It was actually cold on the porch this morning.  Felt kinda good.  The kids went to the twins game with Auntie Pam this afternoon and I found myself with hours to kill all by myself for the first time all summer.  Naturally, the Picket Fence called, needing me to come pick up some furniture that needs painting.  When I picked up the table, it seems one of my favorite customers had some ideas about a bench he wants me to design a new cover for.  The bench is a gorgeous little ornate, antique thing with an oval back.  He wants a peacock theme.  Anyway, I wound up visiting his house again.

You think Versailles is a palace in France?  No, it's  a rambler in Interlachen.  Every inch of it has been redone.  From the outside, your first impression is that it's a neat, large, brick rambler.  Then you notice the grounds are more than simply beautifully kept.  They're artistic.  With more art than the sculpture garden downtown.  For my money, much better art, too.  The gardens are simply gorgeous and the statuary is all so tastefully arranged that they don't hit you in the face.  They look like they grew there.

Inside it's a different story.  Inside, you have no doubt that every single aspect of the place has been changed to the owner's taste, which is ornate, glittery and over the top.  Liberace would love this place.  The room in which the antique bench I'm designing is to go is the new foyer.  It's long, narrow and has a coved ceiling.  Three crystal chandeliers march down the length of the ceiling, which has been gilded.

That's right, baby, why paint the ceiling when you can use gold leaf??

While I was there, the fellow designing the new peacock runner for the floor was also there.  The bench is at the end of the room, standing in front of a floor to ceiling picture window, between two six foot tall, antique, gilded statues of blackamoors.  (It's okay to say that because they're antiques.)

Finally, I got back to my empty, quiet house and did something so decadent and self indulgent that I haven't done it in years; right there, in the middle of the afternoon, I watched an episode of the X-files.

"I never lie.  I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation." - Fox Mulder.

Josie got home late.  She had gone up to the best pizza place in the metro, Frankie's, for dinner and then to Meg's.  She came home talking about the movie they had been watching.

"It was soooo funny!  It was just the best movie, I hope I can see the rest of it sometime.  It belongs to Mary Jeanne and it was called Some Like it Hot."

"About two guys who dress like girls and hide out in an all girl band?"

"Have you seen it?"

"It's one of the funniest movies ever made and we own it."

That info made her night.  We'll watch it tomorrow.  There are few things I enjoy more as a parent than introducing my kids to classic movies that I love.  If she likes that one, she'll like Monkeybusiness, too.

 

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