First Day of (a New) School

Two weeks late with the info, but the first day of school went off without a hitch – sort of.

Lauren loved it. Loves her teacher, class, school, etc. All of it was great for her.

Abigail, not so much.

Her teacher is a dud. When she first said this, we did the appropriate parent thing -“give your teacher a chance, it might take some time”. But when she acted out her impression of him and his lack of enthusiasm (or seriously subdued demeanor), we knew she was right. Regardless it’s a good lesson for her. She was very lucky to have two super star teachers for 1st and 2nd grade.

Otherwise things are going well. They’ve started their after school programs and adjusting to all the new schedules and programs well.

– b

A Better Configuration

Our bathroom has a total of 6 switches. Two of them are at the door when you walk in and control the mirror and overhead lights.

The other 4 are on the side of the shower and control the shower light, the fan light, the fan, and the heater.

The fan light, fan, and heater are on a 3 rocker switch. That’s 4 switches in the space of 2.

But that’s not the problem. The problem is that the fan (mostly) doesn’t have a timer of any kind to properly run as it should. More often than not, we end up leaving it on all day when it only needs to be left on about an hour after a shower.

Voila!

Now it’s a double rocker for the shower light and fan light, then a timer each for the fan and heater. The timer for the heater is overkill. If it was heated tile, that would be perfect, but the previous owners weren’t that savvy. Personally I don’t get the ceiling fan heater concept. Ideally you should run it before your shower, turn it off, turn on the shower, turn on the fan, suck all that heat out… Maybe that’s not how it actually works. Maybe it puts out enough heat while the fan is running to make it worth while on cold winter mornings, but I have my doubts. We’ll know soon enough.

BTW. That job took three hours to:

• remove the old switches
• identify all the wires
• cut out the old box
• install the new box
• repair any damaged wires in the previous box removal
• wire in new switches – find HUGE wire nuts to do so
• install cover
• clean up the mess on the floor

– b

No Go

Earlier this summer we got the girls new bikes, then got them new baskets too.

Lauren’s fit right on and away she went. Abigail’s not so much.

I thought it was that her cables were too short and lengthening them would allow room for the basket to fit.

After buying all new stuff, waiting for it to come in, then taking all her old stuff off, I realized the real problem is that her handlebars aren’t wide enough.

Doh!

So I put it all back and decided to try one of these:

If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to try a wider handlebar and get to use all the new cables and housing I bought.

– b

Everything Glasses

I’ve reached the point where it’s very difficult to do anything of detail without reading glasses.

Working on anything basically requires crazy amounts of light and my reading glasses. If you’re checking the flickr feed, you may also notice I’m wearing the hand lamp a lot too.

I’ve also tried to start wearing nitrile gloves.

I’m tired of my hands constantly being dirty and cutup. Either it’s because I’m older or in a new environment, but it takes too long for all those little cuts to heal.

They take some getting used to and I don’t wear them for everything yet, but I’m trying to get there.

– b

Quandary #2

Continuing the city life thread…

From our kitchen we have at least 5 houses (one could count 7) within a hundred or so feet of our windows.

We have no blinds. The previous owners had no blinds.

Not all the neighbors have blinds. Some do of varying degrees

We’d like blinds, but what kind do we get? Complete privacy or just pseudo privacy? Is complete privacy rude? Are blinds at all rude?

I’m over thinking it I know, but find it funny that the thoughts even arise.

– b

City Life

Quandary #1

I need about a sheet and a half of 4×8 plywood.

In PA (with all our land and garage space) I would have bought 2 full sheets and stored the extra for whenever, because there’s always a whenever.

In the city I don’t have that much room.

I can buy a half sheet, but it’s not exactly the same thing and almost costs as much as a full sheet?!?!!?

I bought the full two sheets and will figure it out later. Hopefully my measuring is off and need more than a half anyway.

– b

Slowly Becoming Permanent

The girls were registered for school today. We find out their teachers tomorrow.

I applied for my MA license. Still waiting for it to arrive.

Jen has all of her official documents now, so that she can apply for her license.

Once I have my license, I can register the cars and dirt bikes. Once the cars are registered, I can get them inspected.

Then we’re finally permanent residents I think.

– b

Vacation!

Headed to Maine for a week of vacation.

We tried a new area and liked it. There were trails, easy water access, slow roads, restaurants, and a beach.

I’ll try and post more later, or just share the cloud photos link.

– b

Paddle Board!

Found a discount paddle board for the girls and hit the river to try it out.

Both girls did great. Better than Jen and I did.

They also liked the fact that it makes a perfect floating play station for them to jump and swim.

Hoping to take it to the beach as well.

Stay tuned for more paddle board fun.

– b

Built a Shed

The original plan of storing my dirt bike in the basement didn’t work quite like I expected. In fact, it didn’t work at all.

Though technically still feasible, I’d have to start the bike in the basement and use the motor to get it out every time I wanted to use it. That didn’t seem like the friendly option for my neighbors.

The other nicety is having a more convenient way to store and access the bicycles in the event of inclement weather.

Not sure how the neighbors feel about it. Everything is very close to everything, but oh well. We’ll find out sooner or later.

Took all weekend to assemble, and so far satisfies my requirements.

– b