Yo! I am HANDY!

"Remember, if the women don't find you handsome, at least they'll find you handy."

Truer words were never spoken by a grey-haired, short, flannel-clad, slightly beer-bellied, and very funny Canuck.

Fortunately, I am not grey-haired, nor short, but I do wear flannel, and am non-beer-bellied, and I make my wife laugh, Alaskan-Aussie bloke.

Yes, I am handsome and handy --he says with a certain modest smugness. BTW grammar is knot won uf myy strongue pointses.

Remember when I made the pool cover out of tarps, bubble wrap and duct tape? Well, I have now fixed the roof.

No, I didn't use duct tape (but I was tempted). See, we had some rain; the first in a long time. And the roof was leaking in a couple of spots. So I actually found the stupid nails that were loose, replaced them with roofing Tek screws and sealed them with silicone goop.

The hard part was getting the nails out cus they were under the tubes for the solar heater that heats the pool. Did I mention we have a pool? As it was, it still didn't take any time at all, and was a good excuse to blow off an afternoon.

Here is another Handyman's Secret Weapon:



Notice, please, the fact it 24 V, not a wussie 12 or 14. Variable torque, variable speed, came with a boatload of drill bit, sockets, screw heads, etc. Also came with a SPARE battery and a rapid charger so you're never out of juice. Keyless chuck of course, and an LED light that shines on the drill head for when it's dark. The 8 mm socket was perfect for the roofing Tek screws, very handy. For those of you in the US, GMC stands for Global Machine Company and they make very good stuff (my leaf blower/vac is GMC too).

Oh, yeah, it also looks really really cool --sorta like you'd expect it to shoot a laser beam type cool!

I was going to put a scalloped potato recipe here, but I've uploaded it to my new(ish) cooking blog instead. So be sure to check out

Dingo Dave's Delightfully Daring Delicacies

Oh, I'll get the real story of what happened in the canoe up soon.