(no subject)

I just finished repairing two vintage lighters for my brother's christmas present.

I'm actually quite proud of myself as the 1960s vintage lighter had a bunch of things I needed to fix (new flint, refilled butane, readjusted the sprockets to catch the grinder properly, realigned the ball bearing that depresses the tip to keep the butane from escaping, oiled and cleaned all the movable parts). It was our grandfather's lighter.

The 1980s fluid lighter with fishhooks floating in the tank was a less impressive fix, as it just needed new fluid and to have the flint tube bored out and new flint added. He will now have a lighter to go drinking with.

So now the question is, since I now know how to fix them, do I want to start making a couple of bucks by restoring lighters? The Ronson Varaflame Premier lighter that I just finished restoring can sell for between $20 and $90 based on the condition.

(no subject)

We took James to the First Words screening clinic today.

James doesn't have words yet, and while he isn't exactly supposed to, I just wanted to make sure he was on track, because it is so much better to get identified early and get therapy early than to hold out and hope that he's a late bloomer.

The speech pathologist says she sees a lot of good things happening in James. She also thinks we're going to be in trouble.

At one point we were demonstrating the "Please and Thank You" game we've devised. James was holding a lion and a hippo. I said "Please" and he handed me the lion. I said "Thank You" and handed it back with a "You're Welcome!". We repeated this exchange about three times before he lost interest and let me keep the lion. So I switched the lion to my left hand, and held out my right and said "Please" in hopes of also getting the hippo. He turned around, took the lion out of my left hand and put it in my right.

Trouble indeed.

Verdict: She expects he'll be speaking single words very shortly, but we should be concerned if at 15 months he hasn't. We should also get used to staying on our toes.