Recent conversations with Daisy

Daisy got a pretty harsh sunburn on her shoulders after a school event going to an outdoor pool as they celebrated the end of school.  For the first week I put on fresh aloe vera goo from our aloe vera plants but the following week I started putting on an herbal salve at night. (You can only decimate a fresh plant of so many leaves and then you start to worry that its going to die quickly if you don't stop to let it re-grow.)

 Daisy thought the aloe was okay but the salve not so much.  Her complaint?  "It smells like old people."

I queried to see how she even thought she knew how old people smelled and she responded, "I don't know, but it smells like old people-I just know it."  Plus she added the following:  "And it's extremely sticky.  It sticks to your skin at night."

Can I just say I'm happy that the sunburn is completely healed now?

Sunday Randomness #125: Bus Pass Evolution

A Short Jump In the Evolution of a Bus Pass: Paper to Plastic And Punch Card to Electronic Chip.

The new plastic card with electronic chip is the April 2012 card.


Before: show monthly bus pass to driver or transit officer.  After: tap on and tap off at electronic readers found as you get on and off the bus and/or electronic readers at each end of  trax station platforms.  We get to pay a bit more each month for the new electronic passes but it's still cheaper than car payments, insurance, gas and maintenance.  The current adult monthly pass price is $78.50. 
For more about riding local public transportation visit www.rideuta.com

DIY: Kitchen Faucet Replacement

Notice the hard water build-up

 Old kitchen sink faucet.

Parts for installation of new faucet

 New faucet, putty knife, plumbers putty, teflon tape, basin wrench

So pretty, no leaks, easy to adjust temperature and water flow!

New sink faucet.  What you don't see is that I also replaced some of the plumbing underneath since a pipe was a bit too short and jiggled loose, causing leaking fairly frequently.  We'd tighten the plastic nut a bit and call it temporarily good-the temporarily really meant "I can't be bothered to fix this right now because I can't afford a plumber and I'm scared to do it myself and I don't want to bother anyone about a repair that is merely an annoyance and not a true household emergency."

For years we kept a pitcher under the leak and emptied it weekly.  At the encouragement of my cousins (you know who you are-visit them at www.homehinges.com) I got some replacement pvc pipe from my dad (who also helpfully loaned me his hacksaw) and cut the pipe to the right length to be a replacement.  Yes, I had to cut a couple of times and yes, the cut wasn't exactly even but...drum roll please....it's now been a couple of months and there's been ne'er a sign of leakage with the new pipe!

So, a win-win with a new faucet and new drainage. No more emptying a pitcher weekly from under the sink or trying to get exactly the right water pressure or temperature which was a bit tricky with the old faucet once it started to age.  Once again, DIY has saved the day!

May Bountiful Basket

May Bountiful Basket $15 got us onions, cucumbers, corn, honeydew, cauliflower, carrots, apricots, green peppers, tomatoes, pears, lemons, bananas and blackberries.

Sunday Randomness #54: Punch and Games

Mica won this delightful gallon of Kiwi-Strawberry Tampico Punch helping out with some after-school games a few months ago. We let it sit at the back of the fridge so it could freeze some and turn into a slushy warm weather refresher and it's surprisingly not as sweet as most of these punches. Thanks Mica for winning and sharing your treat!

Check out that cool lime green color-all thanks to the wonders of artificial food dyes.  Which, I should add, we typically try to avoid but there are exceptions to many things in life.  Including the occasional win-our family does not win things often but we feel happy when we do and we feel happy for others when they win occasionally too!

Mother's Day Flowers

My sweet children (notice the sugar bowl in the picture!) picked flowers for me from our yard.  This is just a small sampling-we have more roses coming on and several flowers have already bloomed for the season such as our tulips and many of the flowers on the fruit trees.  We also have irises blooming right now with spectacular purple column blossoms on tall green stalks.  It's been a great day to be a mom!