But now we’re running into an unforeseen babyproofing dilemma. It looks like this:

This floor lamp has been with me since my college days (Yes, I know it’s time to cowboy up and get real live adult furniture), and it’s 1) precariously top heavy and 2) the glass shade makes a very satisfying clinky-clink sound when you’re a ten-month old adrenaline junkie hanging on to the pole and shaking it with your preternaturally strong little baby arms.

The clinky-clink sound scares the crap out of your mommy, by the way, Q.

But what to do? We NEED a light in that area of the room, since the only other lights are the interior lights of the china cabinet near the dining table, and the “mood lights” of the gorgeous antique deco amber mica sconces on either side of the fireplace (which is immediately opposite — i.e., I was standing in the fireplace when I took this picture) that were literally the very first piece of furniture we ever bought for our house. Neither of which work as “reading” lights, and that spot is definitely the reading couch.

Sailor Boy’s suggestion — tying the pole to the banister spindles — was nixed by me, both because of its aesthetic ickiness and because I don’t think that would preclude Q’s mission of making sure the light is earthquake-ready.

She looks so sweet and innocent when unconscious. Do not be fooled.

I considered a wall sconce, but the problem is, we don’t have much wall. The banister/staircase takes up a lot of space, and most of the wall over the couch is occupied by this:

You can’t really tell from this picture, but this painting is four feet long.

I considered replacing the floor lamp with a sturdy (yet small) side table topped by a table lamp, but that seems like it might crowd the open banister and make that area very heavy. Since it’s pretty much the first thing you see when you come into the front door of my house (ah, the joy of center-hall colonials), I don’t want it too crowded. I feel like the only thing that would be unobtrusive enough would be a spindly table and a spindly table lamp which would be just as precarious (and attractive) to Q.

I also considered a ceiling light dangling down (maybe an amber moroccan lantern that would tie in with the deco sconces) but I’m afraid that, although it would look good from the living room direction, it would compete with the entryway light and look odd and off balanced from the front door.

So…. this is my dilemma. I don’t want to lose the light source (really the only major one in the room, and it works on the switch you see in the picture) but I don’t want Q swinging on this thing anymore.

Any ideas?

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(Q is demonstrating by opening and closing the basket where we keep firewood as I type this.)

The only real hassle here is that my house was not designed for modern babyproofing. My office is on a lower level, so we have to keep the door closed now so Q doesn’t face plant in there every time she’s trying to get to Mommy. Installing gates on our banistered staircase was a long fun afternoon.

This weekend, I tackled the kitchen cabinets. I was most interested in locking up our under sink cabinet, which holds all our nasty chemicals. Though we could move the nasty chemicals, I worry about her potentially crawling around in there, given the pipes and wires and water-filter cords and switch for the garbage disposal. Closing it off is the most efficient and safest solution.

But not, as it turned out, the easiest. Since this was a single cabinet instead of double doors, a lock like this wouldn’t work:

So first I tried these little babies:

No go. These locks require you to open the cabinet partway, then stick your finger in and depress the latch so it releases. Which sounds great, until you realize that the lip of my countertop goes too far over the edge of the cabinet for me to get my finger inside:

Then I tried one of these, figuring i could thread it through the cabinet and attach it to the drawer on the right.

But the angle thwarted me. I could thread it just fine, but I couldn’t figure out how I could get it to release and re-snap given the acute angle I was dealing with (it appears designed to go around the outside corners of ovens or refrigerators, not the inside corners of cabinets.

Hmmm, what to do. At this point, I was getting a little frustrated. I’d spent Q’s entire naptime trying to solve this dilemma (rather than, say, reading one of the many, many new books calling my name). This is also when Sailor Boy suggested simply tying the cabinet drawers shut, to which I responded “Spoken like someone who never has to go in there to retrieve any of the cooking implements.”

Okay. A lot frustrated.

Which is when I got this brainwave:

I attached the fixed side to the underside of the cabinet (Google tells me this is called the “toe space.”) Now, I can unlatch it whenever I need to open it, and it’s VERY unobtrusive. In fact, when I sent Sailor Boy to see my solution, he didn’t even notice it at first!

Great. Problem solved. I spent the rest of her naptime doing simpler things, such as covering electrical outlets.

We still have to resolve a few more cabinet issues, bolt the TV to the wall, and put in a second gate at the top of the stairs. But hey! Progress!

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Writing: I was supposed to write a short story and start a new proposal. I wrote (most of) a short story. This month I’m definitely starting a new proposal (and I can’t wait! This will be my first new book in almost two years).

Home: The only thing I accomplished on my last month’s goal list was starting work on the Ent. I cut down all the vines I could reach, but they are still surviving (and choking) my beautiful 100-year old maple. I’m not sure what to do except keep going up (though I may need pro help) and hope for the best. Other goals for this month include:

• finish cleaning out my closet (I have two big boxes to donate/trash but I bet I can get another one)
• get rid of the furniture we don’t use anymore, (including two dressers)
• finish babyproofing as Q grows more mobile by the day (she’s crawling with her belly up now, and pulling herself up on anything she can reach)
• put in the rocks around the AC units near the patio
• clean out the flower garden and replant
• create an herb garden
• Do something about the vines/weeds taking over our yard.

Blog: I blogged 11 times in June. Not bad. I’ve already blogged 4 times in July. I need to keep it up. But I’ve been a bit seduced lately, by Twitter and Pinterest (especially the latter, as I get interested in homey stuff).

Quality Time with SB: Quality time with SB devolved into a lot of sitting on the couch and watching Modern Family. We should work to make our time more “quality” — not that I don’t love Modern Family. I’m thinking of trying to plan a mini-break somewhere we can all — the four of us — go. Beach house, mountain cabin — someplace fun. Any ideas?

Rio: She’s better! Yay! We changed her food and she cleared right up. Except, her teeth are still chipping and I’m not sure what’s she’s chewing on, as I’ve removed all her bones and hard things from her toy box. Does she just have really soft teeth? We’re also continuing with our evening walks, and she goes to the park a few times a week.

Garden: Ahem. But obviously, the rest of my yard needs massive work.

And, the big list:

1. Revise/finish my contracted novel.
2. Write short story #1
3. Write short story #2
4. Write short story #3
5. Write short story #4
6. Write essay #1
7. Write new proposal #1
8. Write new proposal/book #2
9. Go to one writing-related conference.
10. Walk my dog.
11. Plant a garden.
12. Make sure I spend quality time with Sailor Boy.
13. Do at least two home improvement projects.
14. Cut our budget.

Notice there’s a new item on this list? That’s right, I signed up for another project this month. Yay!

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But, don’t worry. I’ll be back soon. Like when Fed Ex decides to get off its butt and deliver my new computer. Stupid Columbus Day.

In other news, check out this great new review of Rampant from In Between the Pages:

I loved Astrid. She kicks butt in so many ways. Plus, she’s a science nerd like me. Chem major all the way! The characters were all very layered and unexpected, with none of them conforming to stereotypes. The jock was extremely nice and grounded, while the girls who appeared to be nasty ended up having hearts. Then there were the boys. Who doesn’t love a guy that enjoys art and speaks Italian? (melt)

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As such, I’ve not been much with the getting work done, though I’ve read a few books:

• The Hunger Games
• The Princess Diaries
• Vampire Academy
• Seaborn
• Saving Zoe
• The Amulet of Samarkand
• Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about The Grapes of Wrath (which is awesome and I haven’t heard ANYTHING about it, ever, which is a damn shame, because it’s funny and boy-focused and not enough YA is and go get it right right now!)

and watched a heap of movies:

• Raising Victor Vargas
• Field of Dreams (again)
• Six episodes of the first season of Mad Men
• Hancock
• Kung Fu Panda
• The entire John Adams miniseries with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney
• Fifty First Dates
• The first five minutes of Walk the Line (then I was quite sure they were about to kill both the dog and the brother and turned it off)

We also gave Rio a bath. She’s almost forgiven us, but that’s probably only because I’ve been sneaking her leftover turkey.  She’s so fluffy now. Fluffy and HUGE. Thirty pounds, we’re sure. And five months old. And more beautiful than ever. It’s ridiculous how gorgeous she is. Most dogs go through an awkward adolescent phase. She’s has not. Every time we take her out, people stop us on the street to tell us what a pretty dog she is.

Now, if only she would learn “stay,” she’d be perfect.

Yesterday, Sailor Boy and I raked the yard. Ah, the glories of home-ownership! Now, I’m from Florida, and this is the first year I’ve had a yard and have also lived in a place where the leaves fall. In Florida, if a palm frond falls, we just drag it out to the curb. But we had a ridiculous blanket of leaves in our heavily-treed new backyard. This is what it looked like:

And after we raked it all up, the pile was the size of Nikita, our car. Here’s Rio and me in front of the pile:

Things I learned: How To Use a Tarp to Drag Leaves To Your Curb. No, seriously, is this how northerners spend all their autumns? John Adams totally did not do this, did he?

You like my blue fuzzy fleece? I think it makes me look kind of like Grover, but it’s windproof, so I adore it beyond all rationality. Because you see, the other glory of home ownership is paying for your own utilities. I have become a lover of all things fleece.

Ugh, four more months of cold weather. Can I just hibernate now?

Though, despite the winter weather, I am happy. Thanksgiving was a whirlwind, what with all of the traveling across state lines to visit family and meet brand new infant nephews and all. I had my own private moment of thankfulness this morning, as I lay in bed (wearing fleece, though not my Grover jacket)  and listened to the rain patter on the windows of my house — my own home! — with my wonderful husband asleep beside me, and my adorable puppy (who can finally be trusted in bed with us!)  asleep on my legs. I am a lucky, lucky woman.

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I cannot tell you how annoying it has been these past few weeks to be living without you, my sweet pablum, my exquisite opiate of the masses. How do I live without you? As I was standing on my neighbor’s porch, watching the second cable guy in ten hours balanced precariously on top of a ladder, trying desperately to get our cable working, and explaining to the nice new neighbors that no, we weren’t actually getting TV cable, just cable internet, and watching their eyes go all wide… I realized that my internet addiction is not, perhaps, fully understood by the masses. (However, she did realize that, sans internet, I was spending a lot of time in the Panera Bread — free wifi — down the street.

Seriously, though, I’ve had a list of things to look up once this darn cable was hooked up. Things like:

• Who sings the theme song on this last season of The Wire? (Steve Earle, who plays Bubbles’ NA sponsor)
• What do they call those little entryway pieces of furniture that are like a combination mail/key/and leash holder, coat rack, and mirror? (Hall trees, apparently)
• More eggplant recipes (anyone?)
• Lots of secret stuff for T&G that I obviously cannot discuss here.

So anyway, I have the internet, and SB is celebrating by playing WOW, and Rio is celebrating by napping on the air vents, as per usual:

It was 90 degrees out today. No one gets to say my dog ain’t smart. She’s also a little worn out puppy, as she just came back from her first vet visit, where she was vaccinated (not that she noticed, so intent was my pup on a fingerful of cheese whiz). The vet says, “I can’t promise you anything, but sometimes these shots wear puppies out.” I tried not to get my hopes up. But worn out she is, the little dear. I’m expecting she’ll be right back to Rambunctious Rio by tomorrow.

We’re still settling into the new house. Unpacking a little more every day, starting to think seriously about what furniture we’d like to put where. SB did a lot of work in our office today, and it looks great, though I do want to paint in there eventually, so it may not stay that way. However, things I already love about the house:

• Our new refrigerator has an icemaker. This thrills me to no end. In the apartment, ice was a big deal. We had to remember to refill the little plastic containers, we had to wait for them to freeze, we coudln’t wait too long or they’d either sublimate or get funky freezer-smell. So basically, to put ice in something, you had to think two hours in advance that you wanted ice in something in two hours. We didn’t use ice unless it was strictly necessary for the consumable in question. Like pina coladas. But now I have ice at the press of a button! And so does Rio. Yay for us both!
• The exposed brick wall in my new office. Every time I go in there I am pleased anew. So pretty, and it fulfills all my secret longings of living in an urban loft somewhere. (Or some massively cool reclaimed corner store like the home my cousins-in-law own in Baltimore.)
• The hardwood floors. Come to find out from my neighbor that a former owner of the house was a hardwood floor dealer, which explains the fab floors in my house. I really hope I don’t wreck ‘em.
• The sprayer on my new sink. It’s not a divided sink, but it sprays. Great for dish *and* dog-washing.
• And, don’t tell SB, but much as I’ve been bitching and moaning about giving up my gas range, I am really liking the electric *oven* in my new kitchen. I made baked potatoes the other evening, and they took 65 minutes. In our old gas apartment oven, they would have taken approximately four and a half days.

Ah, house. I own a house. And a dog. And you people are bearing the brunt of hearing about both. A college friend who heard about my recent acquisitions was all, “when did everyone I know turn into grown-ups?” which made me laugh because it’s a running theme in T&G, too. Maybe Amy and I have more in common than I thought. We’re both going through a sea change stage of life.

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