Life Imitates Art

We watched a couple of the Pink Panther movies with the kids, and they sure loved them. Actually, what they really loved was Clouseau, and he wasn’t as prominent of a figure in the first Pink Panther movie, and was definitely not as bumbling and funny. It was the Return of the Pink Panther that the kids really loved, though I recall one of my favorites was Strikes Again. Either way, in the Return, there is a cool scene where the jewel thief sneaks into a museum and steals the Pink Panther diamond. In order to pull this off, he has to escape all sorts of traps and alarms, and this really inspired the kids.

What they ended up doing was setting all these traps around the house with trip wires. They were very clever about it, using electronic sirens and buzzers with insulators that would slip out when we walked through the wire. I actually contributed to the mix by suggesting they tie a thread to a jar of marbles and placing it on a metal tray. When the trap gets set off, the marbles roll around the metal, making a raucous noise. It’s cool that they were so creative about it, but I set the traps off about two dozen times a day. This, as you might have guessed, amuses the kids to no end.

Oh well, you reap what you sow, right? Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Sinks and Baths

We ordered and received the toilets for the barn, but that’s only part of the picture. KB said to order the sinks and a bathtub, as well. I guess those are important, as well. One interesting note about the downstairs bathroom: when we were in Florida, the house that we stayed in had a small bathroom that was nearly identical to what we had in mind, but with an interesting twist.

We had originally envisioned a small bathroom with a door on one end, a wall mount sink on the side which you would have to walk around to get to the toilet. What the Florida house had was a bathroom with a sliding door on the side that allowed for a full size pedestal sink on one end and a toilet on the other. I’m not a huge fan of sliding doors, but you could always put in a regular door, and this would allow for much more space.

The bathroom is already framed out, but nothing a reciprocating saw and sledge hammer can’t handle. Did I mention that I like framing?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Ryan Smart for the pic.