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3-27-58
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Tues.
Thank you for thinking of us and the baby, for the sweater
you are knitting and the other things you mentioned. He is going
to be a wealthy little kid, since, slowly but surely his earthly
goods are piling up. Yesterday, Jim's boss gave him a gumwood cabinet
that is perfectly suited for baby goodies. It is as sturdy as
the rock of Gibralter, and I can't imagine what it was originally
intended for. Bob used it to store tools and parts in, but it is in
nice condition and completely unfinished. We are having trouble
deciding whether to stain it and bring out the grain or paint it and
put some of Jim's Dennis the Menace-type sketches on it. In the
meantime we are scraping the varnish and dust off of our oak
bookcases. Currently, I have it sitting on papers in the kitchen and
every time we go by the section we are working on, we take a couple
of scrapes at it. The rubbing alcohol works nicely to loosen the
top layer of shellac, varnish, airplane dope, or whatever it is.
It looks as though everytime it needed dusting, they slapped another
coat on to make it shine.

The rain is still coming down, off and on, and the clouds piled
up in the East and West do not promise a permanent respite, even
though the man on the radio hinted at it a few hours ago. Last night
when he got home, Jim mowed the back lawn and picked up Jeff's
elephantine efforts, rain or no rain. It was getting pretty hard to
walk out there.

Chick was over last night, to see our bookcases, and compare
furnishing notes, as they are moving into another house that they
are buying, in a week or do. She got a fabulous deal on a rug, and
her successes in the bargain dept. are really a temptation, but we
are going to hold off a little on the furtniture dept. for a while,
until we acquire some woodworking tools and a little more room for
the finished fruits of our effort and inspiration. Jeff is evidently
having one of his attacks of insecurity, because he is currently
trying to crawl up into my lap. He has psychological problems, since
he seems to have been so badly mistreated by his former owners. We
are bringing him out of it, slowly but surely, but he has his moods,
and since yesterday, something seems to have disturbed him. He has
forgotten that he is not allowed in the kitchen except for meals, and
this morning, he did the completely unexpected, refusing his breakfast.
He's too much like a little horse to consider it, but I think he wants
to be cuddled. He's funny, if I sit down, he doesn't want to lie at
my feet, rather on them. His feelings are hurt if Jim doesn't greet
him right away when he gets home. We wonder just how he is going to
feel about No-Name, but we are plotting a pretty good plot to make him
feel like No-Name belongs to him, too. He definitely thinks that we
belong to him.

Now I haveto go Avon-ing and tempt the ladies with the latest in
Smell-wells. Yesterday I went to beauty conference and learned how
to preserve the complexion and keep the bloom of youth forever. With
the other ladies, I put 50 weight Avon on and wiped it off, and learned
what the complete collection of preservatives consists of. I will
gladly offer it to my hopeful customers, but I notice that Avon sells
several superior forms of soap, and I think that I will stick to that
and not hope for miracles of preservation, since the lady who conducted
the conference has a suspiciously crepey chin. Mummies, after all
are the most advanced examples of what they lady was hopinh to achieve.

Love, Marcia