Samir, the painter, is here today. While I can and want to paint the walls in our house (and it’s only going to take me, I estimate, ten years to finish), I recognized that I needed help with a couple of ceilings, namely the one in the large living room and the one in our cathedral-slope-ceiling bedroom. So when my neighbor mentioned that she had found a good painter, I snagged him for these two items.

Samir is adorable. He is so friendly and is a wonderful story teller. He calls me “Senorita.” He told me how when he first came to the U.S. from Mexico, he worked as a day laborer when he could for a dollar an hour. Then he worked his way up, eventually painting the homes of such stars as Tom Hanks to become the wealthy painter he is today. Let me quantify wealthy in Samir’s terms. He described how he likes to go to Rodeo Drive with a roll of ten thousand dollars and buy shoes and watches and such. He said he has four homes and lives with his family in Eagle Rock. And he told me he bought both of his daughters Lamborghinis.

I stopped by the home of the neighbor who referred Samir yesterday to ask if she would be around today, since I have to go into the high school for a few hours and wanted Samir to have someone to contact in case of emergency. Samir had worked in her house for several weeks, and she had become his friend. She thought the Lamborghini stuff might be an exaggeration. But she praised him lavishly as a terrific guy and stellar painter. “I wouldn’t worry at all about leaving him alone in your house for the day, Kristan,” she said. “He’s very trustworthy.” I explained that I wasn’t worried one bit, seeing as how the jewelry on his arms was worth far more than anything he could steal from our house.

Linus has really taken to him, so I fully expect an orange, furry paint job.