I like the way they do things at Downton Abbey, so I've decided to use that model to run my own house.  For one thing, at Downton, there's no landscaping out front, because shrubs can make a house look like it's trying too hard.  Plus, bushes are notoriously hard to care for, right? So why waste time on them when there are newspapers to iron! Anyway, I've had all of our shrubberies replaced with gravel, like the Granthams did, because nothing sounds more like rich people than an approaching-car-on-gravel sound effect.

I'm lucky because we live in a deck house, which has an upside down layout, with the girls' bedrooms downstairs.  So too bad for them, because at Downton Abbey, the downstairs people do everything for the upstairs people.  My favorite thing so far is to look in the mirror and pout about stuff while Margot brushes and braids my hair before bed. Greta is doing that ruler thing to make sure our forks, forks, forks, spoons, spoons and knives are lined up correctly.  She is truly missing the useful work she did as a nurse's aid when we turned this place into a hospital during the Falmouth Road Race.

Too bad for us though, because, just like on Downton Abbey, all this splendor is coming to an end when the downstairs people go back to school after Spring Break.