Nothing Says "Merry Christmas" Like a Little Wizardry

I'm not sure exactly what I did to get on this mailing list. Needless to say, everyone on my shopping list will be getting a Lord of the Rings collectors knife. At $125, it's a steal!

Seriously, though, what on earth did I buy to get on this list?

Happy Halloween

Learning your limits the icy-fresh way

I have learned my limit. It is 54 degrees. Because I'm from Maine, and because oil is expensive, I like to see how long I can make it without turning on the heat in the house. My goal was to make it to November, and if it weren't for a recent cold snap, I would have made it.

When I got home yesterday, I noticed that the heat downstairs was a mere 54 degrees. I waved the white flag and bumped up the thermostat. It is now set at a balmy 58 degrees.

Photo Friday: Medicine Cabinet

This week's assignment made me realize that I'm one tick short of being a big weirdo. Time to clean out the medicine cabinet. I present to you the itemized contents of our medicine cabinet. To be fair to Brooke, everything in here is mine, so I guess I get to keep the weirdo award all to myself.

1. Old contact prescription. Usually I end up getting a stronger prescription every time I go to the eye doctors. But, in the unlikely event that my eyes improve, I'll have fresh contacts.
2. Afrin. Is it really as addictive as they say? The bottle warned me not to use it more than three days in a row. What exactly happens on the fourth day?
3. Henna hair dye. It makes me smell like I've rolled around in the woods. Unfortunately, it doesn't really color my hair. So, to summarize: stinky, no color.
4. Eyeglass cleaner and wipes. I have no idea where the giant box of eyeglass tissue came from.
   
5. Last October I got a tick bite on my back. Brooke pulled out the tick, but couldn't get the whole thing. We decided to save the tick in a jar of alcohol. You know, in case my back fell off and the doctor needed to see the cause. I would say that it's probably safe to dispose of this jar, but that would involve touching it, which no one wants to do.
6. Red food coloring. When our toilet was leaking, I put red food coloring in the tank to find out where the leak was. The food coloring made its way into the bowl, so I replaced the flapper. Good times.
7. Wrenches from fixing the toilet.
   

No thanks, I filled up on carrots

It appears that I should not quit my day job to become a farmer. While i did have a bounty of lettuce, my carrots did not fare as well. Apparently there is a downside of planting carrots way too late, and trying to grow them from seed. I present to you my carrot harvest:


Baby carrots seem to be really popular. Maybe these will catch on!

The Gayest LCD Monitor Of All

So. I was visiting one of my vendors' websites, and came across this photo on the front page. Is it Gay Pride already?

Pick your own!

We went apple picking this weekend. There's a fairly short window for really good apple picking in Maine, and this past weekend was about peak time for picking. I was surprised by the advertisement for crabmeat rolls, though. It just didn't seem to fit with the whole Orchard theme. Was I to believe people were picking their own crabmeat rolls off a crabmeat tree?



And proof that the apple didn't fall far from the tree...

Photo Friday: Buttons

Oh, I know. You thought I'd forgotten about Photo Friday. Well, you're wrong, sucker!

This week's theme was buttons. I decided to share with you my swanky shirt, complete with super swanky buttons. If this is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

I Smell Like Drywall Screws

When your wall isn't dry, just add drywall! Thanks to our recent septic invasion, some drywall in our finished basement had to be fixed.

Step one: Take out the wet drywall. Thanks to the new hole in the wall, our cats had to be sequestered upstairs. This is because I could just see our cats trying to explore the wall. I did not like the thought of them getting caught in the wall (I knew it would be Shelly. One time she managed to wedge herself in the box spring of a mattress. This time, it would be something to the effect of "Shelly, knock 3 times so momma knows where you are!") The cats did not appear to mind the lack of access to the downstairs. However, I was not excited about having to move their litterboxes upstairs into our bathroom. This increased my motivation to get the wall fixed.


Step two: Make the hole even bigger! I was extra cautious and shut off the power to the area. I knew I'd have to be wrangling around an open outlet box. Plus, I wasn't sure exactly where the wires were in the wall.


Step 3: Fill the hole with more drywall. Yes, the drywall is green. I opted for Greenboard. I don't think it's any more environmentally friendly than regular drywall, but it is marketed as moisture-resistant. I hope to not have any more septic dysfunction, but I figured for the extra 3 bucks, I'd go with the green stuff. Despite the fun appearance of having a chalkboard on the bottom of the wall, I will follow up with taping, mudding, primer, and a coat of paint.


As you can see, a good time was had by all.