Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Things I Have Just Learned In The Past Two Weeks

1. If a smoke detector starts making random, annoying beeps, pressing the button on it for a few seconds will not work. Instead, you will have to stand on a chair and weave your way through a labyrinth of wires in the smoke detector to find the battery and disconnect it. This will likely happen at about 4 a.m.

2. You should probably make sure you always have a replacement smoke detector battery on-hand.

3. If your dog freaks out during a thunderstorm, try rubbing water on his/her back. Since dogs are very sensitive to the static electricity in the air during a storm, this will help eliminate some of the electricity and therefore, some of their anxiety. (Thanks, Christy, for this great tip!)

4. Cans of tuna-flavored cat food attract bees. This can be useful in keeping bees away during a family gathering.

5. A sump pump is a pump used to prevent flooding in your basement. (I used to know this, but forgot it over the years.)

6. People who grew up in Texas didn’t have a basement and don’t know about sump pumps.

7. To keep bugs from eating your tomato plants, post yellow disposable plastic cups with vaseline rubbed on them in your yard. (The bugs will be attracted to the cups and get stuck on them and die.)

8. My sister-in-law Anna knows A LOT about houses and gardening.

9. I’m not sure that I’d ever want to live in the suburbs.

10. Watering plants in a garden can be very, very relaxing.

11. If I owned a house, I’d get a dog. But only ONE dog.

12. Dogs are disgusting creatures who sometimes eat poo or feminine products. (Ewwwww….)

13. Feeding a dog a half a banana a day will likely prevent him from eating his own poo. (I’ve been told that it’s really the potassium they crave.)

14. I still have so much to learn!

4 comments:

sageweb said...

Wow I am going to try the yellow cup and vaseline trick. Now I have learned something.

Random Thinker said...

Bananas - to think there was a simple solution to this all along. Love my dogs.... hate some of their disgusting habits.

Unknown said...

Funny about the Texas basements. Our house in Des Plaines didn't have a basement, we sort of kind of have one here. Nerve-racking during all the tornadoes. Of course my childhood home did not have sump pump back in 87 and I was home alone and 5 feet of water crept up from the Chicago River at the end of the street.

Lorraine said...

True story: I knew some people who got married in a place called Twisp. Interestingly, that's the native word for "yellow jacket". So at their outdoor wedding in the summer in Twisp (I know, what were they thinking?) the caterer put out large platters of ground beef on a table near but not too near the buffet to attact the yellow jackets.

The couple got a divorce. I don't know whether that has anything to do with anything.