Inspiration on Her Arm

It was my cousin's daughter's first birthday and I wanted to make something special. When you're skilled at so many crafting areas, it makes it rather difficult to decide what to do. Christine joined me and my girls roaming the craft store isles. After more than half an hour of searching I'd gotten as far as picking out an unpainted rocking horse. With the horse tucked under my arm, the rest of my party might've felt a pang of relief, thinking that at last, they might make it out of the store. To their dismay, I hunkered down on the paint isle.

I knew if I waited long enough, inspiration would come to me, though I had no idea it was going to be tattooed on a pregnant woman's arm. "That's it! I think I should do it Ed Hardy style. Colors, what colors?" I asked, Christine and I both eying the pregnant woman's Ed Hardy shoes. The excitement must've been palpible. The woman's husband smiled and held up his phone, "Wanna search the web for pictures so you know what colors you want to use?"

I love unexpected projects, especially when they are so much fun.

Toilet Trouble

Though my husband has no trouble dissecting laptops, computers, or printers, he has trouble working up any enthusiasm for plumbing repairs. After a visit to urgent care this morning, he was diagnosed with a monster sinus infection. I don’t doubt that he’s ill, but you have to admit that with the broken toilet downstairs, the timing is a little suspicious.

“I think I’ll do some work in the yard,” I said after returning from the pharmacy with all three of his prescriptions.
“I think you should fix the toilet,” he said.
I gave him the ‘you’ve-got-to-be kidding’ look, but the truth of the matter was…if my family was going to have a working toilet, it was up to me. I tried to muster up some pioneer spirit, which was rather difficult being that my ancestors were California Indians and had the good sense do their “business” behind a tree. After watching an 8-minute how-to video on You Tube, I announced that I didn’t have the right tools.
“Well you have the bucket anyway,” he said, then fell asleep, leaving me to figure what to do.

After two trips to Home Depot, a lot of swearing, and a huge wet mess, I managed to turn the water off, get the toilet off the ground, remove the tube of medication that had caused the blockage that the snake couldn’t get to, and then scrape off the old wax seal. In the back of my head I remembered the plumber from the video warning me about the dangers of methane gas but I had bigger worries. After crawling on my hands and knees through dirty flood water, I had the sneaky suspicion I had fecal matter in my hair. BTW those aren't tears, I'm just a little unhappy about the connector coming loose and spraying me in the face.

The floor is ruined and the toilet now has a rocking chair quality that I don’t remember it having before. Tomorrow is another day though. Another You Tube video, another trip to Home Depot, another attempt to attach the wax seal.