Purgatory

Mary Ellen and Katka and I have satisfied the temporal punishment due to all our sins.

And yours too.

You're welcome.

Huh?

A couple weeks ago, Father Tuozzolo called:
"Dan! Somebody gave me a really big doll house. Can you use it?"
Dan: " Sure, Father. We [CHO] will find somebody who can use it."
Tuz: "Good, Dan. I think it might need a little work."

After I hang up the phone, Mary Ellen tells me "Just this morning, Cassie said she wants to get a doll house for Abby." And, as it turned out, Father's doll house was way too big and way too unfinished for any of the CHO people. So we decided that we'd finish it and give it to Abby for her birthday. (To which Tuz says, "Fine!")

"Way too unfinished," you say? Yes, way too unfinished, I say:

Click the picture for a larger image.

Mary Ellen and Katka worked very hard, and I worked a little, to get it ready for Abby's 7th birthday (February 4).

It was much harder than I thought. For me, working with little things is torture. Clarification: The doll house itself is big, but it's made up of lots of tiny, hard to reach (and even harder to handle) pieces. For example, hinges for a door are miniscule -- and pins to attach the hinges are microscopic. For someone like me, who isn't comfortable working with anything smaller than a 2 x 4 x 8, it was agony.

We lucked out when Cassie said that we wouldn't be giving Abby her big presents on the 4th; we'd have a few more days to work on it -- until the afternoon of 7th. Later, another stay: We'd wait until the evening of the 7th. (Just a few hours difference, but every minute counted. We wound up working until 4:30 that day.)

The result:

Click the picture for a larger image.

The best thing -- the only good thing -- about all this? Abby loves it! Forget all that purgatory nonsense. Abby's joy -- I think that's the right word for it -- at seeing the doll house made all the construction problems fade to nothing.