Yeah, when I was in high school or so, I noticed that my mother had a Filene's charge card that said Mrs. [My Father's Name], which is so very not my mother, I don't even know. She told me that was all she could get at the time she opened the account, even though my father was in school and she was supporting both of them! I made her get a new card.

Somewhere, somewhen, they wouldn't put my mother on the bank account. So she just signed his name.

Back in the days when we had to deposit the paychecks manually, she always signed his name because he always forgot.

Dad's gotten more involved, but my mom is still the main household accountant.

My mother, the forger.

We just bought this: [link] Very excited! We have a fountain our realtor gave us as a house-warming present, but it has never worked right, runs on electricity, and we got tired of buying new pumps for it. This one and is solar and has a much smaller spray, so we are hoping it lasts. It's freaking hot here all summer and it's nice to offer the birdies a bath.

WARNING - a picture of a hairless chimp: [link]

Freaky. It looks like something some Hollywood effects studio came up with.

Cool, Scrappy!

My parents have a fountain. Well, ok, it is the overflow drip for the swamp cooler, but they have it strung so that it flows into a birdbath fashioned from a bike rim and a frying pan. But you really can't tell what the components were in their previous lives.

Well, ok, it is the overflow drip for the swamp cooler, but they have it strung so that it flows into a birdbath fashioned from a bike rim and a frying pan.

Okay, I totally <3 your parents, sarameg.

Scrappy, that's a gorgeous fountain. I really want one, but I have to figure out how to deal with the wind & the lack of humidity.

Okay, I totally

... DESPERATELY NEED THAT? Yes.

I forge Hubby's signature 90% of the time. I had to take over the bills because he gets offended when people send us bills, and he thinks if he frowns at them hard enough that they'll apologize and slink away.

... DESPERATELY NEED THAT? Yes.

Hee. That too.

Also, I forget that less than three really means I have to put the less than tag in.

He doesn't do it as much (though that may change with retirement) but dad likes fashioning stuff out of seemingly unlikely parts. We have lamp from a radiator from a jet(?) engine, a giant brass shell casing that is the umbrella stand (that's not too unusual, I don't think) and art piece that is some internal timekeeping guts from a telescope (size of a loaf of bread) in a casing he built from the same metal. A lot of it was channeled into making solutions for the workbench. He must've picked up the habit from his father and grandfather who were machinists in a die factory(?) He certainly inherited their beautiful tools (some homemade as well.)