I'm looking back on these posts, and the links above, and I'm laughing hysterically! I thought I was the only one... When we purchased our home, DH and his best friend decide to completely gut our kitchen for a remodel. In trying to remove the kitchen counter tops from the cabinets, hubby comes up from the basement with an axe in one hand, and a sledge hammer in the other. Wide-eyed, I asked what he was doing. He tells me he's going to remove the counter tops. I said, honey, the counter tops can be lifted off of the cabinets, you just have to loosen the seal where the backsplash meets the wall, and dislodge the countertop and lift it off. You don't need an axe to do that. His engineer best friend is standing there with the same DUH look on his face, totally clueless. I had to go into a 10 minute explanation on how countertops are attached to the cabinets, trying to convince him that an axe really isn't necessary. Meanwhile, best friend is removing the wall-mounted oven (that we were planning to salvage), and in doing so, tempered glass shatters everywhere. I asked DH to saw some vent holes in the paneling on the small room built around our furnace, for increased air flow. I purchased the vents, just needed him to saw the openings for me. No problem. A short while later, I come downstairs to find that DH and best friend had sawed the openings for the vents - but not at the top of the wall or at floor level, but smack dab in the middle of the wall. Right at eye level. Because that's exactly where you'd expect to see a vent in anyone's home. We've since replaced the paneling. DH was replacing a light fixture in the bathroom for me. I was happy, thought he's getting better at his handyman skills, though I always wonder why it seems to take him so long. Finally, after what seemed to be an hour or so, DH comes out of the bathroom and tells me that he doesn't know why the light doesn't work. Turns out, he never kept the wires separate, and combined the grounding wire with all the other wires, not knowing what was what. We had to call an electrician. We have old plumbing in our 1920's home, and about a month ago, I asked DH to remove the stems from the bathtub handles so we could update them with something more modern. Instead of turning the stem with a wrench for removal, DH takes a plumbers wrench to the bolt it's attached to, totally strips it and bends it out of shape so now we can't even put the old handles on if we wanted to. $700 later and a plumber, the problem is fixed and we have all new plumbing in our bathtub. DH decided to beautify our landscaping one day, unbeknownst to me. I come outside to find that he trimmed my beautiful lilac trees into 3' high square bushes, removing all the foliage and leaving only the branches. ??????? I asked him why he did that, he said that's what his Mom always does (and she does!). DH and MIL are not allowed to touch any of my pruning shears. DH and Best friend went out to the family land this past weekend for guys night out. They purchased groceries - including a dozen eggs, put them behind the seat, loaded up the car with their goodies, and DH had to slam the front seat back (repeatedly) as hard as he could so best friend could fit in the front seat. They realized 2 1/2 hours into the drive that there were eggs behind the seat. After laughing hysterically, they said to eachother, "yeah, I guess our IQ does lower when we're around eachother".

There are some good things about getting old though. You can say any obnoxious thing and just have someone say well, s/he's just old! The older you get, the less peer pressure there is, by attrition. However, gettin' old ain't all it's cracked up to be. Hardly worth it for that senior cup of coffee at McD's. But then again, you CAN hide your own Easter eggs. You may have had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees, fought prostate cancer and diabetes be half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make ya dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts. have bouts with dementia and poor circulation, hardly feel hands or feet, can't remember if you're 85 or 92 lost all my friends, but hey... still have the driver's license! And of course be careful when you make the same noises as the coffee maker. Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and The eyesight to tell the difference. 'OLD' IS WHEN.. Your sweetie says, 'Let's go upstairs and make love,' and you answer, 'Pick one; I can't do both!' 'OLD' IS WHEN... Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot. 'OLD' IS WHEN... A sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door, 'OLD' IS WHEN... Going braless pulls all the wrinkles out of your face. 'OLD' IS WHEN... You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along. 'OLD' IS WHEN... You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police 'OLD' IS WHEN. .. 'Getting a little action' means you don't need to take any fiber today. 'OLD' IS WHEN... 'Getting lucky' means you find your car in the parking lot. 'OLD' IS WHEN... An 'all nighter' means not getting up to use the bathroom. AND 'OLD' IS WHEN... You are not sure these are jokes

Theoretically they're supposed to hang around, but there have been several times in the past few years when they've had to sort of reboot the whole thing and lost large numbers of older posts. Searching with google et al will give you a much longer search period than the feeble forum search, too. EDIT In some cases older threads may be cached at google when the originals aren't here anymore, too. This post was edited by writersblock on Tue, Mar 4, 14 at 16:57

Hi Chris.... It's really surprising- my room is 15'x15' and our electric bill is only $45 more than it was 2 years ago pre-plumeria. Electric is a lot less expensive in the NW than in the rest of the US though, and fluorescents are nicely efficient. It's a bummer about the plastic pink but I got some amazing news about the Penang Peach I've been coveting. The proverbial window opens :-) Thanks for your kindness. Nancy