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A while ago I bought store-brand OxiClean and it didn’t come with a scoop in it. After a few loads of tossing oxygen bleach into my washer like salt bae, I went online and bought a scoop.
It’s the OXO Good Grips POP Container Coffee Scoop and is this not the cutest little scoop you’ve seen?
I get a little amount of joy every time I wash stinky things..
That’s it. That’s the post. This is what blogging used to be like, friends!
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Happy Friday, which also happens to be National Hoagie Day, National Astronaut AND National Space Day (jumping on the Star Wars May 4th frenzy, I see) and of course, Cinco De Mayo.
This week Mom, J&K, and Nephews A&B went to Walt Disney World and I got to live vicariously through them. It wasn’t a good week for House Russell to go on vacation so we stayed home. Or maybe it would have been a good week because the weather here has been in the 40s and 50s and dreary as heck. Work has been hopping, the NJ Devils are in Round 2 of the playoffs, and today is the AP exam for WM’s European history class.
Video game wise I picked up Disney Dreamlight Valley again to catch up on the last 6 months of content. I’m not thrilled with the base plot point, which I’ll tuck below the Friday 5 answers to avoid spoiling. In Slay the Spire I’m on ascension level 9 for Ironclad and level 8 for Silent. I don’t care about the other two characters. My NYT Crossword Puzzle streak is a meager 34 days.
Time for the Friday 5! May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan and that is today’s theme. Let’s get to it!
- Who was the last child, unrelated to you, you personally had a conversation with?
We have two young neighbors, the younger one is about seven years old. She comes outside occasionally and climbs up to the upper level of her playground set to see what we’re up to. We chat about the garden and Murphy and generally how nice it is to be outside. On the day WM and I moved the plants outside and started tidying up the back yard, I we kept her passively occupied for hours. - Among things most children aren’t permitted to do, what should they be permitted to do?
School aged kids (education-school, not daycare-school) should be able to stay in cars by themselves for a short amount of time while parents run inside of a store. This used to be The Way, and kids learned to be alone for a bit in a safe environment and the store was filled with fewer kids who don’t want to be there and make that fact known. - Some people say there are (generally) animal people and children people. Which are you?
Fate has made me an animal person. - Which children’s books do you remember enjoying most?
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, the entire Little House on the Prairie series, all of the Judy Blume books. - When did you last see koi in person?
I’m pretty sure I saw a koi pond at Hershey Gardens last summer. I don’t have any photos, but let’s just say I’m 90% certain I did.
SPOILER: In Disney Dreamlight Valley, you start with a village covered in Night Thorns (purple thorny invasive plants created by dark magic) and many of the characters are gone, banished to another world because of The Forgetting. One by one you bring them back and help them remember their lives before. But what caused The Forgetting? YOU DID. Simply by growing up, you created an evil version of yourself who destroyed the village and sent the characters away. And once they get their memories back, the characters constantly reassure you that it wasn’t your fault. But, ugh. Me? Forgetting the Disney toons and causing this apocalypse? Obviously the game devs haven’t seen my house.
Anyway, not much videogaming this weekend because the weather is finally back in the 70s after 2 weeks of March-like conditions.
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Our back screen door needed some help. The screen on the upper half had holes all through it. And no, not just the natural holes in the screen, extra holes. Larger holes. And three years ago, Murphy tore through the screen on the bottom half and we just … never replaced it. In the summertime I leave the large door open and he goes in and out at will. Unfortunately, flies, mosquitos, a bird and also a chipmunk have also come in and out at will.
This year I resolved to not be zoombombed by flies while I work, so it was time to fix the door.
Last weekend I ordered a screen replacement kit and replaced the upper half screen. The most satisfying part was pulling the old rubber spline that held the old screen in out from the screen door’s groove. I used those yellow handled pliers below and almost pulled it all out at once. If you’re the type of person who thrills to videos of people using a zip tool to pull clogs and hair from their drains, you’re going to LOVE screen door spline removal.
And then it was time to lay the new screen across the door and secure it by pushing the new spline into the groove. I would like to (lie and) say I did this on the first try, but I pulled the screen too tight and the frame bowed inward. When we went to put it back into the door, there were gaps on the long sides.
I had to pull the spline back out, which was much less satisfying. The second time was the charm and we have a good upper screen.
For the lower half, I wanted to keep Murphy’s access in and out without letting the local fauna in and out as well. I purchased a Magic Mesh Screen door and trimmed it down to cover just the bottom half of the door. It was also too wide, which I solved by folding each side inward two inches and hot gluing it to itself. It could have looked better, but the uglier part is facing outside and not inside.
Here’s the final result!
It took Murphy a few days to push his way in and out of the magnetic screen (he is smart, but he is not brave) and now he’s a pro. It’s great to hear the magnets click closed behind him.
I urge anyone who’s able to take on a very low-stakes home improvement project like this one because you’ll feel every emotion in the space of one hour and wind up feeling like a million bucks.
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