Surfing the Zen

You know last week's apprehension when I managed to schedule a complete summer's worth of activities into a single weekend because each and every one of them sounded like a ton of fun? And my surprising calmness about the logistics involved, which included feeding three concurrent sets of house guests while accompanying the college musical every night? Not to mention that I had decided cleaning wasn't going to happen and knew I would wince every time I couldn't avoid seeing the protective covering of dust I've allowed to develop over the entire House on the Corner? 

I mentioned to a friend that I was feeling unexpectedly Zen about my dirty, dirty house.

"Well, then surf the Zen," she told me. "Surf the Zen."

So I'm sharing the following because I am so excited about the results that I'm ignoring the chaos that surrounds the triumph: I have a new kitchen faucet!

The faucet in the kitchen sink has been pretty much a pain for the entire quarter century we've lived in the HotC. In spite of repeated replacements of the center cartridge (did you know the turning-on lever mechanism was called a cartridge? I did not, pre-faucet problems) getting water from this faucet was a mysterious process for visitors.

"Just grab that center post and shimmy it up until the water comes on, then when you want to turn it off, hit the top with the heel of your hand," I'd tell friends who offered to help wash dishes or peel potatoes.

I didn't even realize how irritating this faucet had become until the wonderful brother-in-law who was visiting over the weekend offered to replace it: My shrieks of acceptance may have permanently damaged his hearing. 

Anyway, it started out like this, although brother-in-law had already started to scrub under the fixture:

Ignore the surrounding chaos. Zen, baby. 

Brother-in-law's hand.

Then it was this, and then--this!

This is my faucet!

Do you hear the angels singing? This is the faucet of which dreams are made. Not only does it dispense a lovely stream of water at the touch of the tap (witness the first picture in this long, long post), it also does this:

It sprays!

And this!

The head of the faucet pulls out and it keeps spraying! You know the turkey roasters that won't fit into the sink? Now they'll be sprayed. And the big cookie sheets? Also sprayable.

And while I am so happy with this new faucet that I won't even mention that it has a BUILT-IN SOAP DISPENSER (oh, yes, it does) I have to admit that this Cadillac of faucets wouldn't have been a good idea while we still had Boys at home. I'm fairly certain the mobile nature of the faucet head would have turned our kitchen into this.

Cute? Yes. But surfing the Zen while my sons were dousing my cabinets? Nope, wouldn't have happened.