It's Here, It's Here, It's Heeeeere!

Woo!  Time for the unveiling!

In this and this post, I teased what I had been working on,

and now it's time to share it with the Wide, Wide World of Web!

....drumroll...

I give you, 

the Little Free Library!

Isn't it awesome?

I read about the Little Free Library movement in the LA Times last summer,

and vowed to make one for myself.

I love, love love sharing books,

and thought building my own box would be a piece of cake.

(Spoiler alert...

... it was NOT a piece of cake.)

My woodworking skills are rudimentary at best,

and mistakes were definitely made.

But after a month of Sundays,

it looked like I was finished.

EXCEPT...

ARGH!!!

Anything bigger than a paperback wouldn't fit!

So I went back to work, adding another story.

I learned a few things from the first go around, such as:

mark a channel, instead of a single line, for cutting,

so that the end results will be more accurate.

And, use one of those L-shaped thingies to keep things lined up

while attaching them together.

Also, pony up the freakin' $30 for a power screwdriver,

 instead of laboriously doing forty-eleven screws manually.

So after another month of Sundays,

 my fine Little Free Library was ready to take out to the sidewalk.

Do you see what I used for the roof?

CDs!

The idea literally came to me in a dream.

I originally was going to do the library in soft, ocean shades,

and shingle the roof with river rocks.

But once I got the painting done,

I realized that while the rocks may have worked with the Shaker-like simplicity

of the boxes offered on the Little Free Library site...

... my color choices were just too Afro-Circus

 for anything but an unconventional roof.

                          Afro! Circus! Afro!

                            Polka-dot, Polka-dot, Polka-dot! Afro!      

So if you're in Simi Valley, California, stop on by!

I'm on the map!

You'll be able to check out books

with a "no-shush" guarantee. 

Mother's Day!

I spent the day before Mother's Day with the Gabor sisters...

... and we decided to recreate an old photo.

Here's me and my sis at about, oh, two and three with my mom:

And here we are at, uh, a lot more than two and three:

(We realized we couldn't have my mom recreate her pose,

because then she would be staring at my boobs.)

Anyway... Happy Belated Mother's Day!

I Got A Pink Slip On One Kid!

Who's having a special day?

Grumpy Cat?

No, 

Grumpy Grad!

Congratulations to The Boy,

who graduates from college today.

You did good.

Joxer The Mighty

Fourteen years ago,

a neighbor found an injured puppy scavenging for food at her school.

He had bat ears, stubby legs, and a jaunty tail.

We named him "Joxer," for this guy on Xena Warrior Princess:

They both had a goofy charm, so the name fit.

He was, in the way of dogs, everyone's best friend,

and he became a part of our family.

He kept us company and entertained us,

and we loved our --in the words of an amused passerby--

 "funny-lookin', big-headed dog."

But as he got older, his bum knee was joined by a bad back,

and then creaky hips, 

and then everything just seemed to fall apart.

The Sweet Man and I wryly joked that we only had to clean up his messes

on days that ended in "y,"

and we wondered if we should buy stock in these...

 ...since we surely 

were moving some serious inventory.

But through it all he always tottered to his feet,

tail slowly wagging despite his pain,

glad to see us.

Several times we thought he was already gone,

and then he was so bad off we started hoping he was already gone,

but he was like a soldier who wouldn't desert his post.

He was our dog, and he wasn't going to give up.

We realized we were going to relieve him of his post,

and we did the last, kind thing that a pet owner can do.

As the vet gave him the injection,

we stroked his head and whispered to him,

"Good dog, good dog... you've always been a good dog."

Because he was.

He was always our good dog.

Mystery, Part Two and a Buttload of Tomato Plants

As I said in my last post,

there's something brewin' at the Dang It Minnie Household.

Here's a few more photos to give you an idea:

Okay, a door...

... and some bright paint...

... that sign again...

...what?!  

Stay tuned to find out!

**************

In gardening news:

The first step to recovery from tomato-growing addiction

is admitting you have a problem.

"Hi.  I'm Dang It, Minnie, and I'm a tomato-aholic."