The ceiling is fixed

The before version can be viewed here. It really is an improvement and Brad tells me that the drywall guy said that once it dries it will be barely noticeable if noticeable at all. As you can see in the photo (taken at 10 p.m.), it is slightly darker than the rest of the ceiling, but it has been lightening throughout the day.

I have come down with or am still battling a cold. I thought I was getting better, but on Saturday it turned from minor sniffling to a husky cough and sultry voice. It sounds fun, but it is kicking me in the butt.

Anyway, when the drywall guy showed up during the 5 minutes that Brad was unavailable all morning, I had to climb out of bed and answer the door. He apologized for waking me up. I coughed directly on him. That was followed by a mostly incoherent exchange about the light switch — "That one. No, that one. The other one. Come toward me. Go back. Wait. No, the other one. It takes a second." Then he mumbled something about a ladder and went back outside.

Once Brad reappeared, I left him to keep an eye on the drywall guy and went back to bed. I must have coughed my head off for close to an hour before I finally fell asleep again. Brad woke me up as he left for work and said that the ceiling was fixed and the guy was gone. I finally got up for the day around 1 p.m. but spent the majority of the afternoon/evening on the couch. It is no fun to be sick on my day off.

Totally unrelated:

Since most of our Christmas festivities were done during our trip to Iowa last month, I have only one picture from Christmas Day — Brad and the silicone tagine that he got from me. And I didn't even realize that I had this photo until I took pictures of the ceiling this evening and it was still on the camera. Bradley's been too busy to try out his tagine yet, but assures me that he's totally psyched about it.

For those of you unfamiliar with tagines, here's what dictionary.com has to say: A tajine or tagine is a type of dish found in the North African cuisines of Morocco,which is named after the special pot in which it is cooked. The traditional tajine pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay which is sometimes painted. (I purchased a silicone one for Brad because it is considerably less expensive and I don't know how often he'll use it.) It consists of two parts; a base unit which is flat and circular with low sides, and a large cone or dome-shaped cover that rests inside the base during cooking. The cover is so designed to promote the return of all condensation to the bottom. With the cover removed, the base can be taken to the table for serving.