About a week before Christmas Kelley began taking a much more active interest in noises she hears. Since then she hits us with a barrage of "what's that?" questions every time she hears noises made by something or someone she cannot see.

She's finally getting better at answering herself when it's a car, or dishwasher, say, but she's still inquisitive when it's a one-off sound, as when someone drops something, or the neighbors use a chainsaw.


We had a busier-than-expected weekend. Gaming with Christina and Marcel on Friday night, then work on preparing the house to sell. First up: dealing with the large paint holes in the guest bathroom. It's now repainted, but we need to re-stencil the critters in there. We accomplished a few other tasks too, like stripping paint off the front door jambs, bracing the patio trellis boards, looking up house painters and general contractors, etc.

The unexpected part came Saturday night. I opened up the door to the water heater closet and found water streaming out of the tank! Luckily it drained away under the house. Unfortunately the leak means a new tank, which is less thrilling since we plan to move so soon. Of course we can say the house has a new one, but people don't buy for those kinds of appliances like they do for stoves and dishwashers.