On Shut Off Valves, Wash Down Pumps and Artists.

Oh you KNOW there are schematics for this. I'll post them soon.
As much as I tease him, he does manage to solve a lot of problems
using that Perfecto noodle of his.
 

Mark was pretty darned stoked about the valve on our water tank. He excitedly told me how he had spent days designing and manufacturing a custom valve that would allow us to isolate the secondary water tank without ripping the settee which houses the tank apart. He started talking about the lack of commercially available valves that would be accessible and functional while installed in a boat setting and then he started telling me about psi and flow rates or something along those lines. I can't tell you precisely because it was at this time that my eyes glazed over and I started noticing that his hair was kinda crazy and made him look a bit like a mad professor... then I started thinking about mad professors movies...then I started thinking about the movie Real Genius and how much I would like to be eating popcorn. I snapped back to attention when he said "it will allow us to isolate the water tank so when we run the water maker we can test the water before mixing it in with the main tank". This means he has agreed to put in a water maker! WHOOP! Since a water maker is at the top of my wish list, only just below an in boom furler I was pretty ecstatic myself. Now if I can just get him to see the beauty of the engineering of the Leisure Furl...and sell a kidney to fund it will be better than Christmas around here.

Every day our UPS man rings our doorbell and drops off various small brown boxes. Kitty is well trained. She pipes up "A present for Daddy!" and runs off to open the door and collect the days parcels. In her world Santa Claus wears a brown UPS uniform. She waits eagerly for Mark to come home so they can open them together. Usually, they are filled with odd bits of plumbing supplies but every once in a while, we get something exciting- like a wash down pump. Kitty thinks it is great to pretend to spray her dad. I think its great that I never again have to remove the thick black mud that loves to stick to our anchor by hand. Ok, so I will still have to remove the muck by hand but now at least I have a shot at not being completely filthy by the end of the job.

One of the cool things about having an almost 3 year old is to see the leaps in development they make. Up until now, Kitty has been happily scribbling with crayons and mixing paint colors in abstract designs with an occasional circle drawn just to show she can. Today, she started drawing objects intentionally. It was such fun to see the pride she had in her work and for me to be able to recognize the objects she was drawing. She will happily spend hours drawing if you will only draw with her. She carefully doles out the paper and assigns the crayons you will get to use. we might want to start helping her learn to not micro manage other peoples projects. (wonder where she gets THAT?!?!) She is also developing a bit of kindness in that she never points out that I can not actually draw. "Good job Mama!" she says, no matter how wonky the rendering. Yeah, having an almost 3 year old is pretty awesome.

Suns

Why its a boat of course.

An owl, with "softly feathers"