Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving Day came round quickly and it was heaven to have a day all to myself. I'd had 6 very kind offers from friends but decided I wanted to spend the day at home with the Kota Kat and Rosie Lee who are getting on a lot better these days, which I'm very pleased about as it's been rather disconcerting to hear so many growls coming from Kota. But we all had a very lazy day, with the only exertion being a dish of stuffing loaded in and out of the oven.

So my, or rather our, Thanksgiving dinner was turkey and wasabi mayonnaise sandwiches with homemade English style stuffing, washed down with a couple of glasses of red wine. I spent some of the day laying on the sofa watching TV and then put up my Christmas decorations.

Kota was very helpful in this department keeping an eye on the tinsel and small ornaments. Once I had everything up, we both then watched Rosie as she investigated everything, and much to my delight she has not pulled anything apart.
Friday was an equally lazy day but I did venture out of the house to meet with friends and see the movie, Lincoln. Not a major Daniel Day-Lewis fan but he played his role magnificently and made me wish that I'd had the opportunity to meet Lincoln and listen to some of his stories firsthand.
Saturday was Women Build day and we were finishing joists so we could lay the upstairs floorboards.

I found this little motor on the floor and inquired whether someone had lost it, so Bill staggered towards me clutching his chest and claiming it must be his pacemaker.

He's showing off his ability to stretch over 3 joists and hammer in a nail.

This is some of Amina's family, who came to support her in helping to build her new house. And then her uncle presented Women Build with a $10,000 check to help with the cost of the unit. He was heartily applauded by all of us.What a generous gesture.
Later in the day I was approached by Pam who asked me if I'd be willing to become a coordinator with her. Sharon who is currently the second coordinator leaves us after next Saturday as she's moving to PA, so I'd be taking her place. I asked Pam why she was asking me since this was only my 4th Saturday with the group. She replied that they'd been watching me and had determined that I was reliable, put my back into the job and looked like I knew what I was doing. I felt quite honored and was extremely happy to receive such acknowledgement that I was a welcome member of the group. I readily accepted and so now Pam and I have to work together to ensure that one of us is there all the time work is being done, so we have to check with each other if we want to leave early or start late. Neither of which is a problem for me since if I commit to something I want to do so fully and not shirk on my hours. We'll also lead teams if need be and help give instructions to others on jobs we're familiar with.

We finished the joists after lunch and then were excited to start laying the floorboards for upstairs. The guys glued the first couple in place for us so we had a platform from which to work on the others. I used my brand new Vaughan V5 hammer which proved to be a good investment. Everyone noted what a splendid looking piece of equipment it was, and I have to admit I loved looking at it. but that was short lived as Robb used the head of it to clean off some wood glue from a cap so now it looks quite mucky. Oh well, it's a tool to be used, not to prop on a shelf like an ornament.

Sharon and Pam striking a pose.

The house as we left it Saturday afternoon.

 Sharon posted some photos on Facebook so I was able to download a couple that had me in. This one was on my first day as we hoisted the front outer wall into position while Bill kept the bottom edge in place.

This was on Saturday as we finished up for the day. I'm really going to miss Sharon, she's been great fun to work with.

On Sunday I enjoyed a cup of tea while watching the clouds swirl as the sun rose and then headed out to Ashburn where I met the Sterling crew for brunch at Anita's. Mexican food is not my first choice for breakfast  but the company was as usual superb and we had a fun couple of hours. I mentioned that I wanted to see Skyfall and Jim offered to join me. It's become our little routine now to watch the new Bond movies together and this was a great opportunity to use a couple of the free tickets that I've had in my purse for months now.

The film was stunning visually and of course Daniel didn't disappoint. He really has proved to be the best Bond ever.
Afterwards I went back home to my sofa and spent the last few hours of the holidays napping, looking at the sparkling decorations, and being very very lazy. It was heaven.