A New Day = Acupu, Chili Hot Chocolate, and Construction

First, thank you all for your comments, both on the blog and facebook (and, of course, comments messaged privately to me), and telephone calls of concern from last night's post. It really made me feel comforted. While my ear wasn't much better this morning, I righted what I needed to right, got some acupuncture and then some chicken tortilla soup, and now I feel much better and the ringing has subsided. The acupuncture is always fantastic, but today was better than usual. I literally fell asleep on the table, feeling immediate relief from my stress and anxiety. It's magic, I swear, or at least Susannah Pitman from Balance Acupuncture is. I have a team holding me together here, and Susannah is one of the four professionals I cannot live without (Megan, you are one of them, too).

As I mentioned, I came home to an open house last night -- no roof or exterior walls on my son's bedroom. The house was cold, and things have been kicked up, so I've been feeling congested, due most probably to the dust dispersing. I have to say, though, that my contractor and his crew -- The Goldsmith Company -- has done an amazing job of being both clean and efficient. I cannot imagine construction going any better. Still, ripping out walls and floors creates a bit of a mess. If you watch Ghost Hunters, you know that they say that old energy gets stirred up during construction. While I have yet to see a ghost or feel a presence, I have seen a bit of dust.

When I left for my trip to Florida, there was a dumpster in my driveway but not much else. Everyday, W would update me on the progress, and take photos. In the first two days, the room had been gutted and then the roof taken off. On the third day, today, the house has been closed and framed out. I am so excited. Check it out...

Gary Goldsmith does amazing work. The dumpster is for my job. The POD in the background isn't.
It's my neighbor's storage POD from their puff back that occurred last March (almost a year ago).
I bet my dumpster will be gone before their pod. Let's see...

I called Gary to thank him at the amazing progress his crew has made. It's so unbelievable. Seeing the place closed up has given me so much hope.

After bringing my son home from school, we did the usual, and had hot cocoa together. He's been drinking this amazing Chocolate Truffle hot cocoa that we got at Dash of Thyme a few weeks ago. I've been drinking it, too, but finally had a chance to try a new one that they just got in (actually, I bought three tins of it the night before I left for Florida). It's three chili hot cocoa, and I was hoping it would taste like Mexican hot chocolate.

It's really top shelf. You are supposed to make it with hot milk, but I used hot water to fill it about 70% full, mixed it really well, then added whole milk (cold). The verdict? Outrageous! It's spicy hot cocoa (spicy in a cinnamony sort of way) just like the Mexican version I drink at Raymond's in Montclair. I am so glad that I got three tins. It's my afternoon snack, and the hot cocoa itself, for 2.5 T is just 80 calories, so that plus the milk isn't such a bad snack. I will be drinking it all winter long.