After the resounding success of assembling the CD case, I decided to try my hand at something much simpler - putting up curtains. Three curtain rods - breakfast area window and door and kitchen window - one pair of long linen panels, two matching valances. How tough could that possibly be?

The breakfast area windows consist of three long panes toppped by a half-round window. There was only one flat place on the wooden trim that lent itself to installing the brackets for the curtain rods (dark brass, vaguely leafy things at the ends - these play an important role in another part of this story). The place I chose to place the brackets was on the small (6" square) wooden pieces that contain a decorative design of concentric circles. These top the trim that frames the windows. (Yes, I could have installed them in the wall next to the windows, but that would have required drilling holes in the drywall, pounding in those little plastic wall anchors whose main purpose in life is to bend into hideously grostesque shapes when barely tapped by a hammer. There are many spackled-over holes scattered around my house, attesting to my frustration with that particular configuration of hardware.)

As an aside - I had to buy a new screwdriver at KMart yesterday. Their meager hardware section contains helpful signs that read "Hammering", "Measuring", "Cutting", etc. There was no sign above the screwdrivers.

Anyway, I managed to get the brackets installed and they were even reasonably level, which is a minor miracle, given that the windows are about 96" wide and even Norm Abram doesn't have a level that long. Ahem.

So, I put up the curtain rod and stood across the room from it, marveling at the lack of excess holes that seem to be the hallmark of my little home improvement projects. That's when I noticed that the rod sagged in the middle. No problem, I thought, that's why they included extra brackets. There's a piece of wood that runs across the top of the windows that was a good candidate for the third bracket. Only it turned out to be about an inch higher than the other brackets, so the sag would have been replaced with a peak. Nobody will notice the slight dip in the middle, right?

This is not over yet. Next time... the curtains themselves.

Books: Small Town is quite entertaining so far. As I was handing in my boarding pass for the flight to Boston this evening, the gate agent asked me what I was reading. Did she really want to slow down the line while I told her?

Travel: Why is it that when you're delayed for a relatively short period of time when traveling that it seems like eons? Is there some high-pitched noise in airports that makes everyone anxious and twitchy? My flight took off about an hour and a half late this evening due to thunderstorms. I was perfectly comfortable waiting at the gate and in my seat on the plane, but it seemed as if galaxies were born and died in the time it took to get to Boston.