Well, the meeting with the electrician went pretty well. Matt and I had taken a photocopy of the floor plan and drawn on it where we wanted outlets, phone jacks, cable jacks, and ceiling fan hookups. We showed them to the Mux (the electrician) and Donald (the construction supervisor) and they seemed to be happy that we actually knew what we wanted in advance. We told them which rooms really needed a lot of power and which ones had loads of outlets just for convenience's sake, and Mux told us how he thought he'd do the circuits, and we approved. Donald asked what our closing date was, and expressed confidence that it would be done on time. We went back to the model office and made photocopies of our plan for Mux to keep, and then went on our merry way.

Progress had been made during the week, as well: The ductwork had expanded, they had begun running water pipes, the bathtubs for the two bathrooms upstairs had been delivered, and they've begun putting the aluminum siding up. We had a few moments of panic when we saw a thick vent running into our coat closet - the coat closet is right next to the closet where they'll be installing the heater, and we thought they'd gotten them mixed up. But Matt walked over to the model office and talked to the person there, and that vent is actually supposed to be there - they'll cover it up with sheetrock when they're done so we don't have to look at it, and we'll have a dent in our closet which can probably be used as a shelf, so I'm not too discombobulated about it.

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Bunches of people actually posted to the forum - I think this will work much better than the guestbook. We'll see, I suppose. In response to the demand, Jeremy posted a new topic, but as it isn't actually a question or a real topic, I doubt many people will post to it.

Karen wrote me yesterday to explain the origins of the word panniers (apparently the correct term for the bicycle saddlebags) and its multiple meanings. I had meant to post it for everyone else to read, but my brain went into auto-pilot and I deleted the e-mail. In short - panniers was the term for a pair of baskets, generally carried across an animal's flanks, but valid for any set of two containers acting as counterweights for each other. The 19th century women's fashion which placed smallish sets of hoops at each hip were called panniers after the baskets. Now you know.

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It seems that I must apologize for the bicycle entry, after all. When I went back and re-read it the first time, I was willing to concede that it sounded grumpy, but not that I had actually said anything truly offensive. But Karen pointed out a few specific sentences which were, in fact, moderately obnoxious on my part. I missed them the first time because I tend to read journals as if a giant "in my opinion" were slathered across them, and as Karen pointed out, neither sentence would have been nearly as irritating if I'd tacked that qualifier onto them. So here in front of everyone I've offended: I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to be offensive, and I hope you will forgive me.