My Friday began with thoughts of the Bennett family in Japan. I blogged about them earlier:
…and now it seems they are somewhere on their 700-mile journey across Japan…
“Our leadership has officially asked us to evacuate to Fukuoka today. They are asking us to drive, and that is a very long drive,1129 KM (701 miles). This is not interstate roads like we’re used to in America, especially in the southwest. It will be quite a challenge…”
Read more about their evacuation below:
Next on the agenda for Friday was a water-heater repair project for my husband the engineer and “handyman extraordinaire.” The project was completed without complications (which sometimes DO happen at our house where plumbing repairs are concerned!). The work did, however, involve one trip to the hardware department of our local home improvement store. We hardly ever do a plumbing project without having to make at least one run to the store for extra parts! As you probably have guessed by now, I’m just the gofer, but I have learned a lot of interesting and helpful info through the years. 
Would you believe, when we walked in the door and headed for the plumbing aisle – this is what we saw?? Mr. Hydro was ready to greet us; he looked a lot spiffier than our old water heater in the attic, but at least we knew we were headed in the direction of the parts we needed!
Two more items I want to mention before signing off for now…
If you are a dog-lover, or like animals of any kind, you might enjoy looking through these pictures from the recent annual dog show in Birmingham, England. I don’t know how long this slide show will be archived, but you can check the link below if you’re interested. It has some great behind-the-scenes shots of the animals AND their humans:
The other thing I want to mention is the BIG moon rising in a few hours — the best time to view it will be at sunset — which is much better than those ‘in the wee hour’ times that are usually optimal for moon viewing. Check out this link for further info:
I’m sorry I didn’t get this posted earlier. Most of you are probably already aware of the moon view. If you miss it, you can check out tomorrow’s viewing. Perhaps it will be almost as good!
I hope you all are having an enjoyable weekend and getting in a little rest along with whatever projects are on your agenda. If I don’t get too bogged down with income taxes, I will see you next week! 
Here’s a preview of one of our neighbors I hope to feature sometime soon:
