Balls In The Air

o canada!

Today is Canada Day.

I had planned another post for today, but instead I'm going to give a shout-out to our northern neighbors.  I've only traveled there once back in 2000 but loved the cities I visited (Vancouver and Victoria) and would love to go back.

My favorite knitter/writer, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, is also from Canada and every year she writes a post about her counry-- and I've learned lots of interesting facts from those posts.  So, without further ado, I give you Canada Links:

Stephanie's 2008 post

Stuff you probably didn't know about Canada

Canada A to Z(ed)

And last but certainly the most important-- Debunking Canadian health care myths.  A non-Stephanie link, but certainly timely in light of our country's health care debate...

diy: interrupted

As a single woman/mom and a homeowner for over a decade I was fearless about fixing things around the house.  No money for a plumber and a constantly-running-toilet?  No problem!  Give this girl a half hour on the Internets and a trip to Home Depot and I was diving in with careless abandon.

I briefly lost my mojo not long after pairing up with the Spouse (at the time he was Husband-Elect) but it returned with a vengeance when the dryer lost a knob.

Okay, so the dryer lost a knob, but we could still start it by using a pair of pliers to grip the remaining plastic stub that was formerly covered with a knob.  But then a Child Who Shall Remain Nameless decided to use the pliers in a non-careful way... and snapped off the plastic stub, rendering it non-stubby. Which led to my using my Kick-Ass Cordless Drill to drill a very thin hole into the remaining plastic below the face of the dryer, screwing a phillips head screw into that hole, and using a screwdriver inserted into the screw to start the dryer.  Which, I'll have you know, worked like a charm.

When the husband saw me heading to the laundry room with drill in hand and a determined look on my face, he quietly asked, "Will you please unplug the dryer first?"

He's learning.

So anyway, I saw a great website this morning that totally reminded me of that story: There, I Fixed It.  This site has photos submitted by people I consider to be My Tribe.  Be sure to read each post's title (the font is a little small) because the photos are not always obvious as to the DIY-ers intent.  But if we still had that dryer, I'd totally be sending in a photo.

busy day

What happened with Sunday being a day of rest?

I woke up this morning highly motivated.  Weird.  I had planned to go to the new farmer's market and not much else, but ended up cleaning downstairs, deep cleaning the kitchen, doing 6 loads of laundry, steam cleaning the bedroom carpet, changing sheets/towels, and puppy-proofing the majority of the house / removing puppy barricades. 

WTF?

The puppy is now free to move from the ground floor to upstairs at will.  She's pretty funny to watch on the stairs-- her little bum gets ahead of her front and she almost side-winds down the steps.  Added bonus: she's pretty worn out even at not-quite-9:00.  Yippee!!!

Speaking of worn out, I'm tired.  Tired but happy... and I have yummy crisp sheets calling my name.

r.i.p.

I want to remember the cute kid with the sweet voice and the cool dance moves.

I want to remember the King of Pop, and my younger cousins who sang along with Thriller, imitating every move, kick, and spin.

I want to remember watching TV the night that he did the moonwalk for the first time.

And I grieve for those happy memories, and a guy that never had a chance to be "normal."

R.I.P. Michael Jackson