Adventures in hardware

We and our contractor are scrambling to get our basement guest suite remodel finished in time for my parents arrival this Thursday. As I speak the bathroom tile is being installed. We're hoping to get even the towel rails and other sundries up before the first honored guests of the new room arrive, but had not actually found the time to pick these out.

Before kids, we remodeled our main bathroom, and were mesmerized the sheer choice of towel hanging options. We put considerable thought into selecting them. Oh how times change. This Saturday was "Mission towel rails", and we selected the Home Depot Expo store in Emeryville as a likely place for one stop shopping for our needs. The morning had begun well; geekydaddy and geekygirl had fetched bagels and lattes for our breakfast. An outing to a coffee shop guarantees a chocolate milk for Geekygirl, so she was quite lively but manageable as we left the house.

Forgetting that most of the world does not get up at 7.00am on Saturdays, we got across the bay in record time, and pulled into the Home Depot parking lot before the store had even opened. Geekybaby was sleeping, but we didn't really want to sit in the car for 20 minutes. So we looped around to Peets Coffee for another coffee. And of course, another chocolate milk and a slice of banana bread to share, just to get those sugar levels nice and high.

Back to home depot, we found the store open, and made a beeline for the bathroom section. The store was quiet, but as Geekygirl span through the aisles wanting to climb into all the bathtubs, I began to regret that second chocolate milk. Alternately corralling geekygirl into the areas of the store where she could cause the least damage, and gazing like deer in headlights at the walls of rails, little glass shelves and toilet paper holders in myriad finishes Geekydaddy and I made some selections. Finding an assistant we started to jot down what we needed, then a chance remark revealed that we had been mistakenly looking at the stuff that needed to be advance ordered, and not in the 'take home right now because we need it installed yesterday' section.

Finally redirected to the right section, Geekydaddy and I must have forgotten who was in charge of our sugar crazed toddler (though I think it was him), because we turned to see her right at the top of one of those movable stairways used to reach stock from high shelves, looking down at the store from about 10 feet in the air.

I caught glances form the parents of the well behaved children, and managed to speak gently without revealing the panic I felt seeing her up there. She did come down as soon as she was asked. We were standing right in front of some perfectly acceptable towel rails, so I grabbed those off the rack, and we headed out of the store. She fell alseep in the car, of course!