"Hell is empty and all the devils are here"

I think Shakespeare had the right of it because one of those devils lives under my hot water heater! 

I have had trouble with my hot water heater ever since I moved into this old trailer. At the most random times I find that my pilot light has gone out, and usually I don't find out until I am half way through a shower and things get really COLD! 

After five years of this, I finally figured it out - after finding hell too hot to handle a little devil moved under my hot water heater, and any time he finds himself getting too hot, he just blows out the pilot light. I think he sits under there and plots about how best to get me, like when I have been gone for the weekend or am coming home freezing cold, and it is REALLY late at night. 

Cunning little thing. A few years ago he even threw a 'wrench' into the works and left me without hot water for three months before I could get it fixed. I think he must get bored sometimes too, either that or he is very sensitive to the extra heat, because when I cook something in the oven, he comes into the kitchen and blows out the pilot lights to my burners. Luckily, I think the previous owner must have blessed the furnace with holy water, because so far, that one has never blown out (knock on wood!).

I guess one of the benefits of having a resident demon is that I am now very good at lighting the pilot lights. The first time I tried it took me half an hour and I burned all the hair off my arm... not a good thing to do the day before you start a new job ;) Now however, I am quite skilled, and can have it relit in just a few minutes.  To give the devil his due, he is good at his job.

Yes... I like the power tools.

Um, so I went up to visit my folks again this weekend. These days, that seems to be the extent of my socialization. But, even though I just saw everyone last weekend, it was good to see the family again.

Tomorrow the sister missionaries move into my parents half finished basement, and as a result, my parents are in crisis-mode trying to get the everything ready for new tenants. They thought a ceiling might be appreciated... and they also decided that the sisters ought to have the bedroom that actually has a window so they can escape in the event of an emergency. So Saturday was spent finishing the window-less bedroom for my sister to move into (mostly just painting, lots and lots of painting!), and putting up large amounts of sheetrock for the ceiling in the rest of the basement. 

Thank heavens for the help of friends and family, because we could not have finished so much all by ourselves. Granted there is a lot left to be done... but things are MUCH better now. And with another night of sleep, I should be good as new again. Luckily I was interpreting in church today, otherwise... I probably would have slept through all three hours... oh dear. 

On a fun note, when I drove home this morning, I managed to bring a houseguest to keep me company and go on walks with me till Thanksgiving. So far he mopes around acting homesick and missing his mum and dad, but I think as soon as I give him some yummy food he will change his mind ;)

"I don't want to survive, I want to live!"

Came up to visit my folks last night and we all went out to the cheap movies to see WALL-E (I had never seen it before). I have to admit, WALL-E is one of my new favorites. The first time I saw the trailer though, I was rather skeptical. I was afraid this would be another Cars (not my favorite Pixar show). Some people, like my mum, can't stand talking animals in movies - I can't stand talking machines. Luckily, these characters weren't people that look like machines - they were machines with some people-like attributes. Somehow Pixar pulled it off. Plus, they don't really talk that much :)
WALL-E was charming! And just plain funny too. I laughed a lot more than I thought I would, and loved all the little jokes thrown in. I also loved that they used Hello Dolly as their reminder of the good ol' days - how many kids out there will truly appreciate listening to "Put on your Sunday clothes" or "It only takes a moment?" It just makes me laugh.
Of course, it didn't hurt that one of the underlying messages of the movie was about our need to take care of the earth. I would have liked the movie anyways, but that earned the movie some extra-credit points.

Oh, and for some added fun, the traditional pre-movie Pixar cartoon had me laughing so hard I was snorting. It was just plain funny!