Once, a reader commented here (and yes, I AM too lazy to go looking for it right now!) that everyone needed a Lion in their lives. Not only is he amazing with anything to do with computers, he's a top-notch shadetree mechanic, and quite the handyman to boot (not to mention being a great husband and an excellent dad!). The reason I'm singing his praises this week? As of Saturday at 1 am, the majority of my new bathroom was actually IN the bathroom! Hooray! It looks great. There's new flooring, vanity, sink, faucet, mirrored medicine cabinet and toilet. Now mind you...that doesn't mean it's done, by any stretch of the imagination. I still have to paint, and wallpaper, and we still have to install the shower. The amount of work that Lion crammed into one day, and the fantastic job he did on everything was simply amazing!

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With so much going right in the home improvement department, it was only to be expected that aggravation would strike our belated Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday with friends and family. Having picked a time that we thought would benefit everyone involved, and still give us plenty of time to get everything ready, we began our preparations Saturday morning. By the appointed time, the turkeys remained obstinately below temperature, despite several hours in the smoker, something that had never happened before. As luck would have it.....I was woefully unprepared for such an occurrence, and ended up feeding my poor guests cracker and processed cheese, and carrots with ranch to dip them in. By the time we finally managed to raise the temp of just one turkey to an acceptable level, it was past dark, past at least one younger guest's bedtime, and way past my threshold for stress. On the plus side, everyone did say it was delicious, a comfort, since my tastebuds had succumbed to worry about an hour before. Also on the plus side, I got to rock our youngest guest to sleep, which was unexpected, and probably just as soothing to me as it was to him.

Then there was the plumbing lesson, in which I learned several things:
1. Most plumbing, besides having drain pipes that go down, has vent pipes that go up to the roof, for gases, and well, other reasons that make plumbing work right.
2. No matter how plugged, you really shouldn't plunge a kitchen sink with a full size toilet plunger.
3. The water that spews out of the roof vent when you do plunge your big, plugged kitchen sink will run right back down along the pipe to the floor of your (thankfully) unfinished basement.
4. A sponge mop only picks up water off the basement floor about a quarter cup at a time.

Still, I guess you live, and you learn. We know other things we can do now, should the turkey smoking go awry in that fashion again, and as long as we don't mightily plunge the sink, the plumbing issues are non-issues.

All things considered, when you can wash your hands in a bathroom sink that comes with it's own acre of countertop, and all your stuff, is neatly tucked away out of sight in it's own little nooks and crannies of the bathroom furniture, it's still a pretty good weekend.