Well, here’s swell news. Today, March 11, is World Plumbing Day. How’s that for a treat. Don’t get me wrong.

I’m crazy about plumbing. When we lived in Taiwan we didn’t have any, and we certainly missed it.  And we were on a cobra route. This is true.  There was no plumbing leaving the house – or coming in.  In the kitchen, there was just a hole in the wall for the dish water to leave through.  The problem was, that when water wasn’t running out, little creatures from the outside world would climb in. Including black cobras.

So we had to keep water boiling on the stove all the time. The idea was that when a snake tried to climb in the little hole (you remember, the one that was there because the plumbing wasn’t) we would notice them because they grow six to eight feet long. Then, we were quickly to pour boiling water on them.  If you hit the cobra with the boiling water, it might go away. If you missed it, it would be really, really annoyed and there was a good chance it would like to come in and gnaw on you. (PawNation describes how black cobras  follow prey around and gnaw on them. It then waits around til the prey dies.  So if you notice a black cobra waiting around in your kitchen chances are it isn’t there to sample the dog food. The bathroom of course, was served by a septic tank, which was not too securely installed.  Suffice it to say, my best friend was a gal we called Cesspool Alice because of her unfortunate propensity for falling in. Well, there was a story there. Perhaps another time.  I just want to say, Let’s hear it for all of the plumbers in the world.We could make cupcakes shaped like plumbers’ helpers.  Little round toothpick in the top for the handle. Hooray for World Plumbing Day. If it weren’t for plumbers we might all have a kitchen full of Black Cobras (I am not speaking of the musical group which might be better – or not.)The other thing to celebrate today is Organize Your Home Office Day. Be sure to check out www.daysoftheyear.com for reasons to celebrate.