Well, today's the day we were supposed to be closing, but of course we're not. Instead, I'm at work, trying to figure out exactly when we're going to accomplish the 4,238,549 things that need to be done before Saturday morning. (That's just an approximate number.) Thank goodness we're taking tomorrow off. I don't know, by the way, whether I'll be posting tomrrow or Friday, so if you don't see anything from me for those days, don't panic.

I woke up this morning at 5:15 to go to the bathroom, and when I laid back down, snuggling up with my pillow and my husband, my brain and I had a short conversation. It went something like this:

Brain: When were you planning on going back to Lowe's to get blinds for the windows?

Me: I thought maybe we'd do that on Friday.

Brain: But you're going to be closing Friday morning, and then in the afternoon you have to wait for the refrigerator.

Me: Well, um...

Brain: And what if they can't deliver the 'fridge Friday afternoon?

Me: Then we'll have time-

Brain: And when are you going to finish packing the kitchen? You're going to need more boxes.

Me: But Dad just gave us-

Brain: And you really need to clean the stuff out of your car before Karen gets to town.

Me: Yeah, but-

Brain: What are you going to do about all the appliances, anyway?

Me: I-

Brain: And another thing...

I couldn't get a word in edgewise. So around 5:30 I gave up trying to go back to sleep, and got up. I made our lunches for today, and packed another box of stuff. (FRAGILE! Glass cookware - KITCHEN) Meanwhile my brain still won't shut up. Hey, most of that stuff is actually ceramic, not glass. Don't you think you should label that box more clearly?

On the plus side, they apparently had four different crews working the house yesterday: electric, flooring, plumbing, and mechanical. They'd made enough progress that when Matt and I got there, I turned giddy and took pictures of absolutely absurd things, like electrical outlets and light switches.

On the down side, it still doesn't look like it'll be ready for us to move into by Friday. Let's hope I'm wrong on that one.

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My mom took Matt and I to Bed, Bath, and Beyond last night. She'd promised to buy us two shower curtains (and the pieces necessary to hang them, like rods and hooks) as a sort of housewarming present. We found a curtain right away that we liked for the master bathroom, but the only one they had left was the display model. Happily, the saleslady we found didn't object to pulling it down and putting a tag on it for us. Rods and hooks were no problem, but it took us longer than it should have to pick inner curtains. (We finally decided on clear.) Then we had to find a curtain for the guest bathroom.

I knew we were going to be using a set of towels my friend Jen had given us in the guest bath. The towels are blue and yellow. (Not on each towel - some are blue, and some are yellow.) Now, I had been thinking of going with a "spring" theme - I'd had this idea way back in January, helping Braz and Kris move - and I was thinking of getting a shower curtain that echoed the blue and yellow of the towels with flowers, and then green bathmats and soapdishes and such, for grass. I could see it all in my head, and it was perfect - decorative and homey.

What I told Matt was: we wanted to match the blue and yellow towels.

I actually had reasons for not telling him about the spring thing. Mostly, I didn't want him to feel that the house, which is of course his as well as mine, was being decorated too girly, if you know what I mean. I didn't want to swamp him with lace and frills. So what I thought I'd do was, find the shower curtain I liked, and show it to him, and if he agreed, then I'd tell him about the green floormats and such.

But no. While I was still looking for the curtain we both liked for the master bathroom, Matt pulled out a blue curtain with yellow suns on it and said, "Hey, I think this will match the towels!" Now, the shower curtain he'd pulled out was actually very nice, and the only curtain I'd seen which had leapt out at me as fitting the color scheme in the spring theme was an exact duplicate of Braz and Kris' shower curtain, which I wasn't sure I wanted to do. So I agreed to the suns and tried to mentally revise my image of the bathroom.

While I was still working on that, we came to the window curtains. Now, let me tell you that while I'm not exactly a stereotypical woman, I prefer curtains to blinds. And not just any curtains, but the sort of drape-y, curvy, with-curlicues-and-hooks Better Homes and Gardens sort of curtains. I had told Matt about this. I pointed out the sort of drapes my parents have in their bedroom, and the rod with the goofy loop-de-loops, and told him I wanted curtains, not mini-blinds, in the master bedroom at least. The problem was, most of the curtains at the store were fairly sheer, and we want something thick enough so that our neighbors can't watch us getting dressed. We finally found something thick enough to do the job, and then all hell broke loose.

The display showed a combination of cream and lavender drapes that I thought was lovely. My mother started showing me the other colors in that material, which were, to be precise, light browns and olives straight from my worst nightmares. I chased her off. The Matt started playing with the display, trying to figure out how you opened the curtains to let light in. (I don't know how, but until last night, he'd never really encountered curtains that were meant to be tied back, instead of sliding along the rod. I say that not to mock his ignorance, but to point out that it's not his fault that he didn't know what I meant when I just grabbed a handful of the curtains and pulled them back as an illustration.) Then he picked up exactly two panes of fabric, and this is the sort of drape that would look better with more - their display window, only three feet across, had four panes, and our bedroom window is six feet wide.

It got sortof ugly. Mostly, I suppose, because I hadn't done a good enough job of warning him that I wanted frilly, frou-frou-y things that were more decorative than functional. We ended up by agreeing to just get the damn mini-blinds to satisfy the requirements of light and privacy, and then later (oh, god, the ubiquitous later) I can buy whatever decorative drapes suit my little secret-designer-at-heart self, without even having to worry about them being too sheer.

Which is exactly the sort of thing we probably would never think of arguing about if we weren't so stressed. Gods, but I'm ready for this to be over!

Two days to closing.