Summer Project #2: The Mailbox

This is our old mailbox.

It is rusty and sad.

And this is our new mailbox.  It came from Water Glass Studios in Canada. It is handmade and copper. 

 

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Summer Project #1: The Garden

Here's the far garden.  New raised beds this year.  The cucumbers are taking over the yard on the left, the squash (acorn and butternut) are wandering in the yard to the right.  The tomatoes (celebrity and beef) are about six feet tall and producing like mad.  The okra and sweet peppers are a bit small, but the sunflowers are going gangbusters and are over eight feet tall.  The green onions are done for the season and the eggplant are still getting started.

A closer shot of the back garden.

Side view.

And this is the near garden.  Over head shot from the deck.  I got plenty of radishes, lettuce, and kohlrabi earlier in the season but never got around to taking a picture.  This is tomatoes (juliet and roma), hot peppers, okra, brussel sprouts, and zucchini.

Another shot of the near garden.

View of Brussel Sprouts and Roma tomatoes.

What!?

What has happened to the real news?! I'm watching Nightline on ABC tonight and so far Terry Moran has covered how the media covers Britney Spears too much - the real coup of this report was going to a book store and asking the employee how many covers Spears is on per week. At one point, an interviewee points out how depressing it is that his content (covering Britney) is more viewed than real world news.

Commercial Break

Terry Moran comes back and starts talking about the brassy hip-hop group "Salt N Pepa". I turn off the TV.

Seriously, Terry, there isn't some sort of major crisis that almost caused a war in South America this week that you could spend a couple of minutes talking about; there isn't a war going on in Afghanistan and Iraq; there isn't a major political race happening; there isn't anything else that you could cover?

Good grief.

No, I'm in the book business

And you thought Barnes and Noble sold books...

Today I ran into Barnes and Noble, walked up the escalator, over to the 'new fiction' section, grabbed the new Chip Kidd, and headed for the cash registers. This all took approximately 2 minutes. I then had to spend at least 5 minutes explaining that,

"No, I don't have a membership"
"No, I don't want a membership"
"No, I don't want to save 6 dollars today by spending 25 dollars on a membership"
"No, I don't want a gift receipt"
"No, I haven't heard about the new return policy"....

I used to work at the Barnes and the Noble and hated (hated!) asking people if they would like a membership (so I didn't).

**But it's only 25 dollars and you save 10%! That's about the cost of tax! You can now buy books essentially tax-free for a whole year if you pay us 25 dollars now.**

See, if Barnes and Noble sells a book they make a couple bucks at the most, but if they can sucker someone into signing up as a member they make 25 dollars. So they hire people that know nothing about books but everything about pushy salesmanship. I was always disappointed when fellow employees wouldn't have an answer to the question, "What are you reading now?"

Even the cafe asks you to buy a membership for pete's sake! You can save 20 cents on this coffee if you buy a membership. Your total today? 27.00 for a small coffee. Now if you purchase all of your coffee here for the rest of the year, you just might break even.

It is the worst deal out there and they keep pushing the membership card like its some sort of revolution for the bookbuyer. I hate it so much that I usually never go to Barnes and Noble anymore because I don't want to hear about the card again.

Chip Kidd's new book better be really good.

That's Right

In an effort to make all weekend nights as fun as possible, yesterday night...
I totally fixed a toilet.
That's right, a toilet: mineral deposits and all.

It took longer than it should have because the pipe that connects the water to the tank came a little loose while I was replacing the flapper valve which caused leak number 1.
Number 1?
Yes, if you have to number the leaks, you have more than one.
For some idiotic reason, after I took the flapper valve out and installed the new one, I forgot to replace the gasket over the locknut. That is a colossal mistake.
Upon first practice flush, the entire contents of the tank found their way onto the bathroom floor. Leak #2. If you call a sudden gush of a gallon of water a leak.
At least I didn't crack the porcelain, right dad?

So the tank comes back off and the gasket gets installed. And now?
The house is quiet again,
and the toilet isn't running.

Of course, with the 10 inches of snow that were dumped on us, I'm not running either. Har-har.