FINAL CHORES

- Met with the Boundary Guy, here. His idea. Advised me for a good hour on how to market the house and property when the time comes. Good stuff. Have it all sorted now in my mind and a surveyor friend of his has now measured out 2 lots, a 4 acre and a 5, and prepared a map which arrived today, which I have now filed.

- Took some Treasury Bonds which had matured to the Berkshire Bank, Williams St., to have them stamped and filled out by the bank manager, who was so busy talking that she forgot to sign them, which I didn't see till I got home, so had to trot all the way back there and got stopped for speeding on the way home. I put on an English accent and apologized a million times and got off with a warning.

- Changed electricity providers, saving $287 per month here.

- Spent a good hour trying to send DK's memoirs Key Changes to a reviewer in London, only to discover I had not transferred the right file in the rush to leave England the other week so had to go through it all, chapter by chapter, putting in the revisions we've made since, then sent it to the wrong Kevin. Instead of zinging its way to our PR guy it went to Kevin the big deal banker son-in-law of an elderly woman in Walberswick. 

- Sent a case of Villa Maria to Tim, the guy who prepared the Press release for DK's TV themes album (I hope).

- Dealt with the U of Oregon, home of Peg's archive, who have been successful in getting a grant to enhance and digitize all Peg's TV shows from the 1950s. They have this idea of doing a big deal symposium on the early days of TV as well, and asked if I thought Peg would be up for going out there to answer questions, tell stories and so on. They're happy to pay for me and for Alex to go as well. The hitch is that it will coincide with Peg's 100th birthday, which is a year and a half from now. During which time a great deal can happen. (Alex already packed).

- Sent a heads-up to our financial guy at USB in Springfield. There's an issue here that has, er, arisen, which might be worrying but can't go into at the moment. I asked that he please advise me if a request comes in from Peg to send her an unusually large amount of money.

- Found a home, I think, for my great grandmother's wedding dress which I found in the trunk I had Outside Bob bring down from at the attic, along with my grandmother's baby shoes (which have heels! I knew I took after her.)

- Filled a collage picture frame for Peg that she's been trying to do since Christmas to send to her journalist fan in Minneapolis, James Lileks. She had cut all the photos too small and not a straight line to be found. I fixed it all and now  I am Golden Girl. I think she even likes me better than she likes Terri or Dominick tonight. Still, the night is young.

- Inadvertantly let Terri's 14 year old beagle, Heidi, out, when I opened the door to bring in firewood, and had to go chasing her all around the property, Terri running after me in a T shirt and slippers, hysterical. No sign of Heidi. Finally went in and grabbed a handful of chicken and spent another 20 minutes outside sliding around on the ice-encrusted snow, yelling "Chicken! Chicken!" but pleased to report Heidi now back safe and sound (and tied up).

By my favorite part of the day by far is discovering that the cord on the hair dryer I bought a year ago is NOT eighteen inches long after all: it pulls out, and retracts. For one solid year I have been drying my hair squashed up against the bathroom tiles, practically sitting on the laundry hamper under the towel rail in order to do this, while ranting and raving about stupid hairdryer designers who put 18 inch cords on their appliances. 

That's it.