Snippets from Around the House

Yeah, yeah. . .

So, as I'm not wearing my 'witty' pants today (I'm actually not wearing pants at all - c'mon people, I'm on summer vacation, here), I'm going to just go ahead and skip my usual segue and jump headlong into the usual barage of pictures, videos, and snappy captions this week.

Behold - snapshots from around the house over the last week or so.  Enjoy.

Showing off fancy, new headbands. . . that are sure to be destroyed by morning.

(Kris didn't get one.)

Yes.  The 1998 Zelda classic Ocarina of Time.  Once again, Yours Truly is saving Hyrule from the forces of all things terrible. . .

Abby's First Haircut (and eleventh popsicle of the afternoon)

Super shades. . .

''Parental supervision is for douches.''

When I went to church as a kid, we never got cookies and cupcakes.  Only free views of the backs of old peoples' heads.

Not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but since we moved into our house, we've had a few ordeals with our refrigerator.  Nothing as crazy as the crap we had to endure in the last house (thank God) - just a few minor annoyances here and there.  For starters, about two weeks after we moved in - when Mom was down here visiting, actually - the freezer stopped working.  Not flat-out stopped working, mind you - rather it refused to freeze our popsicles.  Everything else was fine, except those damn popsicles would not freeze.  Not sure why my fridge hated them, who knows. 

Anyway, things with the freezer eventually got better, the fridge and the popsicles became best of friends, and things went on as before.  Our refrigerator is much larger than our old one, but we have a few new features in this one that we did in the previous one - a drawer for meats and cheeses, and egg shelf (seriously), etc.  Despite the fridge's larger size, with all these additional features, I found - much to my dismay - that I actually had less space for 'daddy's coffee.'

Basically this is where my head is at with the mini-fridge.

Yes, space was cramped, and Kris' sights were set on the beer.

I'd been looking for months for a secondary refrigerator to put on the back porch - something smaller than an apartment fridge but larger than the standard mini-fridge.  As it turns out, those things are pretty hard to come across, and there are a ton of lemons out there.  I had almost all but given up hope when, lo and behold, I stumbled upon a wholesale appliance dealer that was selling 4.2 cubic foot fridges for - get this - $80.

Daddy pounced on that.  Check it out:

Brand new, 4.2 cubic feet Avanti - fits well on the back patio sunroom

I've filled is since this was taken - you can adequately fit two cases of beer, a case of pop, and a few bottles of water easily.  Problem solved, wife happy, Yours Truly happy.

In other news, we've noticed upon moving in that our house is a huge hit with lizards and frogs.  It might have to do with our pool, or maybe our well-watered lawn, or maybe even the fruit trees. . . who knows.

The girls turn their room into an impromptu shoe store. . .

We've trained Abby to use Credit instead of Debit whenever possible to avoid faulty card swipers that could steal her pin info. . . like the good parents that we are.

Alayna still prefers to use cash, which earns her scorn often. . .

 

Sweaty and back from mowing the lawn, Yours Truly pictured here purchasing some sweaty, grass-covered flip-flops. . .

Abby.  Pissed.

The other day, we came out into the garage to see water trickling down towards the driveway.  Upon closer investigation, we discovered that it was seeping up from a hole in the tile underneath the washing machine.  What was strange was that the water was hot, and that the tiles were warm to the touch not only around the hole in the garage where the water was coming from, but also between the toilet and the shower in our master bathroom.

We ended up calling five different plumbers, and had four swing by our house to personally investigate the issue and give us their estimates.  Long story short, there was a pinhole leak somewhere along the hot water line, and they would have to drill underneath the concrete slab of the house's foundation in order to reach the pipe.  It turns out houses built over 20 years ago were built with underground copper pipes, whereas nowadays they're built with the piping in the walls to make them more accessible.

Bad news for us. 

Fortunately we didn't have any of this. . .

Some of the plumbers recommended we re-pipe the entire house, which wasn't an appealing prospect, seeing how it'd end up costing well over $1,200 to do.  There was a chance, however, that the repair could be done for under $400, if the pinhole was located and contained.  One of the plumbers we found was willing to try, so, rolling the dice, we decided to give it a shot. . .

They ended up having to clamp off a two-inch section of the hot water pipe that ran from the hot water heater to our master bathroom shower.  Fortunately, that meant the leak was contained to a small area, directly behind the washer in the garage.  We'll have to re-tile the above area, but it's not a pressing issue as the washer completely covers up any sign of damage.

They installed a 'bi-line' or something.  I guess that helps the hot water line somehow.  I don't know, I'm not a plumber.

The 'repaired wall' - I have yet to patch it up, as you can tell.  Thank God this shit happened in the garage behind the washer. . .

Returning to preschool full-time for the first time in months. . .

Alayna shows off her new nap roll for school

In an attempt to introduce video games to the girls, I recently bought Just Dance: for Kids.  Basically the jist of it is players have to mimick the movements of the people on the screen.  The more accurate their movements, the more points they get. . .

Both kids, as you can see, were more interested in watching the music videos instead of participating. . .

(these songs make me want to kill myself)

- Brian