It's the house with the mattress out front.

Let's just say that the MiniVampire was too good to be true. I may or may not be writing an entry on that situation later. It's not over yet, and he may redeem himself, although my hopes are not pinned on any stars right now. I was quite disappointed in the whole thing.

Once the Child and I were driving home from a new hair salon. This was maybe two years ago or less. Our route took us right through downtown Pontiac. Pontiac is the home of some of Michigan's major sports teams. It's a very old city and much smaller than Detroit. It's not a very charming place to be, although there is some very interesting architecture. Some of the downtown buildings have gargoyles.

As we were about to hit the freeway, Child asked me about some of the really crappy looking houses. I told her not everyone is as fortunate as she has been. She gazed out the window some more. Child has always had the ability to sit in a car and gaze out the windows for tremendous amounts of time. I have seen her do it for 17 hours on car trips to a beach house in North Carolina. She never asks when we will get there or for a bathroom break. She just looks and occasionally naps.

After looking for a while, she turned to me and said, "But mom. When was the last time we ever even dealt with the issue of old bathtubs hanging around in the back yard?"

Of course, I had no answer for that one.

Today I have a mattress in my front yard, though. It's down at the curb, waiting for garbage eve. I am shameless this week. I had a little help yesterday, and I took advantage. My friend whom I walk with, the one who is always late, decided she would come help me instead of us going walking. She will do anything to get out of walking, but as I said, this week I am shameless.

She showed up an hour late and we started to move things out of Child's old room. I decided to trash the daybed, since Child had smashed it or kicked it against the wall too many times and it just wasn't usable any more. We cleared it out after disassembling it and took it to the street.

We spent most of the rest of the time with her trying to peel some of the glow in the dark stars off the ceiling while I worked to spackle the punched in door, the kicked in wall, and various holes from whatever had been hung in there. The mirror bifold doors will be trashed next. Maybe I can even get them out tomorrow if I am lucky. Child smashed the mirror on one and the track is bent all out of whack. The handle on one side is all bent. She refuses to tell me how those things happened, but I suspect it was the same day the light fixture was smashed. I have to replace that, too.

In the meantime, the MiniVampire managed to sort of paint two rooms out of what he was going to do. He brought a helper who one day painted half the family room ceiling in white ceiling paint and half with my white-semi-gloss that I have for trim work. Sure was shiny. Sure isn't all fixed yet.

I lost a week of painting time because I expected the rest of my house to be painted. Now I have all of four rooms almost painted and done, but not entirely finished. One just needs the closet door rehung and the doorknob put back on. That is one of the rooms I did. I have maybe a dozen rooms here. I don't want to count them.

The floor is laid in the kitchen and laundry room. It looks nice. However, I can't replace the laundry room closet door because the hole that is drilled into the slab floor has been covered up with the new flooring. And so it goes.

Today I gave more money to the condo people and had a realtor out to see my current house. It's a mess right now, but I told him that I don't have a wife to clean up after I do the Man Work, and I can't do both at once. I think he understood, or as well as a man who has probably been married for 30 years can understand.

I either want this all over or to just go away.