Maybe I should have prayed more

It would have toughened my knees—we laid tile this week. It's very hard on the knees: Slather on a fine portland cement called Thinset, carefully position the tiles with the help of chalk lines and a long straightedge, and wait overnight. Then work grout into the spaces between the tiles, wipe off the tiles several times, wait three days, then spray on sealer. Then stand back and admire our handiwork. Actually mostly Val's handiwork, especially in positioning the tiles. She didn't want to look at anyone else's mistakes. Martin, the best neighbor in the world, loaned us his professional diamond-blade wet saw, so cutting the tiles wasn't too big a chore.

Then the electricians came and installed the lights, a great improvement. Now if the windows would come...

Val's grandparents, who will be occupying this space, don't know how far along we are. They're expecting to help put up drywall when they come down next weekend. By then we hope it'll be almost ready to move into.

On another front, Val lost her job on Dec 27. My contract is scheduled to end on Feb 4. Val has an excellent reputation in the eldercare community, and I have a good lead on another contract, so we're even optimistic. The work Val did on the floor, now that she has time to do the work, saved us more than her wages would have been. So I guess you could even say we're ahead.

I'm also working diligently on my internet marketing project. Go check out my latest effort, The Writing Rag. It's a site about how to write well. So far it has some ads from Amazon (books on writing, what else?) and an outstanding article called The Five Golden Rules of Good Writing, that I'm giving away free. I just decided to call it Secrets instead of Golden Rules. More provocative, don't you think? Now to go make the change...