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I finally got off my lazy behind and fought my way through the jungle of weeds (which are taller than me) to the pumphouse to turn off the water. The threaded PC pipe coming out of the pump is spraying misty water, so I will have to patch that. I pulled the valve stem back out, used pliers to grab the screw and washer to pull them out. Both seemed to be in decent condition. Screwed them back in to the valve stem, put the valve stem back in, put the valve body on, put the adapter spud on, put the handle on but it wasn't fitting tightly. It stuck when I tried to turn it then it just turned loosely. The spud on the valve stem kept coming loose. Not sure if the screws are messed up or what. Going to try a different spud later. But for now I turned the water back on bc I was sweating like crazy. I'm really out-of-shape.
I also had to chase down the cats that got out, and they kept trying to run out when I went through the door. I got winded from the cat herding. I need to take a weedwacker to those damn weeds.
 
Great to "see" you again, phishfood! How have you been?

Nothing much going on here. Truck will be in the shop longer than expected bc the strut bent in the accident so they have to order a new one & it wasn't easy to find. Holidays will obviously cut in to delivery & repair times. I already talked to my insurance company to make sure they would cover the extra cost & they said not to worry, the repair guy just has to file a form or something for them to reimburse him directly.

I made potato soup last night & Mom was happy with it. I ate too much of it so I gassed my cats out of the room & the dog wouldn't come near me. I gassed myself out of the room at one point-- much to the amusement of my mother. My father would be proud. LOL.

I'm planning to make some more stuffing and mix it with the rotisserie chicken and maybe some corn this time. I need to get some potatoes to make mashed potatoes and maybe get another chicken to mix in. I will have to see if we have cranberry sauce anywhere because I've been craving it (watching too much food network station).

I fully intend to avoid the stores tomorrow & Friday, but I will get in some online shopping and have stuff delivered. My mother suggested we could go eat at the casino where my brother works tomorrow. The food is pricey but the beverages are free.

I think I've decided which shower & surround to go with for Mom's bathroom. The Sterling one has a higher lip & can accommodate a shower curtain but the Delta one they didn't recommend using a curtain & want people to get a glass door. It makes her feel claustrophobic.

I attempted to put flex tape over the leaking pipe in the pump house yesterday & it didn't go as planned-- stuff was thicker and less flexible than I expected but it reduced the leak. Not sure if it stopped it entirely, but the water hasn't been spurting as much. I need to work on procrastinating less.
 
Wife wanted a Turduchen this year. Came frozen on Wednesday. Slow cooked it for 8 hours.
Package said 6 to 7 hours at 220 F with internal temp of 160 or 165.
I cooked at 230 for 8 and internal never got over 150.
The seasoning on that thing was assume.
Had some real fancy side dishes.
Canned green beans, instant mashed potatoes, canned jellied cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie for dessert.
 
I ended up having to hit the store late at night per Mom's request to get bread & we were out of milk. But that was after the adventure of going to pick up my friend's fiance's best friend in another town 55 miles away. The girl did not realize how far that was or how much gas that used. I had to re-iterate that it was over 100miles round trip and I'm supposed to take the girl back sometime this afternoon. Had I realized how crappy the roads were and how horrid the fog was going to be, I would have declined. The fog was atrocious and I couldn't see jack squat. My night vision isn't that great to begin with, but with the fog I couldn't even see that there were side roads. And the GPS had the girls' address off by half a mile. So it was telling me to turn on a road that wasn't there and I couldn't see the road a half mile before bc of the fog. The girl had to go out on her porch and watch for my headlights and tell the friend on the phone when she saw us. Left around 8pm and got back around 11pm bc we got lost and kept turning around and it was hard as hell to see. By that point my friend was back at home in severe pain (tooth/gum infection) so I took him to the ER. Dropped him off for his fiance to pick him up later. Went to the store & picked up some takeout for Mom and went back home, dropped off groceries, and then went back to the hospital to take some medicine to my friend. He was still in the waiting room after an hour. I sat with him until they took him in to a room. Got home after 1am. Went to bed and woke up early this morning. Ate some chicken that I now regret eating bc I'm nauseous.
But, at least my dog likes her new pillow. The cat was hogging it earlier but now he's sharing it with the dog.
 
Zane you're to nice. You Have friends of friend's friends ;)
What's that old saying? Friends in need are friends indeed.
You should run for mayor. I'll bet you have enough friends to win.
I'll vote for you.
 
LOL. Thanks, Mr_David. My friends put up with me babbling and singing in the car (the girl doesn't like it when I sing but I'm doing her a favor so she can listen to me deliberately butcher "Hazard" for two hours.) Mwahahaha. I like to change the lyrics to "I swear I left her by the river, I swear I left her gagged and bound". I also like to change the lyrics to "Teen Angel" from "Teen Angel can you hear me" to "Teen Angel, you're a dumbass".
I was going to try to nap, but since I know I have to get up to drive my brain doesn't want to let me sleep. I'm thinking of going early to take the girl back just to get it over with. Then I can check the mail and swing by the pharmacy to see if my prescription is ready.
 
This thread has been so quiet. How is everyone doing?
I've been working on cleaning up & trying to keep up with the mess my brother's cats have been making. He was supposed to be taking care of them in the front room but he stopped cleaning their litterboxes & wasn't keeping up with watering them. They were constantly getting in the way & trying to run out. He finally just opened the doors and let them out so now they are fully my responsibility. They aren't as bad about running in to other rooms as they were before, but they knock everything down and pee on things they shouldn't.

My mother is having even more difficulty getting around because her knees are hurting. On the upside, we ordered some flooring for the laundry room renovation & my brother helped me put it in an insulated room in the workshop. I have a few more details to work on. I think I've got the DWV plans set (although I will need to check heights & slope for things. I may need to replace the main sewer line or at least adjust it to slope more bc it doesn't seem to slope. Hopefully I won't have to mess with how it connects to the septic tank. Still need to figure out more details on the water supply end & the electrical. I got a book on electrical to review as well as help from a certified electrician.

Took Mom to the doctor for a regular checkup. Her sugars are a bit higher than she would like but her colesterol and everything else was good. The Dr recommended lower carb diet with more fiber. I recently found some frozen veggies (the fresh ones around here tend to be bad- flies & mold/rot)- she likes the spiralized butternut squash, broccoli florets, asparagus spears, and brussell sprouts. I'm still trying to get her to try the mashed cauliflower which tastes like mashed potatoes. My brother loves the cauliflower with sour cream & chives. I also found some "Healthy Choice" steamer bowls in various flavors. Thus far her favorite is the BBQ steak one.

FINALLY got around to pulling the toilet to change the wax ring & found the real culprit was that the flange was broken where the bolt on the right side went in. My friend that came over to lift it for me thought maybe the flange would just lift off and didn't realize that it is solvent welded to the pipe below (apparently he did not solvent weld his toilet flange when he fixed his bathroom up). He thought it could turn or something, but it wouldn't budge. I had a metal repair flange, but didn't have the screws to secure it to the floor. He put it on, but without proper stabilization, it seems it didn't take. He got the toilet put back on but it doesn't seem to be sitting right (I think it shifted), the toilet tips to the left if you lean, and it sort of thunks and tips forward when you sit on it. He's going to come back out next week (next time he's available) to help fix it. I got the screws this time. I thought I'd had some to use but couldn't find them anywhere when I looked for them. This time I will have a sponge to sop up all the water from inside the tank so we can tip the toilet on it's side more, and I'll shut the main water off at the source bc the stupid supply line isn't shutting all the way off and was dripping in to a container the entire time it was disconnected. I'm hoping we won't have to replace the flange just yet. Since the floor under the toilet was previously destroyed & patched with OSB- I plan to take a scrap of flooring from my bathroom project to put down under the toilet & caulk around the flange so if any water seeps out, it will flow on top of the sheet vinyl instead of soaking in to the OSB.

I'm feeling better and trying to remember to take my medicine (I forgot for awhile when I was stressed out) but the colder weather agrees with me more than the hot weather.

I hope everyone else is doing OK. Please chime in so I can hear how you guys are doing.
 
Sounds as if your brother needs a few less kitties, or let them become inside / outside (outside for bathroom) kitties. Good luck.
All that food for your Mom sounds very good. I'm trying to get my Mom to eat more stuff also. Best wishes.
And remember to take care of yourself.
 
The kitties are indoor/outdoor, but its been cold and the younger males are not neutered so they are marking. Plus, they are just used to going inside instead of outside. I once had a cat who would stay outside for hours and come back inside to use the litterbox. She refused to go anywhere but in the litterbox up until she was older and got cancer.

I need to find healthier stuff to eat as well. I need to cut back on the carbs and work on my self control. I used to have better control when it came to food- but I also had a better metabolism.

Today I took my friend's fiance to the hair salon so she could get her hair cut, dyed, and curled. They had to dye and rinse her hair twice because the color didn't soak in to the roots the first time. $75! I just don't see how anyone can spend that much. LOL. But the hair stylists were talking about how much it costs for their equipment. One girl in there is left-handed so she has to buy special stuff designed for lefties, but it costs a lot more. She has a pair of shears that cost $600. My phone was low battery so I didn't take any pics of the floor- vinyl sheet with a wood pattern that looked nice. Couldn't tell if it was glue down or loose lay. It was coming apart at the center seam (which was patched with white tape) and a seam to the hallway. It was crumpling and pulling away from the doorway too. The place was pretty dirty. They swept up the hair and cleaned their counters and tools, but didn't clean their chairs or clear up the dust on the mats. We got there around 11am and had to wait about 10 minutes while the hair dresser talked on the phone and smoked a cigarette. She continued to talk on the phone for another 10 minutes while she cut the hair.

Just had brain freeze. I'll probably take a nap soon.
 
Zanne, that is a busy day and that "beauty salon" sounds a bit run down. I gave up on salons, and only get my hair trimmed at those Cost Cutter places or the like. You're good to take the friend's fiance to her appt. Your car must have an invisible "friend and family taxi" sign on the top. I know mine does.
 
Chimming in. I'm still alive. spent all day under a house replacing rotten cast iron drain pipe.
My co-worker is claustrophobic so he stayed top side passing me stuff.

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Mr_David, that pipe looked nasty. Must have been a pain to remove it all- and the crawlspace didn't look very spacious. Reminds me of the underside of my house.

Angie, I don't like salons. I get my hair cut every once in awhile but have never dyed it and don't get it styled. I actually ask them not to use hairspray or "product" in my hair bc I don't like it. I miss back in college when I could go in to the cosmetology "salon" and get students to cut my hair for $5. Some of them were nervous & I told them to relax "It's just hair, it can grow back" which seemed to set them at ease. I've never understood why some people get so freaked out about their hair. LOL.

A couple days ago I took the girl to a cardiology appointment and made sure to go in with her so she wouldn't forget to ask her doctor things. She has a hard time understanding and answering questions. She was afraid to tell him she stopped taking her meds (bc they made her dizzy). I think my friends think of me as a chauffeur. LOL. I haul their carpet, appliances, lumber, and take them to places that would cost them too much $ in gas to go.

I've been working on my cooking, even though I don't like it. My cats were trying to "help" by grabbing my utensils, trying to get in to the measuring cups, and one of them wrapped himself around my leg, flopped on his side, and kicked with his back feet to spin himself around my leg over and over. I found ways to make hamburger helper stroganof not suck. Its still not as good as the stuff Mom made from scratch, but it's good. I add a jar of mushrooms that come with 1/2 cup of liquid. I replace some of the water the recipe calls for with that liquid & add the mushrooms in with the mix. At the end I add sour cream & a splash of heavy cream. Last night I even heated up some brussel sprouts as a side (and didn't tell my brother there were leftovers since last time he ate all of them).

I really need to get my friend over to help pull the toilet again, it keeps pivoting bc the repair flange isn't anchored. Makes it hard to flush & it rocks a lot. The sooner I get it fixed the better. I think after repairing that, the next thing to work on is getting rid of the S-traps under all of the sinks. When it warms up a bit more, I can work on removing the studs from the guest bathroom (wall panels are mostly down already) and taking the door out. Although, I have to do a lot of cleaning and sorting before I can tackle that. We have a lot of junk to get rid of and/or put away somewhere.
 




check these dudes out, a band from mongolia these guys rock !!!!

Wow! Those guys do rock! I love this! I have a new type of music to appreciate now. I'm going to share the hell out of this with my friends and family. Thanks, Frodo!
 
Thanks again, Frodo! I love hearing different forms of music. I remember really enjoying the music from The Last of the Mohicans. I've always enjoyed Enya and Clannad and celtic music.
The Mongolian throat singing reminds me of the sound a didgeridoo makes.

This one came up in a related link to The Hu- throat singing combined with bagpipes.

Did I ever post the link to the Misty Mountains Cold version by Peter Hollens and Tim Foust?


I ended up listening to the Wolf Totem song over and over instead of cleaning up and going to the store. LOL.

The old 240lb Sony projection TV finally stopped working after over 15 years and I have to clear a path to get it moved out and get the new flat screen TV put in & have the little table for it put together. My buddy is coming over Tuesday to help move stuff & to lift the toilet again to fix the flange. The flange repair ring didn't stay in place because I was missing the screws to bolt it down. Should I use one of the rubber washers that came with a lift kit under it? Or is it ok to use plumber's putty?

As an aside, I have a couple of floor lamps that broke & I'm trying to figure out if I can fix them. I got them for $5 each at a flea market. Not only did the mechanism to turn them on break, but the biggest problem is that the threads where the pole screws in to the base seem to have stripped or bent or something & they won't stay in and the lamps topple over. I was thinking of modifying them to turn on via touch instead of turning the little knob, which I can figure out how to do, but my main issue is figuring out how to stabilize them so they don't tip. I don't want it to look fugly- so duct tape won't do. Only photo I could find of what the lamps look like (pic from the internet not of my actual lamps- but that is the exact lamp):
modernblackgoldfloorlamp.jpg

I'll have to get pics of the actual lamp base up close and show the threads, but right now my room is a disaster and I need to move stuff to get to them.

After cleaning the kitchen, living room, and front room, I really need to tackle my room and get rid of stuff I don't need. I have old stuffed animals I need to let go of, but being a hoarder & having sentimental attachment makes it harder. I've found if I know things will be re-used by others, it isn't as hard, but I can't stand to just throw stuff away.

I'm wondering if there is some way to fix the lamp with some sort of pipe and/or pipe fitting & paint it black. I wish the base was different as well. I'd like something with more curves to it-- something like this:
lampbase1.png
Not sure if that is possible though.

Meanwhile, I found a wicker basket and set it out in the hallway to see which cat would get in it first. Aminatu has declared herself to be queen of the basket and has been sitting in it all day.
 
need a picture of the lamp where it is broke

i have 2 thoughts
1] buy a thread tap at the hardware store for $5.00
and retap the stripped thread

2], dill the thread out, with a 1/2'' drill bit
then slide a 3/8'' all thread rod into the hole
secure it with a nut and washer on each side of the base
 

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