Weekend update

Wow! What a weekend. My mom and I flew to St. Louis and my sister Kara picked us up at the airport. We stopped by the Golden Corral for a bite of everything and got ready for a night out with, the one and only, LIZA MINNELLI.
We pulled up to the theater, for which this performance marked the opening of, to see something kind of like this pull up.
It was blue and really really old and they valet parked.
And then, as we're sitting there thinking, who drives that kind of car (the windows were rolled down so we figure no airconditioning)....and then we see something like this


get out of the car on our side and a female version get out on the passenger's side.





We entered the building and enjoyed a nice reception with some snacks - my favorite was the pickled asparagus.
We were under the impression that we had seats front row, center stage. We were afraid that they would be obstructed view or something, we had only purchased the tickets a few days before the show.

Well, we walked in, and just kept walking! Right up to the front row, center stage! And the seats weren't even too close. It was fabulous, except we were sitting next to, none other than the troll couple (an extra seat luckily provided a buffer zone).

Liza was fabulous. Other than the fact that she was a little under the weather and coughed a lot during the first half. Despite this, you just wanted to love her and take her home with you. She even waved directly at my mom! Words can't express how exhilarating the show was.
She looked a little something like this. She wore lots of sequins and man are her legs skinny!!
I love you Liza!!!!

Mr Toad and the bathroom

Ok. I love Mr. Toad. I'm not sure what my dedication to him comes from, but I think he's a great guy. There are pry (short for probably) several reasons.
The first is a book my aunt Toots bought me called Frog and Toad All Year. I'm going to assume for illustrative purposes that it is the same Mr. Toad. One of them buys ice cream but it melts all over him and he looks like a monster on his walk home and scares the other.
Reason number two may be his wild driving. While I am not a crazy driver like him, I do enjoy going fast. We both drive 'jalopys' - old, decrepit and unreliable automobiles which have limited mechanical abilities, and at times can barely move. My beetle just hit 150,000 miles.
So I made this template out of paper for a steel Mr. Toad weathervane (as seen in Fantasyland at Disneyland). Once our welder cuts it out, it will be powder coated so it won't rust on top of the house.

Here's a picture of our party shower. To get to the shower head, walk in the arch on the left and turn left. We did 1x1 tiles on the ceiling for that psychedelic look. It might be ready for use later this week. Feel free to stop by and use it - bring your own towel!

water softener - I'm sorry my blog is so boring

I was looking at other people's blog and decided mine is kind of boring - more practical than fun. I just wanted to let you know that we're probably going to have to get a new softener. Enjoy the weekend,
k8

Hard water.....what's the problem?

This is just for your own future projects - I'm not complaining. When we had the plumbers over about a month ago, they increased the water line in the house from 1/2" to 3/4". They said they would change the pressure regulator when they came back to finish the bathroom. We knew the water pressure had significantly increased. But we didn't know by how much.
So, about 2 weeks ago, the mud bath toilet freaked out and flooded all over. So, we shut off the valve and bought new guts for the toilet. We of course never got around to putting them in the toilet.
When the water softener guy came, he determined the water started out at 18 grains of hardness and it was only getting softened to 4 grains, which is still hard. The culprit was too much pressure. So the plumbers came and put a new valve in which reduced the pressure from 140 psi (crazy!) to 60 psi. Too much pressure breaks things. (ah, that's why the toilet broke).
Tim showered this morning and there was no pressure. So they put a new shower head on the upstairs shower and may have turned the pressure up.
So, from too much pressure, the toilet broke, the water softener broke (we still don't have soft water), and the shower head got replaced.
Please make sure you have the right water pressure.
Happy Pioneer Day! I'm sure their biggest problem was hard or soft water and what to clean all of those spots off with.
For those of you who need a softener or a repair, please call my man Jake at Sharp Water Solutions 474-1333. The thing is, hard water damages fixtures and pipes and nothing can get clean (including clothes, dishes, and your body!). In the long run, it's cheaper to have soft water because you don't get the mineral buildup. Call him today!

I hate hard water. It makes me crabby.

So, it's happened before. I shouldn't be surprised or mad at anyone other than myself. A few days ago, in the shower upstairs (the master remodel isn't finished yet) I started to notice some water spots on my totally awesome Andy Warhol shower curtain. I also noticed I felt a little minerally. And then, I put two and two together and realized I had been showering in hard water. So, I asked Tim to check for salt. He said it was full. Then, I went on with life.
Sunday, I noticed my hair was like straw. Now, I did enjoy the extra volume a little calcium brought to my hair, but not the dryness on my skin. So, after showering Monday, and being very irritated at the water spots adorning Marilyn, I decided to act.
And that's when I remembered that our softner had a little trick. For some reason, it's on a circuit that is connected to a GFI outlet that likes to trip. The last time our softner quit, the electrician looked for the tripped GFI plug for over an hour. It's in our mud bath. So, I visited the mud bath (who's toilet is actually not working right now - when it rains it pours!) and sure enough, the outlet was tripped.
I went down to the softner and commanded, with the push of a button, that it regenerate RIGHT NOW! I also noticed the hardness level was only set to 25. The water in Bountiful is about as hard as it gets registering at 55 on Linette's home test kit (please let me know if you would like your water tested - it's easy and fun). So I upped the hardness level and I should be back in business tomorrow. But I will have to clean Marilyn up - I don't think soft water can wash hard water spots away.

Please submit license plate recommendations

So, I'm scheduled to purchase a white Volkswagen Jetta Diesel wagon around Christmas. I decided on white because it is easiest to keep clean. But I would like help picking out a personalized plate, up to 7 spaces.
It needs to be clever - my beetle has 'ntmology' (if you don't know, find out)
So, here is a little bio on my car

jetta - name derived from the 'jet stream' . In China it is known as the Sagitar (which is my sign).
White
TDI -turbo diesel injected. (which was invented to run on peanut oil by Rudolf Diesel). Could run on bio diesel or veggie oil with conversion. It's being marketed as clean diesel. Clean in German is rein or sauber.
Wagen - called the Variant outside of the US, Lore/wagen in german.
High torque
Made in Wolfsburg Germany, assembled in Puebla Mexico by robots.
45 mpg
Achtung means respect, esteem, regard
Low emissions - no smog,
Power is Kraft in german - people might think Mac n cheeze
It meets Tier II Bin 5 emission standards.
Thermodynamically efficient
140 horse
235 lbs of torque

Really. Really? I love Liza Minelli. Really. I do.

Really. I've always loved Liza (not Lisa with an S, LieZa with a Z!). On VHI's recap tonight, one of the decades worst weddings was this:

Really. Really? Really. Wow. As the commenter said, 'How did these four get into a church?" (Watch SNL's Seth and Amy Pouler's 'Really' segment.)



This is the Liza I prefer to admire:
This combines her simple look with Warhol's skills - love them both! I would like to see Liza in person some day, take a look at her great legs, and wear a nice black outfit to honor her and laugh that unmistakeable laugh.

ps - she may make an appearance in the alleged Arrested Development movie as Lucille Austero/Buster's mom. I mean girlfriend.