- Having "Raisin Brown" for breakfast as Wesley calls it. The kids ate out all my raisins and I was stuck with all the brown. #
- J & W adding cornstarch for our cornstarch and water vat of fun. http://flic.kr/p/7dR2cY #
- J & W show of the cornstarch stuff. http://flic.kr/p/7dMi48 #
- The cornstarch aftermath. I can't believe my mom let us do this in the house. Kids hosing off in tub now. http://flic.kr/p/7dRnj9 #
- A sure sign you need a home office? You've set youself up on a folding chair and the dog crate. http://flic.kr/p/7dTYpE #
- Wesley is a born psychologist. He just told me to give Redmond a treat when he rings a bell. Pavlov lives! #
- At work on a Sunday. Only one here? No. There are 6 of us here. < 50 people in this office on weekdays. We are way too dedicated/foolish. #
- Update on employees. Now it is 11 at the office that I've seen. Others working via vpn. Is this the puritan work ethic? #
- Is Jillian the perfect coxswain? She is small, loud, likes the water, and always in charge. #
- RT @EmilyJillette: Beltway sniper dies via lethal injection Tue "Capital Punishment is the MOST pre-meditated of murders." – Albert Camus #
- Just latch-hooked a bear's scarf. 19 hrs in on the 2 stockings. Lots more to go. http://flic.kr/p/7eBma1 #
- A mixed handful of Skittles and M&M's is growing on me. Skittles and Reece's Pieces, not so much. Still I risk it due to my sugar addiction #
- Ladies and Gentlemen, the 1987 Crystal light National Aerobic Championship video. http://bit.ly/3G8Z1d #
- 1 hr into swapping a phone at the austin gateway sprint store. @sprint @sprintcare you just aren't good at this. Maybe try a new business? #
- So 1hr 40min and just left sprint. Total fail. new phone has no data. can't fix it. Rep told me I was wasting his time. #sprint #fail #
- Oh, while I'm railing on cell phones. Let me say that HTC makes terrible hardware. It is just truly awful. #
- RT @lessig: "Fox-puppet: an angry complaining soul misinformed by sensationalist press." #
Tags: twitter
This Summer the City of Austin had a program to give each household up to three free low-flow toilets assuming you met certain conditions: age of toilet, water usage, City water customer, etc. Well we qualified and picked up our three free toilets.
Now normally, swapping out a toilet should take maybe an hour or so. The steps are pretty simple:
- Turn off the water to the tank
- Drain the tank
- Unhook the hose
- Undo the bolts
- Remove the toilet
- Cleanup the wax ring
- Reverse for install
We got right up to undo the bolts on the first toilet when we ran into problems. Turns out the thing wasn’t bolted down. In fact it was missing a couple important components like the closet flange and a decent stand pipe. Anyway, to make a long, boring story somewhat shorter, the free toilets ended up taking me a month to put in (well two of them, the last one won’t fit) which included $100 in tools and supplies, multiple trips to the hardware store and pouring concrete (twice).
Under our toilet: Missing closet flange, screwed up pipe, eroded concrete. Nasty, eh?
The best part of the whole experience? One of the requirements of getting the new toilets is that you disable the old toilets so they can’t be used again. Our method? Let the kids whack the heck out of them. Fun was had by all. Notice the safety glasses.
Wesley smashing away with the 3lb hammer.
Did I mention they loved this a lot?
This is why we wore safety glasses. Look at that potty fly!
Once Wesley got done with the first toilet we brought out number two and let Jillian have at it. We started her off with the same 3lb hammer Wesley used, but on the first swing she tipped over and fell onto the toilet. So we swapped it out with a claw hammer (thank goodness again for safety goggles).
Preparing to smash her toilet.
Doing some hard core potty training. Bad potty!
She couldn't break the cover until we placed it on the ground. Then WHACK!
Once Jillian had gotten tired we let Wesley finish it off. He came back at it with the claw hammer, but quickly switched to the heavier one for its toilet-smashing powers.
Now that the toilets are in small pieces we have been slipping them 30lbs or so at a time into the trash. I think we’ll have it all disposed of in a couple of weeks. This may have been the most fun we’ve had ever. The kids loved it. It was simple, easy, and you couldn’t help but laugh. Made the whole nasty toilet problems worth it. Even Amber and I took some swings. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
- The pumpkins are carved! J's happy face. Red's paw. W's self drawn scary bat. http://flic.kr/p/7bNAyr #
- Let the Trick or Treating begin! Wesley the ghost and Jillian the turtle. http://flic.kr/p/7bYKDY #
- Wesley's haul. 3lbs 3.8 oz. How much can I eat without him noticing? http://flic.kr/p/7bWdNn #
- Jillian's haul: 1lb 11.5oz She only hit every 2nd or 3rd house. http://flic.kr/p/7c16w9 #
- Wesley breaking up our old toilet with a 3lb hammer. Most fun ever. http://flic.kr/p/7c8thP #
- Jillian's turn on the 2nd toilet. She tipped over using the 3lb hammer and fell into the toilet. Claw hammer better. http://flic.kr/p/7ccwTo #
- It is now impossible to open our car door for any length of time without Redmond climbing in the back, sitting down and refusing to leave. #
- Family ready for our first pre-training training run. Amber & I are going to run a, as yet to be determined, 10K. #
- Yes I'm stealing from W's candy bucket, but in my defense I'm sticking to the boring and plentiful candies like tootsie rolls. #
- Okay I confess. That wasn't a tootsie roll that was a 100 grand bar and it was delicious. I regret nothing! #
- If you put that you know Cisco switches/routers on your resume you must be able to answer: What is the difference between TCP/IP and UDP? #
- Wesley hiding under the bench at the doc's because he doesn't want his flu spray. http://flic.kr/p/7di9Fv #
- Amber trying to eat dinner. I had the rest of table all to myself. http://flic.kr/p/7dpDaa #
- Wesley shaving with my razor (I took the blade out first, relax…) http://flic.kr/p/7dCYs2 #
- How Jillian fell asleep in her crib: feet up on the wall. This explains all the thumping we hear. http://flic.kr/p/7dHhWm #
Tags: twitter
This afternoon Wesley wanted us to explore the backyard to rescue animals. He was pretending he was Diego, with rescue pack and all. Then Jillian said she was Dora. So Wesley decided I would be Diego’s Mom. We were able to rescue: a T-Rex, a snake family, a baby squirrel, a skunk, & green baby leaves.
Looking at the bugs they found.
Looking under a rock for bugs.
Wesley putting the rock back where he found it.
Look, there are more bugs under the log too!
Sitting nicely for Mom.
Trying to run together.
Blowing kisses
We could have kept playing for much longer…but those pesky mosquitoes drove us back into the house!