It's amazing, the things you learn when you own a house. For example, that little plastic suction-cup looking thing with the chain on it that sits at the bottom of the toilet and blocks the hole? It's called a "flapper." I know because we needed a new one. We went to home depot with nothing but an image in our mind and came home, our heads happy and full of new plumbing-knowledge. I wasted no time. Plunged my hands deep into the muck that is the rear tank of our toilet and flapped myself into oblivion.

I also learned the name for that long-handled thing with the blades on it that you use to cut down branches. The one Keith had left behind in our shed was broken, missing a blade, so we naturally went out to Target to replace it. And that's how I learned the word. "Lopper." I lopped like crazy yesterday, trimming the neighbor's branches that hang above our driveway. Though in the end, the main thing I learned about lopping, which is apparently the most important thing, is that I need a taller ladder. A much taller ladder.

So look at us, everybody, we're lopping and we're flapping!