Long Island Engel Home

Mr. Fix-It (Part 1)

2008-03-28T09:02:00.003-05:00

So being a home owner is not all it's cracked up to be. Things break, and they need to be fixed.

A week or so ago, we had a string of bad luck… I don’t usually believe in such things, but it really seemed like Murphy’s law was really doing a number on us. One such incident happened as I was doing the laundry.

I was about to transfer what I thought were dry clothes to a clothes basket. Upon opening the door, I found damp clothes. Now as I am advancing in my years, it’s not too uncommon for me to forget to turn the darn thing on. So I wasn’t too surprised by this. So I set it up, hit the on button and to much surprise it didn’t sound right.

I opened up the door and found the magical light turning on, not unlike the magic light in the refrigerator. I could feel that heat had been blowing in, but the drum just would NOT turn.
Instant visions of an expensive plumber’s-crack sporting repairman charging me an arm and a leg ran through my head. After beating my head against the stairs to get this vision OUT of my head, I was bound and determined to fix this beast myself.

My good friend Cliff consults with his good friend Lord Google on a regular basis for any number of issue. I followed his example and started out my quest to fix the unholy dryer.

I was not all that surprised to find a plethora of sites that assisted me in my quest. Several wanted to charge me for the information, but others like myself seemed to be generous enough to blog about such incidents.

I narrowed the problem down to either the belt ($20) that spins the dryer drum or the motor ($100) that drives it. With the way my luck had been running lately, the pessimistic side of me focused on the higher ticket/more complicated fix. I forced myself to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

In the searching for answers, I even found a video that told me how to A) open the dryer and B) Replace the belt or the motor. Of you are at all interested you can see that here as well:

So after following their simple instructions and popped open the dryer and noticed that there was no belt around the drum. I flashed my flashlight down to the bottom and was rewarded with the site of a frayed end of belt. SCORE!

I found that the dryer belt had been pretty much shredded into tiny little piece which now coated the entire motor. After cleaning this up with the new Dyson vacuum (Another blog in the works), I hastely found the nearest place that I could find a new belt. This was NOT an item carried at your local Home Depot.

Ffter calling around to several places it turned out the be a ($20) trip to the nearest SEARS repair center. I rushed back home to install the belt according to the YouTube video instructions.

All went off without a hitch, and I was able to dry all of our clothes again. I was pretty pleased that I didn’t have to spend an arm and a leg to have someone else repair this and make me endure the inevitable view of pants that won’t stay up… AUGH!

Parole...

2008-03-27T06:45:00.014-05:00

Back in they day, I used to be into computer video games. Not the Playstation style games so much, however recently the whole family has gotten into these, but those games actually played on a computer.

I really got into the first person shooter type games like Counterstrike, Medal of Honor, Rainbow Six, and other first-person-shooter games too numerous to mention... Also the Strategy games like Command and Conquer were some of my favorites...

Before we moved to New York, we used to have gatherings we several other couples in Lansing. We would all meet up at one particular friends house and have cookouts and have a great time. As the evening wore down, the guys would head into the basement with their laptops and the ladies would hang out upstairs doing whatever they do...

The children, at the time it was only Jonah for us, would all hang out and play between the Ladies upstairs and the guys downstairs.

As I mentioned before, whatever the ladies did up there, I have no idea. Speculation on my part would be folly, and quite frankly I've fried WAY too many brain cells trying to figure women out. I'm content knowing that I'll never really understand them completely. That's not a bad thing, it always keeps things interesting...

Anyway, Back to the geeks downstairs...

We would set up the laptops into a quick network and start shooting each other on numerous battlefields of one or another. Our game of choice at the time was Half Life: Counterstrike. One set of us would be on the team of terrorists while the other's played the part of Counter-terrorists. Essentially it's digital hide and seek combined with paintball. In this way there is little physical exertion other than finger movements and the occassional drink from a soda or beer. We also didn't have the sting of a paintball or the cleanup afterwards.

Those were the days...

That was long ago...

We have all now moved on to other locations of the country and have pretty much lost contact with one another. Some of us still keep in contact, but the days of the impromptu "Come over, bring some snacks and your laptop", have gone away.

Until a month or so ago...

My wife surprised me out of blue with a comment that threw me. She asked me if I had spoken with Pete lately. This led to, you should see about going online and playing some games again with him...

I was floored, "Who are you, and what have you done with my wife?" Came to mind, but was NOT spoken. Do not look a gift horse in the mouth, and do NOT try to read into the why's behind the statement. "Take it and RUN!" the emaciated gaming portion of my mind screamed.

I hid my excitement as I probed the situation carefully. I half expected her to laugh at me and call it a joke. But she was serious.

Within minutes I was contacting my old buddy Pete to find out what game they have been playing lately. Pete, being one of the founding members of 1776gamers, was the host for our gaming parties in the past. They had always been dedicated with Counterstrike and it's newer versions but had recently turend to Battlefield 2 and a specific modification of it called Project Reality.

In a word... Wow...

I've got to say this, the graphics are very good, the maps are huge, and there are lots of people able to play all at once. The best part is, the price is right. You can pick up the main game for $10 at Best Buy and the Project reality modification is free. No complaints from me!

This version of the game is rather unforgiving. You can't take all that much damage before your character is dead. This is all part of the idea of the reality project. They wanted to make it seem much more real. And they have achieved this very well.

So I am on the learning curve right now with this game, but enjoying it. I get to hang out with my old friend and am making some new ones as well. We meet up a couple times per week and shoot at one another, have a few laughs and stay up way past our bedtimes.

Pass the chips, grab a soda and join in the fun!

If you are curious about this game and it's modification, here's a video teaser to check out... WOW! Yeah, I guess I'm still a geek at heart... :)

Parenting 101: Bed Time Stories...

2008-03-26T08:52:00.004-05:00

Oooohhh, I have been tempted...

Do you ever get the feeling that your kids may be just a little too spoiled? Or maybe call it entitlement... Whatever you want to call it, sometimes they just think they deserve to have what they want and that's it. I suppose I was the same way as a child, as were pretty much all of us. It's not a fun part of parenting...

Who doesn't want to see their child happy and enjoying life? Of course we all want that. But does that give us the right to hand everything to them on a silver platter? Not really... I think we would be doing them a dis-service by not teaching them that earning those things that they would like is much better than just getting them outright.

Recently Webkins have been on the scene and are a constant source of the "can I have that one?"'s When several have been received as birthday or Christmas presents, they are enjoyed, but not to the extent as those that have been earned as a reward. There's no physical difference in one from the other, other than the obvious that it's a different animal. It's the psychological feeling of truelly earning something that makes it that more special. There's an emotional bond there that doesn't get created when the item is just thrown at them from one fo those "Can I Have That?" moments.

I Love my children. Eventhough today was one of those mornings where the daughter decided it was time to awake before dawn... In relation to yesterdays post, sometimes that little break we get at night doesn't necessarily get us as much sleep as we really need. Early morning's like today must be some kind of Murphy's-Law-like balancing to make me pay for having some adult time... *Sigh*

Another day, another ulser... Just kidding... :)

Parenting 101: Bed time

2008-03-25T08:03:00.003-05:00

In a way, Bed Time seems to be evening parole for parents.

Don't get me wrong... Children are a joy and a cherished commodity. However, after 12 to 14 hours of a child dominated day, a little break is also a cherished commodity. Call it Mommy/Daddy time, call it a respite, whatever. It's just nice to have a little down time for a while.

So what do those parents out there like to do during their break?

We like to take some time and veg out in front of the television to catch up on whatever shows may interest us. Some snacks, a little soda... And one or the other of usually falls asleep on the couch for a while. It's a system that we've been refining over the past few years...

Ties to Home

2008-03-24T06:52:00.002-05:00

Growing up in a touristy town in Michigan WAS pretty nice. At the time, I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now that I'm grown up and moved away to another State.

At the time, it was kind of a nuisance at times especially where it pertained to the traffic going in and out of the town. Frankenmuth, also known as Michigan's Little Bavaria, is a German themed town tied to actual German settlers who came to Michigan as Missionaries to teach the Native American's of the Lutheran religion.

The town has changed much over the years but it's still nice to visit home again. This past Christmas we made the long drive from Long Island to Michigan to visit our families. It's always an adventure packing the kids into the SUV. Whether it's a trip across country or just a short trip to the store there always something happening.

I've blogged about car trips before (Parenting 101: Driving), so I won't have to go into great detail on what usually occurs.

I was recently speaking with my brother who is the COO of the Bavarian Inn Lodge . We were catching up about family and of course business in Frankenmuth. Michigan currently has the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. This doesn't surprise me all that much with all of the motor companies pulling out of Michigan and moving to other locations, mostly out of the country... So the disposable income of Michiganders just isn't there for Frankemuth's tourism to thrive as much as they used to.

But business is business and they all must do what they can to survive. The Bavarian Inn Corporation recently came out with some new commercials to try to bring people to Frankenmuth. These are pretty catchy, and my kids keep saying "Again! Again!" When I play it back for them off YouTube.

So here, for your viewing enjoyment are the two new commercials they are currently using. If you have kids, they will probably enjoy these very much and much just chant "Again! Again!"

Have a great day!

The Rebirth of 80's TV

2008-03-21T07:14:00.008-05:00

Over the past several years, we have found some of the more popular TV shows from the 80’s moving to the big screen. I suppose it started with Starsky and Hutch, technically a late 70’s show, which led to the Dukes of Hazard and Miami Vice. Now these are coming back in the form of TV shows as well.

The Bionic Woman came back with a new face and spin on the Bionic Woman series which was technically a spinoff of the Six Million Dollar Man, one of my favorites as a kid. I believe the rebirth of this show was cancelled. I did have the opportunity to catch this show. It wasn’t too bad, but they really could have done more with the show than they had. The special effects were pretty cool, but the background plot was pretty thin. You just never got really invested in the characters.

Recently Knight Rider came back. They even brought David Hasselhoff back as the father of the new Knight Rider. Yes, it was a tad cheesy. It was essentially the worlds longest commercial for the Ford Mustang. If it didn’t feel like one giant commercial for Ford vehicles I think the show could come back as a pretty good series again.

So what’s going to be next? I’ve heard rumors of a Magnum PI movie. This has been a rumor for a while that has included George Clooney playing the part of Magnum PI. To be honest, I was always of a fan of the show. The cool thing about this show is that the characters were not just human, but the Ferrari took on a role in the show as well of the location. Beautiful Hawaii… My favorite place…

In the age of recycling and Going Green, I find it interesting that Hollywood is recycling these old shows bringing them new life again. So far they haven’t really hit all that well, but maybe they’ll get one right soon.

It's been a year...

2008-03-20T09:13:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that it's been a year, to the day, since I last blogged on anything... I'd like to say that I've been basking on the beaches to the right for the past year, but alas, nothing so posh...

A lot has been going on that has kept me from the daily blogging scene. I'll go into some of them in later posts, but for today I'd like to get this started with a Thank You for being patient during my hiatus.

As I mentioned before, much has happened in the past year. I've transitioned back into the roll of Stay at Home Dad for a while, the children are growing and changing on a daily basis and we've done more projects around that house that need to be reported on.

So there is much to get ready for if I want to get back into my daily blogging again. I have several topics already mapped out. I'm also looking into transitioning this blog into a new one. I'll keep you both posted... :)

Parenting 101: Television

2006-12-29T12:59:00.002-05:00

I know I've discusses the topic of television with kids before... This comic sums up exactly what I see on a daily basis.

Jonah has an accute case of Media Deficite Syndrome. As you can probably imagine, this is where someone has the inescapabe urge to have some kind of media around him at all times. Television is the most common, but of late the Game Boy Advance and PS2 are at the tops of his list.

Considering it's the Winter Break from school it's completely natural for him to immerse himself in these things that he doesn't get to do as often while school is in session. I'm curious how things will go once he heads back to school next week...

Here's a perfect comic for the topic.

Parenting 101: Chores

2006-12-01T09:32:00.002-05:00

I recall being a kid and having special things that I needed to do around the house. Starting out at a younger age it was something as simple as cleaning my room. To a young person, this can seem to be a daunting task as the accumulation of clothing and toys on the floor can resemble the aftermath of a hurricane or tornado. I now understand why my mother would describe my room in this manner. Of course her most common description was that of a pig sty. I guess this came from her growing up on a farm. All I can recall about pig sty's is that they smell very, very bad.

So now that I'm a parent it's difficult to get my frame of mind back to when I was Jonah's age. I was brought back to my youth this morning while speaking with Holly. In the eternal pursuit of candy, Jonah decided to get some candy for himself and his sister from the top of the refrigerator. Having been caught and punished several times in the past, this did little to keep him from trying once again.

It took me back to when I was about his age and would use the drawers like steps to get up on the counter to get to a large container of candy stored on top of the refrigerator. There was this one type of candy that was like taffy that was peppermint flavored that was my father and I both enjoyed. I recall getting caught several times, but I also recall getting away with it as well.

I guess sometimes in the eyes of the child, the chance of getting caught is worth the chance of getting away with some candy. It's times like these that Jonah and Brielle actually get along. When the sneak-factor kicks in, they bond together pretty well. I guess there's hope for them yet...

I kind of strayed from my initial topic, but this Calvin and Hobbes comic reminded me of things that I had to do as a child.

Have a great weekend!

Parenting 101: Procrastination

2006-10-24T09:12:00.001-05:00

I found a series of Calvin and Hobbes that fits the season just right...

To start off, I've been a procrastinator all my life... I say this not to brag or be proud of it, it's just the way I've been for as long as I can remember. This is an atribute I'm not particularly fond of, yet I put off doing anything about it... I suppose this is the very definition of a paradox.

Anyway, in the spirit of procrastination, Some Calvin...

The Death of Customer Service Part 1

2006-10-23T13:42:00.000-05:00

I've written about this before... This past weekend I've come to realize that the decline of customer service has continued it's course unabated. In the period of less than 24 hours we had problems with Pizza Delivery, a drive thru coffee place and Taco Bell. The first situation happened Friday evening.

We had decided to have pizza delivered. As we didn't have any cash in our hand we had to opt for the pizza place that would take our credit card over the phone. I called Papa John's and a teenage girl took my order. She said it would be 30 - 35 minute. 45 minutes later I called to ask about the pizza. She said that the delivery guy had just left with it. After 1 hour I called again. The same, or similar pizza g irl answered the phone and said they've been pretty busy and the pizza guy had just left.

I seem to notice a pattern here...

6 Minuted later, the Pizza guy arrives... YEAH!!! All hail the pizza guy. The kids were jumping for joy, the dogs were bouncing around with the prospect of Brielle tossing 90% of her pizza on the floor.

I tipped the guy on the credit card slip and away he went.

We opened the pizza's and found them both to be luke warm.

I wasn't too pleased, Holly was much more upset.

I called again and got one of the two girls I had been speaking with earlier. Of course they gave use the run around that it was a busy night... yada yada yada... Still that's no excuse for cold pizza. They were going to give us free stuff... As unlikely as that would be to redeem, we chose to have them credit our credit card. The girls decided to blame the delivery guy as he was the reason that the pizza was cold. So we asked that the entire amount be credited back to our card. This wasn't too much to ask...

The girl wasn't sure how to do this in the system so she covered the phone (unsuccessfully) and asked a co-worker. Her co-worker unthinkingly says F-Her. (As you can imagine she said the real deal not the edited version I placed here...)

As gasoline poured on a flame flares up, my wife followed suit. Appalled at the mistreatment by the teeny-bopper, Holly called them out on the comment. She explained to them that she has never been so mistreated in a situation where the business was clearly at fault and then the insulting comments was just the icing on teh cake...

I know what you are thinking. For crying out loud Matt, you live in New York. Of COURSE they are going to be surly and using all kind of expletives.

I took this under consideration and while yes, we do live in New York, this really isn't how people are on Long Island. Maybe in the city, but I live 60 miles from the city...

So putting the fear of God into the young ladies, she did not blame the girl asking the question, Holly made a point to get the managers name who was conveniently on vacation. For now I'm not sure if Holly will contact the manager but we'll see.

I'll save the other two issues for the next entry. I can see the next big training seminars gearing up for customer service training. It's pretty sad that you have to teach people basic human kindness and interaction. Oh, and maybe a touch of work ethic... Maybe too much to ask...

Does anyone remember the days of "your pizza is there in 30 minutes or it's free"??? I guess that gimmic died long ago...

The Joys of Shopping Part 2

2006-10-13T08:21:00.000-05:00

As I stated in The Joys of Shopping Part 1, shopping with children isn't all that enjoyable. Since they all have their own personalities, I'm pretty sure I didn't see that option on the order form, they make the experience just that... An Experience...

Since the oldest boy and the girl are of opposite opinions about shopping, they are like oil and water at this age.

The one saving grace is that the trip to and from the store is distracted with a DVD player in the SUV. Thank GOD for that!

Once at the store all bets are off. Sometimes they are great for a while, but eventually they are running around, poking one another or generally just whining about the fact that we are still shopping.

At times Holly and I are driven to the point of Seinfeld's Frank Costanza yelling "Serenity Now!"

There are certain points of shopping that are predictable. The kids love checking out the lobster tanks. The havethe occassional crabs as well. But our favorite store also sports a giant lobster. They vary in size much like anywhere else in the country but recently they've been putting one GIANT lobster in with the rest. This one is generall y between 8 and 10 pounds. To give you an idea of how big this is... Imagine what a normal sized lobster looks like in the tank. Now imagine a lobster with one clow being the size of a regular sized lobster...

Yeah.. I know... huge!

I love my family... We do have a lot of fun together, but shopping isn't one of our best times. To be honest, I don't mind shopping by myself in the least. I don't have to worry about any arguments about what cereal we are getting, whether or not the yogurt is the right flavor... It's somewhat peacful. I then feel for those families I pass with three children arguing down one aisle or another. The poor bastards....

The Joys of Shopping Part 1

2006-10-09T12:56:00.000-05:00

Shopping with children... sucks... There I said it! It really does. 90% of the shopping excursions we take as a family are less-than-pleasant experiences.

Why you ask? Well lets put the equation together.

I have a 7 year old boy who, if given the opportunity, would stay firmly attached to any visual device that entertains. Television, Playstation, Gameboy, DVD player... Anything that will make him transform into vegetation, he's in to.

I also have a 2 1/2 year-old girl who loves to get out of the house. She doesn't want to stay home at all. She wants to walk around town, go to the store or just do anything to not be home. When we start going back home, she starts to chant, "No Home, No Home". Which is quickly followed by "Yes Home" from the 7 year-old... Which results in the much anticipated screaming match.

The third, and final, part of the equation is the 3 1/2 month old boy. He pretty much just hangs out. If the trip lasts too long, he lets us know about it. So he's pretty much the neutral party in this.

So we have the Boy who can't stand shopping and will drag his feet and delay the inevitable, all the while ticking off his parents for not listening. Then we have the girl who, not unlike the dogs when they hear the word "food" or "outside", runs and grabs her shoes chanting, "let's go! let's go!"

With this base, I'll leave you to ponder the moments with some Calvin.

Parenting 101: Remembering the good old days...

2006-10-09T10:51:00.001-05:00

Jonah has quite the imagination...

Lately he had been playing a lot of video games which then get his mind into the mode of games he would like Santa to make for him for Christmas. It's very cute! Although sometimes that's all he talks about and trying to get his mind focused on other things can be a bit of a challenge.

Imagination is an awesome thing. You can transport yourself to anywhere and be anything with the blink of an eye. There are many mediums that take advantage of peoples imaginations. Books have been around for many many years where television and video games are still infants in the grand scheme of things.

Many people believe that television and video games are the harbingers of death in relationship to imagination. If you try to apply this to Jonah, it's the complete opposite. I keep suggestion that he write all these ideas down so that when he's old enough to start learning to program he can make these games and get himself into a great career. Considering he's 7, the programming for games will change 5 or 6 times before he hits college to learn all this stuff.

I know that if he uses his imagination as a method of making a living he's going to do very well.

In the spirit of imagination, a little Calvin & Hobbes to brighten your day...

Confessions of a fallen Blogger...

2006-10-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

I have to admit it... This isn't easy for me... But I'm a BBBAAADDDD Blogger... For all those that have been following my blog, I apologize for not blogging in quite a while.

I won't throw out all kinds of excuses... I could say that my computer died, I lost access to the internet from work, the sun was in my eyes... But truth be told, I just got caught up with other projects... I'm now taking up the torch again and beginning to blog once more.

To those loyal readers, thanks for the patience. For the new ones. I hope you enjoy this blog.

Let the blogging commence...

Build-a-Bear

2006-08-03T08:35:00.000-05:00

This weekend we went to the Build-a-bear store in the mall. It was kind of on accident that we found ourselves in this store. Our main reason for being in the mall was to escape the heat and have the kids ride the carousel. Apparently the carousel has been gone for awhile. I guess that shows how often we head to the mall. So to kill some time, and keep cool, we went into the build-a-bear shop.

If you have never been to one it’s pretty much just what it’s called. You build.. a bear… But they have other pre-stuffed animals as well. Suck ahs money’s, puppy’s and giraffes. What caught our attention was a Cookie Monster. Now for those of you who don’t know, Brielle Loves Cooking monster. Several times a week I have to show this video from Youtube for Brielle to sing along with. Go ahead play it… You’ll remember the words… Sing-a-long… Go ahead, your co-workers won’t mind. They’ll probably join in!

For Brielle’s birthday we searched everywhere for a stuffed cookie monster. We couldn’t find any anywhere. The closest thing we found was a cookie monster that would do the hokey pokey. I think it scared her more than she liked it… So when we saw the Cookie Monster at this place, we knew we have to get one.

So we ended up getting all three kids a “bear”. Brie with her Cookie Monster, Jonah with his Black bear and even Liam was treated to a nice little bear…

The kids were involved in the stuffing process.. They pressed down on a pedal which made the fluff shoot out of this steel tube shoved into the back of the critter to be stuffed. They then took a small heart and had to warm it up with their hands, kiss it and make a wish. Very cute…

After the bear is done they give them a bath. Essentially it’s a fake bathtub with shower heads that spray air on the bear.

They then fill out a form on the computer to make up the birth certificate. Then the parents get taken to the cleaners…

The other cool part of this is that you can have the stuffed critter implanted with a sound module. For the cookie monster he says several things in cookie monsters voice. For Jonah’s he chose a vicious roar.. no surprise there… And for Liam, Holly and I recorded a special message for him on the module.

That evening they both slept with their bears. (We are saving Liam’s for later). Here are the pics with them asleep with their new "bears".

All in all a good trip to the mall

Mohawk...

2006-08-02T08:10:00.000-05:00

Inspired by my buddy Will and his son Cameron back in Michigan I decided to go for the popular hair style of the day. Since I am already employed, and I answer phones for a living, I could afford a new look… I was surprised to be at Jonah’s school and see several kids with Mohawks as well. Jonah doesn’t seem that interested in getting one, other than playing around in the bathtub in a pretty good impersonation of Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s day off less the singing.. “I recall.. .Central Park in fall.. How you tore your dress, what a mess, I confess…” Jonah has yet to see this movie with me, although he has seen most of Back to the Future which seems to play every other weekend on some cable channel or another…This a classic that I rank right up there with Ferris and his famous day off.

Now I need a piece of metal poked through my lip and my nose with a chain joining the two… Oh and a new crotch rocket. A Harley doesn’t have the right attitude for the Mohawk…

Maybe the next hairstyle will be the semi-popular early 90’s look of shaved words on my head…

Visitors from Afar...

2006-07-18T15:09:00.000-05:00

My family was able to come out to visit with us a few weeks after Liam Matthew came into our world.

Abby and Brielle were hanging out and having a great time while Jonah and Alex hung out and played on the computer. A water fight was fit in there somewhere... I think I went grocery shopping and missed all the action.

My Mom brought along a large amount of plants from home to help decorate our yard. Some Hydrangia, Rose of Sharon and Canadian Redbud were planted in the front where there is a lot of light, and several ferns and lily of the valley were placed in the back to make this area a little nicer to look at.

I'll post photos of plants later, for now here are some pics of the family!!!

Landlord firsts...

2006-07-07T14:53:00.000-05:00

Since purchasing our house we finally set everything up to rent the apartment at our house. Everything was set and cleaned and working nicely. Of course, that's when the toilet decided to give us some trouble.

The toilet valve leaks just enough to make it run almost constantly.

So being the handyman that I’m not, I opened up the tank to take a look. I’ve had to do a little work on toilets in the past, so it wasn’t a completely alien view to me. That being said, this toilet looked like it just fell from the International Space Station. What I was expecting to see was something called a “Flapper” a funky valve attached to a chain. What I found was some plunger looking device growing out of the hole to the toilet bowl with a lever attached to the handle of the toilet.

I went to the local hardware store and he gave me a flapper… He said this would do the job. It didn’t…

I went back to this hardware store but they were closed, so I went to another one armed with me trusty cellular phone equipped with my handy dandy camera. The guy looked at the picture on my tiny screen and scratched his balding head. "I don’t recognize that thing but let’s look", he mumbled as we weaved our way through aisle upon aisle of things I hope I’ll never need. We finally stopped in front of a ton of tubes and plastic things. He grunted and pointed and started scratching his head again. I looked around and suddenly saw the alien device that sat in the toilet tank. Would you believe it was called a toilet valve… Imagine that.. calling it something that it actually is… So I bought the thing and read through the directions and started scratching my head as well… (There must be something contagious about plumbing…)

The instructions told me to remove the tank from the bowl of the toilet. But of course never mentioned HOW to do this. Great…

So I went to my savior, the Internet. I quickly found what I needed and began to sob. Apparently hacksaws, tape and other utensils are also needed for this project which complicated the process even more..

Several expletives flew from my mouth as I ranted and raved for a while about toilets and those who manufacture them.

The likelihood of my getting this to work is next to nothing. I found out that it’s actually easier to install a brand new toilet than to install this piece of crap into the old piece of crap crapper!

My next step is to head out on the quest for a new toilet.

Here he is!!!

2006-06-27T08:27:00.000-05:00

Liam Matthew Engel has finally made his appearance! He was born on June 23, 2006 at 5:15 PM. He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long. Everything went very well with the delivery with both Holly and Liam doing very well. The little guy started screaming right away and is very healthy.

Here are a few photos, I'll post more later.

So far the little guy is very calm. Hopefully he keeps this attitude... I'm sure we will have some Parenting 101 Blogs with him as the focus in the near future...

Parenting 101: Quick List

2006-06-20T07:15:00.001-05:00

Currently the blogger site does not have an option to group blog entries by category, I'll put this notice out with links to all of the current Parenting 101 Blogs and any others that are similar with Calvin and Hobbes on the scene. Hope you all enjoy these!
Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes
Pre-Parenting 101
Jonah in the funny papers... Friday, February 24, 2006
Jonah, Once again in the funny papers Monday, February 27, 2006
Jonah / Calvin at dinner Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Sometimes, they are just too smart for our own good... Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Jonah was hoping... Thursday, March 02, 2006
Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes
Parenting 101 Blogs
Parenting 101 Friday, March 03, 2006
Parenting 101: Dinner Monday, March 06, 2006
Parenting 101: Dinner table manners Monday, March 06, 2006
Parenting 101: Listening Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Parenting 101: Bath Time Thursday, March 09, 2006
Parenting 101: Reading between the lines... Friday, March 10, 2006
Parenting 101: Snacks... Monday, March 13, 2006
Parenting 101: True.. But Why?!?! Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Parenting 101: Mornings Friday, March 17, 2006
Parenting 101: The things we do for our kids... Monday, March 20, 2006
Parenting 101: Where do babies come from? Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Parenting 101: Dinnertime Fun Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Parenting 101: Tonight's Bed Time Plan... Friday, March 24, 2006
Parenting 101: Housework Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Parenting 101: Starting a Club Thursday, March 30, 2006
Parenting 101: Finance Monday, April 03, 2006
Parenting 101: Home Improvement Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Parenting 101: Where do they get these ideas? Thursday, April 06, 2006
Parenting 101: Testing Boundaries Friday, April 07, 2006
Parenting 101: Shaping their minds Friday, April 14, 2006
Parenting 101: Television Thursday, April 20, 2006
Parenting 101: Labor Pains Monday, April 24, 2006
Parenting 101: Driving Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Parenting 101: Only the facts... Thursday, April 27, 2006
Parenting 101: Shopping Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Parenting 101: More Questions Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Parenting 101: Bed Time Friday, May 05, 2006
Parenting 101: Meal time Monday, May 08, 2006
Parenting 101: Questioning your reasoning... Monday, May 22, 2006
Parenting 101: Summer Vacations Friday, May 26, 2006
Parenting 101: Just a little fun... Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Parenting 101: Couldn't be closer to the truth... Thursday, June 01, 2006
Parenting 101: Writing stories Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Parenting 101: Lunch on a daily basis... Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Parenting 101: Reading and what they learn... Thursday, June 15, 2006
Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Matt Engel Matthew Engel Matt Engel Matthew Engel Matt Engel Matthew Engel comics
I hadn't realized how many of these I've made so far. Once again, Enjoy!
Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes Parenting 101 Calvin and Hobbes Calvin & Hobbes

Oh, Oh it's Magic...

2006-06-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

My buddy Cliff sent me this video today... I hadn't seen this magician before. I guess I haven't spent much time on A&E lately...

I've seen David Blain and his act of levitation, which appears to be more camera trickery mixed with astonished reactions from onlookers who are in a specially selected angle for view.

This guy has a different way to do it. I'm impressed.

Enjoy!

I found another of his videos that gives you an idea on how he does some of his tricks...

Parenting 101: Reading and what they learn...

2006-06-15T08:09:00.000-05:00

Since Jonah has been learning to read, he is absorbing so much information. While we are driving he is reading the signs as we pass by. He even tries to read to his sister every now and then. Most of the time she enjoys it, other times she just wants to rip the pages apart. I guess that's part of the "Terrible Two's" we are going through right now.

I found a series of Calvin and Hobbes clips that fit this situation pretty well. I can see Jonah doing this at any moment.

Enjoy!

Parenting 101: Lunch on a daily basis...

2006-06-14T13:33:00.000-05:00

Setting up school lunches can be a pain...

It's a lot easier to throw some money in a baggie for the kids to get lunch at school, but it's a bit more economical to pack a lunch for them. Whether they eat it or not is another thing all together.

We make a weekly trip to the Warehouse center nearby to pick up many grociery items in bulk. The bulk pack of snack chips for lunches, the puddings and of course drink box/pouches.

Invariably the wrong choice has been made in drink or sandwich ingredients.

Jonah: "I don't like these drinks."

Mom/Dad: "You picked them out at the store,
so you have to finish them before we buy more."

Jonah: "I hate them!"

Mom/Dad: "Sorry, you will have to make do."

What we usually find out at this point is that he chose this particular drink because of the cool pictures on it. Not the flavors.

The same thing goes for Cereal. We recently went to the store and Jonah really wanted the Cocoa Pebbles. No complaint from me, I grew up on the stuff (although fruity pebbles in my opinion are much better.)

The next morning I get breakfast ready for everyone and Jonah doesn't want the Cocoa Pebbles. Holly and I remind him that he chose them. The then he discloses that he just wanted the toy that came with it...

Blast from the past...

2006-06-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

My office mate came across this video and I thought I'd share it with you here as well.

It reminds me of when I was younger and watching television with the family. Enjoy!