I met Chet the dog yesterday. He's the narrator of Spencer Quinn's The Dog Who Knew Too Much.

Chet's a K-9 reject with an excellent nose and perfect loyalty to Bernie Little. Together they are the Little Detective Agency. Here they find themselves searching for a lost boy, which leads them into all sorts of trouble with crooked lawmen and meth camps.

Chet's a charmer with keen storytelling ability, with the occasional lapse of attention when, say, there's bacon nearby, or a swimming hole.

The book was fun. Probably even better for dog lovers.

And here is Peter Abrahams' website, creator of Spencer Quinn and Chet.

Ahem. Lyman began cleaning out our storage room and found a new set of hinges for the oven. Apparently, a repairman talked us into them in the past.

So he replaced them, but didn't pull the oven out "about six inches" to do the receptacles. So the hinges work, but the oven still didn't close properly.

He bought a ceramic magnet to pull the door closed. It's usable.

I haven't had a period this month. I'm full on menopausal. Temper, temper. No wonder the nutria hides his eyes. That's his forecast for this year.

Probably best to leave the critters out of this. Hard to do when Charles Gore is screeching while I drink my coffee.

Poor Pierre C. Shadeaux is under terrible pressure this year. First the LSU Tigers lost the BCS Championship, then the New Orleans Saints fell out of the playoffs.

Neno has another couple of nice shots of an iguana:

Portrait
Full-length

He looks content.

Great nutria pic.

UPDATE: The photographer, Nenad Druzic of Zagreb, Croatia, has generously given permission for me to use this photo for this year's card.

Nice nutria pic. It's time for Cajun Groundhog Day shortly.

Good thing I'm not superstitious. Today, Friday the 13th, is our 18th wedding anniversary.

We don't have any plans for the day so far. Maybe we should let it slide until next week. Son2 has a birthday on the 18th. We could all celebrate together.

I did talk to the director of the senior swimming program in Natchez. What I didn't know is that the program is available for citizens 50 and up. I've been missing out. She is quite direct and expects me there Monday morning at 8. I'm game.

And this is my email response from Jenn-Air:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gore:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Jenn-Air. We appreciate hearing from you.

We sincerely apologize for the trouble you have encountered with your Jenn-Air wall oven. As consumers ourselves we can certainly understand your frustration regarding this concern. Unfortunately, due to the age of the unit we are unable to offer any assistance with the impending repair. We will document your comments in our files which are available for review should the need arise.

You are a valued Jenn-Air customer and we apologize for any inconvenience this concern may have caused.

We invite you to contact Jenn-Air again either by calling (800) 536-6247 between 8:00am to 8:00pm (EST) Monday-Friday, or by emailing whenever the need arises. When calling please press the available option or stay on the line to reach a representative.

Sincerely,

Amanda C.
Jenn-Air Senior Specialist
Jenn-Air Customer eXperience Center

I'm still thinking about how to reply. We asked for a set of hinges. Not installation, just the hinges. Maybe I'll just rip it out of the wall and send it back to them. The Viking stovetop bought at the same time works fine. My mother could make a mean pan cornbread on the stove.

I gave them a chance. Repairs to this oven have cost $983.81 to date. Lyman propped the drain stopper for the garbage disposal in the gap between the door and the light punch button so the light doesn't break, too.

The drain is clear.

After our mechanical failures we went the chemical route. Not knowing whether we would need to call a plumber, I started with Roto-Rooter's Build-Up Remover, which is a non-toxic enzyme-based formula. That went a good distance toward speeding things up. Then we went with Liquid Plumber Gel, which knocked the rest of the clog out.

Better, better. Lyman can shave in our bathroom now.

And it was warm enough yesterday to clean a couple more windows.

The season is way too short around here to condense it all into "Spring Cleaning."

That's it. I'm hospitalitied out. My brother came for a plate of ham, corn, black-eye peas, cabbage and hot-water cornbread -- traditional good-luck southern fare.

The holiday season is over, our delightful snowbirds are comfortably ensconced in their winter home at Orange Beach, and I am FREE!

Let's all have a happy new year!

But Lucy likes it out there. It's 72 degrees today:

Ahem. I have already cleaned Charles Gore's cage. He does not want to go outside. Can you tell?:

Now, the next project is the sluggish sink drain in the master bath.

Since lawyers are a lot cheaper than plumbers around here, Lyman has taken that job on. He has disassembled the drain pipes under the sink and found that the clog is somewhere between drains.

Today we are going to try the Clog Buster to clear the drain. I'm sure this will be fun.

We've used one effectively before in the kitchen. That's after a mishap that left us mopping water for half the night.

UPDATE: Nah. That didn't work. Somewhat improved, but....

Time for Roto-Rooter. Unless you have a suggestion.

We tried an auger, but couldn't get it past an elbow not far past the wall.

I have assembled my three receipts and the address to write a letter to Jenn-Air about this disaster of an oven we bought in 2000.

Those receipts are for repair of two control boards and one set of broken hinges. This double oven cost about 2 grand new.

The right hinge on the upper oven has broken again. It was last repaired in July 2009.

What a disappointing (pos) appliance.

UPDATE: The good news is that the hinge broke the day AFTER Christmas. And there is another usable oven.

Better. These are a quick-dry cotton. I like the non-banded look, even if I don't particularly like the hemmed edges. $4 each on sale:

I bought one towel of this kind ($5) that I'm not crazy about. It's large and dries the body well enough but feels flimsy. I'll use it for swimming.

Reviewers with hair do like the towels for wrapping after a wash. And if I had a house full of kids, it might be nice to have affordable towels that dry quickly in the laundry. 

Some years ago we had a discussion here about face cloths, wash cloths, flannels and wash rags. These are obviously "wash rags":

Yes, that ugly beige does match the fixtures in our 1962 bathrooms. Lyman's mother let those pass when she and Lyman's Dad built the house. She doesn't know why she didn't choose white, either.

And no, the cloths in the guest bathroom do not look as though they've been chewed by the birds.

Penney's has a 30-70% off sale in bed and bath until the 31st. Here I come!

My gosh, I'm glad there wasn't a bike under the tree for a youngun at my house. It's been raining nonstop for two days now.