Bridge, Tiles and a nominal first birthday

[lathany]

Last weekend was one of the busiest since the twins came home.

Saturday morning, Chris Tomkins phoned. The last time I saw or spoke to him was at his wedding (last spring) so there was a certain amount of news and general life updates exchanged. He is concentrating on Red Emperor (the new company he is running with Mo, Rick and others) and their on-line game appears to have reached testing stages. Remembering the nightmare that was Corporation, I asked a few questions, but decided to just watch from a safe distance. We also talked about starting families, book writing (Chris' table top -> book project is currently taking second place to Red Emperor), Clans and jobs. Life, in general, appears to be going pretty well for him.

The afternoon and evening were devoted to Bridge. The company (ealuscerwen and Bella) were good, but the hands were rather dull. There seemed to be little scope for good defense play, pretty much every finesse made and (major whinge) I averaged rather less than ten points per hand.

Sunday was the Great Floor Re-Tiling. We spent most of the morning ripping up the old floor tiles, to discover that the previous owners were very fond of nailing tiles down. We also found some older tiles under the first set (apparently the first rule of re-tiling is "always remove the old tiles"). This added to the generally low opinion we had of them already (as home decorators) developed by the general room colour schemes and previous DIY efforts.

By lunchtime we were able to start putting the hardboard down and, finally, the tiles themselves. We have now placed all the full tile pieces and I have made a start on the various edge bits. Still plenty of edge bits and corners to go, though. However, the floor is looking pretty good, even if it scrunches slightly in places.

In the evening we treated ourselves to some fish and chips. At which point, chrestomancy and his banana-yellow bike appeared. Consequently, I made an interesting discovery about biking preparation. It actually takes about ten minutes to put all the leathers on before you can even consider going near the bike itself. This reminded me a little of going out for a walk with the twins - socks, coats, pushchair, rain cover, etc, etc. I am not sure that the Gibbon approved of the comparison, though.

Today is the anniversary of my due date. This means it is our best estimate of when the twins are biologically one year old. Looking at them this morning, they are much closer to their one year milestones than either of us would have ever believed a year ago. Beatrice is crawling, Ryan is cruising. Both are talking a little (or perhaps I should say shouting baby talk) and are getting better at amusing themselves. I would be happier if Ryan was eating solids and finger foods or if both were using cups by now. But these sorts of worries are much closer to the normal run-of-the-mill parents panics than I could have hoped for.

And... just five more days to go.

Comments

Correction

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

The tiles weren't nailed down.

The f***ing hardboard layer was nailed down (with 1.5" nails instead of panel pins), then the self-adhesive tiles stuck over the top. Yes, that's as bad as it sounds.

Big up to lathany for helping out - particularly since she turned out to be far better at the whole thing than anyone who's never used a Stanley knife before has any right to be. That and girls who can handle knives are hot.