Five Things for Friday

I hope your week was worthwhile and you're as glad as I am to see Friday.  It started as another rainy week but finished pretty nice.  As you can see the sun was actually shining on my beer!

We did manage to get some work done on the deck.
Remember my picture from last week? This was the starting point.

Monday the contractor showed up and got the framing started.

They also found this little gem.

Dry rot.

The contractor felt it was limited to that one spot and most likely caused from the kitchen sink since the rotten spot is right where the sink is.  It's also no longer leaking because it dry and crumbly instead of spongy (yes, I've been googling 'dry rot' and I now know more than I ever cared to.)   Now that I know about it, it needs fixed.  Wouldn't that be a fun DIY project for the blog!!? *sigh*.

In between the excitement of the new deck and the unfortunate dry rot, I did manage to find this cool website.  Many times when you are in the market for an everyday item you are presented with a choice to either buy something cheap or buy something more expensive but better made.  Often, it's easy to grab the cheap item and in some cases that's a good idea.  However, there are times when you can get the better made item and it may be more expensive, maybe even double what the cheap item is, but if you're talking about an inexpensive item to begin with (like kitchen utensils for example) double the price is still not a lot to get something a lot better that will last a lot longer.

Along that same vein, umbrellas are an item that are relatively cheap, but just spending a little more can get a way better umbrella.  So if you're in the market for an umbrella (or planning to visit Portland anytime before July) here are 10 great looking, well made ones, a couple of which are less than $40.
I'm partial to this one:

This is an interesting read about, of all things, the rise and fall of bumper stickers.  I remember years ago (decades actually...) visiting the Sea Lion Caves north of Florence, Oregon.  When you were in the caves someone from the gift shop would affix bumper stickers to all the cars in the parking lot advertising that you had visited The Sea Lion Caves!  I thought it was awesome but my dad didn't and our car rarely made it out of the parking lot sporting the bumper sticker.  In my opinion, the travel bumper sticker is just retro enough that it's ripe for a comeback!  I think I'll order a few hundred for Lora's Beauty right now!  Order from Lora's Beauty and you get a free bumper sticker! Well, maybe, I'm still thinking about it.  In the meantime here's a fun read on how bumper stickers (particularly the Sea Lion Caves one) marked the beginning of summer.  Looks like I'm not the only one who thought those Sea Lion Caves bumper stickers were awesome.  This one sold on ebay for $35.99!

Since the new seasons of all our Netflix shows are coming out next week, we've been on the hunt for shows to watch in the meantime.  I stumbled on Bored to Death: Season 1last week on Amazon.  We've watched all of Season 1 and I highly recommend it!  Really funny!

I don't know about your part of the world but it's Spring Break here, baby!  Enjoy your weekend and Happy Vernal Equinox on Sunday!