things that need to get done this summer

1. The two pieces of window in the bathroom need to be replaced with a single piece of glass that will not shatter when a person walks into the room. Ditto with that broken window in the bedroom, the one in the "dining" area, and the three in the Arizona Room.

2. The swamp cooler must be replaced with a cooler that

A. works.
B. has options such as High, Low, or (I know I ask for a lot) Medium.
C. does not sound like there is a bus driving at a steady speed through a very windy region of the kitchen. White noise is okay. The roar of whitewater is not.

3. The front yard must be walled in so we can avoid the neighbors. Okay, only a couple of the neighbors. The ones with the guns and the screaming fights and the yardsful of stolen bikes. Also so the Guatemalan will let me open the front door in the mornings to let the cool air flow into the hot, stuffy uninsulated house ("But I'm naked! And that guy with the gun is watching me!" Honestly, he's such a girl about things sometimes).

4. We. Must. Get. Insulation.

5. I need to start a garden. For real this year. I miss tomatoes.

6. We must put a window in the shop. And a door that doesn't want to kill me. ("Lila, I know you're hungry, but your food's in the shop and I'm not opening that door again. Not now. Not ever. I think it has a gun."

7. Paint. I recently discovered that Raphael's been making himself little notes on the wall by the bathroom. That's how little we respect the current paint job.

8. We need to truck in more gravel for the back of the yard to settle some of the dust kicked up by the crazy running antics enjoyed by one of three of us who live here. You guess which one. Cough cough cough hack cough bleagh. Or replace the dirt with, say...a swimming pool! Yes!