Birthday present disappointment

We haven't bought real presents for Mars' birthday before. We kind of figure that Mars wouldn't know the difference anyway for 1st and 2nd birthday. Plus he has enough 'stuff', we certainly don't need more toys. We've gone so far as to ask family and friends not to give them gifts for birthday/retail shopping season. A two year old does not need need hundreds of dollars worth of toys every birthday/xmas, and we are not trying to raise some little sheeple consumers.

For some reason we decided to buy him and Odin 'new' toys for birthdays. I think the first store bought new toys ever for both of them. From us at least. Yard sales and thrift stores have provided more than enough wooden blocks, lego, cars, dinosaurs, books, and action figures.

Shopping for presents we were surprised at how expensive new toys are. I was also amazed at how many need batteries - a pet peeve of mine, since they are wasteful, environmentally irresponsible, and cause toys to make the most annoying noises. When we are gifted noisy toys, they usually end up 'broken' after the batteries mysteriously disappear.

We bought Odin a rocking horse on springs. A nice old-fashioned toy. Way, way bigger than expected. A disappointment as well. It functions, but both stirrups are broken, capped nuts are broken exposing threaded bolts, and one of the spring holders is cracked. Thought about taking it back, but there was a toll free number in the instructions to get replacement parts. Of course a couple weeks later, when I get around to calling, the number was no longer in service. No replacement parts for me, and too late to return. A waste of money even at the 50% off we paid for it.

Thought we had found the most amazing present for Mars. "Crazy Forts". A set of balls and rods that plug together like giant tinker toys - throw a sheet over top and you have a play fort. You can build all different designs. Who could resist that? I loved building forts as a kid, Mars' favourite activity when visiting my dorm last winter was building forts with the cushions from the couches in the common room. Unfortunately, while a perfect idea, it was sorely lacking in execution. The rods don't go into the holes in the balls far enough and subsequently don't stay in place. So you build a big complicated fort, it keeps falling apart every time he touchs it. As far as I'm concerned, if you have to say "don't touch it or it will break", it is definitely not a toy. He lost interest in any use other than using the rods as swords to whack people, and Odin enjoyed hiding the little balls everywhere. Collected up all the parts and put them back in the box. Another waste of money.

Sigh. At least we had a nice little birthday party for Mars. Rented the gymnastics room for him and all his little friends from playgroup. Lots of running around and giddiness, throwing balls, somersaulting, and other fun. Then back to the house for cake and ice cream. Leaf made a really cool volcano cake with dinosaurs. Cousin Jovin was also up for a visit that weekend, and I think that was the best part of birthday for Mars.

Mars shocks himself

The little monkey climbs up onto the bathroom vanity, reaches up as high as he can, and tries to shove a clump of dad's combed out beard hairs into one of the empty sockets of the vanity light. The things you think of when you are three. It hurt enough to call for mum to come look, but fortunately not enough of a zap to knock him off the counter. Empty socket now duct taped over, hopefully he's learned his electricity lesson.

Hallowe'en Pumpkins '09

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I really like carving pumpkins for Hallowe'en. Did the Scooby Doo pumpkin yesterday. Had intended to do one of Tinkerbell today, which is Mars' favourite right now. Unfortunately, didn't have time to make up a stencil, so did the Star Wars that I already had instead. Slowest Hallowe'en ever. Two knocks at the door, six kids in total. Leaf took the boys down the street, only five of about 25 houses were 'lit'. Mars decided he didn't want to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume we had ready, so Mummy did some great mods to turn it into a Dinosaur.

Pumpkins 2012: Master Yoda Pumpkin, Cookie Monster Pumpkin

Pumpkins 2011: Batman Pumpkin, Batman Logo Pumpkin

Pumpkin Carving 201: Skin Carving a Pumpkin and Finding Free Stencil Instructions

Pumpkins 2010: Tinkerbell Pumpkin, Transformers Pumpkin with Autobot and Decepticon logos


Pumpkins 2008: Ernie and Bert Pumpkin, Soccer Ball Pumpkin
Pumpkins 2007: Calvin and Hobbes Pumpkin, Spiderman Pumpkin, Toronto FC Pumpkin
Pumpkins 2006: Darth Vader Pumpkin, Homer Simpson Pumpkin 

Vengence of the plumbing gods

Yay, a nice big puddle of water in the basement. Since we did some soldering and changed valves yesterday, checked them all for leaks. All dry. Turns out its dripping down through a heat register in the kitchen. The dishwasher has stopped working, didn't drain, and flooded out a small hole in the bottom of the door seal.

We've had this problem before due to a clogged filter. Took it apart pretty quickly, cleaned out the gunk - leftover french fries on your plate go in the garbage, not the dishwasher - and reassembled. No go. More flooding because I was trying to get the boys to nap and figured it would work.

Checked the hoses. Also had a problem there before - a cherry pit somehow worked its way past the filter, up the drain tube, and was the perfect size to completely seal the hole at the end of the drain hose.

Still no go. Taking the whole thing apart again, although simple, is getting to be a pain in the wrist. Went a little deeper, found that it was a broken belt. We have a really good appliance repair shop in town, so I went in to find a replacement. Its a weird clear plastic belt with a round cross section that also needs special silicone lubricant. $34.95 plus tax, which is about 20% of what we paid for the dishwasher. Crazy. None in stock, so dishwashing by hand until Monday or Tuesday.

Odin was a big 'help'. When he wasn't trying to climb into the dishwasher, he was trying to eat screws, or running away with the tools. Too cute, and had to copy daddy with the screwdriver. Don't know what I've done to mess up my plumbing karma, but hopefully we won't get any more flooding for a while.

I am not a plumber

If I were, things would go much faster and easier. Had quite the plumbing adventure today. Started as an easy little job - replace a cartridge in a leaky faucet, replace the wax seal on a leaky toilet. An hours work at most. Went to Canadian tire, grabbed the parts, started. Shut off water behind toilet and unhook. The shut off valve is leaking. Crap. Water is trickling onto the floor. No problem, there is another shutoff for the bathroom in the basement.

Run downstairs to turn that one off. Righty tighty, lefty loosey. Just as it is about to close tight, pssshhshhshssss, its spraying water like mad. Water is not supposed to be spraying out of a valve all over the laundry room. Its a tap in the middle of a length of copper pipe - there is no 'out'. Crap again. No problem, I'll just run over to the main shutoff at the pressure tank and shut that off. Crank, crank, crank, tight. Good. Wait... water is still spraying out of the valve in the laundry room. And what is that puddle on the basement floor over there? Isn't that right underneath the bathroom? Apparantly the main shutoff valve doesn't do off.

How do I turn off the spraying in the laundry room? I very counter intuitively turn on the tap. It works, mostly. Now only a fine spray misting the laundry room. I shut off power to the well pump, run the laundry tub sink until the pressure tank is empty, and water stops spraying and dripping onto the basement floor. Step 1 is now accomplished, water is shut off.

Then unbolt and lift the toilet off the flange. I see where the problem is, some gunk missed being cleaned off the bottom of the toilet and the old wax hadn't sealed properly. Cleaned it up with lighter fluid - an excellent solvent - shine it up nice, and apply the new wax ring. Beautiful. Lift 50 pounds of pocelain, manoever carefully over flange bolts without the bottom of the toilet touching anything... just so... not quite... oops. Knock flange bolt out of flange and down into pipe. Crap.

Well, I do need another trip to Canadian Tire for some valves to replace the broken/leaking ones. I'll get another bolt. Make list, check twice. No valves in stock. Go to Home Hardware. Get valves. Forget to check list, forget new flange bolt. Not wanting to make another drive, I head to the basement again, open cleanout below toilet. Crap. Literally this time. There is flange bolt. Reach in with screwdriver and manoever it out. Close cleanout. James is now home from school, so I get his help to put the toilet back in place. It really works better with two people. It just plops into place. Hardy har har.

Then valve time. A giant pain the butt working on our ancient plumbing system. The whole thing really needs to be redone, properly, in something bigger than 1/2" copper. I was very concerned that moving or changing anything would open up more leaks in new places. Desoldering valves, resoldering valves, replacing lengths of pipe, resealing unions, yet another trip to Canadian Tire for another union. Burn hand with drop of molten solder. Turn pump back on. Turn water back on. Forget that the bathtub hot water tap is on because I had just replaced the leaking cartridge. Spray water all over the multitude of paper towels I had temporarily put there after cleaning toilet wax and other nastyness under the toilet. Turned it into a nice soggy mess. Brown in colour, since much of the crap lining the water pipes was flushed out.

Gah. Sigh. Why is it that a simple job always leads to more problems? Oh, well, at least we now have a working main water shutoff. That could come in handy one day. I think the gate valves were just really, really old. We're on a sand point well, so no doubt some sand has got into over the years and messed up the seals. Changed to ball valves. Better flow, quicker and easier to shut off, and less susceptible to seal failure.

Good time with James, showed him how to solder copper pipes. Told him never to forget to put the union nut on the pipe before soldering. Of course I then forgot to put the union nut on the pipe, but he reminded me before I soldered! He learned to use a tube cutter, a propane torch, and desoldered and soldered a joint. My one hour job had turned into an all afternoon thing. Can't wait for my next fixit project.