12-12-12

People all over the world knew that 12/12/12 was a special day.  I'm sure you'll all agree - that is a unique date.  I'd agree because it was my birthday.  Not any ordinary birthday - but a birthday that I celebrated all day long while Doug was at work.  He planned it to perfection and the day went without a hitch.  Let me explain.

Of course my day started with the usual breakfast in bed.  As I came out of the bedroom I saw a ribbon banner with sealed envelopes clipped onto it.  Twelve envelopes to be exact - a number that was certainly appropriate.  Each envelope had a time written on it.  Doug explained before he rushed off to work that I was to open each envelope at the assigned time.  There would be an activity that I should complete before moving on to the next envelope.  Fine.  Should be fun.  Here is how it all played out.

7:00 am Envelope - "Do a video chat with Scott to find out what you have to do to get this first gift."  I did just that.  Scott directed me to chew 4 pieces of Bubble Yum and blow a respectable bubble in order to get the gift.  So I began, 1 piece at a time.  Getting each piece chewed to perfection before adding the next.  I had just had a root canal with just a temporary filling in it and didn't dare chew on that side.  So it was hard work!  Well by the time I got 3 pieces in my mouth I was wondering if I could even insert another piece.  Scott had mercy on me and lowered the gum count to 3.  I began blowing.  Most of you have probably seen the screen shot of my killer bubble.  After blowing the successful bubble I was directed to a small gift hidden in a rooster pitcher in the kitchen.  In it I found - wait for it - more gum!  Um, thanks?!

8:00 am - "Do a video chat with Lindsey to find out what you have to do to get this second gift."  I did just that.  Lindsey had the kids (well just Sadie) join her in singing Happy Birthday to me and then demanded that I show her 5 pictures of me in my younger days.  After I did that she told me the next gift was in Doug's briefcase.  In it I found a large bottle of Jergens Age Defying Lotion.  Hey, is that a hint of some kind?!  I'm letting it go.

9:00 am - "Go visit the sister in the ward who has been the main person behind the monthly Sunshine Club meetings.  She will have a challenge for you to complete."  I drove over and she greeted me with a smile.  Then she handed me a duffle bag that was locked closed with a huge combination lock.  Then she gave me a sudoku that I had to solve.  Certain squares were marked that would be used in the combination I needed.  So I took it home and worked the puzzle.  Sure enough the combination worked and I opened the bag.  What did I find?  A mini clip board with more sudokus attached.  Thanks.

10:15 - "Go visit the tennis sister you invited to a performance of "America's Choir".  She will have a challenge for you to do."  I arrived a little bit late but when I got there the task was to bounce a tennis ball on my racket 54 times without the ball hitting the floor.  He gave me 30 minutes to try to complete this.  I sense that he didn't think I could do it.  But it was a cinch - got it on my first try.  Can anyone guess what significance the number 54 has?  Well the gift for completing the task was a vibration dampner for my tennis racket.  Yes!

11:00 - "Turn on the GPS and enter the following coordinates and follow the directions to this location."  So I used our GPS to enter the coordinates 33.578044 North, 112.116348 West.  I was directed to the east side of the Black Canyon Freeway.  I was supposed to go in a business to see if I could find anyone I knew.  I called Doug for a little confirmation that I was close to the right place and then entered.  There I found MOM and BECKY waiting for me to arrive for a lunch date.  So fun!  They gave me a helium balloon I had to carry around with me in the restaurant.  Most of the gifts are sort of related to the challenge so far.  I guess this one was a gift that floated in the air because the GPS used satellites that orbit in space to direct me to the correct place.  Right? 

12:00 - "Go to the nearest Phoenix Public Library and find a copy of the Clive Cussler book titled The Thief (in the fiction section).  Then look at the following pages/words to find a clue to where the next gift is located.  Page 318, Word #135 - Page 229, Word #38 - Page . . . . "  Luckily I took Mom and Becky with me.  They helped me to count for the words.  The message was to look behind the car front seat.  There is a secret flat pocket on the drivers seat and in it I found a small gift that turned out to be book marks. 

1:00 - "Go to your counselor's house who has teenagers."  When I arrived I opened another envelope.  I was to either have the teenage daughter french braid my hair OR give me a manicure.  I thought the manicure would be easier so that was my choice.  She is in a program in High School where she goes to cosmetology school and then does classes for school online.  So she is trained or training.  She gave me a nice manicure and we had a little friendly conversation too.  The gift was some hair clips.

2:00 - "Go to your secretary's house.  Instead of having you do a challenge, she will just give you your next gift but only under the condition that you must share your gift with her."  That one was easy.  I walked next door and she gave me a package out of her freezer.  I opened a box of vanilla caramel Drumsticks.  We each took one and sat down to chat while we ate them.  Yummy!

3:00 - "Go to a well known Glendale Pet store (yes the one that you know the owner) and find the store's mascot named "Zeus".  So off I went to downtown Glendale.  Pratt's Pet Store has a funky looking chicken that can't fly that they place up on a platform above a hallway.  The chicken is also referred to as a "rooster in the sky".  The gift was too high for me to reach so I had to ask an employee to get it for me.  It was a very cool Space Pen that writes upside down or underwater or anywhere. 

4:00 - "Do a video chat with Evan.  Guess how tall Calvin is and then have Evan measure him to see if you are correct."  So I chatted with Evan and Calvin for a while then guessed 33".  They took forever to find their tape measure but finally confirmed that Calvin was actually 38".  I was off by quite a bit.  But then they told me to look under the eliptical pedal for my gift.  I found an 18" ruler.  Nice.

5:00 - "Take a break and relax until dinner.  What's your pleasure?  Surf or turf?" I chose turf.  So we were going to Smashburger for dinner.  Yummy.  We had to wait for a while until Scott could make it over here to go with us.  His girlfriend Stephanie drove all the way over to celebrate with us too.  By about 6 we were putting our order in.  YUMMY! 

Doug had to go straight to mutual from there.  The rest of us went home for my last activity and then played some games.  Scott bought me some flowers.  They were very pretty. 

Then finally the last clue for the 12th gift.  A very good treasure hunt designed by Isaac.  He put some really good clues in there.  He even had me chase Scott down who was riding dad's bicycle.  Sheesh!  It ended with a nice pinata.  It looked like an evil snowman.  I hit the thing completely off the supporting rope.  Pretty fun! 

So that was my day.  It was fun.  It was unique.  It was tiring!  I was going all day long!  But I had fun.  Thanks to Doug for putting it all together and everyone who participated and helped to make my 12/12/12 birthday a memorable one! 

Visitors

I am at Lindsey's house for a visit.  They have had a couple visitors recently.  First it was me.  I arrived on Friday.  They picked me up and we went to temple square to enjoy the Christmas Lights.  Starting Saturday sickness has arrived.  Sadie was sick all day Saturday - drippy nose, cough, no appetite, etc.  She just laid around and felt miserable.  Sunday she seemed to be feeling a little better so we went to Sacrament Meeting.  After that I came home with Sadie so she didn't spread any germs with her friends.  She did eat a little bit.  But Monday morning brought the barfs.  Poor Sadie.  She was wheezing and coughing and barfing, just miserable.  Luckily Lindsey was equipped with some albuterol and could give her breathing treatments.  But by the afternoon she had perked up and was eating and playing and pretty much back to normal.  But we had another visitor last night.  It was the croup.  Zac scared everyone by crying and barking and it seemed he was having a hard time breathing in. So Lindsey steamed up the bathroom while Rob looked up some information online.  Yep, he concurred that the diagnosis was probably the croup.  So after calming  Zac down they tried to give him a breathing treatment as well.  We don't think he breathed in through his mouth one time - but he stayed calm and maybe the exiting mist wafted into his airways through his nose?  We aren't sure.  

So yes, the Kevans have had visitors.  Some wanted.  Some unwanted.  Hopefully they can get rid of the unwanted visitors very soon!  

Fat Man's Pass

On Veterans Day we went for a hike on South  Mountain.  Scott met us there.  We started on the Mormon Trail and then made a little loop on the National Trail which took us back to the Mormon Trail.  It was an easy hike.  We had a beautiful day!  The main excitement, however, was on the loop while going through Hidden Valley and  Fat Man's Pass.

When we got to that point Scott was in the lead and he almost missed the opportunity to squeeze through.  But we called him back and squeeze we did.  It is so cool!  The rocks that thousands of people have squeezed between are polished and smooth now.  Anyway, all 3 of us made it through so I guess that means we are not Fat Men. 

Hand Out

I already posted about my RS McInterviews for the Visiting Teachers.  I neglected to put on a picture of the handout I made for it.  It follows:

Ironing Day

Yesterday Doug was gone all day at Scout Training.  I decided it would be an Ironing Day for me.  Yippee!  A day of ironing!  So to make my day more bearable I also delared it to be a Movie Day.  Doug and I went to Blockbuster and rented 8 movies.  I planned on watching movies all day long while also ironing. 

We watched Transporter 3 together Friday night - that was Doug's choice.  It was OK.  But the real fun started Saturday morning.  I ate breakfast and brought the iron and ironing board and all the ironing out to the family room.  Then I carefully selected the order I was going to watch the movies.  As soon as that was done - I turned on the iron and hit the play button.  I will outline how my Ironing Day proceeded.

My ironing - several piles of it.  HERE WE GO!

 

 

First movie - 7:00 am: Dolphin Tale - as you can see it was a 3 kleenex movie.  I liked it.  And I got some laundry folded and 5 1/2 long-sleeved shirts ironed.

 

Second movie - 9:00 am:  Taken.  Enjoyed that one. I kept ironing and got  7 1/2 long-sleeved shirts done.  I also loaded the folded laundry into the basket and collected one more pile of laundry to fold.  This movie took a lot more of my attention so I could follow the story line and details.  For that reason my output was definitely lower than expected. While putting some ironing away I discovered more shirts to iron.  AARRGGHH!!

newly discovered shirts to be ironed

 

Third movie - 11:00 am:  Mirror Mirror.  Cute movie - I liked it.  I folded the next pile of laundry and while ironing I finished 7 long-sleeved shirts.  Only 1 more long-sleeved shirt is left to iron. Yay!   I also ate lunch.  This movie totally glitched on me several times.  So it took longer to watch it than a straight showing. 

 

Fourth movie - 1:00 pm:  Disturbia.  Another action flick that needed some concentration.  However, I was able to iron 1 long-sleeved shirt  and 13 short-sleeved shirts.  I may also have given my legs a rest during part of the movie. 

 

Fifth movie - 3:00 pm:  People Like Us.  I liked this movie too.  I finished my ironing - Doug's last 4 short-sleeved shirts and my 3 shirts and 2 pairs of my pants.  Then I turned off the iron and sat down for the rest of my movie fest. 

In the meantime - Isaac got home from work early.  He sort of lost interest and headed to his room to sleep.  Doug also got home from his Scout Training and he quickly got ready for his 4pm Stake Conference Priesthood Leadership Meeting.  I was under pressure to finish the movies by 6:30 or so in order to attend the 7 pm Adult Session of Stake Conference. 

Sixth movie - 5:30 - The Hunger Games.  I called Isaac out because he wanted to see this movie.  I started the movie.  No ironing left!  At a few points during the movie I paused it so I could get ready to go to my meeting.  But at 1:28:29 in the movie I had to leave.  Bummer.  But as soon as we got home from the meeting I started it up right at that part and finished watching the movie.  Doug stayed busy at this computer because he didn't want to spoil the movie.  He will have to watch it another time.  I liked the movie. 

By 10:15 Doug was off to return the movies to the store with only one movie unwatched - 2001.  We had all seen that one before but for whatever reason Doug also rented that with our other 7 movies. 

I'll have to say watching all those movies made my work much more enjoyable.  But now I am worried - with good cause, I mean a total of 41 shirts and 2 pants AND nearly 10 hours of ironing  gives me good reason, that I am probably developing a massive "ironing arm" like Grandma Russell used to tell us about and demonstrate to us.  And that doesn't mean strong and lean.  It meant hanging and swinging.  You get the picture. 

The End

Drive-Through Interviews

We just completed our 3rd annual Drive-Through Interviews for Visiting Teaching. 

Our first one was a "Drive-Through Service Station".  The sisters would drive up and we would take a stool, some window cleaner, and some paper towels to their car.  Then we would wash their windshield while we discussed their assignment as a Visiting Teacher.  It was lovely.  We gave them a car freshener as they left.  It was a success.

Last year the Drive-Through Interview theme was "Popcorn and a Movie".  We had a big popcorn machine set up outside the kitchen at the church - like the ones they use in theatres.  We had a short Pixar movie we showed called Boundin'.  We got in their cars and gave them a bag of popcorn and watched the short movie.  We related it to knowing and serving our sisters.  We gave them a cute handout with a quote and 2 hand-stitched puffy white pieces of popcorn on it.  It was tucked inside a red and white striped paper bag.  It was super cute and the sisters loved it. 

This year we did Drive-Through McInterviews.  We wore red shirts with a familiar golden arch taped on.  I made some McInterview signs.  Plus a bonus - I got a McDonalds Monopoly poster and had that displayed too.  Turns out the timing was perfect to have that - Scott was on the poster and we asked to have one.  So I just kept it to use and then I'll give it to Scott.  Anyway, during the McInterview we served McParfaits.  They were yummy.  So we had another successful year of Drive-Through Interviews. 

See Scott on the poster?



Note parfait in hand?

Wouldn't you agree with me that 3 years is a long enough time to be a Relief Society President?  But if I'm still in next fall we will need another idea for Drive-Through Interviews.  I do have one more possible idea lurking in my head.  We shall see if I need to work that idea up or not. 

Security

We finally did it.  We got a security door.  We have been wanting one - but they are quite expensive.  But with the good weather approaching we decided now was the time.  So we plunked down a big pile of money and got one ordered. 

What was cool was that Doug and I were leaving for a mini vacation on Thursday afternoon, October 25th.  I was picking up Doug from work and we were continuing northbound from there.  So I arranged the installation of the security door for that Thursday morning without telling Doug. 

The installation went smoothly and I loved the door.  But I didn't say a word to Doug.  It would be left up to him as to when he noticed it.  I even thought we would be getting into town late Saturday night and with it being dark Doug might not notice the security door until Sunday morning.  But that was part of the fun. 

Turns out we returned somewhat early Saturday afternoon - in full light.  But Doug didn't notice the door.  We were unloading through the garage - but still you could see the door, if you looked.  I was almost exploding because he just didn't notice.  But in the evening I think I asked Doug to go water the plants and as he headed out - the front door - he noticed the security door.  I mean how could he miss it? 

We are now getting used to having another door to lock as we go in and out.  This door needs a key to lock and unlock from both sides - so right now it seems to be a hassle.  But it will be worth it if anyone ever tries to break in the front security door.  I don't think that is going to happen. 

Here is how it looks:



Inside the house

 






Outside the house



Outside the house at night

Update

A quick update.  Doug just stated that taking today off saved us $600.  With a quick consultation with Doug DeWitt they decided to try to change out one part on the freezer (something about a starter).  If that didn't work - then the problem would be the compressor and the resolution would mean a new freezer.  Luckily the part fixed the freezer beautifully. 

In 3's

Do problems come in 3's?  You've all heard that before, right?  Anyway, I just posted about the microwave meltdown and Doug's slow but sure repair.  Just before our mini-vacation the Crown Vic had a dead battery which Doug took care of on Saturday when we got back into town.  And the post will explain the 3rd.

Well for the past week or two I have noticed a faint bad smell when entering the house.  I have looked high and low for the source of the odor but to no avail.  I sniffed and smelled in our bedroom, bathroom, the laundry room, and the living room.  I have been burning a scented candle more often to try to make sure the house didn't smell totally bad.  I usually smelled the odor as I entered through the garage.  So I would set my stuff down and sniff around until either the odor dissipated or until my nose got used to it.  I even asked my mom when she came over if she noticed anything.  She didn't seem to smell a thing. 

But each time I would get that whiff of nastiness - like food spoiling or something like that.  So when I smelled it again just before our mini-vacation I tore into a small end table that is stuffed with an 72 hour emergency supply kit.  I took out all the bottled water to see if they had leaked and caused the wood to stink - but nothing.  I emptied the backpacks only to find that there was no "wet" food to spoil - just a #10 can of dried type nourishment.  Nope - no smell in there.  It was crazy - no source of the smell could be found.

Then when I walked into the house yesterday I could really smell it.  I was sure it came from somewhere in the laundry room.  Isaac had started a batch of laundry and it was in the dryer spinning and spinning (shame on him for doing it on Sunday).  AH HA!  That was the smell - a strong sort of hot rubber type smell.  I called Doug in and he too agreed that it was a burning type of chemical smell.  Finally, at least someone else could smell it. 

He emptied the dryer out and continued to dismantle the dryer.  The reason he started that on Sunday was that Monday is the day the missionaries do their laundry.  So we were hoping to get the problem identified so he could get it fixed quickly on Monday.  He tore it down and even though he found a couple of plastic pads worn through to the metal - there was no odor now and that really wouldn't have caused the bad odor.  So now what?

While working in the laundry room we still seemed to be able to get faint whiffs of the odor.  So the only other option was the freezer.  Our attention turned that way and sure enough when the freezer would cycle on we would smell it.  Then we noticed that the freezer would only be "on" for a couple seconds and then go right off.  So we were sure that the freezer was going out.  The freezer has a high temperature sensor that would go off if the temperature started getting too warm and that was not activated as of yet.  But that only lasted until sometime in the middle of the night.

I let Doug get up to handle it - I think he ended up going out to buy some dry ice.  As I type this I am not sure because I don't want to open the freezer to find out and Doug is still sleeping.  I know he put a call into our family appliance expert, Doug DeWitt, to talk about what we could do to repair it.  But I think the freezer is going to have to go. 

So luckily Doug has already signed off as a vacation day and doesn't have to go into work.  Unluckily it looks as though his vacation day is going to be spent re-assembling the dryer and either trying to repair a freezer or buying a new one.  I think that actually makes it project 3 AND 4. 

And I thought these things only came in 3's. 

Holding my Breath

FYI - I am no longer holding my breath waiting for the microwave to be fixed.  Doug bought the part and installed the part and the microwave is working like a charm!  Thanks Doug!

Four Things

First Thing:  Isaac does not like the idea of a scorpion being in the house.  But to his dismay we have found at least two scorpion carcasses in our house since he has been here.  And when he was asked to remove one of the said carcasses he was a little nervous.  He got even more nervous when he realized the scorpion wasn't finished kicking the bucket.  He had a few slow arm movements left in him.  So when Isaac was scooping up the scorpion up just a sudden simple noise from me made him jump 10 feet into the air.  He hasn't jumped that high since . . . . . . . well, ever!

 

Second Thing:  Sampson Crockett was a beautiful baby boy born way too early.  He lived a very short time.  I wept at the thought of Jill and Jonathan losing that precious son.  I crocheted this little hat and blanket through my tears.  I hope they know how much we all grieve for them and with them.  Sampson is now waiting in Heaven for us all to join him. 

 

Third Thing:  McDonald's Monopoly is in full swing.  Of course, we almost have 3 or 4 monopolies.  But everyone else seems to be looking for the same pieces we are looking for.  Go Figure! We don't usually go to McDonalds - but this year we have a good reason to go.  We go to see our son, SCOTT, on the nation wide Monopoly poster that is on display in every McDonalds restaurant.  It is awesome.  Our now famous son has taken to lounging around in his soccer attire and asking the people around him to "do him a favor" or "get him a drink" or "let him have the recliner" or whatever.  Do you think a little attention has gone to his head?  Quite Possibly.

 

 

Fourth Thing:  Finally, my microwave is still not working.  Doug will order the part we need "very soon".  I am waiting patiently for the - tortoise to finish the race (see earlier post) .  But I am not holding my breath.  I definitely would expire before the finish. 

Microwave

I am wondering, does anyone remember how to fix meals without the use of a microwave?  Our lovely microwave bit the dust.  It gave a bogus error code - failed humidity sensor.  Whatever that is it has made our microwave just ornamental. 

My husband has now turned into an appliance repair man.  He found the schematics, researched how to dismantle the microwave to get to the dead part, figured out how to dis-mount the microwave, got the part out, found a place in town to buy the part (for $10 more), found some online sites to buy the part (less money but longer repair wait time), and is moving forward to finish the project. 

Maybe this will be his "job" after he retires.  He really likes doing things like this.  He'd be more of a tortoise than a hare - but he'd finish the job.  Either way I am hoping my microwave is fixed pretty soon. 

Registration

Does anyone have any doubt as to what the instructions were for the Toyota registration tag?  It seems pretty clear to me. 

But this morning while driving into the garage I noticed that the Toyota that Isaac has care and custody of while studying at BYU-i didn't have a current registration tag on it.  The tag said June 12.  Wait a minute - isn't this October 2012 right now?  Something isn't right here.  So I found the spare key - Isaac was still in sleepy land.  Let myself into the car.  Opened the jockey box.  Found the old registration and old insurance information on top.  I dug deeper and found the current registration and tag nicely tucked on the bottom of the stack.  I wonder if he ever even saw these instructions.  Needless to say I remedied the situation.  So now he is street legal for another year - wait only 9 months now. 

He's really lucky he didn't get pulled over with the expired registration tag and therefore have another reason to complain about the Rexburg Police, or the Kanab Police, or the Springville Police, or the Page Police, or the Phoenix Police, or the Peoria Police . . . . well you get the picture. 

We're probably going to have a little talk about car registration tags when Isaac gets up this morning. 

**Even though the sticker is off in this picture, it was definitely on the paper when I found it in the jockey box.  Somehow the original picture disappeared when I moved it from the camera to the computer. 

Phase 10

Tonight was game night.  Isaac chose Phase 10.  That game usually starts with vigor but soon draggs on and on.  And actually we don't usually finish the entire game.  What usually happens is that when Doug is ahead he decides it is getting late and quits - therefore ending the game while he in the lead.  It is true - ask anyone in the family.

Anyway tonight that wasn't going to happen.  Isaac was on a streak and was in the lead.  I think he was 3 hands ahead of us when he got to his Phase 10 hand.  So Doug and I desperately ganged up on him using every SKIP card we had to slow his progress.  And any progress for him would mean he finished the game.  Sure enough we held him off and moved another Phase closer to him.  Then another.  A little frustration could be sensed coming from Isaac.  Then a little more than frustration.  I would say a lot of frustration and a little anger as Doug and I slowly played our Phases and moved closer and closer to Isaac.  And as you probably can guess - pretty soon we were all 3 going for our Phase 10. 

Yes, we had tied things up.  This was the match to really end the game.  The winner of this round would be the real champion.  What would happen?  Well I actually ended up playing my Phase 10 hand first.  I had a set of 5 and a set of 3 - but could not use all my cards.  Pretty soon Isaac also played his Phase 10 hand.  But he couldn't use all of his cards either.  And after a few more minutes Doug was able to play his Phase 10 hand.  Can you believe it?  A 3-way tie.  Never happened before.  Probably won't happen again that same way.  (If you talk to Doug he'll probably try to claim the "ultimate" victory - but don't fall for that.)

THIS IS MY SECOND POSTING FOR THE DAY - SO READ ON.

Bar Stools

I haven't been sitting around doing nothing.  I have been busy.  I can finally blog about my Bar Stools project. 

The story begins before I went to high school.  My mom bought 3 olive green naugahyde bar stools for the house on 36th Drive.  They took a beating - we used them a lot.  Then years later when she moved to Utah and we bought that house the bar stools stayed with the house. 

I covered them once with a neutral color.  When we moved here the bar stools remained in the storage shed at the old house.  When we got our storage room built here we emptied the old shed and brought the contents over here.  And what should appear?  Bar stools.

They were in pretty rough shape.  So I decided to recover them again.  Only this time I completely re-did them.  I painted the foot bars, I put new cushions on the chairs, I re-stained the wood legs, and I stapled new covers on the bottom of the bar stools. 

Behold the entire project:

Start Bar Stools Project

 

Tear Down 

Mashed Seat pad

 

One stripped - one waiting 

 

New cording

Pinned Bar Stool seat cover 

 

 Sewing the cover

Finished Bar Stool cover

All stripped, legs on front sanded, back 2 are stained.

Also foot bars sanded and newly painted a shiny black.

Cover on Bar Stool. 

 

 Cuts in material allow for pulling the cover tightly around legs.

 Foot applying pressure and using power stapler to secure material.

No stapled fingers or toes - that is a plus.

Old paper on bottom of Bar Stools.

 New cover looking pretty good.

Completed Bar Stools project.

They look pretty good. 

 

Really Happy

We have had a wonderful few days of rain.  It has been overcast and we have had rain in various parts of the valley.  But what made me really happy is that we had a cool day yesterday.  It only got to 98.  That alone makes me smile.  Today it should only get to 90.  Where's my jacket?  But with rainy days and temperatures with only 2 digits I am hoping we have turned the corner.  Maybe we are starting to leave summer behind and move into fall.  That, my friends, would make me really happy!

Vacuum

Remember my post about the Goodwill Clearance Center?  I said I had purchased something that I would describe later.  Be seated for the tale.

I mentioned that there were tons of bins.  I found myself usually alone picking through a particular bin.  The masses knew the routine of old bins out after 2 hours and new ones in.  So they targeted the new bins.  Well while I was making my way around the room I happened on a bin with vacuums in it.  I saw a small Eureka Mighty Mite vacuum.  I immediately wanted it. 

May I explain my immediate desire for the vacuum.  This ward we has done 3 house cleanings in the past 4 - 6 months.  I think it may becoming a trend.  But all 3 of those cleanings included Karen (Checkets) Smith.  She used to clean houses for a job so she is well equipped.  She always came with her standard cleaning supplies.  That included a Eureka Mighty Mite vacuum.  This vacuum was very light weight, it was small, it was great for any material - chunky even.  We always used it and it was great.  We always used it during our cleanings.

So this one that I saw was dusty and dirty and looked beat up.  But I picked it up and gave it a thorough inspection. 

Inspection:
1.  Cord was firmly attached and wrapped onto the body of vacuum.  It had no nicks or cracks either. 
2.  The body of the vacuum, although nasty dirty, was complete.  There weren't any cracks. The front hatch that housed the dirt collection bag worked great.
3.  The tube was attached.  It was nasty dirty too.  But it seemed in good enough shape.  The attaching mechanism was still working.

4.  When I removed the tube to check it out there was grass and weed ends sticking out of the vacuum collection compartment.  The vacuum had a bag in it so it had been used and was turned in full of debris.  To me that was a good sign.

5.  The wheels on the vacuum were intact and unbroken.
6.  The on/off button still seemed to work.
7.  I took the vacuum to a plug and (drum roll please) it had suction!

The vacuum passed said inspection - I wanted to buy that vacuum.  I mean what if Karen Smith doesn't come to a house cleaning with me?  Right?  Anyway, I went back to the bin to see if there were any attachments that might be from this vacuum or another one that would fit.  Just as I got to the bin what do you think occured?  Yep, the bin collectors came and without fanfare removed all the bins that had hardware and household items.  Yikes!  I took a quick look just in front of the collectors but found nothing.

Anyway, when I went to check out I paid 7.99 for the vacuum.  Not a bad deal.  I cleaned it up.  It was gross!  Got some bags for it.  And now it looks like this:   

I have already used my Eureka Mighty Mite vacuum  a couple times.  I do need to find a good end for using it on a flat floor or carpet.  But other than that - it is a keeper!