Happy Christmas Second Day!

Merry Christmas one and all!  Today is December 26, 2009.  Known as Boxing Day in many parts of the world; on St. Croix, today is Christmas Second Day.

Christmas is in full swing down here.  Starting at sundown on Christmas day, the twelve days of Christmas begin.  They continue until sundown on January 5th.  January 6th is Three Kings Day, the celebration of the day that the Wisemen arrived (granted it was three years later, but celebrated all the same).  Three Kings Day is the start of Epiphany in the church calendar.

I spent today learning the joys of Crucian construction.  I helped a friend rerun plumbing.  Plumbing should always be run outside a wall down here.  Remember, our houses are made of concrete (including the interior walls).  Watching Pam deal with carving out two concrete walls has convinced me that aesthetics should be put aside in favor of being able to actually reach the plumbing (oh, and never never never use copper down here!).

After gluing PVC together in a closet, we might have been a little loopy with glue fumes.  Still we moved on to removing the sink and toilet.  After contorting ourselves into bizarre and painful positions and fighting with the two L-brackets beneath the sink - struggling with the part screwed into the tile wall - Pam told me to stop fighting with the extremely rusty screws.  I turned to see her holding an L-bracket in her hand.  Turns out the marble sink, inlaid with 24 karat gold, was not attached to anything.  It was sitting on the L-brackets and front legs.  Given we have 200-350 earthquakes a month (don't even get me started on the hurricanes) - and that sink has been there for at least two decades - I find it nothing short of miraculous.

Laughing a little hysterically - did I mention the glue? - we went back and easily lifted the front legs out of the tile.  Seriously.  The sink was attached to nothing!  Not the wall.  Not the legs.  Nada.  (Oh!  And the PVC wasn't even glued together beneath the sink.)  Pam is a very blessed woman!

I jokingly suggested the toilet might not be bolted or caulked down.  I was wrong.  It was no joke.  After separating the tank from the seat, we discovered there was nothing other than weight holding the freakin' thing in place.  We were forced to lock the cats on the porch to avoid them escaping, and tripping over the two dogs, we managed to get the seat outside.  Not easy while laughing like loons!

I no longer have any qualms forcing Pam to help me hang curtains, my latest cross-stitch, and fixing my screen door.  Did I mention that after cutting water and flushing the toilet there is still a ton of water in a decades old pink toilet?  (And did I mention I was barefoot?  *shudder*)

Is life in Paradise exciting or what?  Okay, signing off now.  For those of you who read this thing - you can choose to follow the blog and be notified when I update it (am trying to track stats on those reading this - if you repeatedly check it, the stats get wonky.  Of course, I'd rather you check repeatedly than not  read it.  =))  Also - those obnoxious ads at the top - do me a favor and click them when you are done reading.  Wait for the page to load and move on with your life.  Allegedly, I make money with those.

Got a new camera for Christmas.  Am definitely attending Carnival and getting pictures this year!  Am also going to be taking pictures of the signs down here.  Trust me, you'll get a kick out of them!