Thomas and his happy feet

This is the story of Thomas and how he came to acquire these beautiful new mandals.
One of his mandals was destroyed in a violent attack a long time ago, and the other one died last weekend.

But that sure didn't stop Thomas from wearing them. These "Faded Glorys" from the WalMart's were discontinued, and they were all he had.

We searched and searched for a replacement pair. Thomas tried on fake Birkenstocks everywhere he could. He tried on women's sandals. We even looked for them in Canada. But nothing matched the comfort and price of those busted-up, 9-dollar mandals.

And then.....

A pair of generous patrons of the arts suddenly came to town and took pity on poor Thomas. Now he is a proud owner of genuine German Birkenstocks. The lady at the store said they would last 30 years.

He couldn't be happier. The end!

Busted

Gina broke Thomas' beautiful crock pot while he was in Utah. She didn't mean to... sorry Thomas.
She fixed it and now it's good as new.

Operation Dirty Pantry

Our pantry was nasty. It hadn't been cleared out in a year or so and you can see here that we were storing vegetable fertilizer next to the Cap'n Crunch.
This was a common sight. Winnie liked rooting around back there for crumbs and pieces of dog food.
So this afternoon Gina took everything out and dumped it on the kitchen table to organize it.

There actually wasn't much that needed to be thrown out. Besides these poison pistachios.

Now everything is back in its place and things are neat and tidy.

New Glasses

Thomas wears glasses when he's playing oboe and while he's driving at night. Here he is before... And after.
Gina thinks he looks so handsome. What do you think?

Gina's Day Off

Today's a day off, and I felt I should do something productive. So I unpacked my dissertation materials and contemplated getting started.

But I decided my triazzle project was more urgent.

The clogged shower drain also needed attention.


Then I composed a fascinating "before and after" dirty dishes shot while I cleaned the kitchen.


Realized I'm out of drinking water (faucet water tastes like rust). So I walked to the store again to get that and a few other necessities. I talked on the phone the whole way there and back. Thanks for keeping me company, Meaghan!


Next I performed minor surgery on my friend Roy.


All in a day's work!

Coleus Farm: Before and After

Here's the side of the house before we did a little gardening...And after.

Thomas ripping out the grass with a pickaxe. It's a hard job, but Thomas is a beast and he cleared it quickly.

We've had a "coleus farm" next to the kitchen window since last summer. They are easily propogated; if you pinch off a branch and put it in water, you get a new plant. Thomas turned last year's 6 plants into 30 or so. All the excitement has turned us into coleus pinching thieves. We acquired a few new varieties from the zoo parking lot last week.