Three Times a Calamity

On Monday I took a pic of this Chinese cookie fortune. I'd gotten it when we tried a new place for takeout (which was very good, just a bit pricey) and saved it because of the spelling mistake. Little did I know that it was the universe warning me that fifteen minutes later the calamity part would actually arrive, and my old theory that bad luck always comes in threes was proven right yet again.

This is my laptop, or rather, this is my laptop after I took it apart to see if the glass of water I spilled on its keyboard that day soaked through to the battery. I flipped it over immediately, so only a couple drops got on the battery. My guy thinks if we let it dry out for 48 hours we might be able to save it.

Two minutes after my guy and I finished taking apart my laptop to inspect and then set it up to dry out, I noticed that our nine-year-old dishwasher was still running -- four hours after I turned it on. The timer dial apparently stopped working, so we looked at getting a replacement, but it was too much money. So we decided to buy a new dishwasher, and found one on sale at Lowe's.

For the third and final bit of calamity, as we got in the truck to go get the new dishwasher we discovered the a/c in the truck isn't working. So, okay, Universe, I got the message already. I'd appreciate it if you'd stop adding to my propserity now, please.

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Gifts

This is a story that starts out very sadly, so if you're depressed by the holidays you might want to skip the first part. As far back as I can remember I've dreaded the holidays. Being poor, having constant family troubles and belonging to a strict religion made that time of year always pretty unhappy. I just hunkered down and hoped to get through without being yelled at or punished because I didn't do something I was expected to do, like sit in church for hours without moving or making a sound while a priest spoke mass in Latin. Gifts were uniformly disappointing, too. My mother usually gave me dolls or socks or underwear for Christmas. I understand now as an adult that she was doing the best she could, and trying to save money at the same time, but as a kid I'd been told good children got what they wanted for Christmas. I was a pretty good kid, but while my friends received new bikes and cool toys and lots of treats from Santa, I didn't. I thought San

We Have Backsplash!

Yesterday my guy and I decided to chose this natural stone as the backsplash tiles for our new kitchen counters (which will be in the same quartz I'm holding at the bottom of the photo.) Since all the bids for installing the backsplash came in very high my guy is going to put it in himself; he's done a bit of tile work in the past, too. I swear there is nothing this guy can't do. :)

Detoxing Results

For twenty-four hours I left these five vintage cigar boxes sit with detoxing agents (baking soda, coffee grinds, dryer sheets, vinegar and Febreze) inside them to see which worked best to remove the tobacco/storage odors that came with them. I then removed the agents and did a sniff test. Before we get into the results, a reminder: none of what I do is ever meant to be expert advice, as I am certainly not an expert at anything. Follow my methods at your own risk, and please first consult an actual antique expert conservator or restorer to detox items that have value for you. Okay, let's see how my experiment worked. Baking soda (left) did nothing to remove the odors. I think if I let it sit for a longer period of time it might have done something, but for a 24-hour test it was a complete fail. Coffee grinds (right) removed 100% of the odors, and left behind definite coffee scent. I like that and think it goes very well with wood, but if you don't like the smel

Rayen

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