Lukas’ 1st Birthday Party

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Joel

Memorial Day weekend, we took a drive up to northern NJ (and our old stomping grounds) for baby Lukas’ 1st birthday party. Friends Kanishk and Sofi put together a really nice backyard birthday party for their son Lukas. There was this whole bowties theme, very nice food, and good music. All through out the party, we were pretty impressed by how much effort these two put into everything. We didn’t know many people, but our mutual friend Raj was there as well, so that was good. I’m not the greatest at walking around and introducing myself to people I don’t know, but I tried. I may seem to be comfortable, but it’s a lot of mental effort for me.

We don’t get to see either Kanishk or Sofi very much these days — we’re busy with our life, and they just survived the first 12 months of raising a kid for the first time. It’s not easy, and  I say that from experience. These days, I really want us to get out more, and see the friends that we haven’t really spent time with in years. Yes, I’m trying to make up for lost time, but the guilt of not making not seemingly making enough effort bothers me. Call this a good first step.

The weather held up, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Afterwards, we had to run some errands, but we were eventually able to find time to stop for 30 mins at a nearby Barnes & Noble in Clifton, and chill out for a while.

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New iPod and portable speaker purchase

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Joel

We had a small get-together of friends this past Saturday, and we knew that we sorely could use some background music. We went looking at Target last Friday night before the party, and picked out a 16 GB Apple iPod Nano and a JBL Charge portable Bluetooth speaker. Both are pretty nice, were economical, and fit the bill. Add music to the iPod. Connect the iPod to the portable speaker via Bluetooth. Press Play. Instant music.

16 GB Apple iPod Nano
JBL Charge portable Bluetooth speaker
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New Weber Genesis E-330 BBQ grill

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Joel

Five years ago, my sister and BIL Robbie bought us a really nice Kenmore BBQ grill for Christmas. My first ever grill. It was good for a few years, but the interior began to rust over time. Not sure why, but it did. For the past two years, we’ve gone without grilling. This year, with the new house and all, we invested in a new Weber Genesis E-330 BBQ grill. 3 burners, quality parts, etc. Many people that I spoke to, who owned a Weber grill, would swear by the quality. We had a small get-together of friends this past weekend, and the Weber did an admirable job. It gets hot fast, and everything cooks fairly evenly. I’m impressed with any grill that didn’t allow me an opportunity to burn anyone’s dinner.

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Taking in a Trenton Thunder game on a Tuesday evening

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Joel

A few weeks earlier, Namita took the kids to that National Night Out event at the PAL fields. In some contest, Lily was able to name all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and won us four tickets to see the Trenton Thunder game on a Tuesday night. It’s not quite easy to go out and do stuff on a weeknight, but it’s hard to turn down free baseball tickets. Great seats too. The Thunder had a good chance to win in the last inning with two men on base, but it wasn’t meant to be. Oh well. At least it was a great summer evening.

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A cub scout trip to the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Joel

Josh and I attended one of the summer cub scout pack activities organized by one of the parents. A number of us drove out to Doylestown, PA, to visit the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle. I had never heard of either, and probably neither of you. We live in Mercer county here in NJ, but it seems there was once an America archaeologist by the name of Henry Chapman Mercer. Is there a connection? Hmm, I wonder.

Anywho, in the morning, Josh and I dressed up, picked up a bagged lunch from our local Wawa for Doylestown, PA. After driving what seemed like a long time through windy rural roads, we eventually made it to the Mercer Museum. A sea of “Do Your Best” cub scout shirts were sitting and waiting prior to entering the museum. The kids first made old school wooden candle holders, then we took a tour of the museum itself. The museum is basically Mercer’s own idea of a museum to capture what life was like back in the late 1800s in NJ — whether you were a farmer or other laborer.  The Mercer Museum houses over forty thousand artifacts from early American society.

After the tour, the kids took turns racing their Matchbox cars, then we had a picnic lunch outside. Josh and I went back in to check out the Mercer Museum’s “Route 66″ exhibit. We then took a drive to Fonthill Castle, the former home of Henry Chapman Mercer. We took a tour of the exterior, the kids made castles out of various supplies, and then learned about catapults and trebuchets. The boys also had a chance to operate both a small-scale catapult and trebuchet. A good trip, and very informative.

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House fixerups and other updates

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Joel

A quick update from my last post:

1. I figured out 99% of the “walkway lights not lighting up” problem. I identified the lights as belonging to Lowe’s in-hoise Portfolio brand, did a bunch of research about low-voltage outdoor lighting and how it works. I found both the beginning and the end of the circuits. I found the transformers for each string. And I planned to disconnect and swap the transformers, to determine if one was bad.

And then I discovered it was unplugged from the outlet. Doh! How did it get unplugged? The outlet cover was closed too — were the previous owners just messing with me?

I said 99% resolved, because the last light on that string is still not lighting up, but I haven’t had the time to further troubleshoot.

2. After about a week, that replacement rubber tank gasket is leaking now also, and the tank is back to refilling every 30 minutes. Maybe the gasket shifted and warped slowly in a week? Argh. We found more problems in the kids’ bathroom, so I left a message with the plumber this morning. I don’t have time right now to deal with fixing all of those problems.

3. Electrician coming today to diagnose and potentially replace a mysteriously non-working recessed lighting fixture in the kitchen. We are also going to inquire and price out adding additional recessed lighting to the basement, and removing the hanging pool table that I keep knocking into.

4. The new home alarm system is getting installed today. I hope it is not a pain in the butt to use.

5. We ordered our new Weber Genesis E-330 liquid propane grill this week, and it is ready for pick up. Our new patio table and chairs are also here. I need to find time to put them all together though.

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A day at the beach in Ocean City, NJ

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Joel

My sister made the suggestion that we should really get together and have a beach day before the end of the summer. Who was I to argue? Namita was unavailable, because she had vacation bible school starting the next day. The three of us drove down to meet the Josephs down in Ocean City, NJ. First time I’d ever been to the NJ version of “Ocean City.” We had a big of a snafu finding them in the first hour, but we eventually realized that we were each on separate sides of the beach. We found each other after some time, and hung out the rest of the afternoon. After beach time was over, we took the kids for dinner (pizza at Manco and Manco), and then hit up the arcade before we had to head out.

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I am slaying the spider’s web of home office cables using UT Wire Flexi Cable Wrap

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Joel

During the many years that she has lived with me, my dear sweet wife has suffered nightmares from the nest (spider web?) of wires that sprouted, hung, and otherwise splayed out from everywhere in and around the desk. Power cords, HDMI cables, USB cables, speaker wires — it was all such a mess. Now, I wasn’t happy about it either, but it was up against a wall, so I could find ways to ignore how it looked. In the new house, however, the desk (and the spider web of cables) is front and center in the home office. Many married men know about W.A.F.  — Wife Acceptance Factor. If your wife is not happy about something, you will know of her displeasure.

What to do? Much researching ensued, and I found a pretty cool solution. I picked up 8′ of UT Wire Flexi Cable Wrap from Amazon.com. You spread open the wrap, run your cables through the resulting slit, and “seal” the Flexi Cable Wrap back up by squeezing the cable wrap closed again. With 8′ of cable wrap, I was able to wrap the 1st set of cables coming from the 1st monitor, cut off the extra portion, and use it to wrap the 2nd set of cables coming off the 2nd monitor.

This UT Wire Flexi Cable Wrap is pretty awesome
The home office is still a work in progress, but it’s a lot cleaner now.

I gotta say that it looks a whole lot better now. I was never much crazy about all the messy wiring, but I decided to simply deal with it later…. for years. But now, it couldn’t be ignored. I don’t know why I didn’t deal with it earlier, but this Flexi Cable Wrap stuff was pretty awesome. Sure, now it looks like I have two hoses, but it’s a lot neater.

Hidden wiring behind the bookshelf makes it look so much neater.

Hidden wiring behind the bookshelf makes it look so much neater.

Next up? All those stupid Ethernet cables and power cords hanging down from the router and access points and external drives. I used my Black & Decker cordless power drill and my trusty (and beginning to come in very handy) Porter Cable jig saw to cut open a slot in the backing material of one of the bookshelves. I routed power cables and Ethernet cables through this slot, and hid the wiring behind the bookshelf. I still have about 3′ feet of power cord, speaker wires, and Ethernet stretched along the floor between desk and wall. I ordered a cord concealer, which I will use to conceal the last of the unsightly cables. My wife is pleased and can rest easier tonight. I am pleased too.

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Drumroll please – We bought a new vacuum cleaner – the Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Joel

Our poor Dyson DC07. We’ve had it for eight long years, but it’s been dying a slow death. It was expensive, but you could tell it was born of great engineering. I still wasn’t crazy about the exorbitant pricing, however. Sadly, as the years went by, it performed less and less, and features simply stopped working. Most recently, it doesn’t even pick up crud on the floor in floor-cleaning suction mode. Oye ve.

I did some research, and I couldn’t even find a way to justify another $600 for a new Dyson. I settled on the Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean. It has many similar features, and it has a cool feature that uses a super-secret ninja blade to cut the crud stuck inside the roller brushy thing-a-ma-bobber. I took it for a test run this evening. It seems to work well enough, though I was not impressed by the shorter electrical cord. The Dyson had a much longer cord that stretched across rooms. Luckily, this house has a million and one outlets to choose from.

Vacuum cleaner in a box
Vacuum cleaner ready to go
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Life after two weeks in the new house

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Joel

As of today, it’s been two weeks since we moved into the new house. I thought the crazy pace might lessen slightly after we moved in, but we have had busy days at work and equally busy nights at home. Some highlights:

General Status

  • We are still unpacking. We still haven’t found everything, but we are trying.
  • We still have to maintain the townhouse, so I am there every other day to water the plants, until we can find a buyer (or rent.)
  • We still have many items still stored in closets, the attic, and the basement, so we one of us is always there bringing items over — whatever we can fit in our respective trunks.

Surprises
Undoubtedly, we were bound to discover funny little problems after we moved in. I have heard the same from friends and family. Here is what we found, and that I hope to one day laugh about. One day.

  • During the walkthrough, we noticed the carpets were a bit shabbier than previously realized, especially the basement. It wasn’t until after we had moved in that we noticed the extent of the carpet stains, or the section of dining room carpet that was completely removed and hidden under a mat and/or furniture. Imagine the guffaws.
  • One side of the front walkway lighting is not working. Why all of a sudden? Or was it never working?
  • The kids’ bathroom toilet began leaking. Very odd.
  • After we asked the previous owners to reset the patio steps, one still fell loose our first week.
  • I recently noticed that there is a large dent in one of the garage doors. When did that happen?
  • One of the recessed light fixtures in the kitchen no longer works.
  • Speaking of lighting, with all of our grand detective skills, neither of us noticed that most of the rooms don’t have built-in overhead lighting. We need to budget money for either lamps or overhead lights.

Home Fixes and Improvements
In the past 2+ weeks, we have spent a good healthy chunk of pocket change update various parts of the house, or fix some of the interesting coincidental problems listed above. Others are a work in progress.

  • To rectify the carpet situation, we had new carpet installed in the basement and dining room through Empire Today. Much better. The carpet in the rest of the house will be done in stages.
  • We have a new kitchen table (and chairs!)
  • We had the kids morning room / sun room / activity room, and Lily’s bedroom repainted.
  • We had our friendly neighborhood Closet Factory salesperson Isabel (who we have done business with twice in the past at the townhouse) design new closets for both kids. Both are now in place and looking good.
  • New Honeywell Wi-Fi 9000 smart thermostats installed for both zones.
  • I disassembled and repaired the kids’ bathroom toilet in about 3-4 hours, for only $15 in parts. No charge for labor though. 😉
  • We ordered new family room furniture, and should arrive in the next few days.
  • We ordered a new 8-person square patio table (and chairs!) It should arrive end of next week.
  • Our lovely Dyson DC07 that we have owned since July 2006 is dying a slow death. We ordered a new Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean vacuum cleaner this week. On Friday morning, I will take Old Yeller out front and put it out of its misery.

As I mentioned, there is plenty more we need to do, but those projects will either be ordered or completed within the next two weeks, or waiting until we have sold the townhouse:

  • We are ordering a patio umbrella to go along with the new patio table later this week.
  • We are ordering a new backyard Weber grill in the next few days.
  • I have to fix that patio step tomorrow after work.
  • Replacing the rest of the carpeting in the house with either new carpet or hardwood floors will be done in stages within the next few years.
  • I am getting the house wired for Gigabit Ethernet…. eventually. The total cost is about $2,000 so it will have to wait. The goal is to one day have multiple Tivos and mini home theater PCs streaming and serving up video content in multiple rooms. WiFi is nice but hardline wiring is better.
  • We need to budget money for ceiling light fixtures and/or ceiling fans. I am not big on lamps.
  • We will eventually need to get a new LED LCD tv, AV receiver, speakers, Tivo, and maybe a Blu-ray player for the family room. Don’t know when.
  • I would love to get additional patio seating with a fire pit. Next summer, perhaps.

Lots to do, but our ambitions will have to stay in check.

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