Who's Kyle?

I've spent the last, well, it feels like ages, but really it's only been 3 days (with Sunday off -- so Friday, Saturday, and today) laying down tile in my parent's basement library. Why, you ask? Well, the tale involves a bat, a broken pipe, and carpet that has been soggy one too many times.

See, last Saturday night, my parents were awakened by Shadow kitty going insane dancing here and there trying to catch...something. Turns out, the something was a bat. How did it get in the house? No one knows. Though Robbo has been experiencing similar infestations of late, so maybe the bats in this area have gone crazy. Regardless, the bat turned out to be a good thing, since in the midst of the chase, my dad happened to notice that the basement was flooding. A short investigation later showed that a flow control valve in the wall in the library had failed. So, he spent the morning sucking up water out of the carpet until such time as Tim and my sister and her hubby were able to go up and help with both bat extraction and more serious water damage control measures.

Now that the carpet has been expunged, the question arose as to what to put down in its stead and the decision for tile came about shortly thereafter. Mom mentioned that they would find someone to install it and I poopoohed that, saying I'd be happy to do it for them. Cause I generally enjoy installing tile.

Let me just say, that last phrase now has a major caveat - I enjoy installing tile on rooms the size of an average bathroom. An 11x17 room...maybe not quite so much.

But, the tile has all been happily glued in place and we now wait for the allotted 24 hour mastic drying time (though given our schedules this week, it'll be longer) and then the grout. Despite the flaws (cause oh there are flaws) I think it's actually looking pretty good and tinted grout covers a multitude of sins. When all is said and done and the book cases back in place, I think the room will be quite nice. I'm hoping that the next couple of days will be enough time for my wrists and elbows to stop vibrating to the frequency of our $80 tub saw that has done more cutting than $80 tub saws are probably supposed to see in their little lifetimes.

As to the title...all I could think about today while putting down the last squares was my 8th grade English teacher who was bound and determined to get us to use lay, lie, laid, etc. properly. And so one day she stood at the front of the room explaining and said, "I lay down. I laid tiles." and the resident smartass/bad boy (upon whom every girl in the class had a crush at some point of another throughout the year) piped up, "Who's Kyle?" We all snickered. The teacher was perplexed and then, on having it explained, rolled her eyes, smirked and said, "No one you'll ever know." Before she continued on (which is, I think, a necessary trait for those brave enough to teach in middle school.) Heh.