Willem! Stop reading this, Mr. No-Self-Control. You promised. Leave my blog alone.

Seriously. STOP. Log off and back away. I understand, it'll be a surprise no matter when you find out. Shut up and turn off the computer.

Okay?

Okay.

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Willem left this morning with the kids... for SIX DAYS. Yes, bask in my glory, I have six days alone in my own house. This is 2 months after 10 days in Paris without the children... not that I enjoy being separated from my family, but, well, I kind of do.

So rather than give in to the screaming primal urge to be just as slothlike as one can possibly be in their absence, I've gotten all social and motivated. I'm going out to dinner - a nice dinner, here - tomorrow night, and possibly joining friends for a cookout on Sunday, and planning to visit another friend on Monday.

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Oh, my God, Willem, seriously, this is your last chance. STOP READING. You don't fake surprised well enough to get away with reading the blog this week and still coming home next week without me knowing.

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Anyway, as for the motivated, I'd decided quite a while ago that the wallpaper in the kitchen just had to go... especially the second horrible pattern that we found when we put in a laundry room and moved the refrigerator over the winter. Within moments of the minivan backing out of the driveway, I'd wandered over to just peek a little, see how firmly the wallpaper was attached.

Turns out, not very. Half of the room is naked, and I'm sort of on pause for the moment until I can get help here to get the cupboards down to strip the other half. I'll start priming and paint shopping and refrigerator shopping in the meantime.

I actually did remember to take Before pictures this time - most home improvement projects see me 75% of the way in and then muttering because I forgot again - so if I can figure out how to get them off my old camera (of course, for once, Willem remembered to take the good camera with him - not like he'll use it), then I'll post them here.

So that I can share this all with someone. And so that someone knows why, when my unconscious body is recovered from underneath a huge, steaming pile of flowery wallpaper.