Turned Away

With a lot of time on our hands now that I will be off until after the first of the year, Kris and I decided we would go see the new Star Wars movie.  We got a movie gift card for Christmas too, so the cost was pretty much covered.  Plus, I thought on a Tuesday afternoon, and since it has been out for more than a week now, we would have no problem just going and getting our tickets beforehand.  I thought an afternoon matinee would be perfect.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

I should note that I can't remember the last time we actually went to a theater to see a movie.  There are lots of reasons, not least among them that Hollywood has not put out any really good, blockbuster, have-to-go-see type movies in I don't know how long.  I also hate sitting in a packed theater, and the cost of a movie now is ridiculous.  So, with all that being said, we were originally going to plan on the 1:20 showing, and got to the theater about 15 minutes ahead of time.  The movie was already completely sold out, and the crowd of people there was insane.  It didn't dawn on me that kids are out of school, and many people (like me) had the day off as a holiday, AND it was $5 Tuesdays.

Since the 1:20 showing was sold out and we were already there, I thought we could just pick a different time and get our tickets for that showing.  We had an appointment at 4:00, so I thought that the 4:50 showing would be perfect.  The guy behind the counter said there were only two seats left for that showing, and they weren't together.  We decided we would just pick a different day this week and go back.

That made me realize another reason I hate movies now.  The theaters in the Falls are some sort of recliner seats and I think there may be a bistro in a couple of the theaters.  If I am going to a movie, I want to see the movie.  I am not there to sit at a table or a booth and enjoy a pizza.  If I wanted to do that I'd stay at home and be comfortable.  All I want is to be able to have the hugs screen and the thundering surround sound system.  Anything else is just an annoyance.  I am there to see the movie, not socialize.  Which leads me to the next thing.  Once I got home and looked at other times, and days we could go while we were both off I found out that in addition to purchasing our tickets online, I also had to choose my seats.  Really???!!!  So now movies are like concerts or sporting events where I am going to have an assigned seat.  What! The! Hell!??  This is why I would rather just sit at home and watch a movie on demand, or on a Blu Ray and avoid the hassle of the movie theaters altogether!  (After all that we're going on Friday).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Today, 12/25/2017, in the Falls, it is 5° outside and snow covered.

 

Just a year ago we were in Florida celebrating Christmas in sunshine and 80° weather.

 I must be insane to stay here!

Christmas Cookies

Kris wasn't going to make Christmas cookies this year because she found out that the girls don't actually like the ones she made every year that she thought the girls loved, the cranberry-pistachio ones.  So I was all set to not have cookies when Kris informed me that she had bought a cookie press and was going to make spritz cookies.  Apparently when she had said she wasn't making any, I said something to the effect of it wouldn't bother me as the only ones I really like are spritz cookies.  So I told her that I would help with pressing them out.  

With that being said, I didn't quite know what I was getting into.  I remember my mother always saying that making spritz cookies was a pain and now that I have helped make them, I can agree.  There was definitely a learning curve.  The first thing I learned was that the colder the dough, the better.  It pressed out into shape much easier when cold, but it was also more difficult to press out when cold, so it was sort of a challenge to find that happy medium.  Second, there was no way to tell how the dough was pressing out.  There were some that pressed out into shape, and then I had other ones that felt the same as far as pressing them out but they turned out much different.  

Overall, I think we got some good cookies, but it took quite some time.  I don't know how many I had to redo because they were stuck in the press, or were overpressed, or even underpressed.and then there were times where the dough got too warm and I had to put it back into the fridge/freezer to cool it off.  In fact, it took a total of probably about 6 or 7 hours start to finish to get everything pressed and into and out of the oven.  But we did get probably 12 or 13 dozen cookies, and plenty of lessons learned for next year.

Christmas Card Lie

I admit it, I lied.  Sort of.  I decided to put together a Christmas Card anyway, even though it is late in the year, and I am under the gun to get them mailed out and to their destinations before Christmas.  I happened to be going thru some things in my planner at work, throwing things out and getting ready to replace the calendar for next year when I came across the envelope that I keep all of our previous Christmas Cards.  I have one from every year we have done a photo card going back to 2003, and I started to feel like I needed to at least have one done until Alison is done with high school.  I scoured pictures and came up with a few to use that would give pretty good balance over all.  And I had a 50% off coupon from Walgreens so I was able to get it put together and printed pretty quickly.  It isn't a great card, but it'll do for now.  If I didn't get one sent to you, I apologize.  Merry Christmas from the Hahn's!

 

MFHS Blood Drive

This year, Alison is in the Health Care Career Academy at school.  Essentially that means she takes elective classes that focus on a career in the health care field.  Every year, the academy sponsors a blood drive, one in the fall semester and one in the spring semester.  Today was the fall semester one, and since I try to donate blood when I can if we have a local blood drive, I thought I would help her out by volunteering to donate.  I thought that since the drive was going on in the morning and early afternoon, they would have trouble finding donors to fill the slots.  Was I ever wrong!  

I had Ali schedule me at 11:30 figuring that I would take an early lunch and just drive home, donate my pint, and then head back to work.  Nope!  I got there at 11:20 for my 11:30 appointment and had about 20 people waiting in front of me.  Apparently, there were a lot of students who volunteered to donate blood too that didn't schedule their appointments ahead of time (why not, after all, you get out of class to do it).  Ali had sent me a message at work saying they were running behind, but I didn't realize how far behind.  I waited around until about 12:30 when I asked if someone could give me an idea of how long it would be yet, and was told that it would probably be at least another 45 minutes.  Unfortunately, I couldn't wait that long.  Even if I would have waited, I wouldn't have gotten back to work until about 2:00 at the earliest.  The good thing is that the kids had a very successful blood drive.  And we have another blood drive going on at work on Wednesday, so hopefully I can still register for that one.

Driving Lesson

Since Ali passed her classroom portion of driver's ed over the summer, I thought it was probably time to take her out for a driving lesson.  She actually can't get her learner's permit until February, and every time I have asked her if she wanted to go out driving in the past she had said no.  She did her "classroom" work online, and actually when it comes time to get her temp license she'll have to retake the written test she already passed in August (I have no idea why).  Hopefully she will still remember everything she learned, or maybe there is a refresher that she can go over before going to take it.  

Anyway, I figured it was about time to let her get behind the wheel of a car and get the feel of it at least.  So we drove over the the high school into the empty parking lot at the football stadium and I had her drive up and down the rows to get the hang of the gas pedal, braking, turning the wheel and staying in your own lane, and getting a feel for how fast the car feels.  There is a big difference between riding and actually being in charge of the throttle.  She thought she was going really fast and at most we were doing 20 mph.

I let her go in circles for about a half an hour, and she didn't do too bad for her first time.  I think the biggest thing she needs to work on is controlling her speed and how to turn smoothly.  It was a good thing we were in a parking lot, but when it comes time to finally get out on the road, I think she is going to be surprised at how fast 30 mph feels.  Plus, if she drives like she did in the parking lot today, we'll be getting horns blown at us left and right.

 

The Giving Tree

This year at work we were doing a "Giving Tree" for some of the needy/underprivileged  kids in the city of Brown Deer (which is where we're located).  Maybe we had one last year, but I don't recall.  Either way, this year I decided to grab a tag off the tree.  We are only supposed to spend $20-$25 on the gift, and the tag I grabbed was for a 12 year old girl.  It makes me sad when I see the list of things they want and it is things that we all take for granted.  This girl wanted Sharpies, a nail kit, a blue blanket, and Jolly Ranchers.  I remember years ago Kris had one at the hospital and some of things that people were asking for seemed a little outrageous to me, so it really brings things into perspective when you see someone who wants things as basic as a blanket, and candy.  We spent a little more than what we were supposed to, but not much, and we were able to get the girl everything she asked for.  I hope she enjoys them and has a good Christmas! 

No Christmas Cards

Since it is getting a little late in the season, and my time is running out, I talked it over with Kris, and I don't think we'll be doing Christmas Cards this year.  I started looking for pictures to use, and it looks like there are slim pickings this year, unless of course the girls or Kris want to send me pictures from their phones to use.  After thinking about it, it is sort of a waste since I wonder if anyone really cares about them.  They just end up going into the garbage the day after Christmas, so it seems like an awful lot of work and messing around for something that no one really cares about.  Maybe we'll do one again next year, or maybe I just skip it from here on out altogether.  I'll have to see what I feel like next year.

On Our Way!

We found out tonight that Ali's team's video performance that was submitted was accepted by UCA and they received their bid to the Nationals at Disney in February.  They found out before the girls basketball game.


Guess what everyone--Menomonee Falls Cheerleading from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

Now we just need to get our travel plans finalized! 

Update On Nationals

When Alison got home from practice today she told us about the UCA qualifier from the past weekend that they skipped.  She said she is unsure if they are going to get a bid.  Only 6 of the 18 teams competing actually got bids to Nationals, and only one of the teams in their division.  That is completely unlike last year when just about every team that competed received a bid.  I asked if she thought that teams were that bad or if they tightened the scoring/requirements for teams to get bids.  She seemed to think that UCA tightened their standards.  The only thing that still has me hopeful is that the one team that did get a bid was at the Indian Invite, and that based on the scoresheets from that, The Falls had a better performance.  That isn’t saying a whole lot since I didn’t see the performances, so the other team could have improved and had an awesome, flawless routine at the qualifier.  Or it could be that the video that Ali’s team submitted would still be better than the other team’s performance last weekend.  Either way, it sounds like the girls are a little worried that they might miss out on Nationals this year.

Jammed Washing Machine

After finishing the dryer ductwork and feeling pretty good about it, Kris calls me downstairs to look at something.  I stick my head in the washing machine to see that there is a piece of fabric sticking out of the seam between the washer drum, and the bottom agitating plate.  After looking closer, I noticed that it wasn’t just a piece of fabric, but it was the corner of the shower curtain liner with the magnet sticking out, which meant that the entire liner had somehow worked its way into the seam and under the plate.  And it was wound/jammed/bunched in there so tightly that I couldn’t remove it.

My first thought is that the plate must pop up a little when the drum is filled in order to agitate the water, so I started running an empty cycle so I could watch and see what was happening.  After the drum filled and the bottom plate started to move, it sounded as if the motor was going to burn out.  When it did move, it sounded like there was something grinding underneath the plate, although there were times when it did move the full turn at least.  I wish I could have reached in while it was moving to see if I could pull it (dang safety features!).  Kris brought me my laptop with a tutorial of how to take it apart.  It was a general tutorial, not quite specific to our washer, but it was enough that I could sort of figure it out.

I did manage to find a video on YouTube of how to take it apart, and this was specific to our model.  The problem was that when I got center cover popped off and the bolt removed, the bottom plate was supposed to just lift off.  Well it didn’t.  And I couldn’t see how else to get it up since there were no other screws or bolts to remove.  So with that in mind, I grabbed a piece of the fabric and pulled.  I got the drum moving around, then pulled sharply back in the opposite direction.  This began to get things moving.  So a couple of inches at a time I would pull as the drum spun, and after about 15 minutes, I finally managed to get the whole thing out.  Unfortunately, it had been shredded.  I actually seem to remember this happening once before with another shower curtain liner, but that was just a section of it, it wasn’t the entire curtain.  I really can’t fathom how the entire thing had been pulled under the plate. 

So I got everything put back together and it looks like everything is working fine.  I don’t think that we’ll be putting any thin, fabric shower curtain liners in there again, unless of course I have it stuffed into a large mesh bag.

Dryer Duct Update

Since I had absolutely no interest in watching the Packers this week, I spent the afternoon trying to fix the dryer duct coming out of the basement window.  From what I had done the day before, I had the end of the ductwork sticking up out of the window well like a chimney.  I had a cover on it, but it was turned vertical so the opening was exhausting horizontal to the ground.  After thinking about it, I didn’t think this was going to be a good idea, since it would allow water to possible fill the opening, and once the cold weather actually arrives (according to the weatherman, in two days) it could freeze shut, or fill with snow.  So, I had to come up with a different idea.

After some thinking, and going to Menards to see what sort of options I had at my disposal, my plan was to get a clear cover for the window like all of the other basement windows.  Then I would line up the duct, cut a hole in the plastic to fit the end of the duct out, and then put a cover on the end that would blow the exhaust down toward the ground, thus preventing snow and rain from getting in and also keeping the window well covered and keeping any moisture out. 

I also needed to put a small section of screen over the opening, under the louvers to keep out any “intruders”.  It actually turned out pretty well.  The only thing that I think I will need to do is to keep the window cover on year round.  Otherwise it may look pretty stupid having the end of the dryer duct just hanging over the edge of the window well.  It really should be cut thru the bottom row of siding rather than coming out of the window/window well, but sometimes you just have to work with what you have.  Hopefully this will be it, and then in the spring, I can repaint the window frames, and maybe replace the panes of glass with some glass block.

Dryer Duct

Today I tackled the dryer exhaust duct.  I don’t remember what it looked like when we moved in, but I am pretty sure that it always vented out of one of the basement windows, or where there was a window at one time.  Years ago, we had a problem with it and I remember replacing it.  I just cut a thin piece of sheet metal and caulked/glued it into the frame where the glass would normally go.  Then I cut a hole for the duct to fit thru and used some liquid nails to adhere it to the sheet metal.

It was always cold around that window and I am sure the .060” thick piece of tin (or whatever metal I used) didn’t have many insulating properties, especially when the temperature dropped below freezing.  After seeing what was happening last weekend, and wanting to keep from ripping the frame out of the foundation, I thought it was time to fix it.  Amazingly, the old caulk just ripped/pulled out.  Like I said, the insulating qualities couldn’t have been all that good.  I managed to rig up a pretty sweet set up with some rooftop exhaust flashing and a piece of 1” rigid insulation.  It took a bit of trimming and cutting, but I got it to fit perfectly in the frame, and caulked it into place.  Then I rigged a couple of elbow joints to come up out of the window well rather nicely.  I think I still need to finish it off a little better, but at least the exhaust is coming up away from the house so all the moisture isn’t collecting under the siding and around the window frame.  I think I may ever be able to keep it from fogging up the window in the den.  I need to be careful not to get too proud of myself, because as soon as I do, that usually means something is about to break and cost me a few hundred bucks to fix.  So for now, I will just be happy I was able to modify the exhaust the way I wanted without having to make 15 trips to Menards or Home Depot.

Not Competing

In addition to the good news we got about Kris’s dad, we also got some bad news about Alison’s cheer team.  Because of some health issues with a couple of girls on Ali’s team, they are not going to compete tomorrow in the UCA Qualifier in Milwaukee.  Ali’s Flyer has had concussion symptoms since October after falling and hitting her head, so she is out and they have had an alternate filling in for her.  Another girl, perhaps their top tumbler, is out due to having her tonsils removed.  I guess she has been out for a couple of weeks, since right after their Indian Invite performance.  She is not recovering as quickly as they had hoped and would be in danger of ripping her stitches out if she competed.  They were trying to have another alternate learn their routine in two or three days.  Add to that the crappy week of practice from a couple of the other girls who were just consistently not hitting their moves/stunts, and their coach just decided it was too much and pulled them from the Nationals qualifier they were supposed to do tomorrow night.

So the big question becomes, how do the girls qualify for nationals if they are not competing?  Apparently, UCA allows the teams to submit a video of a performance from review.  Form what I can gather from the notice, they have to petition to do it, and give a good reason for not actually competing in the qualifier.  So citing the health of a few of the girls, they were allowed to submit the video of their Indian Invite performance as consideration for getting a bid to the National competition in February.  The good news about that is that at least their petition was accepted.  So now we just sit back and wait to find out if they get a bid.  And actually, their Indian Invite performance was not too bad.  They had a couple of flubs, but for the most part it was pretty on.  So we are keeping our fingers crossed.  I hope we find out soon though since I need to get flights booked if we are going!

Good News

We finally got some good news regarding Kris’s dad.  The facility he is at currently called to say that a room opened up for him there and he can move in next week.  So all the worrying about whether or not we were going to still end up having to move him someplace else is over, or so it seems.  With the way things have been going for us this year, we are still a little bit apprehensive to actually feel good.  It just seems like something is still going to pop up and we’ll end up having to still find him a new place to live, like what happened in August when we thought we had a facility for him, only to find out the head office had denied it.  He gets to officially move in on Tuesday next week, and we can go check things out, figure out what we can bring, or not bring to personalize his room any time before then.  Hopefully we’ll be able to go check it out over the weekend.  But for right now, things appear to finally be looking up for him.