Monday, January 27, 2014

Snowblower Problem

So far this year, I haven't been able to get the large snowblower working, so I have had to stick with the small Toro.  Yesterday we got some more snow, enough to be able to fire up the snowblower.  For the past month, it seems like I have been out shoveling every other day, and I say shoveling because it is just enough to have to shovel, and not enough to fire up the snowblower. 

So after I started it, I let the was letting the engine warm up when out of nowhere, one of the wheels just falls off.  The press nut on the end of the rod that the wheel sits on just fell off, resulting in, obviously, the wheel following suit.  I'm not sure why the press nut fell off other than the vibrations of the motor being enough to finally make it fall off. 

I figured I would just put the wheel back on and press the nut back in place.  That worked for a couple of times up and down the driveway, but I had to go slowly and make sure that the wheel stayed on.  Then after I was about 80% done, I was making a turn and the nut fell off again.  I noticed it right at the moment I started back up the driveway, which just so happened to be the moment right before I ran it over with the snowblower and shot it out the chute and somewhere in a pile of snow in the front yard.

Luckily, I was able to go online to Toro's website and find my model and go through the list of parts to order a spare.  It is supposed to be here in 2-5 days.  I just hope it gets here before the next snowfall that I might end up needing the snowblower for, which the way this year is going, could be tomorrow.

Brrrr

I thought that Al Gore told us we weren't supposed to have to worry about weather like this anymore.  It's ridiculous!  Actually what is ridiculous is the fact that weather people feel the need to name winter storms to justify their existence, but I digress.

This week we are supposed to have single digit temps on four days, with Monday and Tuesday struggling to get above zero.  It's a good thing that we had a scheduled day off today because otherwise I am sure that they would have had the day canceled.  I am expecting a notice today that school is going to be called off tomorrow for sure. 
I don't know who is pushing this global warming garbage, because it sure seems cold enough to me.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Almost Over

The cheer season is almost over.  Yesterday the girls had a competition in Greendale, which leaves us with one more for the year.  They were going to go to one in Madison later in February but their coach made the decision to skip it.  It was one we had never been to before so it would have been interesting, but at this point I think the girls are just ready for the season to be over, especially after yesterday.

They were down two girls (one was sick and one had a previous commitment) so they were forced to revamp their routine on the spot at the last minute.  I think they actually did a pretty good job all things considered.  I thought they did well, and only had a couple of flubs, pretty minor if you asked me.  But they ended up taking third place again.  They got beat out by the team that stole their routine from last year (again) and another team that almost scratched.  But you could just sense from their demeanor that they really didn't want to be there.  Hopefully they can pull things together for their last competition next week.

I should add quickly that the gym they were in this week was pathetic.  It was VERY old school.  It looked like something right out of the movie Hoosiers.  There was seating only on one side of the gym, and half of it was in a balcony.  The acoustics were terrible, and we had big support beams blocking our view of the floor.  I didn't think there were still buildings like that around.  It was just brutal.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Computer Updates

I heard last week that Microsoft was going to finally retire Windows XP.  That just happens to be the system that is running on Kris's desktop, which tells you how old it is.  I think it is 7 or maybe 8 years old, and probably needs to be updated, but Kris doesn't like change (as should be evident by her still using Windows XP).  We had been having some issues with the computer for a while after some update, or clean-up of unused files.  The dialog windows were enlarged much more than normal, sometimes not being able to even read the messages.  I had tried many different things to correct it, but never had any luck, so I figured, it didn't happen very often so I would just deal with it.

Since Microsoft is pulling the plug on Windows XP, I figured this would be a good time to finally try updating the operating system on her computer.  So I went with a clean install of Windows Vista (now we are only two operating systems behind).  I would have used Windows 7 but they didn't send me an operating system disk when I bought my last laptop, so I used the one from the previous laptop.

I spent about two hours on Sunday reviewing and transferring files from her hard drive that she wanted saved (work files, music libraries, etc.) and then put the new system on.  The system itself only took about two hours to install, but then I had to go and start installing software again.  After MS Office was put back on, I had to reload all of Kris's email folders and calendar, etc.  Unfortunately, I did something wrong when I transferred them and for some reason I couldn't find her email and calendar for Outlook.  I thought I had archived the whole thing, but it only had about half of the messages and no calendar events.  Kris was not happy.  I finally went to bed around 11:00 Sunday night with things only about half moved.

Luckily, the next day I found where everything was, email and calendar both (oh, and all of her contacts).  So now I think I have just about everything back to normal.  I still need to install the wireless printer and transfer some bookmarks in her browser, but I'll do that tomorrow since that won't take any time at all to complete.  

Thanks BIll Gates for making such a stellar operating system (please note that was sarcasm).  I really think I am going to go Apple with my next computer purchase, because I really don't want to go through that fiasco again.  At least now I can get back to trying to update the look of my blog.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

State Cheer

Sarah had her state cheer competition yesterday in Sheboygan.  This year they are classified as "large" as opposed to "small" which is what the category they compete in at regular competitions.  So we thought this might be a bit of a problem, especially since they have been having issues with their routine this year.

To top it off, Sarah went up the night before and we got a call from her at the hotel they were staying at.  She said she just wanted to let us know she just threw up.  Then Saturday morning she called to say she was feeling awful.  We left early so we could get up there and give her some Tylenol so it would have time to kick in before she performed.  

We got there right after the doors opened and found Sarah right away.  She had about two hours before they performed so we figured that was plenty of time for the medicine to take effect.  They had some tough competition this year, too.  There were five other teams they were competing against.  They had a pretty good routine, one shaky, almost fall, and one flub that I saw during one of dance routine.  After seeing all the other teams, I didn't think they would take first, but I thought they could at least get second.  Unfortunately, they got third place.  I suppose that wasn't too bad, but I thought they had a much better performance than the team that finished second, and that team had one girl fall out of one of their formations.  I guess I just don't know what I am looking at when it comes to judging.  They have another competition next Saturday, so hopefully they will improve on this week's performance.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Updated Look

It's been a little while since I updated the look of The Hahnted House, so I think it is time to change up the look.  I'll be working on it over the next week or so please be patient if things get messed up for a little bit.

Cookie Time

It's girl scout cookie time, and since Alison is in a troop again this year, she's selling cookies.  We thought last year was going to be it, but she decided to stay in her troop this year.  I thin this is it for her though, because she just doesn't want to do the work for projects and badges etc.  But we still have to sell cookies, so if you are looking for girl scout cookies this year email me and I'll be happy to hook you up.  Early bird orders are due this week (the 16th).  If you miss the early bird period, they start up again January 26th until Feb. 13th.  MMMMMMMM, cookies.  See, you want some now don't you?

Early Spring Cleaning

Since this was our first free weekend in over a month and with no Packers game, it was time to get some things done around the house.  I have a list of things to get done so today I tackled Sarah's closet.  Unfortunately the closet for her clothes is way too small, but it is really too small for all of her shoes and boots.  She has them just piled on top of each other.  

So Kris and I decided to make some more room for her in the dormer part of the closet.  I crawled in and started tossing things out, and then began re-stacking bins and other things.  I was able to combine a few things and eliminate at least one large bin of clothes, which freed up a lot of room.  in addition tossing out a few pairs of worn out shoes and boots helped free up some room.  

So now she has a little bit more room just inside and around the corner for her shoes and they won't be falling out when she opens the door.  That's one closet down and two small ones to go.  Hopefully, once I get the little, shelved closet cleaned up a little bit, I can cut a hole in the wall in the hallway and actually get a small linen closet made.  But that's a little way down on the to do list.

Burnin' Down The House

In contrast to the -10° high we had on Monday, Friday we had a temperature of around 36°.  About an hour before I left work, Kris sent me a message that there was a house on our street that was on fire.  Sarah and her friend went down to see and she said there were flames coming out of the upstairs windows and through the roof.  I had to take a different way home because the fire trucks had the end of the street blocked off.  

For anyone who knows where we live, the house is, or rather was, next to the path into the park one block down from us.  I drove down a little later when I was out just to see what it looked like (yes, I'm a gawker).  It was about two hours after I got home and the fire dept. still had the street blocked off but I could see the house from the end of the cross street because they had huge spot lights on the house.  It looked like all the flames were out and there were a few firemen standing in front of the house and looked like they were talking to someone.

The next day Kris and I were running to the grocery store for her dad and we drove down past the house to see what things looked like in the daylight, and it wasn't good.  I wonder if they'll try and salvage the house or not.  It looked like the entire second floor was burned out.  There was no roof on the back of the house and there was a crew there already boarding up all the windows and putting a big tarp over the top of the house to cover the huge hole in the back.  I can't remember ever seeing anyone outside that house when we would drive or walk by, but I would suspect it was old people just based on the mix of people in our neighborhood.  Sarah said that when she was down there she saw an ambulance leaving.  Hopefully they weren't hauling a corpse.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Bringing The Heat

No, we're not doing anything to try and stay warm, I'm talking about Sarah's cheer competition yesterday, sponsored by Heat Athletics.  Luckily she was done before the Packers game started.  In fact, we got home just in time for kick off.

The girls took second place (actually third because there was a tie for first in their division).  I have to say, their performance wasn't great.  In fact, I don't know why but there didn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm from the squad, and it looked like everyone would have rather been someplace else.  They just didn't seem focused and they had a couple of falls during their routine.  I figured that they would have ended up in second or third after seeing all the other teams, but there was one team that I wouldn't have expected to have finished ahead of them.  

The place sponsoring the competition teaches tumbling and gymnastics and is located in the same town as one of the schools that finished ahead of the Falls.  It makes me wonder if any of the girls on that team go there for any sort of tumbling instruction or if there may somehow be a conflict of interest.  After seeing their routine, I do wonder.  Then again, they have pretty much stolen the Falls' routine from last year (which I already said in my review of the Indian Invite), so there's that.

The next competition is the State Jam in two weeks, so they better get their stuff together fast.  The competition there is going to be much tougher that what they saw this weekend.

Cold-ageddon

In case you haven't seen it, the country is in the grips of a huge cold spell.  Our high here today (at least what I saw) was -11°.  We have been getting the warnings since Thursday or Friday last week.  Schools were closed today as of Friday last week, and they closed school for tomorrow this afternoon.  

Last Saturday we had to run to the grocery store to get a few things and to get some stuff for Kris's dad.  You would have thought that we were going off the grid.  The grocery store was crammed and the shelves were empty, at least of a lot of items, such as bread, yogurt, frozen pizzas, cheese and many of the produce items.  Part of the problem, I think, is that the news reported that the Pick N Save stores were going to be closing early, apparently so people didn't have to go out in the cold.  Congratulations weather people, you have succeeded in scaring the population.  So for about a two and a half day period where the temperature is going to be below zero people freaked out enough to go stock up on food as if there was going to be a nuclear attack and we all had to go underground.  I didn't even see this reaction when we were coming up to the Mayan apocalypse.  Guess what? By Friday we'll be at 32°.  I think you can all make it through this stretch.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Christmas Season Is Over

It's official, the holidays are over.  I spent the day yesterday taking down all the Christmas decorations (few that we have) from outside and put them away.  I am not sure what I am going to do for next year yet, but I have the feeling that I am going to need new decorations for the yard for next Christmas.  The reason being that we have a couple of lighted, grapevine snowmen that I place in front of the bushes.  This year we had a lot of snow, and then it warmed up right before Christmas.  It got up to around 40° and everything started melting, then it froze again, resulting in the bases of them being iced/frozen to the ground.  So when I was trying to get them up, I ended up breaking some of the grapevines.  They aren't all that bad, you can't really see it from a distance, but up close it's pretty clear they're broken.  The problem is that I haven't been able to find anything like them for a few years, and I am not about to spend over $50 for a single lighted snowman.  Maybe I'll start looking this summer and see if I can get something at a discount.  If I can't find anything, then I may just go without lights outside next Christmas.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Taking Down The Tree

I was going to leave the tree up this year until the feast of the Epiphany (you really should leave it up until then) but I just wasn't going to have the time to take it down after the 6th for about a week after, and I just couldn't imagine having to deal with the Christmas tree until the middle of January.  Plus, I really wanted to get the house back in order.  So I started taking things down about mid-morning today. 

In the past the tree came down much faster than it took to put up.  But since we had a mix of ornaments this year, it took forever to find the boxes for the ones we used mixed up with ones we didn't.  So by the time the tree was down and everything was put away and put back to the way things were pre-Thanksgiving, it was about 8:00 PM.  That was about four hours longer than I had anticipated.  Maybe next year I'll leave it up until the 6th.

I had to replace four strings of lights this year, and I didn't see any plain, clear, white lights in the stores after Christmas.  So now I don't have any spare strings for next year.  There had better not be any lights that just happen to go out in the box over the summer, though I am sure I can get replacements next year.  I just don't like being held up when it is time to get the tree up and decorated.