A Halloween Tale

I had a pizza post almost set to go tonight, but there was trick or treating and I saw this while walking the streets for candy:

The setting:  A typical, dime a dozen suburban cul de sac.
The characters: my daughter and two of her friends and a group of 6 or 7 kids ranging in age from 7 to 10.

My daughter and her friends are strolling along talking. The trick or treating is secondary. They are in no rush to get from house to house. They don't care and are enjoying each others company. For the most part, I am usually 20 or so feet away from them letting them do what they but around just in case I'm needed. They are all in 8th grade. I'm not sure how many more costumed Halloweens are in their future.

The pack of younger kids is running from house to house. My daughter, her friends and the pack of kids were all on the same door step, trick or treated, and got some candy. The pack of kids ran across the lawn to the next house. My daughter and her friends chat while they go down the walkway to the street and casually followed the pack.

The pack rang the bell and then took off. A father asked what was going happening. One pack member yelled, "We ding dong ditched!" Most of them scattered. One pack member hid behind a bush. When the door opened, my daughter and her friends had just gotten to the stoop. They said, "trick or treat," got some candy and politely thanked the home owner. The kid hiding in the bush realized how dumb he was being, got in line and got some candy. I'm not sure the rest of the kids realized the error of their ways.

And in other news, we are fostering another dog and she is freaking adorable.  She's on my lap right now.

I learned it from watching you...tube

Awhile ago, I used to sit down with an adult beverage after everyone went to bend and try to stump YouTube.

YouTube couldn’t possible have this obscure video from the 80’s. It did.

What about this song? Yep.

How about music from a band I used to go in Boston in the early 90s. You bet.

What about the rock opera I saw in Paris in 1989? The whole damn rock opera.

And when I needed to tile a back splash, I learned how to set tile from a guy in Australia that put up a few videos.

Sometime last year, the dryer wouldn’t start. I did a few searches and found out that it was most likely the belt. I found a parts supply company with lots of videos. To check the belt, I undid two screws and pooped the top of the dryer. If the belt was broken, it would either be gone having fallen to the floor of the dryer or resting on top in one piece. It was in one piece. I order the belt from them and it showed up two days later. The site has a nice feature where you can type in the dryer model and get confirmation that it’s the right part. The company also had a video where I could watch a someone basically take apart my dryer (it wasn’t the exact model) and put on the belt. It was a little difficult to get the belt on, but I eventually got it and everything worked well. Fixed for under $10. Wohoo!

Last weekend, my older daughter was at a birthday party and my younger daughter was sleeping over at a friend house. My wife and I had 4 hours of alone time…and that’s when we discovered the dryer no longer produced heat. To the internet!

My online diagnosis narrowed it down to three things: a thermal fuse, the thermostat or the heating element. Based on our crummy lint trap on the duct going outside, I thought it was thermal fuse. I have an el cheapo Harbor Freight free voltmeter, but it is worth about as much as I paid for it. It was no help diagnosing the problem. So, I went online, found a local company that had a thermal fuse and picked it up on Monday. After work, I installed it (once you got everything open, it is pretty much undoing 2 wires, taking out two screws, putting the fuse in place, putting back the two screws and then putting the two wires back in the same spot), put the dryer back together and gave it a whirl. No heat.

I went back to my trusty appliance website and ordered a heating element and thermostat. When they came in the mail, I already had the dryer opened and ready to go. You basically have to undo about 10 screws and 6 wires, replace the parts, and put the screws and wires back. All three of the parts I was replacing are on the same larger piece. I put it all back together and much to my surprise, it worked. Worked well.

This fix was a little pricier that the $10 belt but probably less than having a service person walk in the door. The heating element was about $70, and the fuse and thermostat were about $20 each. Had I known what I was doing and had a better meter, I could have saved a little and skipped the thermostat and fuse. But I figure with everything replaced hopefully we can get some trouble-free years out of the dryer.

What’s weird is that I think this all goes back to when we had the steers. I think the experience of building and maintaining the fence gave me the confidence to work with tools more. The wood oven probably helped a little too. The only tools this dryer fix required was a Phillips head screwdriver and a needle nose pliers. And a guy on YouTube showing me step by step how to do it.

If you want to give it a shot yourself, check out AppliancePartsPros.com They seem to have everything plus a little video on how to install the part.

Take me out to the ball game

When we go to The Joe for a Valley Cats game it is usually with a group. The elementary school goes to a game right when school gets out and a group from work usually goes sometime in July. Both of those come as package deals. For 10 to 12 bucks you get the ticket, a not very good burger or hotdog, a small cup filled with mostly ice and a splash of soda, plus a little bag of chips.

This year, we couldn’t make either group trip to the game. On Saturday, we went on our own. I think there might have been a slightly smaller crowd than usual because of the Traverse Stakes up in Saratoga. I think there was a concert and the fight was on Saturday too. I went online to buy tickets Saturday morning and there were plenty of blocks of 4 to pick from. For $12 a ticket (plus a $3 processing fee for who knows what since I printed the tickets myself and a computer handled the transaction on their end) we had seat almost behind home plate. Just a little bit towards first base, 5 rows back. Every other time we have gone, we have been much further up a baseline.

The seats were really good. You could get a sense of the strike zone (kind of – the ump was a little all over the place with balls and strikes), see a slider drop and watch a ball slice through the air after it was hit. We got a late start going to the game. The kids had some friends over and I was fighting some framing on the oven enclosure. Instead of eating the fairly bad food at the park, we stopped at Mac’s Drive In for bacon cheeseburgers and their homemade fries on our way to the ball park. We missed the top of the first inning but were in our seats for the bottom of the first 2 out rally where the Cats scored 5 and hit 3 home runs.

 

The umps were having a off night. Besides the moving strike zone which both teams complained about enough to get yelled at by the field umpire, the field umpire totally blew a call at second base. A Cat hit a single and rounder first. The outfielder overthrew the ball past second base and runner took off. The ball was caught, thrown to second base and beat the runner there. But there was no tag. The runner was clearly safe. The third base coach came out to complain but that was that. That call cost the Cats a run. During the next at bat there was a wild pitch where the runner on 2^nd could have walked to third. The next batter hit a long fly ball and the runner could have tagged up from third and scored. Turns out they didn’t need the extra run and won the game 9 to 1.

For some reason, both teams seemed to have a lot of everybody-in-the-infield meetings on the pitcher’s mound. When that happens in a softball game, the girls in the outfield often have their own meeting in center field. No idea what they are talking about but whenever I see players talking at the mound it makes me think of the scene from Bull Durham where the players arediscussing potential wedding gifts during the game.

Candlesticks always make a nice gift.

If you can plan ahead a little bit, these tickets are worth it. It’s a completely different game viewing experience.

Fakin' It

One unexpected souvenir from the recent family vacation was a counterfeit to dollar bill. We think we got it in Nassau, Bahamas as change from a $20 when we bought an actual souvenir. With 20/20 hindsight, it seems like we got three legitimate ones and the fake ten as change.

On the first Monday back at work, I stopped into the store I've stopped into almost every weekday for the 7 or 8 years. And I tried to pay with fake money. I didn't know it was fake money at the time, but it was definitely fake money. Josh (I've been a customer long enough to know just about everybody's name there) knew it was fake immediately. As soon as he touched it. Then he used that special highlighter cashiers have one it and the marker lines turned brown.

Josh pointed out the feel of the paper was all wrong. Apparently there is a lot of fake money going around. I swapped the fake $10 for an actual $20.  I felt lucky that this happened in a place that I was a regular and was completely able to avoid being accused of intentionally trying pass off counterfeit money. If there is a silver lining to being out the ten bucks, it's that.
 
With the change, I was able to compare the fake $10 to a real $10. The fake was slightly smaller and the feel was definitely off. If someone was handing me just this fake $10, I might catch the imposter based on feel. It is definitely the wrong paper. I doubt I would have noticed it coming back mixed in with some actual money.

Compared side to side, the color on the back of the counterfeit is slightly off too. The fake is on top.

Lesson learned. Time to start paying more attention during cash transactions. I went back the next day and Benny was the cashier. As I handed him a five, I said "Here's a real five." He laughed and said, "Yeah, Josh told me about that."

So now I've got a fake ten dollar bill. What the hell am I supposed to do with it?

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Went on a vacation last week. We were completely cut off from the outside world. No phone. No internet. It was oddly nice. As someone that had to play catch up to the news of the week, I can verify that ignorance is bliss.

While on vacation, I thought of a bunch of possible post topics. Some food related, some on the oddities of a cruise (why are there continuous art and jewelry sales pitches?) and another one that I think a sociologist PhD candidate could use as a thesis topic. But with the news of the day in mind, I’m going to go with something light.

I hugged Andy the Dolphin.

During the time we spent with Andy the Dolphin I also pet him, felt his teeth, held his front fins (it was kind of a dance thing) and fed Andy a fish. There was also a kiss.

Now, if one of my kids intentionally splashed salt water in my face I’d be yelling, “what the hell are you doing?!? Cut it out!” But when Andy the Dolphin intentionally splashes salt water in your face, you just smile and think, “Silly Andy…He’s so cute.” Dolphins could get away with anything.

 

After you hang out around a dolphin, you spend the rest of the day thinking, “I can’t believe that happened.” It’s been almost a week and I still think it.

Pizza Oven Update: Topping off

Hit a milestone over the weekend so it is time for the next wood fired oven update. It was a bunch of long days so it is kind of blending into a blur. I might be messing up the timeline.

First, if you need steel studs I highly recommend BuildingSpecialties (L & W Supply) right off of Route 9 in the Latham/Cohoes area. Very friendly. They answered numerous and most likely annoying questions including a panicked phone call about the washers I used. Just generally nice place. I underestimated what I needed and had to get a few more pieces. They cut them down so they would fit in my mini-van.  They also stock the most sheet rock I have ever seen in one place.

One day after work, my friend Ryan drove up with me to L & W supply and we got a bunch of 18 gage steel studs and track. On the way to my house, we also stopped at Home Depot to grab a few sheets of plywood. All of this sat in my garage while it rained off and on for what felt like an eternity.

I unwrapped the oven and screwed the bottom tracks in for the steel studs. Lots of holes were drilled and probably an excessive amount of TapCon screws (concrete screws) were used. Then the oven got wrapped up again… and it rained again. 

I wanted to start with the easiest wall which was the back.  Just a straight 30-inch high wall. I messed up the gauges of the steel studs. I bought tin snips that said they were good up to 20 gauge. I was using 18 gauge steel studs. Perfect, the snips age good to 20. Except I forgot that gauges go the other way and 18 gauge is thicker than 20 gauge. I gave it a shot. My tin snips were able to bend the 18 gauge steel but not cut it. I don’t have a chop saw so all the cuts were made with an angle grinder. I kind of got the hang of an angle grinder just in time to be done cutting. The first wall went pretty well.

On to the sides. I decided on a 30 inch wall height in the rear and a 48 inch height in the front. The idea was to avoid being able to hit my head on a corner anywhere around the oven. It’s a little close in the back but the higher the back wall is, the higher the front wall gets for the pitch. The chimney also has to be factored in to the calculation. I have 5 feet of chimney and you should have at least 2 feet of pipe above the roof. 

I cut the wall closer to the house. Fit it together. It looked good so I took it apart and did my best to duplicate it for the other side. I fit them both back together to see if they were level-ish to each other. I was going to take them down so the current tarp/canopy covering system still worked, but they looked pretty good so I screwed them into place. It was also clear that I needed some more material that was it until I got the chance to go shopping again. 

My friend Joe stopped by to lay out the wiring. There will be a few outlets in back, a few on the side and a switch for some overhead lights. He also helped me figure out how to frame the front. Brick size limited the depth of the landing so the chimney is in there pretty tight.  After getting the second round of steel studs, Joe came back to help again. He mounted and wired the electric boxes while I cut the pieces for the front. We got the chimney anchor plate installed and then framed up the front.  The anchorage was set up when I built the arches. One thing to note, the bolts, nuts and washers are all stainless steel. You don’t want to heat galvanized metal up (puts off a toxic gas).

Then with some help from my wife and oldest daughter we put together the framing for the roof. My wife had to leave but my daughter and I were able to get the roof from the driveway to the oven with a moving dolly.  During the process, we met our new neighbors. I must have looked like a complete, possibly scary, mess. Great first impression.

I put the strips I used to for the concrete ring around the oven. I picked up a few bags of perlite to dump over the oven as a little bit of extra insulation. The form was to keep the perlite from flowing into the corners. Then the whole family managed to get the roof onto the framing and the concrete board walls went up. (I don't think I took any pictures of just the walls)

Last Sunday morning, we got the front wall mounted.  With the walls done, I dumped in a bunch of the loose perlite around the oven walls. The rest goes on the top as the roof gets installed.

The problem with changing the plans multiple times is that it eventually messes stuff up. I had figured three 4’x8’ sheets of plywood for the roof (a 4 foot, a piece cut to 3 feet, and another cut to a little over 2 feet depending on the overhang) and that adds up. What I messed up was having the roof framing line up at the right spot. Lots of measuring, a little bit of cursing and some work with a circular saw and each of the 3 sheets of ply wood were cut to something’ x 8’ so they hit the framing. There’s a reason everything is supposed to be 16 inches on center. It adds up. Local framing contractors do not need to worry about me stealing their business.

Once two pieces of plywood were on, I quickly realized my plan for locating where to cut the hole for the chimney wasn’t going to work. I had thought I’d be on the one piece of plywood and reach under to locate “centerish” with some help from the bottom. However, instead of being on one piece of plywood, two pieces had to be put up to get past the chimney location. Not sure this makes any sense. I had planned to be working fairly close to the edge of a 4 foot piece of plywood. I could lay on top and reach under. But I needed 2 cut pieces of plywood (about 6 feet up there), so I couldn’t reach around the framing to touch the center of the chimney. Plan B was needed.

We best guessed near center and drilled a hole. As long as the holes were inside the circle that was getting cut out, it didn’t matter how many were drilled. I lowered a string with a screw tied to the end (homemade plumb bob). From that location, we re-estimated center-ish (a few inches towards the front and a just a little bit more to one side. Drilled another hole and tried again – pretty close. I drilled a screw in where I thought center was. Using a string and a Sharpie I marked out a 12 inch circle. Then starting from one of the holes, I cut out the circle with a jig saw. Up came the chimney pipe (a 5 foot length of 8 inch double walled Duravent – outside diameter is 10 inches). Holy shit, it fit.

Dumped in the rest of the perlite and then we got the rest of the plywood on the roof. Snow and ice barrier is usually over the last 3 or 6 feet of a roof line. Since the whole roof is 9’ by 8’ and the barrier is sold in 150 square foot package, we covered the whole thing. After that, I popped the chimney flashing and cap on to the pipe.

Structurally, the oven is done. Topping party!

This Sunday, I wrestled with the fascia. I don’t really know the ins and outs of small building construction. My goal, based solely on earlier indecision, was to leave a 1.5-inch overhang with the plywood around the entire frame. 20/20 hindsight being what it is, I should have shot for ¾ of an inch. To fill this gap I needed a 2xsomething piece of wood which are significantly heavier than 1xsomething. Doesn’t mater structurally, more for installation difficulty.

So I got a bunch of 2x8s (which are actually 1.5”x7.25”), ripped about half an inch off them (the metal roof framing is 6 inches deep and the extra ¾ inch if to make a line with soffit (bottom of the eave). Once they were ripped I used the router and ½ in round over bit to make the bottom edge pretty. Then came the installation.

Each fascia board was clamped into position. Pilot holes were drilled and the widened a little for a counter sink. Each board was then attached with a bunch of screws. I’ll either plug the holes with a little piece of word or maybe a rounded button. I’ve got to decide which looks better.

It was now about 7:00 on Sunday.  I didn’t think putting up the drip edge was going to be a problem. But it was. And I messed it up. Expletives were muttered. OK, maybe louder than a mutter. I got the back piece on and called it day. After some more research and looking at our roof, it appears that no one does drip edge the way I was trying. And I thing bending one piece around a corner was harder with the drip edge I was using. I got the kind that has a 6 in flap so I could get past the steel framing to nail it on. It might work better with the 2-inch kind that could have worked if I built the entire roof out of wood. Caulk will be my friend here. 

Had an appointment Monday afternoon and then went home. Got the rest of the drip edge on and then set up to do the shingles. My wife Amy was cutting them and I was crawling around the roof nailing them on. We were careful to avoid nails going into the steel framing. We got lucky, there was really only one row that was a little too close for comfort. Cut out around the chimney pipe, got the flashing down and then kept going towards the top. (Side note: you can’t get more of an open ventilated area than the top of a roof and I think I caught a buzz off of the caulk around the flashing.) We finished up around 7:30.

There are a few things I want to touch up on the roof but the roof is basically done. Here's the view from an upstairs bedroom

Everything else is finishing work. There’s still plenty to do, most likely in this order...

1. The soffit: going to be a grooved pine with a few lights (once this is done, the oven is truly sealed up)

2. The counter in front - some more concrete and a counter top

3.  Make the outside walls pretty - I’m leaning towards stucco, I might need to extend the opening arch a little.

4. Make the concrete base look pretty- probably some stone veneer or tile.

Parts of this might get put one the back burner. I’m in a spot where I really want to use the oven and ease up on building it. Once the soffit is in and everything is sealed up, I wont have to worry about the weather forecast every time I think about firing the oven up.

Some 20/20 Hindsight: If I could go back in time, I would have only used the steel for the front wall and wood for the other three and the roof. It’s easier to work with, probably a little cheaper and would have been built faster. No worries about the steel rotting though.

Many thanks to Amy (she was really a huge help), Joe, Lisa, Eric, and Allison for their help with this phase of the construction.