Recall

No not that kind of recall though being from WI I am sure anyone reading this thinks we are going to try and recall someone else from office.  I am talking about am manufacturer's recall on my car.  In October we received a notice that Kris's car was having a recall to replace some air-bag sensor in the front passenger side seat.  I brought it in and they replaced whatever sensor needed replacing, but then when the Hyundai techs went to update the car's software, it wouldn't update properly. 

I had brought the car in on a Saturday so they told me that they tried calling the technical support people at Hyundai USA, but since it was a Saturday, no one was there to help.  They told me they thought they were going to need to replace something in the seat itself and they would call to set up a time to replace it once the part came in.

Well the part came in and I made the appointment for a Saturday since Kris needs her car pretty much every day to take Alison to and from school since we live one tenth of a mile too close to school (by my measurements we're beyond the 1 mile limit, but the bus company disagrees, however that is another story entirely).  So I brought the car in last week, and after an hour and a half, they told me that there was again a problem, and again being a Saturday, no one was at the tech support desk to help them out.  The manager told me that he thinks he knows what the problem is (a bent tab when trying to assemble the seat) but since the seat is about $3700 to have it replaced and before doing that he wanted to make sure that was the problem, which will require me taking the Santa Fe in on a weekday when they can call someone for assistance if needed.  So tomorrow I am taking it in and hopefully they will get things taken care of.  Luckily they have a shuttle service so I can drop the car off and then have someone drive me back to work so I don't have to waste 4 hours at the dealer waiting to find out what is wrong this time.

Vein Surgery Update

It has been three weeks now since Kris had her surgery the veins in her left leg and everything is going along fine.  The first few days were tough.  She had a lot of pain.  I don't really remember the pain from the first time when she had the right leg done, I just remember trying to get the incisions to stop bleeding. 

There were actually a couple of spots that were very red, and inflamed and I was worried there was an infection going on, but on her follow up a few days afterward, the doctor said everything looked fine.  As it looks right now, everything seems to be progressing fine, so Kris should be ready to run 5Ks in the summer.

Midnight Mass

This year, I decided to do something out of the ordinary.  Our church actually had Christmas mass at midnight instead of at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve.  I haven't been to actual midnight mass AT midnight since I was in junior high.  Even when I was an altar boy, we switched and had it earlier so people weren't staying up so late.  But I think that defeats the purpose of midnight mass.

We tried going to a vigil mass about 10 years ago when Sarah was little and we had to get there almost two hours before mass began in order to get a seat in church (though that was before the church remodeling to make it larger).  Sarah was a monster and wouldn't sit still so we never went back.  I wasn't sure what to expect as far as a crowd so I made sure to get there early, a little more than an hour.  When I got there, there were only about 15 people in the church.  Mental note for next year...  no need to get there so early.  In fact, there were plenty of seats in the church at the time mass started (which was actually at 12:10 AM).  The big "rush" of people got there about 11:40 PM so I was really early.  It was nice though sitting in the dimmed church with the Christmas lights and nativity scene being the main lights with the music playing.  It was really very relaxing.  I almost fell asleep.

I remember things being a little different though from my time as an altar boy.  I don't know if the way St. Anthony does things is just specific to the parish or if it's a whole, church wide thing.  But I would like to see some of the traditions we had when I was a kid brought back, lighting the Advent Wreath before mass, bring the baby Jesus in and placing him in the manger at midnight mass, maybe a little more ceremonial things.  But for now this will have to do.

The Christmas Pickle

A few years ago after doing some genealogy I decided I wanted to look for some family traditions that i could start with the girls.  I was looking for something specific from Pomerania, since that is where the Hahn family comes from.  Well I couldn't find anything specific, but I did find something that was supposed to be a German tradition, the Christmas pickle.  So we bought a glass pickle to hang on the tree.  It is always the very last ornament placed on the tree and is hidden deep in the boughs and the legend has it that the one who finds it on Christmas morning was supposed to receive a special gift, and the first adult to find it was supposed to receive good luck for the upcoming year.  While we never gave out a gift to the girls because we didn't want them fighting over it, I thought it was a cool tradition because they could look at and appreciate ll the ornaments on the tree while looking for the pickle.  Alison even used it as her family tradition in a project at school.

However, after reading some things about it online, I have come to find out that it is a total myth.  If you went to Germany at Christmas time and asked about hanging a pickle on the Christmas tree, they would have no idea what you were talking about.  It does appear to have some German roots though, just not in the old country.  The story goes that there was a German immigrant from Bavaria who was fighting in the Civil War by the name of John Lower.  He had been captured and sent to the Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia.  Anyone who knows anything about the civil war knows the name Andersonville.  It was a terrible place to be sent and nearly 1/3 of the Union soldiers who were held there died.  In poor health, and starving, John Lower begged a guard for just one pickle before he died.  The guard had mercy on him and found a pickle for John Lower.  According to the legend, that pickle (along with the grace of God) gave John Lower the strength to live on.  Finally, once he had been released (or liberated) and reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle in the branches of the Christmas tree and the one who found it on Christmas morning would be blessed with good fortune for the year.

Whatever the story, it is something the girls like to do, and they do look for the pickle, and admire all the other ornaments.  So I am glad that we decided to pick that custom.  I'd still like to find some other traditions we can do with them before they get too old, but for now at least we have the pickle.

What's a Cassette

A couple of weeks ago we were driving somewhere, maybe Kohls, maybe Walmart, I forget exactly.  But were were driving in my car and had the satellite radio on.  I was flipping stations and landed on the hair band channel.  I don't remember exactly what was on but it was a song that I hadn't heard in years.  I know it was something that Kris liked too.  I said something about how I remembered having the album by whoever it was on cassette back when I was in high school.  Alison was sitting in the backseat and asked, "What's a cassette?"  My mouth dropped open, and I said, "What? Are you kidding?"  I thought for certain she was putting us on, but she was serious.  Apparently she had never seen a cassette tape before.  That was how I knew I was officially old

Cookie Time!

Yes, it is that time of the year again, or practically.  We got Ali's stuff for selling girl scout cookies again.  This year the sale starts right after the first of the year, and last for only two weeks.  Also this year the council as doing their sale a little differently.  Some genius did a study apparently, that the girls can sell more cookies with boxes in hand, so that when they drop them off they are supposed to have extras on hand and then let the customers know they have extras.  I am not liking this new method.  This is the last year of Alison's troop as they are reportedly disbanding the troop after bridging so I think we might tone things down this year.  If you got cookies from Ali last year, let us know if you want them again, let us know.  We aren't going to go hard pushing them.

I Really Don't Hate Christmas

Last weekend I had to run to WalMart to get Kris's dad a new trimmer.  It was just one thing, in and out.  Well that was a mistake.  The parking lot was jammed, and people were driving like complete jag-offs.  There is nothing that hacks me off more than someone "parking" in the middle of the aisle waiting for someone to pull out of a parking spot so they can save the extra 30 feet they might otherwise need to walk.  Then again, if you have ever seen the clientele that frequents WalMart you know they aren't exactly into health and working out. 

Once I got in I went right to the aisle where the trimmers were, picked the one that I think will work the best for Kris's dad (about 2 minutes to look and compare models) and then had to wait in line for 15 minutes to pay for it.  15 minutes in the 10 items and less checkout.  That is another thing that gets me hot.  It is one thing if there are no people waiting, or no other lanes open, but on this day, WalMart was PACKED!  So there were a couple of people who had like 30 things, and had split it up into three transactions, so they paid three separate times and yet the line didn't move.  UGH!

So as I was leaving I was thoroughly disgusted with shopping and with the whole Christmas season.  The rudeness of the people in the stores (other consumers, not the store employees; the employees I saw were more than accommodating trying to do their jobs and keep everyone happy).  I think there is just something about the season that seems to bring out the worst in people. 

So in closing I want to just want to say that I really don't hate Christmas.  And to prove it, here is Dr. Doofenschmirtz singing the new Christmas classic:

Thumb Update

It has been a week and a half since I got my shot in the thumb.  So far so good.  I can report that at the very least the pain that I was having in it is gone.  It is still stiff at times, such as when I get up in the morning, and it still "clicks" when I move it, sometimes worse than at other times, but I can deal with it I guess.  I am hopeful that that too will eventually go away, but the main thing was the pain and not being able to move it at all.  And since that is gone, I guess I'll call it a win for now.

Furnace Install

Well, it's all done.  The furnace and the air conditioner have been replaced.  Boy, the Air conditioner sure is small.  I suppose that just shows how much better things have become, smaller and more efficient.  The same goes for the furnace.  I wasn't home at all when the servicemen were ripping the old stuff out and putting the new one in, but Kris spoke to them and did we learn some things. 

The pipes for the air intake and the CO exhaust were somehow not hooked up right.  They had to replace one of them for sure because there is a new PVC pipe in the joists because they apparently were not up to code.  The same went for the chimney and the exhaust ducts coming from the hot water heater, not up to code.  I seriously want to know how the building inspector passed things when we bought the house 14 years ago.  At least we are all up to code now and everything is working. 

When I came home the first night, the house smelled like the oven when it is on the cleaning cycle.  They told us that it will go away shortly.  But until then, it sort of gives me a headache.  I will say that the amount of air coming out of the vents is increased.  Kris said the service guy told her that we did have an issue with the blower on the old furnace not moving enough air, which makes sense.  The house warms up much faster than it used to.  Unfortunately, the one thing that didn't change it the amount that the Christmas tree lights affect the room temperature/thermostat.  So we still have that to deal with, but that is minor compared to having a furnace that will not shut off during the night.

Light Bulbs

I finally had it with the light in our house.  The ceiling fans upstairs provide just terrible light in the bedrooms.  I wish we didn't need to have the fans, but unfortunately due to the poor heating and cooling in the house because of the way they ran the ducts when the house was built, we need the fans to help circulate the air.  Maybe not as much when the new furnace gets installed, but we'll see.

Anyway, I went to Home Depot and started looking and I could not find any light bulbs, or at least any non-CFL bulbs.  I refuse to use those crappy CFL bulbs.  The light is not pleasant and I cannot stand waiting for the things to "warm up" before emitting enough light to see.  If I want light, I want it now, not in two minutes.  The largest bulbs I can get are 60 watt, and what I really need is 100 watt.  Thanks to the stupid government, I can no longer get a light bulb that allows me to see in my own house.  Thanks a lot government, you eliminate a product that people want and is effective in its use and replace it with an inferior product, and then force people to use it.  Yep, great job.  That's also why our power rates are so high.  I could go on, but I'll end my rant here.

Vet Checkup

Last Saturday we took the cat's up to the vet for their annual checkup.  They needed their shots and just a general once over to make sure they were healthy, especially Phoebe.  Luckily, other than Phoebe's obsessive/compulsive licking and some slight tartar build up on a couple of teeth, they are both in very good health.  We've been going to the same vet for almost 20 years, ever since we got our first cat.  For a while we stopped taking the cats there because it was too much of a hassle/drive to go up to West Bend just to see the vet, but after going to a couple of different ones here in the Falls, we just didn't feel like we got the same attention, or quality of care.  I think there is something to be said for that.

2012 Christmas Tree

As I do every year, this is the 2012 Hahn family Christmas tree.  It's much like it is every year, just moving around the ornaments a little bit.

This year I made sure that Kris put on all of her/our ornaments first.  The last few years by the time the girls got finished putting on all of their ornaments we had limited space for ours.  So this year, I told the girls that they were going to have to decide which ones they wanted to put on and which ones stayed in the box. 

This year I also put on an even 2000 lights.  I only had to throw out three strings for having lights out.  I think that after Christmas this year, I am going to go see if I can find some LEDs for the after Christmas, clearance prices, but I have to find ones that have the yellowish glow, not the bright bluish-white ones.  I want to have that warm glow without the heat, or the blinding light.  Like this:

There is just something about that glow that makes the season.

Vein Surgery

Kris went in last Friday to have surgery on the veins in her left leg.  A couple of years ago she had her right leg done so this is just evening things out.  The left leg wasn't as bad as the right one, but it still needed to be done.  The procedure apparently went smoothly, and now she's recovering.  The level of bruising isn't as bad as when it was done on her other leg, but there are a couple of spots that seem to be very red.  The after care sheet that the doctor gave us says to watch for a condition just like this, so we are watching and monitoring it carefully.  She goes in for her follow up on Tuesday so hopefully it doesn't get worse before then.  If it does I think we'll need to call to have it looked at, but for now it is so far so good.

St. Nick's Visit

St Nick visited last night.  The girls were lucky.  He brought some candy, they each got a new ornament for the tree, some good quality lip gloss and other lotion, and the big thing, Just Dance 4 for the Wii.  It seems that St. Nick thought the girls were good this year.  I told them that next year they might just get a visit from Krampus instead.  What?  You don't know who (or what) Krampus is?  Well then....  just click here for some background. 

Putting the fear of Krampus into the children would have been the thing to do when the girls were still little enough to be frightened by it.  Then again, it may have resulted in visits to the child psychologist.

Ali's Concert

This is Alison's fall concert, or a clip from it.  Put your hands together for the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

Concert from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

Healthy As a Horse

About a month ago I had my annual check up and as usual, everything came back pretty good.  The only issue I had was my thumb.  The joint was locking up on me, and was actually slightly painful to move. My doctor looked at it and said, yep, you have a trigger thumb.  Now I have heard of a trigger finger, but never a trigger thumb. 

I put up with it for a little while, but two weeks ago I finally decided to call the orthopedist to take a look at it.  My doctor told me that he would probably just give me a cortisone injection, but if it was bad enough, they might do some surgery on it.  So today I went to have the doctor look at it.  After the initial check and moving it around he confirmed that it was indeed trigger thumb.  Luckily, he thought all it needed was a cortisone shot.  My prognosis is good.  He said there is a 75%  chance that this will take care of it.  If not, he can give it another shot, in which case there would be a 50% chance it fixes it.  If that doesn't do it, then he would need to do a little surgery on it, but that is something that would be taken care of in the office. 

It's still a little swollen from the injection, and as I am typing this it is still numb from freezing it for the actual cortisone shot.  IN a week or so I'll know if it takes.  I figure it can't be any worse.

Furnace Failure

Over the past weekend we had a small issue with our furnace.  The furnace had gone out overnight so that when I woke up Sunday morning and it was only 60° in the house.  This has happened before, and because of the issue we had with the air conditioner over the summer, I know the furnace is old and needs to be replaced.  It has happened before ( a couple of times last year, maybe a couple of times the year before that I can recall) and usually when it does happen, I just need to go reset it by flipping the breaker off and then back on.  So I did it and about 30 seconds later, the furnace was going. 

Unfortunately, it happened again on Sunday night/Monday morning.  When I got up to get ready for work, I went downstairs and reset it again with the breaker, and put calling someone to come take a look at the furnace on my list of things to do.  I was busy at work all day Monday and didn't get a chance to call, and since the furnace was running I thought no problem, I'll call as soon as I have a chance.  So Tuesday morning when I got up for work it was down to 59° in the family room, and I could tell as soon as I got out of bed.  Luckily, it reset again as soon as I flipped the breaker off and back on, but I made sure that I called Tuesday morning to have someone come out and check things out.  Luckily the place I called was able to send someone out right away.  When they guy looked at the furnace he apparently knew right away things were not good.  The verdict is that we need a new furnace.  I am pretty sure that when we moved in the paperwork we had said it was installed new in 1991, which then puts it at almost 22 years old.  The service guy said he could replace some part that it needed right away so that it wouldn't keep going out, but it would need to be replaced. 

So now we have things scheduled to have the furnace and A/C replaced in a couple of weeks.  Even the small repair he did isn't perfect as we could see the thermostat showed the furnace was on and running but there was no warm air blowing out, and when I went downstairs to check on it, it wasn't running.  But after a bit of flipping switched on and off, it kicked in.  So I guess we are getting lucky.  I look at it like at least we can keep it going until they can get it replaced.  It wouldn't have been very good if it had just up and died and left us without heat at all.

Fall Concert

I almost forgot, Alison had her Fall concert for school about two weeks ago.  It was really a fun program.  It is one thing that I think her music teacher does a lot better than the music teacher from Riverside did (no offense to the Riverside music teacher).  This years program was an old time radio show.  Since Alison is on the chorus, she sang a lot more than just her class would have done alone.  Then again, there are probably less than 10 kids in 5th grade who are not also in the chorus, so it was essentially all of the 5th grade anyway.

I would have posted the video clips but the clips are each about 15-20 minutes long.  Maybe I'll post one later.  They show was circa 1943, and even included commercials that they would have played at the time.  And the songs they did were also the songs that they would have played on the radio in 1943.  Alison even got a little solo part in Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. 

UPDATE:  Sadly, I just checked and my videos are too large.  In order to upload them to Vimeo, I'll need to do some editing to cut them down.  I'll try and find some time over the weekend, so check back.

Water Main Break

On Monday Kris got home from work and had a big surprise waiting for her.  There had been a water main break across the street from our house.  The village utility workers had been there and had it fixed by the time she got home, but the street in front of the house was covered with water and mud, which then got into the driveway.  As soon as she got in she had to flush all the pipes in the house. 

The guy across the street has the approach to his house all dug up.  They actually filled the hole and paved over it with blacktop instead of concrete.  That would be driving me insane, not to mention the fact that the grass would have been all dug up around it as well.  Luckily it didn't burst in front of our house.

Happy Anniversary

On this day 21 years ago, I had gone out to a bar with my roommates for the night.  We used to go to one particular bar on North avenue in Milwaukee called Judges.  There wasn't a whole lot to do there.  They had a couple of TVs and played my kind of music, but not much else.  So we were there watching basketball and playing darts.  That night my friends and I were throwing darts and a couple of girls wanted to play the winners on the board (which was me and my friend). 

In between watching the basketball game that was on and going to get pitchers of beer, these girls were cheating when our backs were turned.  We ended up losing the game, which was something that was very uncharacteristic for us, especially losing to a couple of girls.  And that was one reason we knew we had been cheated.

Well, those girls ended up hanging out with us for the night and because one of them had a drink dumped on her jacket, I let her wear my UWM Rugby jacket home.  As most people know, that girl is now my wife.  She'll tell you that we were just that bad at darts, but don't believe her.  We were cheated.  But on this day 21 years ago we started our journey together, sort of.  It took me a month to get her to agree to go out with me, but I landed her.  And it never would have happened if we hadn't run into each other on this day in 1991.

Corrupt USB Drive

I had a very long day today between getting the lights up outside and working on the computer.  I had picked out a few possible pictures for our Christmas card this year and was sitting down with Kris to pick out which one we would use.  She asked about whether we had a picture of the girls together from the first day of school.  I did, but I had put it onto a USB drive for storage, as I have with all of our photos from about the last 5 or 6 years at least.  So I got it out, plugged it into my laptop, and a message pops up saying that the drive is not formatted, do I want to format it now?  Well, I know for sure what happens when you reformat something, so I knew things weren't good.

I unplugged it and plugged it into Kris' desktop.  I got the same message.  I tried it in the kids' computer down iin the basement and the same message popped up.  When I checked the properties of the drive, it said there was 0 data written on it.  I knew that wasn't right because I had just transferred pictures to is about two weeks earlier.  So I knew there was still data on there, I just needed to figure out how to get it.

This was the start of a massive migraine for the day.  After about half an hour of googling for some sort of lead on where to begin, I had found some free programs that "guaranteed" to recover your data from a corrupted USB drive.  I ended up installing a couple and trying them out.  So while they were scanning, I went outside to get the lights set up.  Like I said, this was the start of a tremendous headache.  I think it was because I had two years worth of photos on that USB drive, and I was freaking out that I was going to lose them.  I had that happen a few years ago when I was transferring photos to CDs, and I deleted the originals thinking I had copied them to a CD for storage.  Well I either missed some and thought I copied them, or I thought I had a duplicate CD and threw it out.  Either way, I lost about 4 months worth of pictures, which included mother's day.  Kris wasn't happy at all.  So now I had three times as many pictures possibly on the chopping block.

After a break of a half an hour, some lunch and a handful of painkillers I came back to work on the USB drive.  Unfortunately, the "guaranteed" programs got me absolutely nothing.  So I started some more research.  After another hour, I managed to find another program that said it could get the data off of a corrupted USB drive.  This one however was a DOS program, and the reviewer said that many people felt intimidated by the DOS based program so they just skipped using it, but the reviewer went on to say it was the best one he had found.  So I gave it a try, and 2 minutes after installing it, I was watching the progress window listing the number of files recovered.  I let out a huge sigh of relief because I was getting my data back.  The program I got to do it was free, so maybe I'll throw the author a bone and donate $10 or something to him.  It's worth at least that to get all of our memories back.

Kris suggested that maybe wee should subscribe to Carbonite, or one of those other data backup services.  Again, with my luck in losing things (having computers crash and losing data) it might not be a bad "insurance policy".  I think I might look into it next week when I have a few minutes.

EDIT: It just dawned on me that I should list the name of the program in case anyone comes across this while looking for how to retrieve data from a corrupted drive.  I used a program called TestDisk and PhotoRecovery from a company called CG Security.  You can download it here.  I highly recommend it.

A Cat's Christmas

So, as long as I am on the topic of the Christmas tree, we have already had a couple of incidents with Samson and the tree this weekend.  He has gone under the tree and been swatting at some of the ornaments.  Luckily each time he has gone after them someone was sitting in the family room to chase him away.  I am worried that he will get a little mischievous while we are gone at work and end up knocking the tree over, or at the very least, knocking off some of the more fragile ornaments. 

It's strange because last year we didn't have these kinds of problems with Samson.  Yeah, he liked laying under the tree on the skirt, but he didn't try playing with the ornaments, at least not like he has so far this year.  I actually saw him lunge up into the tree after something.  Whether it was playing with the lights, or an ornament, I don't know, but we can't let him keep doing it.  Maybe we just need to get him more toys or something to keep his attention away from the tree.

Ready for Christmas

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season obviously, but it also means getting our Christmas stuff out.  Usually it is the only time I have to get the tree up and decorated because as anyone who knows me realizes that with the number of lights I put on our tree, it take me at least a day to get it up and the lights strung, and then another half a day the get the ornaments on.  This year, I was planning on moving the tree to the front of the family room in front of the big window.  However, with the shape of the room and the arrangement of the furniture, it just isn't conducive for placing the tree there. 

Maybe next year if we get some new furniture and rearrange the set up, we can move it to the front of the room.  The problem now is the same as it has been the last couple of years.  The tree is too close to the thermostat so that with the number of lights I have on the tree (2000 this year) the extra heat generated causes the temp in the room to rise so that the heat doesn't go on at night.  That makes for a cold upstairs for sleeping, so we'll have to keep the lights off for a while later at night.  Mybe I need to star t looking at getting some LED lights for the tree next year.  The problem is that with the cost of a string of LEDs it'll cost about $200-$250 just for lights.

I finished putting up the few lights we have for outside today, so as it stands, I think we're all set as far as decorations go for Christmas this year.  Maybe I'll keep looking as we are out for better lights.  The ones we have now are getting old and I think will need to be replaced next year, so if I come across something that isn't to horribly expensive I'll get it and stock it for next year.

Thanksgiving

We had a very fun Thanksgiving this year.  After going to spend some time with Kris's dad at his apartment, we drove up to have Thanksgiving dinner with my Aunt and her family, which was nice since we never get to see them even though they only live 20 minutes away.  It was a little bit hectic with children and dogs and cooking etc. all going on, but we still managed to be able to visit.  The funny thing was it ended up being a lot like the Thanksgivings I remember as a child with my grandparents.  There was the card table in the corner for the kids, and unfortunately, one of my adult cousins  was stuck at the kiddie table.  It was sort of like a bad joke, I felt bad for her.

At the end of the night as we were getting ready to go, my youngest cousin ended up splitting open his forehead.  I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it got pretty hectic with everyone scrambling.  Kris and I joked that it was a good thing there were two doctors in the house.  Luckily it wasn't all that awful.  My aunt ended up getting the bleeding to stop and I think she was planning on just derma-bonding it closed, so it should be ok.  I am hoping that we stay in better touch, but that will remain to be seen.  With our busy schedules as well as hers, it sounds good to say we will, but who knows.

Chips in the Car

Even as recently as about two years ago, I used to be fanatical about keeping my cars washed.  However, in the last couple of years, I haven't had time to hand wash the cars on a regular basis and I have resorted to taking them to automatic washes.  However, since I have done this, I haven't been giving the cars the once over like I should.  The result is that I have found a few chips in the paint of my car. 

There is one in the hood, most likely from a stone or some other sort of road debris.  But I have a couple of chips and scrapes/scratches on the passenger side door and fender, in the exact spots that would line up with a car door.  This, to me, is the ultimate in being rude/inconsiderate.  I mean how much of an a-hole do you need to be to just let your car door fly open into the car next to you?  So now, as much as I hate to do it, I am going to need to take it in to get the spots fixed, because with winter coming, and all the road salt that gets used here, it is just inviting rust to start, since the spots are down to the base metal underneath.  This is something I just have no tolerance for.

Winter Ready

I think that we are finally winter ready after last weekend, at least for the most part.  I actually had to end up cutting my grass on Sunday.  I think this is the latest in the year that I have ever had to cut it.  I cut it more in six weeks in October & November than I did in all of August and September.  I dropped the mower deck a notch this time though so even if it grows a little more before the final killing frost I shouldn’t need to cut it again.

I also got the patio furniture put away and the grill covered, and I also was able to patch up the big cracks in the concrete from the hot weather over the summer.  I just hope that the driveway stays together over the winter.  I am not quite ready to rip it up and have it replaced just yet.

Teacher Conferences

We had Sarah’s teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago at the high school.  It was quite interesting meeting her teachers since we couldn’t make the open house in September.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Sarah has taken quite an interest in science and math classes.  I suppose that’s because those were the subjects that always interested me.  And I think her teachers in those classes are very enthusiastic about the material they teach.  That also makes a huge difference.

We also found out that Sarah is going to be eligible to take AP courses in her junior year.  That would be a big plus for her I think, especially if she ends up going to a state college/university.  When I went to UWM, the biggest waste of time (and one of the reasons I didn’t get my degree from there) was the first two years of general classes that had absolutely nothing to do with your major.  If Sarah can get those out of the way in HS, and get college credit for them, she can start right in on classes that will help toward he major, and that will put her in better shape in the long run in terms of graduating on schedule.

But enough of that, the main thing is that she is getting an A- average right now, which is a good thing and her teachers all say she is keeping up with her work just fine.  So for now the worry level is low for Kris and me.

Alison's teacher conference was about a week earlier than Sarah's.  It was actually in October which just shows how far behind I am in keeping things updated.  We met with Alison's teacher and went over her work so far and just like always, we received glowing reviews.  Alison came along to help her teacher present some of her work so we could see what she has been doing.  Her teacher said that she is all set to start middle school, which I guess is what we are shooting for in 5th grade, right?

2012 Indian Invite

Last weekend, we kicked off the competitive cheerleading season with the Menomonee Falls Indian Invite.  This year was Alison's first year with the Jr. Indians squad and Sarah's first JV competition.

The Jr. Indian routine was the same as the one they worked on for Jr. Indians night at the football game this past season.  So it wasn't much new.  In fact, it is usually the same, or just about the same every year since Sarah started.  But I think it was exciting for Alison to actually perform at a competition even if it was only an exhibition performance.

Junior Indians - Indian Invite from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

I was more curious about how Sarah's team would do.  Last year's JV squad was very good and many of them are now on the Varsity team.  I actually don;t think there are any seniors on this year's Varsity squad.  But Kris and I were both pleasantly surprised at how well they performed.  I wasn't wild about the music for their routine, and luckily we couldn't really hear it because the sound system in the gym was so poor.  I don't know if there was a problem with the sound itself, or if their system is just that bad and needs to be replaced.  There were a couple other parents who said the same thing, so at least I know it wasn't just me.

MFHS JV Routine - Indian Invite from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

Halloween 2012

Halloween 2012 has come and gone.  I think Alison wants to go trick or treating one more year.  That was what Sarah did, even though she went when she was in 8th grade, but that was just sort of a last minute thing, and she didn't go around the neighborhood, it was just a few houses with friends as they were walking back to one of her friends' houses.

This year the time was shortened from 5:30-7:30.  It was a rush getting home from work and helping Kris get Alison ready.  In fact, this year, Alison didn't want Kris and I to take her, so instead, Sarah served as her chaperone.  She left at about 5:50, and was back here around 7:00.  She went as "Morticia Adams".  I think that was the costume Sarah used when she was in 5th grade.  I could go back and look, but I'm too lazy.

So I stayed home and with Kris and handed out candy to kids.  I was surprised that there really weren't that many kids.  We had a big push for about a 35-40 minutes, and once we got to 7:00 we didn't have any more trick or treaters.  We also had a couple of little kids ask if Sarah was home.  I had no idea who they were, and Sarah obviously didn't either.  We even had one of Sarah's teachers stop by with his son and ask if she was home (it's no big surprise though, because he lives right down the street).  And this year, I don't think we had quite as many older kids as we have had in the past.  Does that mean that we are getting old and all the kids are moving out of the neighborhood?  hmmmm.... 

 This was Alison's booty for the night.  Not bad for about and hour's work.

And of course, it wouldn't be a good Halloween without getting compliments on my jack o'lanterns.  I counted six compliments from parents and at least three or four kids who were impressed enough to say "wow, cool pumpkins".  I even spent a couple of minutes talking pumpkin carving and preservation with one guy, giving him tips on how to make them last without drying out.  I guess that makes me quite a nerd.

The New Phone

Last week we finally went and got Sarah her new phone, an HTC One.  I was a little bummed to see that of the choices I had, there were only a couple non-smart phone choices.  It would have been fine if not for the extra $$$ to get a data plan.  Then again, Sarah was always coming up with $20-$30 in data charges each month for whatever reason, so now I guess we're covered.

That leaves me as the only one without a smart phone.  I can upgrade mine in a couple of months so I might look at one then.  I really want to get one that I can use to double as an electronic organizer so I can get rid of the Day Timer I currently use.  But like I said, that won't be for a couple of months yet.  And who knows, by the time that I can upgrade, they'll be a couple of models removed from whatever the current models are now, and I am sure more expensive.

Jack O'Lanterns 2012

We were way behind with things this year, so we didn’t get pumpkins for Halloween until just this past Saturday.  I spent approximately 7 hours Sunday gutting and cutting to get this year’s jack o’lanterns ready for Halloween on Wednesday.  So without further adieu, I give you the 2012 Hahn jack o’lanterns.

Alison couldn't decide on a design, so I found a cool Cheshire Cat one and it actually turned out rather well if I do say so myself. 

Kris found this one and I didn't know if I could do it.  I think the design she found was more one that was cut into the pumpkin, and not cut out.  This presented a problem with the thin areas between the teeth.  But I think I managed to do a pretty good job with it.
 

Sarah wanted to do the Jason Voorhees hockey mask.  This was the easiest of the lot, and I actually let Sarah do a lot of it.  I didn't think it was that good until I put the light in.  I think it looks pretty spooky.

Finally, mine.  I couldn't decide on  a face to carve.  I thought all the good ones were too difficult, and the other ones I liked I had already done.  I settled on a flaming skull.  It was hard to fit it all on because with flames, the skull face had to be pretty small.  But I think it turned out pretty good all things considered.

School Picture Update

We got Sarah's picture mess all straightened out.  I guess all we had to do was tell them that the check we wrote was cashed, and they released them to us.  I found that rather odd that they didn't ask for a copy of the check.  For all they know we could have just lied about it.  But at least we have them now.  I think Kris sent them out to family, so if you didn't get one and want one, let me know.

The other thing though that still concerns me is the name on the check.  I suppose I can just let things go for now, but I still wonder if the name that was written on the check was not in some way fraudulent.  I was ready to go to the police if the picture company wasn't going to let us have her pictures just based on the fact that the copy of the check had a different name on it and wasn't in either Kris's or my handwriting. With any luck, nothing more will come from it.

Final Jr. Indians Game

Alison finished her first year of cheerleading for the Jr. Indians football team last Saturday.  She was supposed to be done on the 13th, but there was a game that postponed earlier in the year that was being made up last Saturday.  They actually got to play on the high school field, so it was a pretty big deal for the football team as well as the cheerleaders.

Normally they play across the street on what is essentially a practice field.  The game ended in a tie, 6-6.  So the 5th grade team was undefeated for the year.  I think they were at least.  There are two teams, but the games Alison cheered were all wins except for the last one which was as stated, a tie.

Sarah's Phone

About a month ago, Sarah's phone quit working.  I think that she probably got it wet.  So she got out her old phone, which also has something wrong with it due to getting water damaged, to use while she put the other one in some rice.  After a few days she tried it again, but no luck.  It's shot.  So now we need to see about getting her a new phone...  AGAIN!  We got Sarah her first phone for 6th grade, and in the little over three years since she has gone through 3 phones, and this new one will be her fourth.  I think I can get a pretty good deal on one if I end up switching our plan to share data as well as minutes, so we'll see what we get in the next week or two.

Hayride

Last night Sarah went on a "haunted hayride" with her boyfriend.  It is very weird to actually say that, that Sarah has a boyfriend.  It isn't that bad just yet, because they don't really do anything yet, such as going to movies or things like that.  But last night she was invited along with his family to go along on this hayride.  We found out that it was at his grandparents' house out in Fort Atkinson I think.  There was a bonfire, the hayride, and some other things.  She didn't get home until almost midnight, but at least she had a fun time, and it gives me a little time to ease into the thought of her actually going out on dates.

2012 Pumpkins

With all the other things going on, I just realized we only have a little over two weeks until Halloween.  That means we need to start looking for jack-o-lantern designs.  I'm not sure how many we are going to do this year, but as always, I am going to obsess of them until they get made.  SO check back about a week or so before Halloween to see what this year's designs are like.

School Pictures

We are still waiting to see Sarah's school pictures.  Everyone else got their's about two or three weeks ago.  Sarah was supposed to go check n the office and pick them up, which of course was such a chore, so after two weeks of hounding her, I finally called to office to find out if they were there.

The school secretary told me that all the pictures had been distributed and that all she could do was give me the number of the photo company and we would have to call them directly.  I told Kris, and she ended up calling and found out that we did not receive pictures because the order envelope was apparently empty.  Kris was sure she wrote out the check for them and we had to turn it in at the time Sarah had her picture taken.  She looked it up and got the check number and then went to check online because our bank scans all of our checks.  SHe found the check and the memo written on the check says "Sarah's school pictures" so we know that was the one written, and it was for the correct amount.  However, there was a name written in the payee area that neither of us recognized.  In fact, the handwriting is unlike mine or Kris's too.  the copies we can see look like photo copies, so it is hard to tell for sure, but it almost looks as if someone erased, or whited out the name of the photo company and wrote in their name instead, which has me a little worried.

I am going to wait until I find out what happens with the photo company, but if they don't tell me that they got their money, I may have to end up getting the police involved.  It isn't so much the money, but there are so many other things to be worried about, including identity theft.  I'll give it a couple of days and then follow up.  Hopefully I won't have to do anything further.

Homecoming 2012

Yesterday was Sarah's first homecoming.  We met her date last weekend and then yesterday we met his parents as well as we were all were taking pictures.  I don't remember ever really going to homecoming with a date so I never had to go through the whole picture taking mess.  I am sure Sarah and Dominic felt like monkeys being told to perform on cue as we all told them to pose this way and that way. 

They came over to our house for pictures, but since we don't really have a suitable backdrop in the house and it was a rainy, windy day we couldn't go in the backyard.  Kris suggested going over by the dam on Main street since there is a gazebo there next to the river that would provide cover and a nice background setting for photos, though we did take a couple in the house too as they put their flowers on each other.
 

I tried to do some editing on a couple because I had changed the camera settings Friday at the football game to try and get pictures of Sarah cheering and forgot to set them back.  As a result, the contrast and focus was off.  I did my best, but I am no expert at photoshop obviously.  I barely have time to write blog entries, so I certainly don't have time to learn how to edit photos.

We went to the grand march, and I had the camera all set for the lighting in the auditorium, and then when they came out, there was a big spotlight on them, so they look a little washed out.

Sarah said she had a fun time at the dance.  I hope so.  She didn't want to give up too many details, at least to me.  I suppose I understand.  After all, I don't think I would have been too forthcoming with details of my activities as school dances when I was her age.

Brick Solution

After getting the most recent mailers from the home improvement stores, Kris and I decided to try and use just some flat, tan bricks that match the style of the bricks going around the outside of the patio.  I think they match pretty well, and it is really the only option I have at this point short of completely replacing all the patio bricks.

But of course, no solution can ever be simple.  The size of the patio blocks is 16" square.  and I measured the opening of the hole where I pulled the blocks and it is about 31" x 47", so that that I won't be able to just drop blocks in.  I ran and got bricks that were 6" x 9" and I think I have them arranged to the point where I should only have to cut a couple to get them to fit right.  But of course that will require getting a new blade for my miter saw that cuts masonry.  So that is more time wasted when I could be doing something else.  I am hopeful that once I get the blade it will go quickly.  Oh, and the other thing is that these bricks are about 1" thicker than the blocks I have now.  That means I have to scrape sand out of the hole to have them fit flush. I just can't seem to catch a break with these things.

Busy Time Of Year

I have been very sparse with providing Hahn family updates lately, and that is because of the time of the year.  With the start of school, when I get home we are chauffeuring the girls around to cheer and tumbling practice and helping with homework as well as trying to get things ready for winter.  This year was sealing the driveway, releveling the patio, and I still need to get the fence post caps figured out).

So the free time to provide a quick update has been scarce.  But I am going to do my best, so please bear with me for a a while.

Anxious Kitty

Monday we received a call from the vet regarding out cat, Phoebe.  Kris had taken her in a couple of weeks ago to have her looked at because her licking has gotten so bad that she has licked herself half bald.  This is what she looked like when we got her last November:

This picture was taken about two weeks ago, just before she went to the vet:

The vet gave her a steroid shot first to make sure that it wasn't caused by some sort of skin condition or something like that.  But two to three weeks later she was still licking.  So when he called he said he was just going to start her on some anti-anxiety medication.  The cats have their check up in the beginning of December so the medication should take her all the way up to her check up and we'll see how she is doing then.  Hopefully, her fur will start growing back in.  

At this point the only problem is getting her to take her pill.  The first two weeks are a half a pill, and so far you would think we are pulling her claws out with pliers.  She just doesn't want to take it.  I even tried putting it in a soft treat, and mixing it in some soft food.  But she sniffs it and walks away, so I end up having to resort to sticking it down her throat with a "piller".  I am hoping that as she gets used to it it will become easier, or maybe start eating it in some soft food or something, because if this becomes the "cure" for her, I'll have to give her a pill daily for as long as we have her.

Brilliant Fail

I finished the patio blocks yesterday, though I still need to put locking sand between the blocks.  That was a little bigger of a project than I anticipated.  And I think this is only temporary until Spring when I can redo the wall surrounding the blocks.  The problem?  My outer lines are not straight,  I have a huge, 1/2" to 1" gap between the blocks and the wall surrounding the patio.  I think that is way too much.  But I filled it with locking sand for now so hopefully it'll last over the winter. 

The other issue you might ask?  Well I bought a bunch of extra patio blocks a couple of years ago because I was planning on redoing it into a rectangle when the girls were too big to swing on their playset because I wanted to make sure I could match the blocks.  But I counted wrong.  I was 5 blocks short.  And of course, Home Depot does not carry that style any more.  I ended up stealing 5 of the 6 blocks that go from the apron around the porch to the patio.  I don't know what I am going to do yet to fix this issue.  So for right now there is a 3 foot by 2 foot x 2 inch deep rectangular hole next to the patio.  I guess we'll just need to be careful around it because I don't want anyone ending up breaking an ankle.

Fall Projects

Once we hit October, I start trying to get things prepped for the upcoming winter.  This means getting final outdoor projects complete.  I had given the driveway a coat of sealer at the end of August, but by the first week of September, the cracks were opening up again.  I figured there would be a few small cracks, there isn’t much you can do about that, but several quite large ones opened up.  I suppose it is my own fault for not trying to fill them with crack filler first.  So I spent the month of September slowly filling in some of the larger ones with about 4 gallons of tar/crack filler.  Once that was done, the driveway was ready for another coat of sealer.  Hopefully this will make it through the winter.

Once the driveway was done, I started the other project that needed doing, releveling the patio blocks.  I also dug out the corner to make it a full rectangle instead of having the small area “cut out”, which was done so there was some room at the swingset for the girls to swing without swinging over the patio.  I began to raise and relevel the blocks to slope slightly away from the garage.  I got 20 blocks done going from the garage apron to the side garage door, but had to stop because I ran out of paver base.  I went to Home Depot to get some more (I am going to need to make at least 4 or 5 trips I think) and they were out, completely out.  I was in a rush because I had to go get Sarah from cheer practice so I didn’t look for someone to ask if they were getting more, but if they don’t, I don’t know what I am going to do, because I can’t leave the patio like this all winter.  This may end up taking driving around the Milwaukee metro area and buying up all the paver base I can find. 

Milestone

Sarah had a milestone on Monday.  She was asked to Homecoming.  I had been needling her about being asked since the start of the school year.  It started out as “I am not going” and transitioned to “I’m just going with a bunch of friends”.  I kept telling her to just wait, that a boy was going to ask her, and now it has happened. 

Kris was talking to her about it, and I don’t think Sarah has any idea about what it means to be asked.  She was just like, “well yeah, I’m going”.  Kris asked if we needed to get a boutonniere for her date and she had no idea what it was, or if he was going to get her a corsage.  She had no idea what that meant.  I told her that when I was in high school, asking a girl to homecoming entailed taking her to dinner, getting a corsage, etc.  Then again, we made a big deal out of homecoming and the winter version (which we called Winterfest) because we didn’t have a prom, so maybe we went overboard.  We don’t know a whole lot about this boy though, mainly because he is a sophomore and is into BMX, which gives me pause.  But since he doesn’t drive, he’ll need his parents to drive him, which I guess is better than letting her go out unchaperoned.

She also told me on the way home from cheerleading that there was another boy who was planning on asking her.  Some boy who’s mother was helping him by getting flowers and chocolate in order to ask her.  I feel sort of bad for him because it sounds like he wants to go all out to ask Sarah.  Then again, you snooze, you lose.