i like the blog, oh joy! for design ideas.

Oooh, love that bookcase too! Love that room! I'm looking forward to home-improvement photos. Right now, getting enough stuff picked up off the floor so I could walk through the living room without stepping on something painful would be a major home improvement, but I still have dreams.

Happy end of July, darlin'. May August be happy and peaceful!

You're welcome! :)

Human nature? I think that people sometimes want to help someone so much, but don't know how to help with something so distressing (divorce, death) so they grab onto something to "fix".

Glad you didn't give up on us. I know what you mean about a crummy month/year coming to an end--good riddance to July.

Cool book shelves.....

HaHa - you said Uranus. Every good post should contain the workd Uranus.

Alas, the IT devils have blocked YouTube here at work. (Wait! I work in that department!). Guess I'll have to wait and check it out at home after an hour's download via dial-up...

I so look forward to a new posting on your blog. I just found ya a couple of weeks ago and drop in immediately every morning.

Thanks for sharing your world, whatever state it's in, with us! You make so much sense to me as I was Southern born and raised and just happen to live in Indiana for the time bein'.

I so totally agree...this has been the worlds worst suckiest month! I too am in countdown mode, and have eagerly awaited the end of each day to partake of adult beverage to deaden the pains of the day! Hooray August

If you like being a home decor voyeur, then you'll LOVE this website: http://www.normalroom.com/index.php. Enjoy!

Oh, and I must ask this -- there's an L.A.-based Rockabilly band call The Knitters that's coming to my neck of the woods (Richmond, VA) in the near future. That's not.... Mr. X's band, is it? That would just be the cruelest of ironies it it were....

Karen Slaughter's new book releases today. She lives here in Atlanta - another reason for you to come see me at Casa FurAllOverEverything. I'm going to her signing on Saturday. I am also very happy that July is over. It is so stinkin hot in Atlanta that I feel like I am going to burst into flames any second. Come on over. We can be goobers.

i like the cool bookshelves pic because of the dude. does he come with the bookshelves?

I agree that July has been an awful month. I'm ready for it to be over too!

My July has sucked BIG time. Besides losing my 2 cats (an unspeakable sadness that I share with you Laurie) I also turned 43. I am officially in my MID-FORTIES. I am 8 weeks older than my husband and cannot wait until September 7 to stop being his "older woman." Also, two teenagers home with me all summer?? Horrors. Worse than one could ever imagine. Truly.

Love you, Laurie. Hang in there, sweetie. It's almost over.

Did you like the picture I sent you of your namesake??

Yeah for being back from internet-free-vacation and having a new CAP post to read! :)

I can't wait to see what your home-improvy period produces. I need some fresh ideas as I am at a complete stalemate in my very. slow. home project! (mostly just involving a lot of spackle and colorful paint)

And thanks for the bookshelf porn. yum... (and the guy's not bad looking either. ;) I love bookshelves. (and most any good looking shelf/baker's rack/etc).

Also, so you know - it is also as hot as Hades here in MI right now. Mid-to-upper 90's. Hooray for air conditioning!

I had a fridge for years that opened backwards. And one day it died. And then I got a new fridge that opened rightwards. Three years later I still go to open the rightwards fridge backwards. Which all goes to prove that bad habits die hard. Glad you are still writing your blog, CAP!

YAK!!!

Just had to say that.

Hurray for August! Hurray for surviving July!

And I read the original post about the refrigerator door and I totally got it wasn't about the frig. You are an amazing writer.

"Never give up, never surrender!"

The 7th month and the last 7 years

amen to that!
soo glad July is over.
bring on the fall!

I just can't wait till your book arrives - I pre-ordered on Amazon. I also went through a very painful divorce - is there any other kind I wonder? Even though it's been years I still love reading the divorce parts of your blog - I revisit both the painful times in my own experience as well as thoes sudden moments of joy and freedom that you write about so well. When Roy died and you wrote about him I cried like a baby all day long because all I could think about how it felt when I lost my divorce cat, Eloise. Getting her was my first act of self definition after my divorce. And for a while she was the only being I felt safe to love. So I guess what I'm really tring to say is - I get that your writing is not about the refigerator door being backwards. I get what it's like to arrange your bookshelves by color for you and you alone. And I just want to say is - thanks for not becoming an accountant. Thank you for sharing your wonderful words.

Cat Covell

I just looked at the Japanese vegatables site. Heart and star shaped cukes! How fun is that? Feed them to the YAK!

Yak

At the risk of completely missing the point of this column, may I suggest chamomille tea for your insomnia?

When I was a giant pile of goo during my divorce, the only thing that would help my raging insomnia would be to get out of bed, make myself a cup of Sleepytime Celestial Seasonings Tea (the spearmint makes it taste less like brewed marigolds, although I now can drink straight chamomile) and write in my journal. Knitting is good for sleep, too. If I knit late in the evenings, I sometimes fall asleep in the middle of a row.

Take care of yourself - it does sound like you've had an absolutely AWFUL month. OtherLisa's Frank says hi, too.

I too have had a pretty nasty July, which was totally unexpected. I was looking forward to the end of work-hell June and then July snuck up on me with all of it's frantic home renovating and house selling and packing and flu virusing and husband's career supporting and now I'm wondering what August has up its sleeve for me. I'm hoping for lots of knitting and quiet time, but we'll see!

Here's to all of us for making it through!! I am so very glad you didn't give up on the blog way back when, since I would have missed all the fun!

Well, I got the refrigerator story, too. And I'm so thankful to Drew for suggesting that you take one more day. Or else I wouldn't have a new book coming in the mail sometime in the near(?) future.

July? I spit on July. I went back home to another state for a visit last weekend. I found: my mom can't see, my dad can't breathe, my 23-year-old nephew left for Costa Rica without telling his mom, my sister was devastated and cried on my shoulder about her son and her husband talking about his immature stepson, her husband's father is in the hospital after his second open heart surgery in two weeks, and oh yeah, I took my dog with me and he got fleas. I am telling you -- I spit on the month of July.

I'm crouching down in a wrestler's pose waiting for August to bring it on.

Hee. Yakfits. That is so incredibly random, yet impossibly awesome. I mean, how did that happen? What makes someone say, "I have the BEST idea for a contest EVER. People can knit outfits! For Yaks! We'll call them Yakfits! Who's with me?"

I would have paid good money to be in that meeting.

In my neck of the woods the word Yak does not infer a large hairy animal. No, in my neck of the woods, the word Yak infers that one has had one too many margarita's and possibly an extra glass of wine. (or seven)

Not that I would know anything about that.

I know what will fix your July. Bath products from Lush! *Wait!* Does that comment make me a Lush Cultie? I've always suspected it was a cult but the kind where your skin is glowing and everyone smells yummy.

Laurie - I wanted to thank you for sending Francisco's long lost cousin, Paco, to my condo to do some yard work. Paco did his cousin proud - he took the weed wacker to my budding delphiniums and fox glove and cut them off at the ground! He was about to start on my butterfly bush, but evidently a brain cell fired at that exact moment, because he remembered from last year (when he did cut it down to the ground) that he was not supposed to cut it down.

Imagine Paco's surprise when, me - the crazy lady from inside the condo, showed up and burst out crying!!! His concern was truly something to behold - he did not even threaten me with the weed wacker, ala last year.

Paco did leave a field of weeds - he must have been afraid of more tears! Or, me taking the weed wacker to parts of Paco!

Paco sends his best to his cousin, Francisco.

Oh... and the Tulip Time Board notified me that they would be watching for Paco in May - and they suggested I invoke the "Tulip Picking Fine" of $500 per stem. Hmmmm, 15 plants times $500 = $7500....

Hey, Laurie - Want to head back to Paris?

Signed - Holland's Demolished Gardens!

I am relieved to know that I'm not the only one having a sucky month. What is it about July?
I, for one, am glad that you chose to not be an accountant!

Yes. It was a very sucky July. I'm glad to see the backside of this month as well. Here's to August ! Hopefully, it will start to get a bit cooler and with less suckage.

Cheers (with a "leaded" strawberry limeade, no less) !

How is it that the day I decide my apartment really needs remodeling you post that amazing design blog? Super psychic powers?

and here i thought i was the only one having a somewhat icky july. it wasn't all bad, but i will be glad to see it go. of course, i am starting august with a root canal, so maybe that's not such a good sign...

happy august and hang in there! (and cool bookcases!)

That watermelon reminded me of these "Vegiforms" :

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=2&p=51543&cat=2,2200

Imagine what next years zucchinis could look like!

Myself, I am waiting 2 more weeks for the online class from hell to end. July ending is not enough for me.

Have you read "About a Boy"? Still cracks me up about the yak sweater oh wait maybe it was yeti. Anyway... thanks for the laugh I needed it today.

Oooh....if you're getting into home design, you should check out http://www.apartmenttherapy.com. While it's more about small living - it's great for home owners looking for effective and usable design. There's of course, a big focus on mid-century modern design, but ultimately they don't discriminate between different styles. Can't WAIT to see pictures of your home. Hopefully we'll get to see more of the kids in their "natural habitat" as well. ;)

Of course, the refrigerator article wasn't about the refrigerator. Even the refrigerator *experience* wasn't about the refrigerator.

But also, the practical refrigerator replies weren't really about the refrigerator, either. They were a "sisters are doing it for themselves--you go, girl" kind of thing. Weren't they?

"Panty waddage."

"Yakfits."

I learn the coolest stuff here.
.

How geeky am I? I've called all my friends, squealing that I'm on CAP's blog!

Let me tell you that *fixing* my refrigerator was possibly one of the most liberating experiences of my year! In one of those "I don't need a man--I can do it MYSELF" ways.
I kinda want a powersaw or something now.
:)

yakkity-yak! Don't talk back!

sorry - had that in my head all afternoon after reading this and thought I'd share the joy with all y'all. ;)

Stephanie, yes, I came to see that eventually and understand it was a way to be helpful. But at the time I wasn't understanding it. I thought I was being a poor communicator.

In newspaper, if the article is misconstrued it is always because the reporter wasn't clear enough. And I was never a fan of that Ezra Pound sort of thing, I like my reading materials to speak to me in real terms ... and I always blame the reporter for a miscommunication;)

For a lot of folks I think that writing these blog-things is all about the interaction. Neil said once that if nobody commented on his blog he'd stop doing it.

But for me I am more of a ... um, really thin-skinned infant of a human being who is horrible with criticism and is her own worst critic. I am learning to be better. I struggled with the comments concept a long time. But I love reading them now and I get to actually interact with people online (I read every single comment every day, love clicking off to folks' websites, peeking into their lives) and it's really often the only social experience I have. Is that sad? Or weird? I live a pretty quiet life. Sometimes I feel I know Liz or psychomom or you better than my coworkers!

But it took a while getting there because I never set out to achieve anything at all except I like to write things. I would write if no one came and would, in fact, probably be more open. I think I used to be more willing to expose my guts before anyone was reading.

But now I look back on that one little event and think of how ridiculous I can be sometimes. That was all I meant to say.

I love this BLog of apartment tours. I get lost in here for hours looking inside apartments. Enjoy You won't be disappointed
http://chicago.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/house-tours/

Blame me, folks. I'm like some kind of black hole sucking crappiness into the month of July.

The problem with July is that it ends in my birthday. My car's dead, my AC's dead (it's 95 degrees out), and I'm covered in contact dermatitis. The treatment for which has resulted in 'roid rage. I won't even get into the work related ridiculousness.

Now I'm going to crawl back into the black hole and imagine anonymous web pity after degrading Laurie's blog. Sorry Laurie! Thanks for the vent space! Sorry if my bad July mojo rubbed off! Congrats on making the New York Times!

Alicia, it seems July was a universal awful month, I refuse to blame you! :) And happy birthday!

I second Stephanie. I think your readers definitely understood that post to be much more than about the damned refrigerator. We all just thought if we could help you fix the refrigerator, we could help you fix that aching lonliness that makes us all feel powerless...

Two reasons about the fridge incident ~ (one) you didn't write over our heads, those of us who didn't get it probably weren't clued in enough to get it and I was probably in that camp . . . happens a lot. (two) Since we couldn't fix what was really broke, we tried to offer suggestions on what we could fix, i.e. the fridge doors, cat litter box problem, whatever.

Thanks for listening to Drew (THANKS DREW) and not taking down the blog and thank you for continuing to write about the good stuff, the bad stuff and even the ugly terrible stuff that you want to just go away already, including July.

Creative editing.

One of the things I am really struggling with right now on a personal level is saying what I mean. I feel like I have just drawn up inside myself and everything I say and do, or at least for the past few weeks, has just been a stiff awkward miscommunication.

I deleted some stuff here because my intention was... I don't know. Just musing, I guess, how little I've changed, that sometimes I think I'm doing a good job with saying a thing and then get bent out of shape when it turns out I've said nothing at all that makes a damn bit of sense.

Of course had I explained it *that* way, wondering why on earth this has all been such a tough, shitty few weeks instead of making it sound like people didn't "get" a thing I had written about a refrigerator two years ago ... well, maybe it would have made more sense.

Ever have one of those days (weeks, months) where you feel like you are trying to hold your pieces together and in doing so manage to alienate yourself from the planet?

Anyway, I never intended for that thing I had written to sound like it was over anyone's head, or that people weren't being kind, or anything at all like that. It was dumb and inconsiderate of me not to have understood how that would be interpreted. But it wasn't my intended meaning -- I'm not that big of a jerk, I promise. Although sometimes I really am socially retarded, and as this shows...

i am so incredibly tired.