BJay is a chimney sweep

I have bragged about this before.  But my husband is amazing.  He operates under the assumption that he can do anything.  And aside from dentistry and obstetrics, he does.  In the east we’re experiencing arctic weather.  It hasn’t been above freezing for days now and that means exponentially high power bills for us.  We have a fireplace with an electric blower that could heat our house but we haven’t put a fire in it yet because we’re afraid of burning down our house since we don’t know when the last time the chimney was cleaned.  I have been suggesting that we get a chimney sweep, but BJay resists such practical suggestions because he honestly believes that he can do anything that I think we should leave to the professionals.  This would be annoying if he was the type of do-it-yourselfer who gets the kitchen sink apart and then destroys it  before conceding to a professional in the end.  BJay does not do that.  There is no job that he can’t master.  And I love that.  So today when we revisited the idea of a fire in our fireplace and getting someone to clean our chimney so we don’t inadvertently burn our house down–Bjay put his chimney sweep cap on an went to work.  Before I knew it he was on the roof and then pulling the fireplace piece out with all kinds of utensils and a shopvac. I don’t know why I doubted him.  I mean if you can drop an engine in your mom’s backyard and completely rebuild a VW vanagon engine from scratch, cleaning a bit off soot and creosote from the chimney can’t be that complicated.  I will definitely let you know if our house burns down over night.  But I have no reason to think it will.  My husband rocks.  He is an eagle scout, after all.  And I believe he is right about the importance of learning to do something yourself.  I mean, there are a few jobs I am going to always leave to the professionals.  Namely dental work and medical care.  But if it is possible to learn how to do something yourself before hiring someone else to do it, you’ve won twice.  You’ve gained knowledge and experience and saved a wad of cash.  And those are things that are getting to be very important these days.

Step in Time!

 

A young, British Forest Gump?

Everything is funnier with a British accent! (My friend Tiffany posted this one and she’s right, its too funny!)

 

A cure for what ails you

I (reluctantly) went to see Momma Mia this evening with a friend. I guess I’m a fan of girly movies, but I was pretty sure this one was going to be in the wait-for-the-DVD catagory of girly-flick. It was so much better than I was expecting. It cheered me deep down in all the sunk in gloomy spots. Beautiful scenes, beautiful people, and lovely suspension of reality. It was lovely. Loved it. I don’t endorse the underlying moral messages, but hey sometimes you just need a laugh. And a cry. And then another laugh. If you are in need of a good giggly, deep down warm feel good movie–see it.

 

Blogtocracy

Check it out

 

Far Far

 

Random

 

REM on Colbert

I Heart Stephen Colbert

 

Man Cold

A friend posted this and I just have to put it up. Its too funny. I dedicate this to all women who have ever dealt with a man who is sick…

 

This hit close to home

A friend of mine emailed me this early this morning with a note, “This is worth 11 minutes of your time.” If you watch Oprah, you might have seen this already. It hit so close to home for me I thought I’d share…

 

New Soul–A credit to the French

I am ashamed to say that I am completely out of the loop when it comes to popular music. I don’t even listen to the radio, really. Occasionally NPR, sometimes classics–or if I’m driving alone I’ll find a classic rock station. But this song, featured in the new Mac Air add struck a chord with me.

I was sure that this was something everyone has heard on the radio for a year or more. I was interested enough to request “that Mac song” when BJay was playing music for the kid’s “dance party” from YouTube (BTW if you want to see something awesome, play some old school Beastie Boys for little kids and see what kind of dance moves they come up with!) The video on YouTube was even more interesting than the Mac add. So I googled Yeal Naim. Apparently, you can’t even buy this album in the US yet. It hasn’t been released. It is available for download on itunes. From the Reuters article I found:

“The success of the ad leaves Naim’s stateside label in a happy predicament. “When we signed her, we started off with this pretty much unknown girl who sings in Hebrew half the time and built our campaign around that. Now, we have to suddenly change everything,…”

” …Still relatively unknown in the States, Naim is not a newcomer to the music business by any stretch. The French-born singer grew up in Israel and spent her mandatory military service as a soloist in the Israel Air Force Orchestra.”

Wow, so aside from everyone else who never heard of Yael Naim before her music was featured in a Mac commercial, I’m ahead of the curve on this, right? I saw a couple other videos on Youtube of Naim’s music. Hats off to her for incorporating a music box, piano, and a harmonium. I might actually have to buy an album for the first time since…hmmm 1997?