Birthday ballons and laundry room showers

It was very nice to have everyone here for a family dinner on Mary Ann's birthday. For a cake, Barb chose an assortment of cheese cake varieties which were decorated with some long rainbow candles.

Someone suggested that Mary Ann try holding a balloon above the flames to see at what point it would pop. Here is the result. (The candles needed to be re-lit so we could continue with the appropriate ceremonies.)



Changing subjects abruptly, the laundry room shower represents a fine bit of ingenuity that needed to be preserved is some form, so the blog will do. We needed a first floor shower option while Mutti's sister stayed with us recuperating from surgery. The laundry room floor had a drain in it, and there was a handy water supply for the washer, so all the ingredients were there. In fact, one can purchase a free standing portable shower for such situations if one has $1000 to spare. Building on his experiences with PVC pipe, Joe constructed a square frame that was hung from the ceiling using screw hooks and rope. From the frame were hung shower curtains that were tucked into a plastic child's wading pool into which holes were drilled and positioned over the floor drain. The shower seat is actually a portable commode we borrowed.

My contribution was the water supply. For about $45 the hot and cold faucets were divided into two streams that were individually valved--one to the washer and the other to a "Y" hose that brought the hot and cold together. Into the bottom of the Y hose was screwed an adapter that would mesh with a hand-held shower wand. Voila!

We estimate the total cost was under $100. (The only additional expense was a call to RotoRooter to unstop the floor drain in the laundry room, but that needed to be done anyway.)