Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 2

Demolition after about a week     March 17, 2012

 New footings poured

New utility boxes       March 21, 2012

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part1

Rebuilding a McDonald's in approximately four months.   This is a twelve part post with the first few posts separated by a couple of hours, then the following posts will come online every hour.  By this evening the McDonald's will be rebuilt!  This top picture is of the old play place

 Middle of the building

 More debris from structural support for the old building

March 11, 2012

550 Piece Apothecary Puzzle

In about a week's time, Hedgehog completed this 550 piece jigsaw puzzle titled "The Apothecary" by Lee Dubin and manufactured by SunsOut.  We've moved some furniture around and reclaimed a larger table that was downstairs so now the puzzle making can continue.  Puzzle making was hampered for a couple of years by the lack of space and the lack of stability of the old card table with wobbly legs.  The new table enables us to set up the puzzle, have the box lid on hand and line up pieces all on the same table top. Hopefully I'll post a couple more puzzle pictures before the end of summer.

And I have to thank my cousin Dejah whose love for puzzles keeps us interested in puzzles.  She also has a love of the color orange.  If anyone reading this can pass the message on, I've got a  dish towel/pot holder set (new!) that I want to pass on -I just need to run it over to Ardie and Lorraine's sometime.

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!