Sunday begins the assault on the nasty pantry, the ugliest and messiest room in our new home. My former girlfriend is – people may not know this from her gentle blog – a true obsessive, and when she locks in on something, it is a fearsome thing to see. She is locked in on the pantry. All week she has been stockpiling cleaning fluids, brushes, sandpaper, rollers, ladders, brushes. Do not ever stand in a doorway if she is coming through it.

Earlier this week we chose paint for this room – I’ll keep that a surprise for now. We will take down the curtains, clean and preserve this neat old lamp. I’ll sand the fake paneling and then wash it.

We will get rid of the curtains scrub the greasy linoleum floors which appear to not have been cleaned for decades. We will paint the three doors that lead in and out of this room. Two coats of paint, and we will re-do the ceiling paint as well. The music I’ve chose for tomorrow: Van Morrison and then the Dixie Chicks. We will dance and shout. Lunch by Stannard Farms – blueberries, peanut butter and jelly on wheat.  We will prevail.