Birthday Surprise

I have a friend who is a fitness expert. He runs a website that I help to moderate. One of the other mods wanted to get him a thank you plaque for his birthday and have some people from the forum contribute.

One of the exercises our friend likes to do is to use a sledgehammer on a tire. So, my mod friend and another mod came up with the idea to mount a mini sledge hammer on a plaque.

Since he lives in Canada, and I live in the U.S., we figured it would be easier for me to handle the funds and the shipping.

I set out on a mission to find a small sledgehammer. Shouldn't be hard, right? I figured I could just go to any hardware store, and I settled on Lowe's.

Mind you, I know NOTHING about tools and the like. But, it seems logical to me that I would find one in the HAMMER section. So, I saunter over to the hammer section, determined to find a sledgehammer on my own -- me, a WOMAN -- find a sledgehammer BY. MY. SELF.

I stare at the assorted tools and look for a label that says "SLEDGEHAMMER". Don't see one.

WAIT. Here's something. Well, it says "MALLET" though ??? Hmmmmm..... I shoulda paid closer attention to Ross' sledge vid.

I decide to ask for help. I find a worker a few aisles down and tell him I need a small sledgehammer. The guy says, "Sure, I can show you" and promptly walks me over to the very section I had been standing in a few seconds ago. *sigh*

He grabs one off the shelf and holds it up proudly.

Now, THIS is the BEST that money can buy! It's made of hickory. This sucker is SOLID !!!

And, with that ... he grabs the head and it BREAKS OFF.

HIM: Oh, I guess someone broke this one.

ME: Yeeyahhhh...so much for being SOLID. Do you have something else?

HIM: Looks embarrassed.

ME: You know what...I'll just look around.

I give the display another once over and then leave.

After discussing things with my mod friend, I seek out another hardware store a few days later. There, I find what I need.

We wanted to include a thank you sentiment and an inspirational quote on the plaque. After going back and forth, my friend found one that we agreed on. Here is the finished plaque. I think it turned out really nice, especially with the gold leaf lettering.

Of Love and Pymepowers

Anyone not living under a rock has heard of the Twilight book series -- either the books or the movie that was just released. There are currently four books in the series, with a draft of a fifth published on the web. Apparently, every tween out there along with every other grown woman is reading the series. I'm not one of them.

For Christmas, Mikayla asked for the Twilight book set. I refused, telling her she should just borrow them from the library. I know -- I'm so "CHANG" sometimes!!! I even suggested that we just go to Borders and read the books there. *GASP!!!* Yes, I actually said that !!!

Lucky for her, Uncle Joseph came to the rescue! At our holiday party last Sunday, one of my good friends, Joe, happened to mention that he had read the first three books and was on the fourth. He graciously offered to let us borrow the books so we could read them and not have to buy a set. YAYYYYY !!!!



Mikayla started reading the first book that night. It's 1:17 a.m. Saturday morning, and she has about a hundred pages left to read in the second book in the series! I can't believe how engrossed she's been with reading them. I'm rather pleased, though! I used to love reading as a child -- still do -- and I'm glad she does as well!

Joe called today and said he'd mail out the fourth book to us tomorrow since he's already back on the Big Island. At this rate though, Mikayla will be done with all four before she's done with her school break!

I'm not sure if I will read the books myself. I'm curious about them, and they do seem to be easy reads. Still, I have other books on my reading list that I'd like to get through first.

Joe said the books are more like love stories. Hmmmmm.... interesting. A love story involving vampires -- or, as Mikayla used to say when she was little "PYMEPOWERS". LOL!!!

I remember when she was around 5 or 6 years old. There was a movie called "The Littlest Vampire". She couldn't say "vampire" though. She would pronounce it as "pymepower", and I still remember that. I thought it was so cute!

Well, Joe said we could hold on to the books afterwards, so I could read them, too. Looks like I'm adding "Twilight" to my reading list for '09!