It's Broken....

In the past couple months I've changed a car tire, switched out my shower head, and helped a friend who couldn't get her smoke detector down.

And now, add to that list fixing a garbage disposal.

Partly because I wanted to save money, but mostly because is love bragging about doing things myself and being smart, I decided the internet could tell me what to do. The disposal would turn on, but the blades wouldn't turn. Water was making it down just fine, thankfully. 

First, the internet said to stick my hand down there, so I put on my dish gloves, unplugged the disposal, and set at it. I shined my flashlight down there and couldn't see much. I tried moving the blades, but they wouldn't budge.

Step two, trip the breaker. Easy enough, but no results. 

Step three, Drano for disposals. An hour later, nothing.

I was just about to give up and call someone and pay him all my money ((remember the air conditioner)) when I watched a YouTube video of this old dude explaining about how to fix it. He mentioned an allen wrench, which I just so happen to have ((thank you little pink toolbox)) and that I could use it to manually unjam the blades from underneath. Hmm. MUCH easier than sticking my hand down the nasty thing.

I always knew about the red reset button, but never knew about that hole in the middle. 

A few turns with this and bam! A working garbage disposal for $4...the cost of the unnecessary Drano. Thank you old dude who posts videos to YouTube. Also, I should mention that his video had been watched almost 500,000 times. No joke. 

So, naturally I sit down to blog about it, and....

Computer is DEAD. The tech people at work say it can be revived, but I'm leery. So, if my blog posts look funnier than normal, that's because I'm writing on my iPad which isn't as great for such things. 

Gingers!

I hadn't made gingerbread men cookies for several years, so I decided that now was the time. Thanks to this ancient KitchenAid mixer, they were super simple. And delicious.

I was actually surprised at how good they were...and I think the rest of my family was surprised too. I decorated them with the help of my 2 year old cousin Cati, and my cousin Bailey did one too. Cati was in charge of the red hots and sprinkles and she loved it!

This is farmer ginger with his hat and overalls for Gramps.

Lots of red hots going on here!

Cyclone ginger.

I tried to make a ginger with glasses, but the frosting was coming out too fast.

The final platter.

Fun Times & Cat Trouble

Had a fun appetizer night at Mulligan's with Miller last Wednesday.

This band was playing Christmas carols outside of Kohl's today. Was fun to hear!

Went out driving to look at Christmas lights tonight while drinking hot chocolate and listening to a Christmas Pandora channel.

This is a current source of stress in my house. He won't stop climbing up there! I'm afraid that he's either going to get hurt, or tear the shelves off the wall. Ugh. I've pulled him down 7 times in the last 15 minutes. 

I just finished re-reading The Wizard of Oz. It was a book that I loved as a kid. It is much different than I remember, though I still enjoyed it. The movie just happens to be on tonight, so that's what I'm up to. That, and dragging the cat down.

Dinner Drama

My afternoon started out like this. Pretty awesome. 

We were celebrating the end of our Lego League season with ice cream and Lego sorting. After searching for 30 minutes for Ben's glasses, I finally went home to make a casserole that I've been craving for days.

Then, this happened. I realized that I forgot my can opener at school because we were using it for a skit that we did at Lego competition this weekend. I had already mixed up everything I needed for my casserole. I just needed to add the green beans and a can of mushroom soup. I remembered that last week, I had read an online article about opening cans without a can opener (also, because of research for our Lego project). So, I went about doing that.

Took awhile, but I managed to work it out and was feeling proud of myself. Then, I reached into the pantry for the soup, only to find.....no soup. It was at school with the can opener. 

So, after all that drama, I had to go to the store, where I purchased a can of soup and another can of green beans. Notice the pull tabs on these cans.

Long Week!

Well, I realize I haven't posted since December 8th. It was a super long week at work--I worked 83 hours between last Monday and yesterday. Needless to say, I didn't have much time to write a post, but I do have some fun pictures to share!

Pacino and I had similar moments early this week. He snipped a wire from my radio in the bathroom. I snipped a wire on our robot. We are two peas in a pod.

I'm not quite sure how these ended up in my cart at Target, but they did.

I'm not sure how this got purchased either, but again, it did. 

We had a nice little snow day, which allowed me to accomplish almost all of my Christmas shopping. Miller and I had to keep up with our snow day tradition of eating Orange Leaf. Wouldn't want to pass up that opportunity!

A big group of us went out to watch the Iowa/Iowa State men's basketball game. Luckily, the Cyclones pulled out the victory which left Dixie & I very happy. The rest of our friends, not so much.

I was at school for just over 13 hours on Friday. I only spent 90 minutes in my room. The rest were spent in Mr. Wickett's room with the robot fields. 

Holiday Spirit

Well, Pacino managed to refrain from knocking down the Christmas tree for a whole week! Which is quite a bit of progress from last year...

The Fire & Ice parade had some big balloons. Almost like we were at the Macy's Parade!

The hot air balloon flame shooters weren't nearly warm enough!

This balloon was a bit too big. It held the parade up for a good 5 minutes, because they had to pull it down to go under all of the stoplights.

The reindeer at the end is always my favorite part!

Sunday=a day of rest for P & I. I think I even fell somewhat asleep for a little bit!

Cooked me up a roast beast and some gravy. Ready to eat!

Finally...

Seems like I painted these letters 8 years ago, but I just got around to putting them up tonight. I like how they turned out, but I'm thinking about shifting it a bit. We'll see how ambitious I get!

((Look for a follow up in a few years to see if I shifted!))

Thanksgiving Bliss

I was in major need of a break, and I got exactly what I needed! Here are a few snapshots from my time back in Colo:

Pacino tried real hard to be a stowaway, but he didn't quite make the cut...there wasn't enough room for him anyway! 

This was my reading list. I got the top 4 finished, and started the bottom one. Not too shabby, I didn't think. Plus, I got all of my lesson plans done for the next three weeks. 

The country is just better.

We hadn't done these at Granny's for years! It took some time, but we finally got all of them together.

Garth Brooks sang on tv, and it was one of the best things ever. Now, he just needs to announce a comeback tour so I can have fun concert plans in 2014!

The biggest beggar I know. She is so funny & different from Pacino.

Before & after of our turkey. He was pretty tasty!

Also made homemade cranberries. Not my favorite thing, but good.

I'm very thankful that my family is full of good cooks. This was some good food.

The Christmas tree has officially been up 24 hours, and Pacino has only knocked the star off twice, and hasn't tackles the tree to the ground yet. This is a good start.