Shades of "The Money Pit"

Poor Nicholas decided to chase the cat around the attic, with somewhat predictable results.

Sigh.

As if I don't have enough home improvement projects going on already, from building a laundry room to leveling slabs, building out a shower stall, replacing doors and locks and carpet and painting and fixing broken handles in a bathtub, now I get to repair the hole in the kitchen ceiling.

Everything has a silver lining: repainting the kitchen (we love the yellow, but there's just so darn much of it) just moved forward in the queue.

Nicholas is fine, by the way, with only a pretty large bruise and some medium sized scrapes. "I had to save the cat!" he says. Xena and I are already laughing about it (in a rueful way, but laughter nonetheless). The mood was pretty tense for a few heartbeats as frustration, fear, compassion and love all battled for first position for the words coming out of my mouth.

I'm happy to report, the scolding was pretty minimal, while concern for Nick's wellbeing was very much in evidence. And of course, there was much good-natured ribbing the rest of the day, from us as well as from Liz, who witnessed it, and our new tenants, who were over to help out in the workparty to get the downstairs fixed up a bit.