335 Under construction.

I've made a sign for the bathroom, "Under construction" and have taped three wallpaper samples to the wall--all with cats. I think my favorite is the cat lying on a shelf of books. All the books have cat-type titles, there is a stuffed mouse, and a slip of paper under one of the books reads, "to purr or not to purr." All the samples are in green tones because I don't want to replace the carpeting.

Removing wallpaper in a small bathroom is no small feat. When I removed the fan cover (oh yuck look at all that dirt!) I lost the screw, which was enormous. Retracing my steps, I remembered my husband came in just as I pulled down the cover, and then it was gone. I climbed down from the ladder to hear his story about seeing Susan's garden, how wonderful it was, and then visiting her neighbor's garden. Then I looked around and the screw was gone, although the fan cover and screw driver were still in my hand. I checked my pockets, behind the toilet, in the murky, pastey water, and in my pockets again. No screw.

I checked the plastic bag with all the wet, gooey strips of wallpaper. Nothing. I kept wiping and scraping. Where is that silly screw? I took the bag outside and went through it two more times. No screw. Since I had been tossing scraps into the bag, I was sure I had probably done that automatically when I was interrupted. Finally, I took the bag outside again, with another bag, and transferred each sticky scrap of wallpaper into the other bag. Finally, I found the screw in the bottom of the bag, inside a folded corner.

I'm having a dinner party Friday night. I'm sure the bathroom will be a topic of conversation.