What weekends are for

Gorgeous day today, so we went surfing this morning before the beach got too busy. It was pretty calm with the occasional good wave as long as you were patient. I caught my first real one and actually managed to get to my feet. Normally I'm not quick enough and I don't get past kneeling before falling off. Mrs P's brother was down from Jacksonville too and he was out on the ocean in his kayak. Grammy and Walter came down too so it was a big family beach morning. It was a lot of fun for sure.

This afternoon I had to replace the rear brake pads on the Beast as I could seem some uneven wear on the rotors. Easy enough job and took less than an hour. I've also replaced the bug screen on one of the house windows as it was torn by an opossum while we were away camping.

Mrs P has gone out with her girl friends to the cinema this evening to watch Sex and the City. Guess that's a couple of hours of her life that she'll never get back.

Tomorrow I'm off to Gander Mountain, the hunting, fishing, camping, shooting and scuba store. This place is redneck heaven with more Mossy Oak that you can shake the proverbial stick at, assuming that is, you could find it. Anyway they have a sale on scuba gear at the moment with 30% off their already low prices. I'm also hoping that I can pick up a cargo hauler that fits on the tow hitch just like the one in the pic below. Sometimes the Beast just isn't big enough!!!
Anyway came across this amazing thing while looking for the cargo hauler online. At $300 its not cheap but its one of the coolest gadgets I think I've ever seen.

Nice rack

The surfboard rack has been finished and duly installed in the danger room. It somewhat restricts the amount of space I've got over my workbench but its the only location in the house that we could put it. Unless of course we wanted above the couch in the living room. Probably cost me less than $15 all told, perhaps there's a part time job in it for me....

Overcooked....

Well another busy weekend. Mrs P and I went on a date on Friday as the kids had sleepovers. We dined on rack of lamb, fillet mignon, seared tuna, duck and grouper at a Tapas style restaurant.

On Saturday morning I finished repairing the surfboard while Mrs P went shopping with one of her friends. The repair won't win any beauty contests but it's worked. Went to the beach on Sunday to test out the board but it was very windy and the surf was very choppy and not suited to beginners. Last time we tried surf in these conditions I got whacked on the head and badly bruised my ribs.

Spent an hour or so Monday morning at the Home Depot getting some materials to build a surfboard rack. Now that we've got a couple of them we need somewhere to store them properly rather than leaving them on the back deck. The rest of Sunday was spent at the beach and I fried. I hastily sprayed on some lotion before I left but missed loads as the can ran out. My face, back, shoulders and legs are all crispy and lobster pink! That'll teach me.

How To...part II

..fix a surfboard. Here is the board in all its $75 glory. It was a bargain as one we bought last summer was nearly 4 times that price and that was the cheapest 2nd hand one they had! The soft bit is right in the center of the board about 12 inches in diameter.

I've drilled holes in an evenly spaced pattern across the entire patch to be fixed using a 1/8" bit. I know need to leave it a couple of days to dry out in case there is any moisture inside.

How To...

...install a garbage disposal.

This was easier than I thought, luckily someone had already installed the power on a separate fused circuit and the switch was wired in too. All I had to do was change the face plate for a socket and mount it properly to the wall.

Existing pipework removed and new socket installed and tested.

The mounting bracket installed underneath sink.

New garbage disposal installed in position

Luckily I had enough pieces left over from the original pipework to finish off the drainage and connect the dishwasher

Job done and Mrs P over the moon, and I quote this is what "sorts the middle class from the lower class".

Handy man

This weekend has been incredibly busy.

So far this weekend I've done the following DIY jobs:

• finished off making my workbench complete with power sockets (pics to follow)


• installed a new garbage disposal system (pics to follow)


• installed a new shelf in the cupboard under the sink


• boarded part of the attic floor (this wasn't fun as it was 80F outside and the temperature in the attic was another 10-15 degrees hotter. I was sweating buckets and went through 2 t-shirts)

I've also shifted several boxes of books and other stuff up into the attic.

Mrs P entered her first triathlon this morning and left the house at "stupid o'clock". The kids and I travelled down at a more reasonable 8:45 to watch her finish. It was only a small race but ideal for her first try, she was first in her age group too. Her friend Rachael (who's persuaded her into these events) was the first woman home too. Well done to both of them! Now she wants a proper road bike but we've no where to store it in the house and if we leave it outside it will rust in minutes.

Mrs P also turned up with a new surfboard this week which she got a bargain on at $75. It needs a bit of work as the deck has started to delaminate from the center of the board. I'm on the case and I'm reliably informed that if I inject some fibreglass resin in the gap and then put a heavy weight on it it will fix it perfectly. I've bought the resin and a seasoning injector (see below) and will try a Re-Animator style operation. I need to get this done some time this week as it's Memorial Day next monday and we've all got the day off work. Time to hit the beach and start surfing.

That'll be a pound....

Well there was no Mr Fiddler in sight and camping was a great success. The tent is massive and is pretty easy to get set up. We didn't really forget anything too important and a good time was had by all. We may have only been 3 miles up the road but on Saturday evening we sat on the beach and watched the dolphins swim by...could it get any better?

Sunday was Mother's day and I treated Mrs P to something she's always wanted.... a garbage disposal system. I know can hear you all saying what an old romantic I am, some people have to work at it but it comes easy to me. I'll try and find a couple of hours this week to install it.

The Beast has developed a small coolant leak from behind the timing chain cover. I've studied the Haynes manual in great depth and it's a pain in the neck to fix. To get to the water pump I have to remove the fan and possibly the radiator too (to gain some extra access space as I don't want to put a hole in it). If I have to remove the radiator then I'll have to drain the A/C too (that's under high pressure and it's illegal to vent it to the air). Having got those out I have to remove the sump pan to get the timing cover off. This is the killer step as I have to drop the exhausts from the manifolds and disconnect a whole heap of other stuff. All in all it's just too much for me to get done in a weekend and I probably haven't got the right tools here so I'll leave it till I have too and then pay someone to fix it.

Film 08, da...da...daaah

Cloverfield = TRASH. We rented this last night after both Mrs P and I missed it at the cinema and we both wanted to see it. It was utter rubbish and after 30 minutes I'd had enough (it's only 80 minutes long) and I gave up to read my newly purchased Haynes manual for the Beast. Mrs P bravely carried on watching but her final review was '...sucks, but there were a couple of good bits."

Its supposed to get up to 93F today which is going to be mighty hot especially as we're going under canvas tonight. Our friends are going with their two daughters so should be good fun. Mrs P wants to take the surfboard too but I've no idea where we're going to store it overnight.

As promised

Here are the pictures of Mrs P's birthday cake. If you can't work out what it is, or you're not a fan of the show (I'm not but Mrs P LOVES it) then its the island from Lost, complete with plane crash and polar bear. If you're wondering about the black splodge in the top left corner it was supposed to be a Dharma Initiative logo but leaving the cake out of the fridge for a couple of hours put paid to that.



Mrs P has also booked a campsite for Saturday night. It's only a couple of miles away so if it all goes horribly wrong then there's an escape plan. Sunday is Mother's day so I need to get my act together for that too.

Ramble on

Sunday was a busy day all round. I finished off making the framework for a new workbench and just need to get some plywood to put a top and shelf on it. After this we all went to the beach for a couple of hours and met up with some friends.

Mrs P wants to go camping as soon as possible and is really keen to go this weekend, so I insisted that we try and put the tent up first in the privacy of our back yard so as not to look like complete noobs. This was a great idea only flawed in its execution as the tent is bigger than the yard so we didn't manage to get it fully erected. But all the parts are there and we think we now know what we're doing.

Last night we all dined on snowcrab legs. The grocery store had an offer and they were reduced to $5/lb so we helped ourselves to 3 lbs. We do need to get some proper crab/lobster crackers though as using my pliers isn't the best or most hygenic solution!

Yesterday evening was spent trying to sort out the HR paperwork from the new job. Trying to wade through the information on health insurance policies is just a nightmare! Add on to that trying to work out how much tax they need to withhold so that I don't end up with a hefty tax bill at the end of the year is just a headache. Mrs P's take is to withhold more so you get a bigger rebate but most of it is guess work. Still I get paid on Thursday so it's happy days all round

Sugary nonsense

Well that's my first week of work out of the way and glad it's the weekend. Friday's at work is officially dress down day and jeans and tshirts are the order of the day. I sort of knew about this but wasn't sure so I played it safe with pants and a shirt. All day everyone kept saying "You know its jeans day today?"

Anyway this afternoon we're having a family get together to celebrate Mrs P's birthday. I'm on cake making duty and a killer of a cake planned. I don't want to give the game away now so photos to follow later. Talking of food look at this new cereal...it truly is the breakfast of kings...