I just want to celebrate...

Ok everyone

I'm over here right now weddingproject-us.blogspot.com.

Not homeless, so take that you crazy people.

And Happy Chinese New Year!

But you can never leave...

OK everyone, we are homeless.

HOMELESS. As of Thursday the 27th, no home. Nada. It's fun being homeless with 5 year old, a lab and a cat that gets car sick. I am living the dream.

UM...not yet.

We signed papers Thursday, did not get the money we expected so that's a bummer. But we sold our house and that's good. Our water department held up the closing because they wouldn't fax a final statement.

We found an RV but we have to wait until next week to get things rolling. SO......yes.

Let's see, storage is the wacky zombie place. Not many people allow pets in hotels. Our neighbors from across the street are complete angels. They said it's ok to store some of our bags for the trip in their garage. I don't know what we would have done without them.

Last night we were desperately(not seeking susan) trying to find a place to sleep and we made reservations on our cell phone(thank heavens for technology), through hotels.com. We get to the Howard Johnson's and the man behind the counter said, no pets. At first he said 30 dollar fee, then he kept saying to me over and over, no pets. I lost it. I lost it. I lost IT. Immediately the woman counting the money off to the side of the counter took over and asked me, are you crying because of us, and I said yes. well yeah. Hotels.com verified that pets were ok, but this HoJO changed their policy. Well a manger was brought out and he said we could stay,no extra cost. It's kind of funny, because I've never been the type of person to warrant a manger coming to the front. Ha ha. I bet this will happen a lot now on the journey. Hopefully I won't have a cyring freakout but I was exhausted. I must have looked like a woman on the verge.

Today I spoke with the women at the front desk and she apologised for the rude man, and I thanked her and so all is forgiven. The desk man should apologize but I can't have everything and I'm grateful for the stay.

I guess I will have to put paintergirl on hiatus for a year starting now. From here on out, I'll (we'll) be over at weddingproject-us.blogspot

And for absolute kicks, check out this meowmix video. My sweet little man is the last meow after all the famous people in the beginning. He is a cat.


peace and love
and wish us luck

If you leave...don't look back...

Pony ball

70's bamboo tray

My mom's overnight bag

Cushions from IKEA couch

These are last minute items in a box. Don't you just love those sweet ever loving last boxes? I thought I was doing so well this time. We're exhausted. We're living several days in one. It's sheer madness and we close tomorrow on the house. I'm sorry I haven't been here to give a detailed account but there are just too many things to do.

I will leave you with this photo. Most of you know I have a very unrealistic fear of zombies. See here.

This is our storage. Do I need to say anything else?

Regrets, I've had a few...

I haven't been publishing my Self Portraits for awhile now. I had some lame ones and then some I just forgot to download.

This is my bathroom and this is my tribute to NYC and the tri-state area. Funny, we've been in this house for 3 years and this is the first I've taken a bath in the claw foot tub. It's probably the original, 1888 mind you, and I felt I needed to try it out before we move NEXT week.

Sweet NYC area and my Hudson Valley. I'll try not to get too sentimental as I pack and get ready for the project.

More SPC here.

Are sweeter than roses in the garden...

Only me, only me.

I was determined to go out into the pouring rain on Tuesday to make copies of my flyer for the art sale. And I knew I wanted to do this at the library.

So the wee man and I put our rain boots on and took off in the little Honda.

We have a library in town, but there is something about it that's just bad mojo. It's attached to the police station and courthouse. ???

There happens to be an extremely nice library in a cute village one town over from us. We drive past my "hey Lady" lake. It's ideal.

This day, did not go as planned.

As we turn the corner to drive past the lake, I noticed a swan in the road. He wasn't in the middle, but still in the road, easily a target for someone going to fast. I stopped and yelled at him and honked. He looked at me and hissed, yes hissed, then started preening himself. Instantly I was worried. He wouldn't move.

As soon as I was in the library I went to the reference desk and they looked up animal control for the town. Great. I went outside and they told me they couldn't handle anything other than dogs or cats. The woman on the phone was kind enough to give me another number. Thanks. It's in ALBANY. It's like 2 hours away, what are they going to do. But I called, and well they were not at their desk.

So we finished our library work and drove back. Swanny was still in the road. It was raining hard again. I couldn't leave him. So I drove up close behind him and put my flashers on. There is an inlet on the other side of the lake, so the wind started whipping up and spraying rain on me. Some cars slowed, some cars sped by. Let me tell you, only 3 people stopped out of 50 to ask if everything was OK. 3 people! One woman said she would go into town and they would send someone out. This was after I had been standing by the swan for 30 minutes.

Can you believe this? Finally a nice man from the city came out and tried to make some calls, everyone was out to lunch. He said he would try to move the swan, at least off the road. He took a shovel out of his pickup and slowly and gently tried to nudge the dear swan. The swan had been hit, his right leg was broken, and this in turn broke my heart. The gentleman said he would make sure the right people would come and get him. (And what put him out of his misery?)

He drove off, and I was still unsatisfied. There were some cones around the street for some sidewalk construction, so I traipsed in the mud to get some cones and place around the swan, in the road. I would have moved a barrel but they were filled with sand and far too heavy to move.

I drove away worried for this beautiful creature. And then the tears came. I handled myself well, standing in the rain, but then the floodgates opened. My son and I had other errands to run but I told him I needed to change my clothes. back home. As soon as I walked through the door, I collapsed on the living room floor from mental exhaustion.

About 2 hours later my husband asked if I wanted to go by and see if swanny was still there. Hesitant at first, I finally said yes.

He was gone and the cones moved. I can only hope the young male was taken to a vet. Please.

And that is my swan song.