Sunday afternoon

Just installed a new dimmer switch in the kitchen and a new GFCI outlet in the bathroom. Both had gone bad. The light switch was wasting money, since the lights would go on and off at whim. (This started a couple of weeks ago and was getting progressively worse.) At one point, I had everything put back together and the lights wouldn't go on (after I'd tested the switch before putting everything back together). It turns out that in the process of putting everything back together, one of the wires had come loose.

The bathroom receptacle was a bitch to wire. It's upside down but I can fix that later. I needed to cut the green ground wire from the old receptacle and don't have any wire cutters. So I used a toenail clipper and then a steak knife to strip off the plastic covering so I could screw it onto the new one. That worked.

[Later] It was a real bitch getting it right-side up. (Of course, it works either way, but I wanted to get it right.) Some of the wires inside are so stiff they would hardly budge.

Well, those chores are done. I hadn't touched electricity in years. A couple of times I was about ready to throw up my hands and call a handyman. Such as when one of the wires on the switch came loose, and I couldn't remember which wires it got connected to. I kind of guessed. I figured the worst that could happen would be that the breaker would trip. (At which point I'd be prepared to try a different configuration.) I had visions of not having light in the kitchen for days. I even yelled at Lucky. He was playing with the screws on the kitchen counter and knocked one of them on the (darkened) floor.

The pork chops came out good. I baked them in Campbell's mushroom soup, celery soup, low-fat sour cream, onion soup mix, Worcestershire sauce, etc. (what they marinated in overnight). (I used the new (?) low-fat versions of the cream soups--pretty tasty.)

Now I think I'll get cleaned up and go somewhere for a tea and a smoothie.