Hot Dog Was NOT on the Menu

Notice: The event described below was unintentional, and any humor I or my family found in the situation was because there was no injury or harm to anyone, animal or human.

I normally don't get much excitement, particularly of the humorous kind, but yesterday was an exception. I was grilling some steaks and burgers for the family. One of my dogs (Csaba) was hanging around the grill trying to get the drippings that made it through the coals and out the vent holes in the bottom of the kettle. I try to keep him away from the grill when it's in use, but he is pretty persistent, and I occasionally have to step away. My biggest concern has been that he might tip the grill over, as he's a pretty stocky dog for a Shiba Inu, and he's a bit of a klutz.

Anyway, I stepped in the house for a moment to grab something forgotten on the counter, leaving Csaba to his own devices for about 30 seconds. When I went back outside, he was on fire! Yes, on FIRE! From the base of his skull to the middle of his back, and down onto his left shoulder. As I didn't have water immediately at hand, and honestly wasn't thinking exceptionally clearly, I tried to catch him to put out the fire by smothering it. It turned out to be a good idea, as he ran and the breeze put the flames out.

A quick inspection showed that he was little worse for the experience, thank goodness. And I'm also thankful he didn't come in the house like that. Wow, that could have been bad.

Shiba Inu's have nice thick coats, and I suspect he never actually knew that there was a problem. He'd been under the grill enough in the past to know that his back would get warm and that it wasn't a problem, so I suspect he thought this was just the same thing. You can tell something happened to his fur as there are some funny looking patches over his left shoulder, but it would be tough to tell exactly what the problem was.

At the time, I was pretty freaked out, but I can see the humor now given that he was uninjured. And I have a new project to complete before my next session on the grill - a cage to keep the dog out from under it. Otherwise, next time we really might have a literal hot dog.

Growing up too fast...

My oldest daughter is six and has a 'boyfriend'. The idea seemed pretty cute at first. I mean, really, that just means she has a friend that's a boy, right?

• Not when said boy (7) and my daughter are holding hands every time they're together
• Not when said boy gets in a fight defending his "girlfriend's" honor
• Not when said boy thinks your 6-year old daughter is "hot"
• Not when said boy has a 16-year old brother with a (real) girlfriend

Ah, yes, that's the meat of the problem - 7 going on 16. I thought I had a little time before I became a jealous and watchful father; no such luck.

I guess I'm not a plumber...

Friday morning before New Years, and I'm standing in the kitchen with the faucet lever in my hand…and the lever's no longer attached to the faucet. Crap…

After a brief conversation with the wife (who was visiting family), I picked up a new faucet at Lowe's (liked their selection better than Home Depot) and brought it home. "This'll be pretty straightforward,' I thought. Right.

The old Moen faucet inlets were two copper tubes which were so close to the nut that held the faucet to the sink that I couldn't get any sort of wrench around the nut to loosen it. I tried two different self-adjusting wrenches and a brand new basin wrench for about 40 minutes, and all I managed to do was work up a sweat and bang my hands around under the sink. OK, that's not going to work.

To give myself more room, I pulled the garbage disposal out at this point, which helped some, but I still couldn't quite get in to the nut. For some reason, it took me this long to realize that the faucet was broken anyway, so it really didn't matter if the inlet tubes were broken off or not - so I broke them off. Unfortunately, they snapped just BELOW the bolt, meaning I STILL couldn't get the basin wrench around the nut. But the smaller adjustable was able to get around the nut and after some gyrations under there, I got the damn thing out.

The new Price Pfister faucet went in (as a co-worker would say) "like buttah!". It looks nice and works well.

So, now I had to put the garbage disposal back in.

Attempt 1, Friday afternoon: Damn thing is leaking! OK, it's not seated right on the cuff. Pull it.
Attempt 2, Friday evening: Damn thing is leaking! OK, it looks like it's seated correctly, and it's not leaking as badly…hmmm. Plug the sink and see if it's leaking from the insert or if there really is a problem. Ok, it appears to be the insert, but I'm too damn tired to do this tonight….tomorrow.
Attempt 3, Saturday morning: Yank the whole unit, including the mounting insert, from the sink and start from scratch. Everything installed again and…ok…looks goo…crap! Damn thing is leaking! Maybe there really is a problem...
Attempt 4, Sunday morning: Yanked the whole shebang AGAIN and started parts. Carefully mounted the insert in the sink and took great pains to ensure that the bracket was tightened evenly. Remounted unit on bracket and reconnected everything…looks good…whew!

Three days, and I have my sink back. It looks like the initial problem was when I first remounted the unit, I pushed up on the bracket too hard, damaging the putty seal between the sink and the insert. When I completely reinstalled on Saturday, I didn't take the necessary care to ensure that the insert was evenly tightened, and I screwed up the seal again. Lesson learned. I got frustrated started rushing to get the job finished. I'd done this before and not had problems, so clearly I wasn't part of the problem this time either. Yeah, right...

Loosing a tooth...

My oldest daughter lost her first tooth (naturally) this week. She's been so excited because her tooth was loose, and wanted to show everyone. She especially liked pushing it so it was sticking almost perpendicular to her gums and grossing her mom out. Now that it's fallen out she has yet another gap in her smile, and it looks really cute. Of course, the tooth fairy came and took the tooth, leaving $1 behind in recompense.

I'm not sure I'm happy about it, as it is one more indication that she's getting older. Every day is exciting and precious and one day nearer the day when she's not my little girl any more. This is one more reminder to cherish and enjoy every moment with my children, because they will never be this young, innocent, and full of wonder again.