Friday, October 23, 2009

The Maine Attraction

In honor of the fact that a good friend of mine has recently moved to Portland, Maine, and a new friend, Agent Brian, has just relocated from Portland to San Francisco, we have this post from Agent Steve, our other Maine man. Here he is, in his own words:

While showing off parts of Maine to some people “from away,” I decided to treat them to the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland. Besides showing them a little bit of Down East, it was a good stop to stretch our legs, admire Robert Indiana’s EAT sculpture atop the Farnsworth, watch people scarf down lobster and most importantly, find a public bathroom.

We didn’t have far to look. Before the fun rides, before the carney games and before the enormous tent of crustacean gobblers, in fact just twenty feet beyond the oddly unoccupied entrance booth were a slew of port-a-potties, including the first handicapped-accessible I’ve ever seen (I don’t get out much). Happily, it was only the second day of the festival for the warning sign within seemed dire. Sign notwithstanding, I’m pleased to report the facilities were clean and included functioning hand sanitizer dispensers. In retrospect, the placement was perfect: not next to the eating tent and quite close to the rides that spin you around.

That is a serious looking warning!

And we agree with Steve. "Handicapped accessible" portapotties are far superior to "regular" portapotties. Every portapotty should have that much space to move around in. And we, too, are big fans of the hand-washing stations we've seen at some porta-pottied events recently. Thanks, Steve! We'll be thinking of you and that tasty Maine lobster. Mmm...


All photos: Agent Steve

Monday, October 12, 2009

MacGyver Freestyle Portapotty 200

This image comes to us from Agent Dave, via There, I Fixed It. It is unclear to us whether this homemade Throne was actually used, or just assembled and photographed to get up on the website. But still, it's a nice image. And maybe could give you all some ideas for when you're roughing it and/or your plumbing system craps out.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hamster Potty

This is Pork Chop, my hamster, who never ceases to charm me with her curious antics.

A few weeks ago I went to Petco and purchased myself a Hamster Potty. Yes, you heard me. A hamster potty. How could I resist? It was only $8, and the picture of the hamster on the box was just so darn cute. Plus, I figured, hey, why not, if it saves me some bedding material (note: I use recycled fiber bedding. Very green. Well, actually, it's brown, but the package is green...). Anyway.

On the side of the box, it says training your hamster to use the potty is as "E-Z as 1-2-3." According to this article, it's more like "1-2-3-4-5-6." But I'm not sure Pork Chop got either memo.


Anyway, I set the thing up and then waited so that I could see which corner of the cage she likes to "go" in. Wouldn't you know it, she decided she likes to use the corner that's underneath her little climbing tube, where it would be impossible to fit the litter box doohicky thing. So when I changed the bedding, I just decided to put some of the soiled material into the litter box, like they said, put it in a nearby corner, and see if it worked.

Well, first she was curious. What's this new thing in my cage? Then she tried to eat the litter. It didn't take her long to find out she could crawl in, being that it is precisely hamster-sized, and then she proceeded to dig.

She ignored the soiled bedding and decided it was merely a fun place for her to explore. Pretty soon it looked like this:

I came home later in the day to find her just hanging out in the "potty" like it was her new front porch. Ah, Pork Chop. The designers obviously did not take into account your creative hamster mind. So much for "E-Z" hamster potty-training. But if nothing else, at least my little Pork Chop has a fun new place to hang out...