March 6, 2011

White Dog explained to the others that since Gregg had just been released from the hospital two days ago, that Dragon and Sen-ge (and family) were going to stay home to work on rebuilding their dad's strength. We would not have our usual Social Sunday and feasting.

"What are we going to do instead?" Nuka asked tugging at the closet door where her "go for a ride" coat hangs. Four pairs of black rimmed Eskie eyes turned then to look at Steve.

"Who wants to supervise a Special Project?" he responded cheerfully enough that the Army was instantly suspicious. Suddenly, we had a house ful of taciturn teenagers..."what project?"..."do we have to work?"..."how long will it take?"..."do we have a choice?"

We have been trying to make time for the past few weeks to rearrange my office to make a space so that Steve could have a workstation in there with me. This to partially give Steve a more permanent place for his at-home work (like grading papers) but mostly so that we could spend more time together when we both have tasks that need attending. Redoing the room meant purging lots of clutter, putting some items into storage and setting up the actual desk and computer area. (As well as the dust bunny eradication, mopping baseboards, and ancillary cleaning that goes on whenever you move anything in a house and discover just what goes where you can't see).

At first, WD, TOWD, AWD, and SAWD followed stuff going out of the office and sniffed every sorting pile. Then they sat at the perimeter and just watched as things were moved about and cleaned. Rapidly losing interest, The White Dog Army drifted out of the room to nap in the quiet of other rooms; occasionally they trotted in to check on progress or to demand a meal break. Quinn saw this was going to be an all day event and laid down in his closet in the office, sleeping soundly enough that Steve and I quickly stopped asking him to move and just worked around.

When Steve dragged in the big boxes that contained his new desk and chair and began assembly the "Supervisors" came to life and demanded up close inspections of every step. The office is approximately 10'x11' and one worker, four Supervisors and all of the arrayed parts of a desk more than fill it! I ran for a sanity break leaving the crew to manage.

The room is about 85% redone and is in enough functional order that I can work during the week, Steve can set up his computer, and the pups (who all, except for White Dog sleep in this room) can find new favorite spots. The day's activities left all tired and hungry...and more than ready to call it done for now as we sat down to enjoy chicken that had been roasting while we worked, homemade potato salad, and salad.