Home improvement revisited.

Last time we moved, Grace was nine months old and I was still nursing her in the wee hours. I was TIRED, and it seemed to take forever to get the house in order, much less make it look pretty. This time one of the first things I tackled was hanging some art, because it's so sad to look at a bunch of naked walls. Speaking of naked, the next order of business is to cover the windows upstairs, because I do not want to subject my new neighbors to my pale, post-winter immodesty. (In our last home, the man across from us was gay, so I didn't much care, but I'll bet he installed those expensive shutters, not just out of good taste, but also so he wouldn't have to see my junk every time I went running from the shower to check on Grace.) So tonight I hung drapes in the bedroom and it was so much easier because of a couple of things:


The single most important tool my father insisted I must have, and for which I silently thank him every time I use them. Needle-nose pliers are perfect for everything from extracting a booger from Grace's nose to extracting a Phillips screw with a stripped head to extracting jewelry out of drains. If a girlfriend called and said, "I'm seeing this guy and he's a stallion in the sack, but he snores like a chainsaw," I would reply, "Do you have any needle-nose pliers?"


A gadget I mentioned in passing that Dad remembered on my last birthday: the LASER LEVER/STUD FINDER. This thing is so frickin' cool. Gone are the days when I say, "Gigi, give Mommy the level" and she stops chewing on the ancient plastic thingie I've been using for years to make sure everything is at right angles. (Yes, she knows what a level is; she is my daughter.)