so now that he's back to work.......

do you think i can get a new patio table umbrella???

when we bought this patio table set about 5 or 6 years ago, it had a really nice matching umbrella.  

somebody, ahem, 

and i'm not naming names....

left the umbrella open when we had a heavy rainstorm 

and it flew away like mary poppins.  

we searched the neighborhood (because the neighbor's son watched it fly away) high and low but think it may have flown into the large woods behind our house 

or the neighboring county.

anyhoo....

we never found it.  

our neighbor (same neighbor with said son who watched it fly away) had a garage sale and some of her friends from church brought some of their things to sell.  one of the items was a patio umbrella. 

that sort of matched our set, for 5 dollars.  

so we bought it.  

it was a real piece of crap.  

but unnamed dude was determined that it was going to work.  so he 

sewed what needed to be sewed when the rivets popped out of the spines and the rest

he duct taped....see that shiny spot above???  look closer

don't all men think that duct tape fixes anything/everything??

yesterday we opened the umbrella and 

this

was the result.  

lovely, isn't it??

well, now i'm on a quest for a new umbrella.  hopefully i can find one in gray or black or turquoise (ooh, turquoise) 

and cheap...if you can direct me to a great deal, 

i would appreciate an email or comment.  :D