“Whatya mean by that?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I was just wondering.”
“Well. . .No, No, No, and a thousand times, NO!”
“Here it is almost two-plus weeks until the first day of spring and I would just…”
“NO”.
It happens every year. The birds start singing, the sun is shining, and the house needs cleaning, and I get the fever.
Peeping out over my coffee cup, I yelled, “Look at that over there!!”
My husband jumped up. His hair is standing on end. “What is it!!”
“Over there in the corner can’t you see IT!!”
My husband slowly turned around and gave me the evil glare punctuated with “No way, just because there is a tiny bubble in the wallpaper in the left-hand corner we are not ordering new wallpaper.”
I never would have mentioned it, if it wasn’t for the fact I needed his help to put it up. In all honesty, he is not always this grumpy but not my fault the dude has handyman skills.
With a big sigh, I rolled my eyes back to the ceiling. When it hit me. Of course the ceiling! That was just the touch of spring my old kitchen needed. Yes. We could wallpaper the ceiling.
I was so excited. Bubbling with enthusiasm, I chattered away on how beautiful the room would look and how much bigger it would make the room feel.
My husband tilted his head towards me – dead silent.
I was all smiles.
Less than 24 hours later we started on the ceiling. We placed two chairs back to back on the kitchen floor. Standing on them I held the beginning strip of wallpaper, and my husband held the glue bucket.
We began with the 3 basic steps:
First: Slap glue on the ceiling.
Second: Swiftly fling wallpaper on glue.
Third: Press like crazy.
Everything was going very smoothly ‘till we were in the middle of the ceiling.
Just as fast as you can say “Springtime,” the wallpaper started to fall down.
“QUICK grab that end,” yelled my handyman. “NO, NO, NO, not that end, THAT end!”
Trying not to fall off my chair my arms flying in all directions I swung the same when HM (handyman)swung the other.
The only thing left holding up the wallpaper was our heads.
It was a happy ending. The wallpaper does look nice. Only one thing we covered the acoustic ceiling. Every word sounds like we are in the Grand Canyoooooonnn.
For fun here is a recipe from 1887:
SPINACH
It should be cooked so as to retain its bright-green color, and not sent to table, as it so often is, of a dull-brown or olive color; to retain its fresh appearance, do not cover the vessel while it is cooking.
Spinach requires close examination and picking, as insects are frequently found among it, and it is often gritty. Wash it through three or four waters. Then drain it and put it in boiling water. Fifteen to twenty minutes is generally sufficient time to boil spinach. Be careful to remove the scum. When it is quite tender, take it up, and drain and squeeze it well. Chop it fine, and put it into a sauce-pan with a piece of butter and a little pepper and salt. Set it on the fire and let it stew five minutes, stirring it all the time, until quite dry. Turn it into a vegetable dish, shape it into a mound, slice some hard-boiled eggs and lay around the top.