Saturday, May 31, 2014

GS Overnight

Ali had an overnight last night at Camp Silverbrook, her new girl scout camp.  After all sorts of issues, we are sending her to a different camp this summer, and since this year she is a Program Assistant in Training (PAIT) she was going to do the overnight to get acquainted with the camp and the other girls with whom she will be working. 

There are only a few girls from the Falls that are going to Silverbrook this year, so I think it is good for her to go and sort of get the lay of the land so to speak.  And she is also able to do multiple weeks at Silverbrook, which means that after her week as a PAIT, she can come back to a later session as a Program Assistant (PA).  At least I think that is how it works. 

Ali was a little apprehensive about going, mainly because she doesn't deal well with new things and changes.  She is always a little shy at first but I think once she gets into it, she'll be fine.  She just needs to get comfortable, and from what we have seen so far, Silverbrook looks like an awesome camp, and I think she'll have a great time there this summer.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Achievement Ceremony

Tuesday night we had to go to the River Valley Service Unit Achievement Award ceremony.  This is essentially the same thing as the Girl Scout award ceremony that we attended the week before, but specific for the Menomonee Falls scouts.  Which is actually something I had  wondered about when Sarah was still active.  We went to one when she got her Bronze Award in fifth grade, but after that there was never another one until this year, which has been five years now.

I had asked Kris about it and she said it was because no one had wanted to "step up" and take over the responsibility for putting it together.  So why was this year different?  I think it was because this year there was a troop that was graduating high school, and there aren't a lot of troops that make it all the way to the senior year of HS.  But then I found out who was in that troop.  Apparently, one of the leaders in that troop is also a big deal in the GS council/service unit and has a daughter in that troop.  So naturally they would want to have some sort of "celebration" for their child.

So we went reluctantly.  A lot of the "bad feelings" come from some of the people who were going to be there and running things.  They were the ones who ruined the camp experience for the girls (at least our girls) and the reason that Alison is not going back to the girl scout camp they have gone to since they started in girl scouts.  I wondered if there was any sort of resentment on their part since they know that there were complaints made about how they ran camp and they know who made them, but I figured it was only about an hour, and I didn't have to talk to anyone. 

We were also not able to get a whole lot of pictures, because some of the other parents and organizers were being a little bit rude with pushing their way forward to get their photos and screw the rest of us.  Which is another reason I hate going to these events.

And one thing I didn't like was how Ali's troop was just sort of glossed over for the HS troop.  At the Council award ceremony, the leaders there made quite a big deal about the girls' project and how it was recognized as one of the National Young Woman of Distinction Award.  But here it was just sort of glossed over.  I think there should have been more attention paid to their achievement.  But then again, I should have considered who was running the program.  We're still very proud though.  Alison and the other girls in her troop put in a lot of hard work to finish their project, they deserved to get a little bit of recognition by the other leaders in the service unit.



Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Start of Summer

This weekend is the official start of summer.  No, not because it is Memorial Day weekend.  Rather, the trampoline is now up.  The girls have been bugging my for about the last month to get it assembled, but it was either too cold or too wet to get it out of the rafters and put it together.  But with how nice it was yesterday, and how nice it is going to be this weekend, it was time to do it.

It actually went up much quicker than last year.  It only took about two and a half hours to get it together.  Last year I think that it took about 5 hours.  The good thing was that I had labeled all the parts when I took it down in the fall so laying them out for assembly this spring made it much easier.  And there was only one injury.  I was trying to put the bases together with the supports and one of the pipes got stuck.  When I was pulling it back out to realign it, it finally came loose and the hand that was holding the end flew into the mating piece on top, smashing my finger.  It was pretty much the same as smashing it with a hammer.  There will be a nice bruise there for a few days now, and it did split the skin so it was bleeding all over, but at least I was able to get the legs together.  All I needed to do is wrap it up with a band-aid and keep going.

So feel free to stop by and have a bounce.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

No More Cheerleading

Well, it's official.  Sarah is done with cheerleading.  The high school had their tryouts last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and Sarah made the choice to not try out.  I think she was sad that she's done, but more so because she has done it for so long.  She had been hemming and hawing about whether she was going to try out.  She still can't do her back flips though and without that, I don't think they would have allowed her to make the team.  Plus, she wasn't happy with the choice the AD made for the varsity coach (and quit frankly, neither were Kris and I).  But up until a day or two before she was still considering it.  We told her that if she really wanted to try out, she needed to let us know so we could get all of her paperwork turned in, but the night before she finally decided not to. 

We made sure that she was happy with her decision, which is when she said she was sad that she wasn't doing it anymore because it had been such a large part of her life since fifth grade.  But quite honestly she said she was happy that she would finally have some free time, and didn't have to put up with all the drama. 

So now she will be free to do some other things.  So far she likes her job, so maybe that will turn into a year round thing.  Plus she has wanted to do some other things at school, like a club or two, maybe be on the yearbook committee.  So while it is sad that it's over, it just opens the door for other opportunities.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Remodeling Problems

As with everything else with my house, remodeling is at times a big hassle, mainly because the builders in the 50's apparently didn't know how to use a square.  As I am finishing the process of remodeling the downstairs bathroom, I am running into all sorts of snags and delays.  I would be so perfect for one of those renovation reality shows on HGTV, or DIY.  Everything looks/seems like it wouldn't be a big deal, that is of course until you actually get into doing it.

The first problem had to do with having square walls.  I tried to make sure I had a consistent grout width in between the floor tiles.  Well that had to be modified/adjusted because when I thought I was laying the tile straight turned out to need slight adjusting so that I didn't need to rip the tiles the long way in order to fit it up.  That resulted in extra time to lay the tile, and ultimately, a day longer that I had anticipated to get the door in place.  I also need to adjust the door frame a little bit in order to get the last couple of tiles in place because after reinstalling a new sub-floor the gap between the frame and the sub-floor would not have allowed me to get the tile in place.  What a pain!

Then when the cabinets and sink finally got here and I went to set things in place, I discovered that the location of the pipes and drain would not line up properly.  In other words, the location of the cold water pipe would have ended up hitting the side drawer, and would not have allowed me to close the drawer.  The solution was to cut into the wall and see if I could move the pipe.  Unfortunately, in order to move the pipe, I needed to cut through a stud since the cold water pipe was right next to it.  So I had to cut out a notch (approximately half the width of the 2 x 4). in order to put a 90° elbow in place to move the pipe over about three inches.  One good thing was that I was able to put a couple of new sections of pipe in, since the existing galvanized pipes had a lot of gunk/deposits on the ID of the pipe.  

The next issue was with the drain.  The drain has two 90° bends inside the wall.  It is a large, cast block with openings that allow for the bends.  But because of where it is, I can't take it out and replace it.  That means I need to work with it, and the existing drain was only press fit in place coming from the sink.  I was not happy with that since I wanted to make sure I got a good seal to make sure it didn't leak.  Well, to make a long story short, I managed to find a piece of pipe that fit very tightly in to opening that would not allow for any leaks.  And just to make sure, I put a thin bead of caulk around it ti make sure nothing leaked.    Then after I had all the pipes moved and in place, I had to patch the holes in the wall.  So what was originally planned as about a two day installation of the sink and cabinet turned out to take a week.  

And Kris wonders why I hate doing home improvement things myself.  But overall, once everything was done, I do think that it turned up pretty good.  So if you come over, be sure to use the small bathroom downstairs and tell me how good it looks/works; it helps my ego.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Girl Scout Awards

Monday night we had the Girl Scout awards presentations for Alison's troop.  They were formally receiving their bronze award which they earned for their Newborns in Need project/drive.  If you don't remember it, you can read about it here.

So even though they did it last year, they didn't get their paperwork in on time so they had to wait until this year to formally be recognized.  There was a dessert reception beforehand, and we weren't sure we were going to make it in time.  In fact, we left about 10 minutes earlier than we thought but even that wasn't enough with the traffic to get downtown.  I ended up going through town, so we got there just a little late.  But even so, we were able to get a piece of cake or two.

Then came the awards.  The bronze awards were announced first, and the girls got a certificate and a flower.





 

But we also had a surprise.  Kris found out when we got there because their leader pulled her aside and let her know, the girls also received a special award, the National Young Woman of Distinction award.  It was given to the the project at each level that demonstrated extraordinary leadership, had a measurable and sustainable impact, and addressed a local challenge that related to a national and/or global issue.  I am not quite sure of the process but from what Kris told me the project is reviewed at a couple of different levels, and actually gets reviewed not only by our council, but also by the national committee.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring the video camera with me, so I tried to video the presentation of their award using the camera.  It isn't great, and the audio is really hard to make out.  The only regret I have is that I didn't get the girls' reactions when they heard their troop number called.


2014 GSWISE Awards from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

 


Congratulations Alison! We are very proud of you!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Poor Birdies

Yesterday I said to Kris that I hadn't seen the robin in the nest all day.  It was in there in the morning when I took Sarah to school, but after that I hadn't seen it.  I told Alison and Kris that I hoped nothing happened to it, like it got eaten by a cat, or something like that.  Then Alison asked me why (she hadn't been there when I told Kris I hadn't seen it all day).  I told her and then she said that she saw what looked like pieces of the egg shell in the driveway.  I said, "What?!" and she said yeah, and took me outside to show me. 

There in the driveway were two broken, and mashed, robin eggs.  That would explain why I hadn't seen the mother robin for so long.  So now we don't have any birds to watch, well other than the ones that keep coming to the bird feeders.  I don't know how the eggs made it out of the nest.  I looked up what other kinds of birds might raid nests and steal eggs, and all I could find were blue jays and crows.  I haven't seen any of those lurking around, so I am at a loss.  I don't know how many times robins lay eggs each year, but if it isn't coming back, then I suppose it is time to take the nest down.  Poor little birdies.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

On The Nest

I was doing work outside over the weekend and I happened to be cleaning out the gutters.  When I was doing the gutters on the garage, I noticed that there are now eggs in the bird's nest.  So we are going to have two little baby robins shortly.  I quickly ran into the house and grabbed my phone to take a photo while the robin was out of the nest.


I hope that scaring the momma robin out of the nest isn't going to affect how long it takes for the eggs to hatch.  We'll have to be careful now going in and out of the garage.  More updates to come.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Sarah's First Day

Sarah just had her first real day of work.  Not her paid orientation or anything, this was her first actual day.  She had some training apparently but not a lot.  The woman who actually trained her was sort of impressed that she picked things up so quickly.  She said she even got a couple of compliments from a couple of patrons.  I hope that means good things for her this summer.

Her job lasts until the end of August, so if you need any yard or gardening supplies and are in the Germantown area, stop in at the Stein Garden and Gifts on Appleton Ave.  Sarah will be happy to ring you up.


Monday, May 5, 2014

Robin Update

We've been seeing lots of robins in the lawn eating the crumbs of the suet that fall to the ground when the woodpeckers and sparrows pick the blocks of suet in our suet feeders apart.  Then this past weekend as we were walking out the the garage Saturday morning, I noticed a robin sitting in the nest.  It flew away after a while, but came back soon after.  I noticed today that it is really, really fat now too, so I assume there will be some eggs laid very soon.  It's a good thing that the cats can't see it from the house, because they would be going nuts.  As it is, when it is in the grass eating suet, they sit on the table and just stare at it looking like they are ready to pounce.  It should thank it's lucky stars Samson and Phoebe are indoor cats.  Check back for more bird updates.



Saturday, May 3, 2014

Trigger Finger is Back

Back in December of 2012, I ended up getting a cortisone shot (I think it was cortisone) in my right thumb to correct a trigger finger.  It took about a week to clear up, and I thought that was it.  Unfortunately, it slowly started coming back around the end of February.  Then by the beginning of April it was really bothering me to the point where is was swollen and I had lost the range of movement in it.  

I was reading about what causes it and what the remedy should be shot of getting another shot, because our deductibles are rather pricey (though still less than if we had registered for Obamacare).  So rather than go pay a few hundred bucks, I am trying to get rid of it "naturally".  I found something that said if you could keep it immobile, that in about two weeks, the problem would correct itself.  So I went out and spent $15 on a wrist brace with a thumb split, and a couple of bucks on a finger splint.  I figured it was much cheaper than the couple hundred it would cost to have a doctor give me a shot.  And it it doesn't work, well I'm only out a few dollars, so why not give it a try.

The problem is that I need to keep the thumb splinted for a couple of weeks straight.  And with everything that I am doing, that just isn't happening.  I just was not able to get the bathroom put back together with a splint on my thumb.  And writing is just as bad.  You really don't realize just how much you use your thumb until you can't.  Even turning the ignition key in the car is difficult with a splint.

So now I am no better off than before, but I am not giving up yet.  I do need to figure out how to keep this immobile for a few days though.  because if I don't I am afraid that surgery is going to be required.