So I bought a pressure washer at Geant last week. I needed a pressure washer. I have bikes that need to be blasted, dirt caked on anything that stays outside longer than a week and it sure would make my back porch a breeze to clean.
I open up the box and put it together. (I even referenced the instruction book) Easy enough. It needs to be plugged in. There is an outlet in my carport.
It looks like this. The plug looks like this.
Yes, all outlets here in Bahrain are the British three pronged kind. All appliances, lamps, blenders, etc. are round and two pronged. But we have plug adapters for that. No worries. I reclaim a plug adapter from the blender and stick it outside. It's not working. Ah, it is one of those 'not-quite-uniform-yet-appears-to-be-normal' outlets. Using the carport plug is a no-go. So I go hunt down an extension cord, reclaim the super long one from the T.V. area and plug everything in.
You know what, I'm going to save you the time & effort of slogging through my sorrows. I spent the next 45 minutes wrestling with the non-uniform hoses and trying to avoid drenching the electrical pressure washer with water. Point is, I get it working.
I go to my backyard to hunt down a spigot. There isn't one. No biggie, I'll snake this insanely long hose from the front of my house, through the kitchen, dining room and living room to the back porch.
Then I haul the pressure washer to the back porch, rig the whole plug-in setup and go to the carport to turn on the water. I get to the back porch, turn on the switch and . . . *crickets* nothing. I go back to the spigot and find that the hose has blown off.
Ok, I'll keep the hose on real low and tear through the house like a tornado, flip the switch and HOORAY! We have pressure washing! For about 15 seconds. Then every orifice that has water pumping through it decides to spray water, too. After all, the nozzle can't have all the fun. I turn off the washer, then turn it back on again. Nothing. I do the whole 'run through the house dance' and begin washing again. 15 seconds of amazing power washing and then water everywhere.
It is 108F/42C, humidity is at 45%, and I am wet with water and sweat. I give up. I'm done. The porch is just going to have to stay dirty. And I'm returning that fracking pressure washer. I need to go create something other than a mess.
Every Friday, there is a Farmer's Market from 4-8pm. We decided to wander through this week and discovered such a wonderful atmosphere! Fresh fruits and veggies, of course, were the expected fare; but there were fresh cut flowers, herbs, local honey, homemade textiles, hot corn on the cob, cotton candy, and face painting. All of this, set to the tunes a local DJ was spinning on the lawn. We got there a little later than 4, more like 6:30pm. The kids saw the face painting and had immediate tunnel vision. That was the only this existing in their world. It was $5 a face and they would be going to bed in 2 hours. Not going to happen. I told them that if they stopped their whining and fussing, we would have time to go over to the craft shop and buy some face paints. I would paint their faces in the morning so that they could have it for the WHOLE day we were in Idaho Falls instead of just for 2 hours tonight. They weighed their options and everyone voted for Saturday morning. We went over to Porter's and spent $11 and in the morning, I painted their faces for our day on the town. The rest of the day was spent running to do school clothes shopping, grocery shopping and general errand running. Everyone kept asking where we got it done, if there was a fair in town. Hmmm, maybe I should start charging!
So, the voting for the new title was very straitforward. The winner is: **drumroll** Here, There and Everywhere. Wow, what a surprise. Not that you couldn't look at the sidebar and see the percentages. HT&E won with 50% of the votes. Poor little Peerless Ponderings didn't get any love. One Step Ahead had 5%. The second place choice was Wild Blue Somewhere, which surprised me. I threw that one in there just for kicks & giggles. If you couldn't tell, I was thinking of the US Air Force pride song, "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, climbing high, into the sun . . etc." As a former Air Force brat, I learned that at an early age. Also ingrained at the beginning was the playground song,
"Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy, wash it off with applesauce and show it to the Navy."
'Course, if you were Navy, you stuck a different branch of the Armed Forces in there. (although Navy always fit best.) I'm thinking I need to get a good in-flight over the wing airplane shot for the title picture. Although the last time I tried putting a picture behind the title it got REALLY messed up and just wasn't that pretty. So I bagged it. I'd like to try this, but early on experimentation hasn't been going well. I may actually have to ask someone for help. Anyway, thanks for voting!
Alright, I've got the finalists listed in a brand spankin' new poll on the sidebar. I decided to keep our last name out of the title. If you're reading it, you already know it's about the Penrods. No use in being pedantic. Sorry, just had to squeeze another "P" in there. If you'll notice, a majority of the titles are not 'P' related. I did pick and choose from some of the suggestions. A bit of one, a dash of another. See, I've got plenty of blog names for different themed blogs if I ever started another one. A food blog, a picture blog, a dog blog. (nah, not serious about the dog blog, i just like saying that. dog blog. heh.) But my time is already sucked up by a myriad of tasks, I'm just barely treading water keeping this blog afloat. So, without further ado, let the voting begin! And if any of these choices spark another brainstorm, let me know. Also, you can vote for more than one title.
It is that time! Time to start thinking about a new blog title. I'll still have the same address: www.penrodpos . . . . blah blah blah. But the title, "Life, Kids, and Pyramids" won't apply after mid-April. So, I need suggestions. I like alliteration. P, p, p what begins with P? But I don't like cutesy, syrup-y gaggy stuff. "The Peripatetic Penrods" has come to mind. We're going to the US, but just for a year. Also, I've thought about not having such a location-centric title. That way I won't run into this problem again. Hah! I've been brainstorming and have a few ideas, but I'd like to open up the sphere of imagination and hear opinions. Give me some ammo and then I'll put all the options in a poll on the side bar.
** I know, awful quality picture, but my computer is having some upgrades done and I don't have my picture archives right now. **
Let's face it, we're all looking for that golden ticket. When will the inspiration come and in what form? Well, I got mine the other day. I was picking little grains of rice out of the carpet (again) when it dawned on me. We have a sippy cup to transport nice, watered-down juice to the kids gullets, why not have something in the same concept for rice? To dispense the rice one grain at a time. Yay. I mean, we've got those cool non-spillable bubble tumblers, why can't we think of the same thing for rice. And not only rice, why not anything small? Shredded cheese. Ah, my formidable enemy. My kids are worse than Wallace (just a bit!). They will do anything for cheese, especially when it come in a nice shredded form. I guess it's a bit better than finding the block of Cheddar mangled and hacked to bits in it's sad little ziploc baggie.
"I only wanted a piece, Mommy."
Please sir, may I have some more? You'd think I starve the kids. We have stringent rules about not eating on the carpet or couch, but the biggest offender seems to be the one that understands the least. Jacqueline, Jacqueline, what will I do with you Jacqueline? She is also the inspiration for this invention. Oh well, as soon as I get a sponsor, grant money, then I can get the idea moving!
Ok, I'll keep the hose on real low and tear through the house like a tornado, flip the switch and HOORAY! We have pressure washing! For about 15 seconds. Then every orifice that has water pumping through it decides to spray water, too. After all, the nozzle can't have all the fun. I turn off the washer, then turn it back on again. Nothing. I do the whole 'run through the house dance' and begin washing again. 15 seconds of amazing power washing and then water everywhere. 
