Fort Edmonton Park

Dale and Tina were visiting this weekend so we all went to Fort Edmonton Park. Tons and Tons of stuff there. Can you tell which was my favourite part?


Not bad shooting for a guy who couldn't focus on both sights at once.. (didn't bring my "shooting" glasses)

Funny Sign

If being accident prone means you are more likely to have an accident then child prone means...
 

Jack was having Fun!

JACK was having a ball sticking plastic cable ties in a piece of pen board. The last pic was actually taken through one of the holes in the peg board!

My Car Sheds Exhaust Parts Like a Deer Sheds Antlers

Before last night my LeBaron had only 2 exhaust parts I hadn't changed. Today it is down to 1/2. Changing the resonator turned into the same old story; buy the parts, start taking things apart and discover that another part really should be changed too. Of course you didn't buy THAT part and you need to get it fixed now. Also I know that the parts store doesn't sell the additional pipe I needed to change. The solution was kinda fun to do, I had a piece of exhaust tubing for my Ruzter Trike (I'll just pick up another one) , and I used it to replace a section of exhaust pipe on the LeBaron. The tubing being replaced was curved so I did some "fancy" mitering to approximate a bend. I posted how I did it on the Techniques BLOG.

Water in the Basement

On Thursday Jack discovered water coming down the basement wall! After some moving of stuff and using the shop vac we got it contained but we really didn't want to repeat the process the next day when melting resumed! Vapour barrier plastic siliconed to the wall and gathering into a bucket. I used a heat gun to dry the wall after the wall stopped dripping at night so that the silicon would stick. this worked awesome except that the next day water was coming in at about 3 gallons an hour so we had to be continually checking and emptying the bucket!

The next night I added the "indoor eaves through" by cutting 2" abs plastic pipe lengthwise and silconing it to the wall. Originally I attached a hose directly to the pipe to drain it, but it wouldn't start draining unless I got a siphon going, argh!So if you have ever launched water rockets with me, you will recognize the parts... I then used my launcher as a glorified funnel. Water collects in the cut off pop bottle until enough weight accumulates to start the flow through the hose, then it all drains and the cycle starts over again.

Custom Antenna

A couple months ago some unnamed child broke the antenna off our radio. Since the antenna has been mis-placed so today I added the first metal thing I found to approximate an antenna. Looks kinda industrial artsy huh?

LeBaron

Apparently the LeBaron didn't like being called "a good little workhorse". The next Friday the timing belt went and in the process of fixing it I discovered the cam was going too... Oh well, all fixed now. I hope I didn't just jinx it!

Have Wood will Travel

Saturday was storage shelf building day. The Le Baron is a good workhorse as you can see, besides the roof rack doesn't fix the Matrix. Naturally Jack was "helping" as the pile of screws in the 2nd picture and Jack grabbing the tape measure in the 3rd picture shows. :)

Brotherly Love

Just a couple pics I snapped of the boys playing on the arm chair. It is very amusing (and rewarding) when they make each other laugh.

My, You Have Big Teeth!

Thanks to eBay, our little snowblower got a big brother today. Believe it or not it made the trip from Innisfail in the back of the Matrix, with a little disassembly. As you can see by this picture, the snow banks are getting high at Chez Anderson and we just flipped the calender to December! For fun I did a feature comparison between the two, to share my excitement and to poke a little fun too. Read about it almost backing over me!

Click Table to Enlarge!

Darrel's Christmas Wish List

• large exercise ball
• Make Magazine Subscription
• gift certificate from Princess Auto
• hammock
• good quality tap and die set ($$)
• coveralls
  

more to come... of course anything would have to be coordinated with Kirsten ;)

Walking in a Winter Wonderland (with a $50 snowblower)

 

Hello? I'd like to make a direct call!

Kirsten took this picture of Jack playing telephone. If you look closely you will notice he is trying to place a call on our power bar. I guess if the phone companies now offer internet and cable tv service and the cable companies offer phone service, the electricity companies might as well get in on it and offer phone service as well. FOPB? (Voice Over Power Bar)

My wife Loves me

http://www.instructables.com/id/E5R0LEN6OFEP287CZL/

Me: Hey Hon, this is a tesla turbine.

Kirsten: What's that?

Me: [Detailed explanation...blah, blah blah... spins on air up to 15,000 rpm]

Kirsten: What's it good for?

Me: Well nothing really... and since it spins at such a high rpm, when something lets loose it is kinda catastrophic... I think I will build one!

Kirsten (chuckling): I love you.

Word of the Day: Tasty!

It is very rewarding when a child that is learning to talk first repeats a new word. Today Jack learned the word "tasty" while helping kirsten make supper. mmmmmm, tasty.... 

On the Road AGAIN!

Its Monday night and we are doing the final packing for the move to our new house in Bon Accord. We have had our house for a couple weeks now and we have done some painting and cleaning, but we are finally moving starting Thurday night. My sister Lara and her family (Dean and Aidan) graciously offered to come on Saturday to help us! If you don't hear from us for a couple days, you know what we are doing. I have been teaching Jack to call Eric "Bubba" which is short for Baby Brother since he loves "B" words like "Baby" and "Ball".


For old times sake, here is a picture of Jack when we moved into our first house when he was 6 weeks old. See you in a couple days...

It All Begins (Handy Jack)

Yesterday Jack and I bought an old metal detector at a garage sale for $10. To change the battery, you have to take out 4 screw to open the case. Jack, of course, was extreemly "interested" and wouldn't keep his fingers out, so I got him to help. I would give him one of the screws, point at a hole, he would put it in, and I would apply the screw driver. My mom tells me I took a mop apart when I was 2 years old. If Jack can put in screws at 20 months and is actually encouraged and instructed on how to take things apart and build things, what kind of a monster garage could I foster???? I am very scared and intrigued at the same time. Remember boys, if they don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy...

Songs of Chairman Mao Come To My Mailbox!

So I wanted the Matt Nathanson CD and I couldn't find it here or even buy it on the Canadian iTunes. Luckily I found it on eBay for a decent price. Today it came and to my surprise it was shipped from China! I looked it over very closely and I can't find any evidence that it is counterfeit... Weird world we live in when you buy a CD for $10 and it comes from half-way around the world... Some cool stamps too!
 

Fire Station #1

Here are a few pics from work. This is one of the fire trucks I got to ride on, the fire pole I slid down and the Fire Station where my office is on the 3rd floor. Not something I thought I would be involved in a couple months ago!

Jasper

Here are some pics from our mini-trip to Jasper. Eric was already 4 days old and he hadn't seen any sights yet!



This is Pocahontas. Can you see the face looking up?




The mandatory shot of Mountain sheep...



We took the gondola up near the top of the mountain



Jack and I hiked 3/4 of the way up from the gondola to the summit but after and hour of carrying Jack, we had enough.

More pics on Kirsten's blog