11.28.2007

The joys of ownership


I know that you probably know what I am going to write about from the title but here goes anyway...So ever since we moved into our house we have had this weird humming sound that comes from the showers when the hot water is on. We just recently we noticed that our water pressure was way low and our washer would not work on the hot water cycle. It would just get an error and stop working. So we looked in the owners manual to see what the error meant: "Low hot water pressure or leak" I was grateful it wasn't a leak. So my mom asked a plumber in her ward what the symptoms were if you have great cold water pressure and nothing for hot. He said we needed to shut off the water, take off the pipe and drill out the build up. So i did just that. My first impression was how did the water even get through all that junk in the first place. There was not even a small hole. Nothing and it was solid too. So needless to say i got it all fixed and drilled out. I actually felt quite accomplished because i saved myself some money by fixing it on my own. The washer works great now and there is no longer a humming sound in the shower. Now i have so much pressure i am going to have to clean the drain because it doesn't drain fast enough now. Oh the joys of home ownership!

11.23.2007

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving turned out to be rather fun. We at with my family at 11:30 and then hosted Kayla’s family at our house at 3. It was actually quite nice to have it at our place because we were all able to sit around the same table. Kayla did an excellent job of putting all the place settings together and the table was packed with food. Katherine and Marc were the first to sit down at the table and first thing she did was knock over her drink. Oh well, no big deal we hurried to clean it up before it got on to the chairs and the floor. Then about half way through our meal, CRASH—BREAK—SCREECH and I thought the little kid table had been overturned by rowdy children but I was only half correct. On the half wall right beneath the little kids table was a clock that Kayla salvaged from her mom. It had fallen off of her wall about 4 years ago and Kayla fixed it. Well anyway, Jeffrey hit the wall with his head and needless to say, down came the clock. It was shattered, Kayla wanted to fix it but I plead with her just to throw it away which she did crying “it’s all in splinters” but it was time.
The other cool thing about thanksgiving was that we were able to have a webcam conversation with Trevor who is in Korea. We had a few technical difficulties to start with but after that it worked smoothly and we were all able to see Trevor and he us. It was really cool. Trevor said he really enjoyed it and thought that Grandma Taylor was scared of the new fangled technology because she sat down, said hello Trevor then said well I guess I will let you go so others can talk. That was all she wanted to do with that.
It was great to spend thanksgiving with my family as well. We at Lances then everybody played the Nintendo Wii. It was fun to see the “older” people play like my aunt Jodie and my dad. The Olympics were fun but it was most entertaining to watch the boxing. I played a few rounds of boxing and it definitely kicked my butt. My shoulders were sore the next day.

11.14.2007

Pumkin cake

So any time Kayla or I make a cake for a work function or party, about this time of year, we always bake a cake that looks like a pumpkin. Well today for my class I make one of these cakes and it turned out to be a hit with everybody in my class. We made a process flow chart on how I made this cake. It was actually quite funny so we had a person take a picture of it so we could put it on our PowerPoint presentation. This cake is generally hit with everyone because it is so festive. All you do is bake two bundt cakes, trim off the tops to make them flat and then frost them. We usually spray it with Orange spray food coloring because our orange frosting generally turns out peach colored. Then we just use an ice cream cone for the stem. It is probably a tradition to make at least two of these per year. We are pretty much pros now. Just a tip if you want to try it: 1. use Duncan Hines spice cake mix, 2. substitute milk for water and this will make the cake much denser and easier to work with...if you don't then it will just fall apart and will not look like a pumpkin.