Day in the Life of Softball, The Dragoncast, and Home Improvements

Perfect day to be out, catching a softball game!

Hey there. Looks like I'm going group the weekend into one post. I planned on doing daily posts but that just wasn't in the cards this weekend. Maybe this will be the norm, maybe this will be just a one time thing. Let's see how the weekend went down.

The Importance of Raised Flooring Infographic

Hey there, friends. Who knew that your flooring can make a difference on how you feel in a room! Especially in a hot climate. You know, I live in the high desert area of California and now that Summer is here, a cool home is a must. Part of my floor is tile and the other part is carpet, and I'm thinking that the carpet portion of the flooring has got to go. It just feels so much more hotter in the carpeted area than the tile area. Well, after looking into flooring and the types of flooring out there, our friends at DataSpan put out a great article on the benefits of raised flooring. I thought it was pretty interesting and figured I'd share the infographic with you guys. Check it out below:

Delta Corrente Toilet is the Perfect DIY Money Saving Toilet

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Delta Faucets. I received a product sample and promotional item as a thank you for participating.

My brand new Delta Corrente Toilet

Hey there.  I love working with my hands.  I love to take things apart, put them back together, build stuffs, examine things, etc. etc.  Whenever an opportunity arises where I can start a home project, I try to jump on it.  That's why when the good people at Dad Central and Delta came knocking with a DIY project, I just had to jump on it!  They provided me with a Delta Corrente Toilet!  Yeah!  I said a toilet!  lol  See, you don't know how important they are until it starts to act funny on you.  Let me explain.

Growing Organic Tomatoes with Whitney Farms

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Whitney Farms for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hey there.  If you want to eat healthy, organic is the way to go.  No pesticides, no preservatives or any other chemicals will seep into your fruits and veggies when you go organic.  Organic foods are considered to be one of the healthiest forms of food.  So how do you know whether or not you really have organic food?  It's not like you planted those tomatoes yourself.  Or did you?  By using Whitney farms products (organic soil and organic plant food) there is no doubt that those great looking tomatoes are organic!

I Need a Stainless Steel Sink

Hey there.  You know... I'm getting pretty tired of looking at the blue (yup... blue) ceramic type sink  that is sitting in our kitchen.  We had always said that we would get rid of it when we first bought the house and get one of those stainless steel kitchen sinks that look classy and nice.  We've always thought that stainless steel items in the kitchen make it "pop" and we figured that a stainless steel kitchen sink is exactly what we need.  Considering that the labor day weekend is coming up, I think I might get to changing it.  I think it's definitely time.  Later!

I Hate My Mailbox

ey there.  I hate my mailbox.  It's a crummy, old thing that is dangling from my door by a wire frame.  Don't believe me?  Look...

Not very attractive

Yup...  Held to the door by a metal wire

See.  I just don't like it.  I think it's lazy and a little on the hideous side.  I guess that doesn't speak very highly of me, huh.  lol  Anyways, I've been thinking of getting a new mailbox.  Maybe something a little more fancy, but definitely something a little more detached from the door.  lol  I've seen a few mailboxes that sit on posts that look pretty cool.  My only problem with that is that I don't have a fence and it would be pretty funny looking to see mailbox posts around the neighborhood and not have a fence nearby.

It's funny, actually, how you don't give it any thought when you buy a home.  You start thinking of changing some things around in your back yard, inside the house, and what not, but you never give your mailbox any thought.  I guess because it's just a box for mail and you figure that you'll give it a second thought at a later date.  But then that keeps getting pushed back because of many other projects around the house.  I know that I am definitely guilty of that. 

Next time you are driving by your neighborhood, take a look at the many styles of residential mailboxes that adorn your neighbors yards.  You'll be surprised at how many seem ignored by the owner.  I know I've ignored mine for far too long and I think it's time for an upgrade.  What do you think?  Is it worthwhile to have a mail box that suits the style of the family?  Later!

Thinking About Getting a New Pool

Hey there.  A wonderful perk about living in Southern California is the weather.  It's usually sunny, warm and overall very pleasant.  We don't deal with severe cold winds (though you would never have guessed that with last night's winds...), blizzards, and all things cold so it's usually grilling and pool weather all year long.  We already have a grill and pool.  Not any fancy schmancy ones, but they definitely get the job done.  But what has crossed my mind is maybe getting a built in pool set up in my back yard.  Here's my back yard:

There definitely is space here for a pool.  It's just a matter of whether it's worth it or not.  We have one of those inflatable pools that is pretty sizable.  Not monstrous but a good 8 feet in diameter and about 3 feet deep or so but it's a pain to set up and put away.  Putting it away is the worst!  You can NEVER fold it the way it came packaged.  NEVER!  So it never fits all nice and snug in the box so you can't neatly set it aside.  It's a bulging mess and once frustration hits, it's just tossed in a corner of the shed. 

Having a built in pool will definitely fit that.  But then new issues come up.  Cost and maintenance are the big ones.  Will it cost me a fortune.  It needs plumbing, it needs water, it needs a filter (maybe one of those automatic pool cleaners), it will need a cover, it will need a fence, etc. etc. Especially now, that I have a very curious and adventurous 1 year old roaming the yard, I don't want to risk my boy falling into the pool.  I'm just so iffy on it.  The older kids would love one, the wife always mentioned that we COULD have one but in the end, I'm the one that usually shoots the idea down.  What do you think?  Take the plunge and build one or be on the safe side and stick to the more affordable build it yourself pools?  Let me hear your thoughts.  Until then...  Later!

What a Weekend...

Hey there.  Oh man...  What a weekend it has been.  I haven't really had much of a chance to rest during the weekend since I've pretty much dedicated that time to prep for my son's first birthday.  We're going with a Super Mario Bros. theme and since it's difficult (and expensive) to buy licensed Mario stuff, the wife and I have been pretty much created all the decorations ourselves.  We've already spent a lot of hours getting them done and we're in the last week before the party and we're still not done!!!  Here goes the breakdown of our weekend...

SATURDAY

So Saturday rolls around and we're up and ready to go.  We figured that we could avoid traffic and what not if we head on over to downtown LA to check out the vendors there that sell party supplies and piñatas.  We got a tip from my compadre that there is a "party district" there and they have all kinds of stuff.  He was certain that we would find it there.  So 10 am rolls around and we're almost ready to go when I hear children scream, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! OH NOOOOOOOOO!!!!  DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!"

So I get up and run outside, thinking that one of the neighbor kids is hurt or something is wrong.  There is a lot of commotion on their side of the fence so I go around and end up in their yard.  I see my dog, Lucy, and their dog, fighting.  Now...  Lucy is small dog.  She's what you would call a Chihuahua Terrier.  No more than a foot tall.  The neighbor's dog?  Well... she's a Pitbull.  Yup.  Lucy got into it with a pitbull and instead of her saying, "Oh crap this is a monstrous dog, I don't have a chance!", she's up all in the business snapping and biting back.  The neighbor get's his dog's attention long enough for me to yell at Lucy.  Lucy then trots of in my direction, looking like a bloody mess.  I apologize profusely to the neighbor for Lucy getting into his yard and he dismissed it as Lucy just doing what she's born to do. We have this issue where Lucy and Lacy (both chihuahua terriers) dig under the fence and venture into their yard.  They don't mind, since they're good dogs.  They don't destroy anything and they play with the neighbor kids.  The neighbor explained to me that Lucy was trying to get under the fence and when he saw her, he helped her over.  That's when Lucy saw his dog (which was in heat) and they started getting into it with each other.

So I go back into my yard to check up on Lucy.  She's bloody, but I don't see blood pouring out of her.  She does have a 1cm hole in her face.  I could literally see inside her face and that's when I decided that she can't stay outside.  She could get that infected and what not.  I take her inside and start looking up vets.  Considering that it's a Saturday, I wasn't expecting to find any open.  I called a few "emergency vets" and was told that her wound was not considered an emergency since it wasn't life threatening and was given instructions on how to care for her at home.  So I go off into the drugstore and buy a bandage wrap, some gauze, closure strips and some peroxide.  I clean her up as best as I could and get to work.  I cleaned out the wound, closed it, and wrapped it up.  She's looking a little funny, but at least she's on her way to recovery.  Check out the pic I took of her, looking like, well... she just got off a fight with a pitbull.

Lucy... Looking like Rocky Balboa. Hopefully, she'll learn to stop picking fights with pitbulls.

 

I've been addressing her wound and changing the wrap every day.  Last night, the gash finally closed but I do not feel comfortable enough to let her roam around without the wrap.  Hopefully, I can remove it in another day or so because I need to clean her up some more.  She's beginning to smell funky and since she's inside the house, I need to make sure she's as clean as possible.

That incident took up all of our Saturday morning and most of the early afternoon.  We were finally able to venture into this party district to look for what we needed.  We scored on some awesome Mario and Luigi piñatas.  We also got some Mario and Luigi piggy banks and some candy to fill the piñatas with.  Being in the Mario mood, the night was capped off with some Mario Galaxy for the the Wii.

SUNDAY

Football!!!  I told myself that today would be the day where I would just sit in front of the TV and make decorations while watching TV.  I did a lot of decorations, not so much TV.  Football games were on TV, but I didn't really glance up since I got into my creations.  The Raiders lost...  losers!  And I did see Vick get hurt.  Other than that, I got most of my info from ESPN highlights later that evening.  Decoration making didn't end til close to midnight...  and soon after disaster struck...

MONDAY

After making decorations, I took a shower a little after midnight.  I noticed something funny going on while in there.  The water was not going down the drain... hmmm...  I finish up and let the wife know what happened.  She then mentioned to me that there is something up with the toilet, to make sure I take a look at it before I go to bed.  I check it out... and notice right away that it's not flushing.  I pull out the trusty plunger and get to it.  After several unsuccessful tries...  I figure that maybe there's hair stuck in the shower drain and it's stopping the toilet from flushing.  So I start working on that.  No success.... after about 30 mins or so, and it being around 1 am, I decide to go to bed and I'll work on it tomorrow.  Before jumping into the bed, I head to the kitchen to get a midnight snack... cause that's how I roll.  lol  

"SPLASH...  SPLASH... SPLASH..."  What the...  I took one step into the hallway and I step into a pool of water...  Oh man...  there's at least an inch deep of water all over the hallway.  Water EVERYWHERE!!!  I was feeling a dumbfounded and perplexed by what I was seeing and when the wife noticed it as well, she got up and was shocked by the amount of water all over the floor.  I go into the other bathroom thinking that maybe the tub was running or something and it smelled horrible.  But I mean HORRIBLE!!!!  Water was pouring out of the toilet, splashing flooding the bathroom.  The tub was also filling up with the water.  Water then ventured into the hallway and into my son's room and the main bedroom.  S*@T!!!!  The wife and I sit for a second, and then move into action.  

I pulled out my phone and took video of all the water in the bathrooms, tubs, showers, rooms, and hallway.  I figured that I would need evidence for the insurance company.  We pulled out all of the towels and started to soak up the water.  We didn't really know what the problem was so we figured that one of the kids may have flushed something down the toilet.  We didn't really know what the problem was...  So after about an hour or so of soaking up water and draining towels, we got the water to a respectable level...  Then... I made a huge mistake.  I threw in most of the towels into the washer.  Thinking that our problem was inside the house, I figured that we would need clean towels in case there was more leakage.  When the washer got the draining of the dirty water stage... all hell broke loose.  The bathrooms started to flood again.  This time, we only had HALF of the towels to battle what seemed like a never ending flow of water...  The good thing is that we acted fast enough to keep the water in the bathroom and no more spilled over to the hallway.  I then started draining the towels in the bathtub and reusing them to soak up water.

After about a half hour or so and the water level not really coming down... the wife made the comment that maybe I'm making it worse by throwing water into the tub.  She was right.  I should have been draining the towels outside like we first did...  By this time.. it's somewhere close to 3:30 am or 4 am and we're straining water out of towels in the front lawn.  After about another hour or so, we finally got it dry enough where there is no danger of anyone slipping.  I turned off the water valves in the sink and tub, in case the kids get up and turn the water on.  By the time we're satisfied that nothing else is going to down that morning, we go to be.  It was close to 5:45 am... by then, I already told myself I wasn't going to work.  I have a BIG problem that I need to take care of.

I get up at 6:45 and drive the girls to school.  I ask them if they threw anything down the toilet that they weren't supposed to and both said no.  I dropped them off, grabbed some coffee and then got to work.  Still believing that it may be something in our toilets, I looked up getting a plumber's snake.  I picked one up at Lowe's then went to work.  I went into the toilets and nothing.  I tried the sinks and nothing.  Showers?  Still nothing... I then said that I would need to get a pro to do it.  I started looking up plumbers in the area.  I also called my cousin, who does all the plumbing for the building that he is managing and ask for his opinion.  He quickly said that it sounds like the main drainage pipe is clogged.  He asked me to look for a 4 inch pipe outside the house.  I couldn't find it.  I said I would call him once I found it.  I then called Roter Rooter.  They sent a guy out to the house to check it out and give a free quote.  He found the access pipe and said, $200.  i was like, no thanks guy.  I already have someone that's going to get it done.  He leaves and I go at it with my 25 foot long snake.  Nothing... Damn... I needed something longer.  I go to Lowes and looking for a longer snake, but the longer ones are in the hundred...  

I decided to call a local plumber and got it done for a fraction of the cost.  He stuck in a 75 foot power snake and cleared my pipe (sounds funny.  lol)  and found that baby wipes were the culprit.  It was now, close to 2:30 pm and I started to text my insurance peoples to see what's up with that.  The damage is done in the hallway.  The laminate flooring that I installed is starting to warp.  The edges have risen and it's no longer smooth.  The carpet is still damp and I'm worried that mold might start up if I can't dry it up soon.  If it comes down to it, I'm going to need to replace the carpet as well as the flooring.  I'm hearing that my insurance should cover it...  Now I have that battle to look to forward to.  ugh.   Stay dry, friends.  Until then, later!

A Double Shower Head and a Stool

Hey there. It's been so hot here in Southern California that I find taking two showers a day. On the car ride home for lunch, I sweat up a storm and that's with the AC on!!! Today, I was tempted to jump in the shower and then head back... but you know what? The process starts over when I drive back to work, it's that hot. The sweat starts to drip off of me. Yuck!

Today, during lunch, my wife suggested that we take a shower together. Now, I believe that taking a shower with your significant other is a great way to spend some quality time together. We've done it many times before but we end up finding the need for a double shower head. It's better when one of us doesn't have to be out in the cold while the other basks in the warm water.  Having a double shower head would definitely be better than one in this case.  There would no more complaining of being cold while the other bathes.  Now... if only we can tackle the "it's too hot, it's too cold" issue.  Then we'd be all set.

And while we're in the topic of showers, have you ever jumped in the shower, dead tired, and wanted to just stand there?  It's happened to me many times and I just realized that I don't need to stand.  If I had an awesome shower stool I would be able to sit in the shower and take it easy.  Now, I'm just being lazy.  I could stand and take it easy but if I had a seat made for a shower, imagine how much more sweat it would be!  lol  All kidding aside, I'm sure that these were made for the elderly.  They would be the ones to truly benefit from a shower stool.  I would just use it to be a little more lazy than usual.

Now I'm thinking of the bathroom...  The wife wants to change our floral bath towels for some Hello Kitty stuff.  I am not a fan of Hello Kitty.  She claims that she's going to change the theme of our bathroom one of these days, now that's she's at home while I'm at work.  A few weeks ago, I thought she did it too, when she sent me a pic of Hello Kitty bathroom stuffs.  I thought she was showing me things that she bought.  Luckily for me... it was just stuff she saw.  Whew...  Avoided catastrophe there.  Now... to wipe this sweat off of me...  Until it gets cooler.  Later!

Don't Throw Away that Broken Camera/Camcorder

Hey there.  Ever dropped a camera or camcorder and then it stopped working properly or stopped working altogether?  It's happened to me and it sucks.  You dish out a couple hundred bucks for a quality machine and then have them go down the drain when the camera jumps out of your hand and crashes to the floor.  Luckily for me, my camera just needed a few days to recover and then it started working again.  For others, though... I feel your pain.  That's why I just wanted to share a site where you guys can go and get your camera or camcorder repaired.  Go to Teleplan for all your camera repair needs.  It's pretty cool since you can track the status of your repair online and before you commit to sending it there, you can get a free quote to make sure you're more than happy with the price.  You can't go wrong by shopping around and it's better to get your camera repaired than to spend another couple hundred on a new camera or camcorder.  Later!

Checking Out Stainless Steel Sinks

Hey there.  My wife is none too happy with our kitchen.  When we first bought the house, we figured that the kitchen would be the least of our problems but now it's a different story.  We're none too happy with the cabinets and we're not too happy with the blue sink.  Yup...  A blue sink...  Check it out. 

It doesn't seem to go with the stainless steel faucet that I recently got.  That's why we are looking at stainless steel sinks to purchase. I have mainly been doing the searching and I'm thinking that I may go with this placed called MR Direct. They have low prices and are BBB accredited so at least I know that they're not going to rip me off. My wife has been wanting a stainless steel sink ever since we decided that the blue is no longer going to work for us. Hopefully, I'll be able to find something at MR Direct that will make us happy. Until then. Later

Heated Water No More

Hey there. Last week, I mentioned how our water heater went out. I went out and got the necessary parts to fix it and even vented my frustration via Twitter, since I had to travel to many stores just to get the parts. Well, now it turns out that I'm just going to have to get a new one. I managed to get it to work, for about a day or two. Then the pilot light went out again. I had the gas company come and check it out, since they'll do a courtesy check. The guy left me a note stating that it looks good but doesn't know why the pilot light won't stay lit. He suggested I get a plumber or private heating company to check it out. So I did. That happened tonight and the dude tells me that my water heater is 15+ years old. Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn! He was astounded that it was still working and after he checked it out, told me what I feared. I need a new water heater.

The guy was honest and told me that if he were to do it with his company, it would run me approx. $1400. That's a lot of money. He said I should shop around and I should be able to get that taken care of for less than half of their price. I thanked him and he sped away. Now, I'm on a mission to get a great deal on a water heater. He showed me how it should be connected and he said that it's a fairly easy job. The fact that it costs so much is mainly due to the fact that they need to get permits and sit around for a few days while the inspections and what not get approved. Ugh... I remember going to Home Depot and Lowes and seeing them for around $300 or so. I'm going to see if they have some kind of installation kit and maybe I'll be able to get it taken care of for a few hundred bucks instead of over a thousand. Man.... Looks like my weekend is determined. Later!