Bowser de Medici Commissions A Palace

Since Teri suggests that Lorenzo the Magnificent, who also suffered from gout, was big on commissioning grand schemes whilst resting his toe on a velvet pillow -- John is following suit by OK'ing the renovation of the backyard shed.  Our friendly, ever cheerful Mark The Builder will be starting work on Monday morning.  He will strip the building of its lowered ceiling loft and the unnecessary built-ins; replace the rotting floor and wallboards (installing insulation where/if needed); add an insulated door; and paint as required.  Probably there are a few other little things he has promised to do to it.  But he gave us a fixed-price estimate, and promises to have the work completed by Labor Day weekend.  John is adamant that it will not be designated as The Doghouse, however much I would love it.  Right now he is liking "The Studio," which is better, to my mind, than "The Outhouse" -- his original concept.  Whatever.  It's his palace and he can call it Pitti, or Grande, or whatever he likes, and decorate it with all the electronics and wires and weird posters and beat-up old metal file cabinets he may choose.

Meanwhile, Mrs. deMedici plans to get all his "shit" (thank you, Marie!) out of the guest room ASAP (i.e. in early September) and then will have total control over the planning and execution of that Retreat -- it shall be a sort of monastery guest-room for pilgrims when they wander by, but is to be for me, at long last, "a room of one's own."

Meanwhile, for you Anglophiles, Roman Catholics, and movie buffs out there in blogland, we can recommend the new version of "Brideshead Revisited."  I loaded Gouty One into the Honda sedan chair and transported him down the hill to see this gorgeous film at the Santa Cruz Palazzo de Art-Films on Thursday afternoon.  It was a fair treat for the eyes, quite decent acting -- and the screenplay was by Leenie's script guy, Andrew Davies.  Check it out.

La la, how the life goes on!