Toilets, Peppers, and Circus Tents

So, our toilet seat broke, again.  You might remember when my dad and I fixed the toilet seat a few years ago.  I'm sure that's top on everyone's itinerary when coming to Italy - fixing a toilet seat.  Anyway, my dad was a great help.  Truth be told, I didn't even know one could change a toilet seat til my dad suggested it.  I had, of course, seen the aisle of replacement seats in hardware stores my whole life.  I'm not sure what I thought those were for, but it hadn't occurred to me in the first 6 years of living in Maberga with a broken seat that I could purchase one of them and solve my toilet problem.  Not until my dad suggested it. 

Well, turns out that the seat we bought a few years ago did the trick for a while, but then it too started sliding all over the place when you sat on it, just like its predecessor.   Remember that ride at the County Fair, the Tilt-A-Whirl?  Yeah, that was what it was like, a Tilt-A-Whirl built for one.

Whilst it's a bit unnerving to sit-n-slide on one's toilet seat, it's worse to sit and slide into a pinch, which is what you get when the toilet seat has a crack in it.  That's when you know that it's time to change the seat again. 

Nothing makes a girl feel more like a princess than sitting on a seatless toilet in her own home. 

Before any of you ask (dad and Wayne), yes, I did try tightening it.  For the past several months I've been using this tool more than my toothbrush.

That happens to be the super-awesome HANDMADE toilet seat screw tightener that my mechanic made for my dad and me.  It's a long story how it came to be that my car mechanic was making us a toilet seat screw tightener...

Anyway...to The Self I went.  You may remember that The Self is "the world of DIY".  It's the Home Depot of Italy. Only it's neither of those things.  It sucks. 

Having done a google search about how to change a toilet seat, I knew what I needed.  You'd be amazed how much info there is about toilet seats!  go ahead, try it yourself -- google "how to change a toilet seat"....amazing, no?  I digress.

It turns out toilet seats come in round and oval (if you have an old toilet, if you have a new-fancy-smancy one it could be square....just like everyone's ass).  Dad and I put a round seat on our oval base.  Whatever!  The seat looked oval. Anyway, thus the tilt-a-whirl effect, the seat was too small.  So when I went to The Self that Sucks, I found a seat on the toilet wall that had all the right measurements, according to the tag that was on the demo (foreshadowing).  So I snatched that puppy up and home I went.  

Yeah yeah yeah, you can predict what happens.  I got home and that seat was another frickin round one....NOT the measurements that were posted on the demo at The Self that Sucks.

Blah blah, shouting at The Self that Sucks employee (who also sucked) blah blah blah, home with new toilet, blah blah blah...

Job well done.

Well, that was an interesting story.  How 'bout an up-date on the 2014 harvest....

pepperoncini

 Lina gave us this great big needle for pepper stringing.  I have no idea what we will do with all these pepperonici when they are dried - that's David's problem.  I just like stringing them.

In other needle news...Circus top hats are rolling of the knitting needles.  And I'm selling them faster than I can make them.  Friends, I should have the money for that new house project any day now.