This morning’s sunrise. Purple and gold.

Yesterday was an time-suck of a day, trying and trying to get through to NY State of Health, which administers the Affordable Care Act here in New York state. The deadline for enrolling is today. Whether due to high demand or a faulty phone system or both, every time we tried to call, we would go through all the commands and be put on hold, terrible 70’s movie soundtrack music playing in the background, only to be cut off. Over and over again.

I was a wee bit panicked because we had to add some information – like the fact that I’m starting to get Social Security this month (Yikes!) and that Don will be changing the policy next June when he is eligible for Medicare (Double Yikes!) – and that had to be done with a person on the other end of the line. Finally (and take my advice – this often works) I tweeted them. As I looked down the list of tweets and replies, I saw that many, many, MANY people were having the same problem. They finally responded, asking me to leave a Direct Message with our phone number, etc. and they would have a Rep call. And lo and behold, they did.

I find the whole thing exhausting. (This is not a political discussion by the way. I know many people who are finally able to get health insurance after many years without it. And it’s the law of the land.) Anyway, it isn’t easy for freelancers like us, because they want to know where we’ll be working in 2016 and we have no idea. So whatever number they come up with isn’t accurate and then we’re supposed to keep them informed about changes in our income, and it’s a pain in the tush, because we forget to. We ended up having to pay a penalty on this year’s taxes because our income changed. And we’ll have to do it next year, as well.

I’m very happy one of us is getting Medicare next year. I never thought I would say I was looking forward to it, but I am. Even under the Affordable Health Care Act, we pay a lot of money every month for insurance – more than we can afford.

Enough of that.

This arrived in the mail yesterday.

I snagged it for $9.99 on eBay.

It’s the Clematis pattern. I really like it.

Interesting side note: Don really likes Roseville Pottery. He likes it even more than the McCoy. He likes it so much that he wants this piece on the coffee table in the living room, where he can see it from his chair.

The other side.

I am in love with this stuff. But I have to back off from eBay for a while.

Thank you for all the comments yesterday on the magazine article. You guys have watched the dollhouse evolve over the years, step by step, piece by piece. You have an investment in the whole process. And to be perfectly honest, knowing you were out there, anxious to see updates and cheering me on, was often the push I needed.

So thank you.

Happy (IKEA) Tuesday.