What a great loss!

This afternoon The AtHomeFamily headed out to the ballpark to watch some AAA Minor League Baseball. It was sure to be an exciting night, because the kids got free backpacks and the team was letting kids under 12 run around the bases after the game.

We got there early because the team has bouncers, ponies and lots of activities for kids before Sunday games. And The Talker is still stalking his favorite player for an autograph. His glove has three more autographs, now. Taylor Buckholz signed the glove and a ball that a stadium staffer had given the boy earlier. Roberto Giron signed the glove AND gave the boy a ball that he then autographed. And Jason Hirsch signed the glove of fame, too. But still no Jesse Garcia.

During the third inning, the Manager, Jackie Moore got thrown out of the game along with 4 players. No fight, just lots of mouthing off and bad officiating. Jesse Garcia and Humberto Quintero, got tossed first. Then Joe McEwing got thrown out less than 20 minutes after he came in to cover for Garcia. Brooks Conrad got sent to the showers after that.

The game was pretty much a loss after that. The Express did not even have enough men left to field a Designated Hitter, so we got to witness a rare occurrence, pitchers having to DH for themselves and in the bottom of the 9th, we even saw a pitcher have to pinch hit. JR House, a catcher, started at first and ended up playing 2nd, even though he had never played that position before.

Somewhere in the middle of the chaos, the kids went to the play area and bounced and played on the playscape behind the outfield wall. The Boss Lady and I were selected to go onto the field and compete head to head in the Dizzy Bat Race. She won the t-shirt. I wanted to barf. But that might have just been the nachos and jalepenos I ate in the 4th inning.

And after the 7th inning stretch, The Talker almost caught a freebie ball. It bounced out of his hand and rolled into the aisle in front of us. A little kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, dove over the row of seats to grab the ball. And then he really surprised us when he turned and gave the ball to The Talker. Then like a flash, he was gone, before we could really thank him.

Good times.

Didyaknow?

That you can cram a queen sized futon mattress into three 33 gallon trash bags after you cut it up with a razor knife?

When we brought home The Talker's bunkbeds, one of our cats decided that the smell of the last family's cat needed to be dealt with. So he (or she, but probably he...)peed right in the middle of the queen sized futon mattress on the lower bunk. Nice!

The futon has been waiting to meet it's fate since then. And this afternoon I sliced and diced that stinky son of a gun into pieces. Now I have to go make nice with the home improvement king down the street. If he won't let me use his dumpster, maybe I'll just drive it to KB's house and throw the three chunks of stank over his back fence.

Watermelon Surprise

The kids were playing in the yard this morning while I worked in the garden. The veggie garden is all but done for the season. I am leaving the tomatoes, eggplant and a few of the bean plants in the ground. Everything else has already died off from the daily 100 + degree heat.

This year my cucumbers were a total loss. Not a single bloom. The pumpkin vines were pretty, but we only had two pumpkins and they both rotted on the vine. The watermelons in the main garden were just as worthless.

After getting all of the plants and vines into the composter, I checked the watermelon vine that we planted in the kids garden. I was about to pull that vine up too, when I saw a small melon on the vine. Then I looked closer and there was one full grown and ripe 15 pound watermelon.

We picked it and sliced it right in the backyard. The kids chomped on fresh melon while I cut up a bowl full so that we could chill some in the fridge for a snack tonight.

Big time yummy.

AtHomeDaddy isn't so hard to find

Here are some of the more interesting recent searches that led to AtHomeDaddy. These come to you via my Site Meter records:

hillbilly and bride garage
broken sofa recliner
how to shoot an armadillo
katherine boose
toy for 6 months old...hanging and rotating type (PLEASE DO NOT hang OR rotate a 6 month old)
bocce rules
food dehydrator apple chip
Fishing in Lightning (Don't do it...)

Yard Bass

After dinner, the kids climbed all over the new boat, fishing rods in hand, trying to catch a big one in the tall grass. The fishing may not have been great, in our side yard, but it was a lot of fun watching the kids have fun together while I cleaned on the boat some more.

I should apologize to my Home-Ec teacher

Somewhere my high school Home-Economics teacher is still having nightmares about the year that I was in her class.

There was the time I threw all of the plastic plates in the drawer under the stove because I was in a hurry to get to my next class. Too bad it wasn't just a drawer like my mom's stove, it was a broiler drawer and a few classes later the students were broiling dinner meals. You guessed it, broiler heating up full of plastic plates = melted plastic all over the Home-Ec kitchen and a stink that lasted the rest of the semester.

Then there was an "unfortunate sewing accident" that resulted in three sleeves and no neck hole on a shirt that I was supposed to model for the class. Is it any wonder that I flunked that project?

Several field trips, including one to the grocery store broke out in total chaos because of me and my buddies in class. And I know for sure that we made her cry in class a few times.

But wouldn't Mrs. B be proud to know that I just managed to take a kitchen full of dirty dishes and load them ALL into one dishwasher load. It took a lot of adjusting and shifting of plates and pans, but I am sure that there are at least two and a half loads of dishes in there now.

Mrs. B, I AM putting your class to good use. I still remember that 'A clean home is a happy home'. It isn't that I have forgotten your lessons, it is just that I don't really care if my house is a little sad because it is messy. At least the dishwasher is happy. Heck, with that load, it should be overjoyed.

And Mrs. B, sorry about the whole nervous breakdown thing. It REALLY was KB's fault.

Out with the old and in with the really old

So the bedroom carpet is gone. The master closet floor is no longer covered in 24 year old and we have adjusted pretty well to our newest project. In the next couple of weeks we will be ripping carpet out of the kid's rooms and closets. Then we will be a 100% hard floor family.

The bare concrete is not too bad. We ripped carpets up several years before we decided to tile the family room and common areas of the house. I am looking forward to getting rid off all of the remaining carpet. But the rest of the carpet will stay and I will strip each room one at a time.

And yesterday afternoon I drug home my own birthday present. I am going to start working my new boat pretty soon. It is not so much new as it is mine, though. In fact, it is older than I am by several years and it hasn't been registered to go on the water since I was 5 years old. Hopefully in a few months the family and I will be cruising the lake in old school style.


This picture was taken before I cleaned anything up. I spent several hours cleaning yesterday and it is already looking a lot better. This afternoon I started cleaning up the trailer. I need to add lights and get a couple of spots re-welded. Then I'll be trying to start up the old motor that hasn't been run in decades.

Big fun at the lake for us. Hopefully by next summer.

My Birthday cake tasted like dog food!

Or maybe this post should be titled :

It's my party and I'll bark if I want to...

The wife and kids baked me a cake yesterday. But when my birthday cake was cooling off before getting slathered in icing, the dog struck.

He ate the whole thing.

So we went to the new ice cream shop a couple of miles away. The ice cream was good but I did pass on the birthday cake ice cream. I did not want to be the only one in the family eating dog food flavored ice cream.

Two months ago...

I tried to convince The Boss Lady that we should just get rid of ALL of the carpet in our house. It is all beige, it is all stained, thanks to dogs, cats and kids and some of it is 24 years old. She now claims not to remember that conversation.

Twenty minutes after she got home from her business trip, The Boss Lady suggested that maybe it was time to ditch the nasty carpets and either stain the concrete or lay down tile in the rest of the house.

Less than one hour after she said that, our bedroom looked like this:



There are no before pictures. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot and while the wife was onboard with my home renovation idea.

Here are a couple of pictures of me pushing the giant mass of bedroom carpet, that I named ScuzzBall, to the front door.





By the way, a little advice for anyone considering home renovations, ALWAYS be friends with the guy down the street with a giant remodeling dumpster in front of his house

Long Summer Days

The wife is out of town again this week. The kids and I have worn ourselves out the last couple of days and the house is a complete disaster. I hope The Boss Lady comes back in on Thursday night relaxed and ready to clean house. 'Cause I imagine there will be plenty for her to do.

Especially considering that we still have almost 24 hours to trash the place.

Big beds for big boys

Though it will never be as un cluttered as the one above, The Talker is getting a new bed. A bunkbed like the one in the picture, but no drawers underneath.

A friend of My So Called Aunt tried to sell them in her garage sale. We found out about them a few days after that and the kids and I went out to look the bed over yesterday. Ironically, one of my stay at home dad friends lives in that neighborhood and contemplated buying the bed at the garage sale. Lucky for The Talker, he passed.

Now we just have to figure out a way to get this big thing home. THIS would be a great time for that half assembled truck in the driveway to be up and running. Maybe next weekend The Talker will be getting to crash on his new bed. By then I should be able to borrow a whole truck from someone...

Anyone want to start a betting pool to see how long until he crashes OUT of his new bed?

I can't wait until February

I was outside moving the junkin' find satellite dish to the side of the house (so that the old one, which spent 2 months mounted to the top of a ladder beside the house - true redneck engineering of which I took no pictures), and hoping to get everything working before the trucks rolled by when I heard the squeal of metal and the whooosh of air brakes.

Though I got the dish installed and everything is working, I am a little sad that I didn't get it done in time for the old dish to go on the truck, so the kids and I are off to try to find a friendly pile ahead of the trucks to throw our old dish on.

And while I was finishing the dish reinstall, I got an email from my community based recycling partner:

Junkin' Season is closed! I just saw the beloved Treadmill get squashed like a grape! The compactor came by and got everything!

And now, one final picture to celebrate the success of this junkin' season.

Junkin' Journey 2

I'll keep the photos small, but you can click on the pic for a larger view.

The return from our second trip. The shelving was strapped down, but the composter was not, thanks to the sunroof. But having stuff piled on top is OK since we had stuff hanging out the rear of the Explorer, too.

The boy ended up getting three Tonka trucks. Which we power washed this morning.

Our neighbor's escaped white doves have been hanging out in our backyard. So they got a little something, too. Brand new, super score!

The composter. It needs a good power washing I think.

The satellite dish and shelving are on temporary display in my side yard. I just need the mounting bracket off of the dish, but I did not want to slow down the junkin' to remove it last night. The shelves will likely be in my garage or storage shed by nightfall. Don't worry, both have already been power washed.

A Yamaha A/V Tuner Amp. It powers up, but I don't know if it actually works.

Edit - It works like a champ. Have it hooked up in the living room right now.

I just can't pass up electronics when they are set out carefully with the remote. People who take that much care with their junk should win an award for making junkin' fun and easy. I don't think I'll power wash this one.

Somewhere along the way there was a treadmill, another Yamaha receiver, a TV/VCR combo, a hair dryer for The Boss Lady (that'll teach her for asking me to find something nice for her), some brand new 10' pine planks and 8' pressure treated 2x4s.

Overall, another high quality junkin' experience.

Best Junkin' EVER

So that magical time of year is in full bloom around here. Junk piles in front of houses all over our neighborhood. And I gotta say, I love living in The Land of Conspicuous Consumption.



The TV was my first pick up of the weekend. But the power supply is shot, so it wet back on the curb. The VCR, I decided wasn't worth the hassle of seeing if it works. The phone, same thing.



On my next trip out, I found this beauty. 27", Picture in Picture, stereo sound. A good garage TV. It has a loose connection that I ought to be able to solder easily. After it is fixed, it will make a great bedroom TV. The picture tube isn't great, but I bet it'll work until the next big trash collection. The chair needs an arm stitched back together, but it should work fine for watching two shows at once in my garage.

Edit - Click on the tv and you can see that I was watching Casino on TNT while fixing my treasures.

Edit - The chair is already repaired and living in the backyard. It is perfect for watching the kids play on the playscape.


I just picked these up on my way on my way home from Home Depot. They needed a good cleaning, but that was OK, because I got to use the best junkin' treasure ever, an electric power washer that works perfectly. It needed a new nozzle that I found on clearance at Home Depot for $15.


I never would pay $130 or more for one of these, but I will give $15 for one, for sure.

Racecar Man and I are going out again tonight. But it is going to be tough to top this afternoon's finds. But rest assured, I'll let you know if I do!

Junkin!

It is that magical time of year around here, Bulky Item Collection Week! The one time every seven months that we can get rid of stuff that is too big to fit in the city issued 60 gallon rolling dumpster.

I have a pile started out front. Metal scraps form the old truck bed, old hanging plant baskets, A Zeus statue that was supposed to go to a neighbor's house as a prank - but he turned out to be way to heavy to move again, several old toys that have seen better days, a broken jogging stroller and lots of other junk.

I was going to take a picture of my pile, with Zeus guarding the stash, but someone already picked up all of the toys, the stroller AND Zeus. Maybe Racecar Man and I will find some treasures that are worthy of photography later tonight, like last time.

And for those of you who might be worried, Maria hasn't been seen in a long time. What do you bet she comes out of Law Talking Guy's storage shed soon.

Dehydrating Daddy

Our kids love apple chips and banana chips. Once in a while we buy some at one of the hoity-toity organic/whole grain/no msg added grocery stores. But yesterday, on our regular grocery run, The Princess announced that she wanted banana and apple chips. So we stocked up on fruit.

After slicing fruit for an hour, I had the kids help load up the dehydrator and we have been patiently waiting. OK, everyone except me. I managed to eat all of the apple chips we made yesterday. So this morning I sliced apples for another hour and now, seven hours later, we are ready to snack like kings. As a bonus I found a bag of cherries in the fridge, so I dehydrated them, too.

The food dehydrator doesn't come out very often, but it seems that we make lots of fruit and beef jerky once we start. Saturday I'm hoping to make some jerky before the machine goes into hiding in the garage again.

Edit: More info about my dehydrator on Amazon.

Just a couple of FYIs if anyone is looking for a dehydrator-

• They aren't real expensive, but get one with an internal fan and temperature control, otherwise you have to rotate the trays so that everything dries evenly.
• They are a pain to store, too big for kitchen cabinet doors, so our lives on a shelf in the garage.
• Get one that you can add trays to later or run with just a few trays. Of course, then you have to store more trays...
• Wal-Mart always has them in stock at their stores. I think that is where mine came from
  
• And if you want to make AtHomeDaddy really happy, buy him one of these.

To my friends and family

who have told me in the past months that Coke Zero tastes "OK" or that "You can't tell the difference between it and Coke", I say...

grow some freaking taste buds!

Coke Zero tastes like crud and it certainly is no substitute for a nice cold Dr Pepper. So while we were out at the grocery this morning, I snagged a 12 pack of the usual, even though it has been 4 days since I had a DP.

And you know what? It tastes OK and I can't tell the difference between it and real Dr Pepper. Because it is REAL Dr Pepper. No more of this diet stuff for me.

150 calories per can? No biggie, I can burn that off just trying to get the kids to behave at the grocery store.

Thank you, that is all, liars.

T minus 6 months and counting

The kids are down for naps. And they went down easily today, since I brought out the big guns. Wallace and Gromit on the big TV for anyone who takes a decent nap. Bribery works so well on these kids. Suckers.

Anyways, this morning The Talker reminded me that he only has to nap until he is 5 years old. And today he is 4 and 1/2 years old. Dang, I was hoping he would forget. We have told him that naps can end at 5 years old so that he will be one step closer to Kindergarten. That will give us 8 months to get him used to staying awake for school hours. Heck, I am 35 and I can't do it most days.

Plus, I am hoping that he and I will get to work on academic stuff, to get him ready for school. He is already awesome at some stuff, like colors and spelling family names. Hopefully before kindergarten starts in 13 months, he will be ready to go.

I want him be buddies with the smart kids at school, you see. Then he can tell me all about it, 'cause that is certainly one place I never hung out.

Where does it hurt? Everywhere

Monday afternoon I had my second appointment with a fitness trainer at the YMCA. I am hoping complete this 6 week program and to not be as much of a lazy slob as I was a month ago. I don't have goal to lose a certain number of pounds, but I am sure that after this program I will be in better shape and hopefully have more energy to play with the kids all day.

The trainer had me go through half of the resistance machines in the gym. I have avoided these contraptions since joining the Y, because I don't want to hurt myself by using one of them wrong.

So it was great to have a trainer helping me get each machine set up properly and to make sure I was using them safely and correctly. And that is just what he did. He even wrote down all of the settings for me, so that I can replicate the proper form on my own. But you know what? Even though I was doing everything right, I think I broke something. Every muscle is aching 40 hours later.

And I really hate pain. Maybe my fat and I can just make a deal. I won't hurt it any more and it won't bring over more of it's friends to hang out.

CRAZY, I tells ya

The Princess woke up from her nap and headed straight to the fridge for some 'nack. She was on a mission and she knew what she wanted. Trying to figure out what it was, almost pushed me over the edge...

"Daddy I want pumpkin.

Sorry honey, we don't have pumpkin. Do you want a banana?

Yes.

Ooops, sorry baby, we are out of bananas. Do you want an orange or a peach.

I want pumpkin.

Sorry, no pumpkin, do you want something for snack?

I want pumpkin bread.

Sorry, no pumpkin bread either. Do you want something else?

No, just milk.

Cool. Here you go."

Then I walked out of the room and she chased me.

"Daddy, you forgot my peach.

Huh?

I want a peach for 'nack.

OK."

So I sliced a peach and set it out for her.

"Where is my orange?

You wanted a peach.

No. I want an orange."

The peach goes down my gullet, and I peel an orange in double time.

"Here you go, an orange, just like you asked for, remember?

No. I want pumpkin bread, remember, Daddy?"