Well, she's made it to The Day. Well, The Day is actually tomorrow, but it's close. At the hospital at 5:30 am, she's the first "scheduled" surgery, that means it'll be afternoon before she's finished, out of recovery, allowed visitors, etc. Amanda was over yesterday and looks pale and tired, with big dark circles under her eyes. Her medication levels are still low, in spite of increasing her medication to the highest allowable dosage. So, after Maci/Kendall/whoever (grin) comes, I'll be pacing the floor until the September 30 neurologist appointment. Nothing happens quickly, I guess, and I'm such a patient person too. Ahem. Bud is spending the rest of the week with me while his sister is camping with "the other" Grandma, so Amanda can get a break, at least. Annie

I bought a recliner in the Greenwood Indiana store on March 13 shortly after moving to the area and due to my rural location I opted to have the item delivered. My phone number changed during this time but Ashley had my correct Internet email address. The whole of March went by without a delivery or contact with Ashley. Finally, I went down to the Greenwood store on April 9 and gave them my current phone number. On Wednesday April 13 they called and told me they would be there between 3 and 6 pm Thursday. Waited around all day Thursday till after 6 pm. Nothing. No delivery, no phone call, nothing. Called up Friday mornoing, April 15. Was assured delivery would be between 3-6pm that day, Friday. Had to do things so arrived back at my place a few minutes after 3. Found a door hanger that Ashley had been there but missed me. A call to the number on the door hanger yielded the info that the delivery person had waited an hour and left the hanger at 3:08 pm. If so, he arrived at my place well outside the 3-6 pm window. Called Ashley and they said the "window" was just a suggested time. How about the truth- that you should stay at your house all day to wait for the delivery? At least you won't get people pissed off that way. Now my stuff won't be delivered until Wednesday April 20 even though it was paid for in full March 13. I read the contract, and even though Ashley's performance has been abysmal, I can't get a refund. Bullsh*t. Because of this company's lackadaisical attitude towards customer service, they will get no repeat service. I for one will never spend another dime with them. And I will tell everyone I know who is contemplating a purchase with Ashley Furniture of my experience. In five years they will be gone and people will say "Ashley who?" Bottom line: If it's not in stock and they want you to order it, don't spend your money there. In manufacturing, this is known as JIT (just-in-time) ordering. That means it isn't built until it's ordered. Fine for manufactiuring but terrble for retailing. The merchant is fully protected, and the customer bears all the responsibility and consequence. Bottom line: Ashley Furniture are crooks!

Love that username! I've known two people with a similar situation. Both of them decided that removing the paper was going to be too much trouble, so here's what they did: Glued down any lose edges of paper, cleaned thoroughly, primed the walls, then applied drywall mud skim coat and let that dry, then applied drywall texture, let that dry, and painted. One SIL did a simialr thing with panelling. Just cleaned it well, primed, applied mud/texture, and painted. They didn't have any problems with pait adhesion or wear over the years. You might post the question on the paint forum, and see what they recommend. Is that your furniture? I'm not sure about bedding. I'd definitely go with something NOT too sweet and girly, though. I'd also use caution with the florals. As a whole, it just reads too precious to me. Removing/covering the wallpaper would help with that a lot, and free you up to do what you want, but as it is, it's sort of sweet and flowery overload.

In my opinion things do work better than in the old times. I'm a veteran from those times. Hardwood floors required paste waxing and buffing now and then tokeep them shiny, then the dust readily showed. Vacuum cleaners are much more efficient now than then, many light weight, self-propelled with myriad of handy attachments. We never had household help but mom kept house until WWII when women went to work. She had one day for washing and hanging out clothes and one day just for ironing. I do my wash, folding, and "ironing" in one morning while I watch TV and bake bread. The problem these days is not the expectation to be clean as I see signs of "unclean" everywhere, clutter in yards, garages not even a volkswagen would fit in. The problem is too much of everything. When we thought we had finally made it, 35 years ago, we bought a house with 4 bedrooms and a 3 car garage, and believe it or not, we can drive 3 cars into it every day. We just got rid of the third car (pickup) as we only have 2 drivers. Today, our house is considered medium but this is it for me. My daughter, who has been a housewife most of the time has a 5 bedroom house, 5 kids still at home could never keep a neat house until she got a housekeeper, comes in every two weeks, 2 ladies work on her house about 4 hours and leave it sparkling everywhere. She has to stay on the kids to keep their things put away and that appears to be her fulltime job. There's many more conveniences we could purchase but my goal now is to keep it as simple as possible. Too much floor space to keep organized and clean. I won't do it unless we get some household help which I've never had. The biggest problem is so much unneeded stuff we don't really need. If I didn't have clutter, my house can be cleaned in a couple of hours. All closets are full of clothes, bedding, seasonal stuff, toiletries,etc. No place to hide more stuff and we refuse to toss stuff in the garage. It's still my goal to clean them out, donate or toss but that takes ambition and time which seems harder to come by these days. FlyLady where are you?