In addition to being the only guy in Maberga who doesn't mind our dogs, he's also the awesome guy who made and installed the doors on our new bedroom.



And let me tell you that the fact that he only has 8 fingers did not at all stop him from doing a fan-friggin-tastic job.



Now let's look at that punch list:

--windows painted - DONE



--walls primed and painted - DONE



--floor scrubbed of clumps of cement....tomorrow

--furniture moved in...AS SOON AS FREAKIN POSSIBLE!!!!!! the kitchen-as-bedroom is getting old.

Meet my French Doors...



And Betty, a new gem of wisdom

"if you're gonna see the moon rise, you gotta be able to get out of the bedroom."

the wisdom...is obvious.