My blog n'at

I wasn’t going to write one of these until a few people asked where my yearly recap was so what the heck. Its 8 a.m. on 1/1/13 so better late than never right?

2012 was an interesting for me in terms of realizing what was really important for a happy life and that researching the past generations can put today into perspective.

This is probably the shortest one I’ve ever written since 2012 was not the year of blogging for me. Family and work were in overdrive this year so all of my online writings took a hit. Let’s get to it.

January – I decided it was time to start streamlining everything I do online and phase out those negative people in my life that thrive on bringing you down. This was a success and life has been much better after cutting those ties. My youngest started teething and we saw an incredible heatwave I’d love to kick back in again.

February – Groundhog obsession. Cleaned out my closet of over 25 tshirts and still had way too many clothes left. Teaspoon saw his first hockey game (RMU Women) and first basketball game (RMU Men). Birthdays of myself (36) and Teaspoon (3).

March – Bachelor week with delicious craft beers and steaks. Celebrated ST Patrick’s day with a Beer-Braised Corned Beef I made with Troegenator. Finally ate at an iHop. Lushie burned her hand really bad and Roberto Clemente made me drink cheap whiskey.

April – Pirates opened what would be another losing season. Pens scored 10 goals in 1 game against the Flyers which I called the Pearl Jam Goal. The 1st annual Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week happened.

May – Took a much needed break and spent time in Baltimore for my cousin’s wedding where we had blue crab for the first time. QR codes are not difficult to use and, while some think are hideous, can be very beneficial.

June - Arby’s 5-Strip Ultimate BLT was an insult to bacon and sandwiches. 9 years and 150,838 miles later I finally bought a new car. Teaspoon gave Father’s day a new meeting when we visited my dad’s grave site.  One of my beer articles was featured on Examiner.

July – Church festival season and a 1.5 yr old’s addiction to Jeopardy

August – My streak of 573 days for not drinking a macro beer ended and realized how much I had a dislike for craft beer snobbery. Hot water tank blew in my basement and made one heck of a mess. My beautiful face graced the pages of Zymurgy magazine for homebrewing.

September – President announced he was home brewing and a lot of us were anxious to try the recipe. Finding a decent pizza joint we can all agree on finally happened as we fell in love with Antonio’s in Brookline. My kid loves his GameBoy  more than anything. Needing a mancation and dealing with a sick kid.

October – Ate taco soup which broke a tooth and finally got the crown. Brewing a pumpkin porter and pumpkin carving.

November – I shaved off my goatee for the first time in 8 years and grew a mustache for charity. Had our 7th anniversary dinner at P.F. Changs. Trying to understand the Voter I.D. debacle. Twitter name calling reaches new low and Teaspoon thinks he’s Picasso.

December – We started using DVD players for trips. Remembering dad. Google+ releases “communities” and I LOVE it. That 12-12-12 thing happened. No, we don’t have polio. My alma mater, Erie Cathedral Prep, won the PIAA AAA football title. End of the world comes and goes. Remembering Roberto.

There you have it, 2012 year in review. Many cool things happened that I didn’t blog about so I need to be more diligent about that in 2013. The family just got back from the in-laws so I’ll have a Christmas recap coming.

Thanks to all for a fun 2012 and cheers to everyone! Hope you have a safe & happy new year!

I’m absolutely clueless when it comes to home repairs. I can read a manual or watch something on YouTube to pretty much figure things out but my gut reaction to every repair is “call the warranty company”. I could call my brother but he’s the “I have a guy” err guy.

Growing up my dad took care of all the repairs and even though my only role was to “hold that goddamn flashlight still” I really had no interest in fixing the house or the car. My concern was getting back to playing Nintendo and every moment lost was another that my friends would have at beating Metroid before me.

So far I’ve done pretty well with replacing the bathroom sink and fixing the toilet; much to the chagrin of a wife screaming if something is not fixed in 30 minutes or less. Apparently she has me confused with a pizza delivery guy. (note: guys, attempting to repair ANYTHING in your house will lead to a fight every time. Take that into consideration if its worth doing or paying someone else.)

Last Monday I got a call that there was water in the basement around the hot water tank. This has happened before since the pressure relief pipe was directly above the puddle but this time it was “Honey, there is A LOT of water. Its even running down the drain!”

My basement is an old yinzer style built in the 1920′s/30′s with partial broken up concrete and dirt (but no Pittsburgh Potty) so for water to get to the drain there has to be a considerable amount.

I ask what the tank looks like and she could only described it as “It’s crying… a lot. It’s coming down the sides like an overflowing glass.”  Yeah, fantastic. I tell her to shut the water to the tank off and wait until I get home.

As expected I came home to a mess that I knew I wasnt going to be an easy or cheap fix. We called a friend of ours who sends her husband over to take a look since he has some plumbing background. After a quick evaluation its determined the sucker needs replaced. I call the warranty company and it’s a back and forth battle since they can’t find anyone with an opening for 10 days. TEN DAYS! Eventually they find 1 company that can be out on Thursday.

Let’s stop right there for a moment. Right now you’re probably thinking “So how did you shower?” and the answer is quite simple. Tuesday we took the kids to a friend’s house and bathed them and then we tried to take quick cold showers at home by turning the water on quick. That, my friends, was a bad idea. Lushie found a shower elsewhere and me, well I got creative. 2 words – “Titusville shower”.

Thursday the repair guy shows up and agrees that the 12yr old tank is toast and needs replaced. He said with a smirk “Your tank is 80 psi and its pushing 110 psi WITHOUT hot water. How on earth did this thing never blow up?” We wondered the same and then he went on about whomever installed it and right away I could hear ever repair person who’s been in our house since inspection. “Wow, who did this? Nice job Captain Obvious”. Knowing the dire situation the house was in with dishes piling up and clothes for 2 little kids consuming every basket, he said the tank would be delivered on Friday.

Tank arrived at 9am and by 11am we had hot water but not without paying for it. We had to pay for a pressure regulator tank thing which was out of pocket. Plus side is that the water tank was covered so while it could have cost a lot more we saw the bright side of a $300 bill instead of $800. (We also pay for the warranty every year and a service call fee so it balances itself out).

Everything has been fine in the week following. I don’t have a wet vac so the ground has basically sucked the water back down. I think it looks bad ass black and the only complaint has come from the wife who doesn’t like the water pressure set at where its safe to be.

If she doesn’t like it I can always get the hose out

Have you met Maxine? If you’ve watched Hallmark commercials over the last 25 years you’re sure to have seen her.  The figure in this image has been a staple in my wife’s gram’s house for years and late at night the thing always freaked me out.

She found her home in the corner of a bathroom or in a dimly lit kitchen when I would fumble around in the middle of the night and she would scare the hell out of me. Middle of the day I would get sent to a room to pick something up and *BOOM* Maxine was there. After a while I was sure that she was some creepy doll following me just waiting to say something.

Now she’s here… in my kitchen… and of course the first night I see her was after I had a late night.

I don’t know how long Maxine will last in our house but I’m sure of one thing, I’d hate to be the first person that walks into my kitchen half asleep and meets my new house guest.

Yesterday I spent 4.5 hours doing yard work. I’m incredibly anal sometimes on how my yard looks and I can thank my father for that.

Wondering why it seemed like a sauna I came in to see it was in the 90′s. I chill in the AC (no pun intended) to cool off and get cleaned up before heading to the mall.

The kids were in the house all day and they, plus the wife, were going stir crazy. On our way to Robinson is when we saw triple digits… 102F. As luck would have it the mall parking lot had fresh blacktop also.

After an exhausting day the unthinkable happened. Everyone went to bed at 9pm on a Saturday and for the first time in 3 years I slept 8 hours.

As I sit here in bed typing this (wooooo buddy!) I realized something, even though my 25 yr old self would kick my ass for going to bed at 9p especially on saturday during a holiday weekend, my 35 yr old self is telling him to stfu

Go ahead and click on it. You know you want to.

The furnace has been a thorn in my side since me moved in. Its ran like a champ but the problem is that Captain Obvious went balls to the wall having this thing installed and left ZERO documentation to it. Yeah its not your typical furnace with $12 filters either. Of freaking course it wouldn’t be.

So here’s the deal

We’ve had a problem with heat getting to the nursery. Never an issue after we moved in because we always had the windows open so we knew the room was at least cool. Come winter time and its barely blowing. We call and the guy stops out THREE times. Yes, THREE! Each time with a different excuse. First time it was the filter which was $40 (this I actually looked up online and confirmed because its some 1 year accordion thing) Then he said it needed cleaned and since I saw the gunk in it I figured why not. Third time he comes back because the whole house is shaking when the furnace kicks on and there is water on the floor. At this point they think we’re full of shit.

Really? Look at this. Go one and click to make it bigger.
Does that look like I’m imagining things? It takes 4 days for these people to come back.

This time they send a new guy and he says that not only does the pump need replaced but there is a 1ft long piece of foam in the blower. Funny since we never had issues until the guy serviced the furnace and now this piece of foam is there.

Someone call the Hardy Boys to solve this mystery. Good lord it amazes what people do to make a buck.