I'm so excited ...

That I just can't hide it!

I've been giddy ALL DAY because the fence-builders were here. And they built the fence! And it looks freaking fantastic! And it even SMELLS great, too (freshly cut cedar)! See:

Privacy is restored!

Is it weird that I'm so ecstatic about a fence?

But this fence is a big deal. It's been over two weeks [Seriously! Two weeks!] since we ripped out our neighbours' fence without their permission, and I've been more than eager to restore our neighbours' privacy. Each day that they were forced to gaze into our barren, chopped-up back yard was one more day that I felt guilty at having ripped apart their property. Today, I hope they will come home from work, look outside and mutter something along the lines of, "Well, thank the lord, at least we don't have to look at those bastards anymore."

Yah. Not getting my hopes up too high. Although we did have a very cordial e-mail from them earlier this week (after I e-mailed them to give them an idea of the timeline for the fence). He wrote,

"Of course we will be happy when the fence is up since we have been used to more privacy, but I don't think a delay of an extra week or two is going to be an issue...We wish you much joy with your new patio and with some luck, you still might have a chance to enjoy it and your swimming pool this year before the cold weather arrives."

Nice, eh? They may come to our eventual "pool-warming party"* after all. Who knows?

So, quite aside from the fence looking flipping beautiful, it really gives me a lot of peace of mind. Phew!

Aaaand! As if the fence were not enough excitement for one post, we also finally got the corner cabinets for our dining room! Yup. My brain is about to burst from happy-happiness. Aaaand - almost all of our china and crystal fit into the two cabinets - a minor miracle. Must be some kind of wrinkle in the space-time continuum when you open those pretty glass doors.

And, look: see those pretty curves cut into the glass doors? That's my kind of detail.

And last, but certainly not least, in my long list of overwhelmingly blissful events this week, I had dinner last night with my very dear friend, Heather. Heather and I were housemates in university, were each others' bridesmaids, and have stayed in touch over many thousands of miles, several time zones, and life changes. Heck. She is one of the few people besides my husband who knew me back when I was skinny!

Anyway, we hadn't seen each other in way too long; both of us living outside of Canada for the past few years made it hard for paths to cross. But, being with Heather is always like putting on your favourite sweater: comfortable, just right. So I had a fun, grown-up, girls-only evening with a dear friend. What's not to love about that?

There have been some less-than-stellar moments this week (first week back to school for the kids = chaos), but I am going to choose to ride this high as long as it lasts and ignore those Debbie-Downer moments.

*The pool will, in fact, be cold. We won't have a gas line installed until mid-October. Thus the pool will not be heated this year. But it'll be pretty to look at.