Uhoh, we are bad neighbours.

The laminate is almost done and Rob started nailing a bit of skirting board back on so we can move the furniture back. After 11:30 pm. The neighbour banged on the wall and we stopped as soon as we heard the banging - that is, I heard the banging, and Rob stopped as soon as he heard me saying "Stop! Stop, no now, I mean it, stop!"

Also, it woke Emer up, hurrah.

So now I need to go out and buy chocolates tomorrow to give the neighbour. It's a horrible thing to have done, though I think I feel it more strongly than Rob does. I don't think he's ever been on the other side of the wall, as it were.

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BUT the laminate is almost ALL done and now all we need to do is replace the skirting board, move the furniture back, hoover, and put the books and DVDs and CDs back on the shelves and reconnect the two halves of the unit and re-string all the wires between the various complicated parts of the "watching prerecorded stuff or listening to music" kit.

Tomorrow I need to call the doctor and say I think I need another week's supply of antibiotics, and then see what I can do about childcare for 10 am to 12:45 pm on Monday 21st. Tomorrow should be a good day - the house is full of food because the market was today and so we went shopping. I left my glasses in Dublin so I can't cycle so Rob did that part.

The most complicated part of the laminate was the set of four boards which needed to be slotted on to the previous row when three of them had to line up with something - the angle of the bay window, the right-angle of the alcove next to the bay window, the radiator pipe. Other than that it was just the usual ends-against-unstraight-walls thing.

Domesticity

I have some great clothespegs from John Lewis. I save them for hanging thick, heavy things - jeans, towels, prefold nappies. They're sturdy enough to hang stuff without folding it over the line at the top, which fractionally reduces drying time.

But then, I've been known to colour-match pegs while hanging laundry. I have to inject interest into it somehow, I suppose.

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Other than that I've done more hoovering - sawdust EVERYWHERE - and a couple of dishwasher loads. And, wonder of wonders miracle of miracles, moved some stuff back in to the front room. When the shelf unit is reassembled we can move the books and toyboxes back onto it.

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I must figure out how to lock the tap on the water butt.

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My niece Fia continues charming - and ravenous.

Fud

We will have to eat this evening but are all exhausted and the house is a godawful tip. I was thinking stir-fry (carrots, broccoli, onion, garlic, courgette) and egg noodles. Or french toast (WHY is it French? WHY?) or similar.

THEN we can refill the front room with its rightful complement of Stuff and clean up the dining room and kitchen.

Tomorrow, laminating the front hall. Yaay, doorways and doorframes. I think we'll have to buy a smaller saw. Or a BIG electric laminator. A4 won't do.

Taken from a comment elsewhere

[A specific explanation for a specific parenting problem] seems plausible to me - but also, she is definitely a bad mom, because ANY mom who is observed by ANY person other than her children almost ALWAYS comes off as a bad mom to herself, or at least an inadequate mom because intimately tied in with momness is a fear of failing the most important person in the universe by being less than perfect, and the only person who thinks mom is perfect is the baby - mom never ever thinks so and nor does anyone else. If moms were perfect vast sections of capitalism would disintegrate overnight, not least the sugary breakfast cereal market. Oh, and plastic crap with lights and batteries.