smiles, cyndi

And, being a words person (writer, editor), I have to comment on the whole Hudee ring saga. It’s interesting to me to see the evolution of “Hudee”—the name of the manufacturer—to “hootie.” Of course, if you only ever HEAR the name and never see it spelled out, you’d think it was “hootie.” And then, Bronwyn’s contractor ordered her a “beauty” ring. I can just see some old plumber talking about a “Hudee” ring, and a younger apprentice thinking he must have said “beauty” ring. For some odd reason, this makes me happy.

I want desperately to replace the dull blue laminate on my counters with nile green, but am so nervous about pulling up that sink and possibly ruining or losing one of those hudee ring clips that I’m stalling out. Why no one makes those clips is beyond me. And “nile green” is a distant but realistic choice to my first, which the never-to-be-found Textolite laminate, in Fern Camelot. Sigh. Did you know that stuff was actually fabric?

On the up side, I did discover that I have the most wonderful retro vinyl flooring in the kitchen, the original stuff that must have been put down in the 40s or 50s, hidden under 2 layers of fake tile vinyl. The original flooring has pieces of white, green, and pale blue vinyl embedded in a translucent, pale amber matrix, along with gold foil bits that make the whole floor twinkle. I’m uncovering it now, with the help of acetone to remove the hard yellow adhesive that was used to lay the first “tile” layer on top of it. Slow going, but worth it.