flea | (no subject)

mr. flea has gone for a week, for a supercomputing conference in Pittsburgh. Due to the professor he is going with being a dodo, they are driving and not flying, "because it's cheaper." Dude, it is not that expensive to fly to Pittsburgh, and it des not take all day. So he'll be gone 6 days instead of 4. I hate dodo professor.

He's been gone an hour and I miss him.

Casper is eating an apple and meticulously pulling off the peel with her teeth and depositing it around the house.

At 2 the 10 year old from over the way is coming to be a mother's helper so I can plant bulbs and trim bushes and rake without having to chase Casper every 30 seconds. She charges $3 an hour and I am feeling very clever about this plan.

We bought a humidity sensor and learned that our living room hit 70% RH overnight. Since "good for indoors" is in the 30-50 range, yes, we have a problem. I think the first step will be installing a vapor barrier over our dirt crawl space; then considering a dehumidifier.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was a mother's helper regularly for the neighbors when I was 10 -- I went every day, I think, so the parents could make dinner and etc. Ben was younger than Casper when I started -- he couldn't even sit up -- but he graduated from Duke last year.

Huh. My mom used me as a mother's helper for years, and I never got paid. I got hosed.

The dehumidifier and vapor barriers will be good things. Even a cheap tarp will work. I had one hanging on the rubblestone foundation wall right behind my toolbench in my old basement, and it helped slow down the rusting away of my tools. Oh, and here's a piece of bizarre trivia. Under the right conditions, i.e., my old basement, you can grow mold on the resin handles of Craftsman screwdrivers. I used to have to dip the handles in paint thinner every so often to clean them off.