Gotta LOVE Harbor Freight!!

There were several things on my honey-do list yesterday, so first thing I trotted off to Home Depot for some parts and pieces.  Ladies ... I know Harbor Freight isn't your favorite place to shop, not to mention the smell when you walk in the door, but believe me, you should appreciate that your husband LOVES that place.  I don't have one near me ... so I have to shop Home Depot.  This little stash here ran $72!!!  Yikes!!!  I got two packages of Quake Hold to keep things in place in the rig, the cheapest pair of side cutters they had, along with electrical wiring pliers and a few connectors (in case I rip out my toad wiring again) and a toilet tank lever.  How crazy is that???  At Harbor Freight this probably would have been $20.00!!!

Back home, I am at it again with the home repairs!!!  It's never ending!  I think I mentioned it rained pretty good the other night, causing the loose gutter next to my bedroom window to flop in the breeze.  At least I think that's what is making the noise.  The bracing on the bottom piece came loose, so I scrounged around for one of those little gizzies ... you know, the little white plastic ones that go in the hole in the wall, then you insert a screw?  The hole in the outside plaster was too large and I didn't have a bigger screw.   That little plastic gizzy worked perfectly ... one downspout fixed ... I just don't know for how long.  As I walked around the patio, I noticed that the gutter section on the left was hanging down.  This is the section I just had fixed by a "professional" last year ... the one where they put the edge of the gutter OVER the shingles instead of UNDER!  Sheesh!!!

So I grabbed my trusty ladder and climbed up (#38) to find that the screw had come loose on this one too.  I could see where they had attached the right hand section to the wall in three places.  The left one had only one loose screw.  Okay, this one took me a little longer to fix.  I had to drill through the copper back while holding the gutter up (half full of water and mud) before man-handling (or rather woman-handling) it under the edge of the shingles ... then screw it to the 2 x 4.  It took 4 times up the ladder before I got the right drill bit size and two more times for the right screwdriver.  It's still not exactly even, but it never really was ... and now I can grab a hose and wash out some of the dirt.  This is actually the "before" picture.

The next honey-do was to replace the handle on the toilet.  I just did this about a year ago, but you know how those cheap plastic parts and pieces just break ... well that's what happened here.  THIS time I decided to go for an all metal one.  Amazingly, it was very hard to find ... in fact, Home Depot only had ONE!!!  With their installation instructions, which were only meant for plumbers that do this every day, it took me 45 minutes to figure out how it worked.  I'm happy to announce that it flushed and works fine!!  So ladies ... you too can have the satisfaction of a job well done!!  Personally, I think it's easier to have a handy husband!!

As one of my readers, Jan Mains said yesterday ... a pound of chocolate would probably make my achey muscles feel better.  How did you know???  Not exactly chocolate, but a pound of English Toffee should do the trick.  This easy peasy recipe came from a girl I used to work with.  She knew how much I loved it and would hide pieces in my desk every time she made some.  It was yummy!!!  

As you all can probably guess, I'm about as good at making candy as I am at cooking ... but this one came out really good!!  Shocker, huh??  Once cooked, you pour it on to a cookie sheet, let it cool slightly ...

Then cover it in melted chocolate and nuts!!  It was just what the doctor ordered ... 4 pieces later I was feeling full of energy!!!  Maybe if I eat the entire batch today, I'll have enough energy to wash the second half of the rig!!!