Brandon started baseball a few weeks back, this year it is machine pitch. I was surprised that on his first at bat during practice he managed to hit 3 out of the 5 pitches. Here is a picture of him playing the pitcher position. He was able to make a good stop and throw to first to try to get the runner out.

Both boys are in swimming. Aiden either is really excited to go or complains the whole time until he is in the water and then he does not want to get out. Brandon is doing better and has almost made it across the pool with out stopping, but of course he still sinks once he stops. I have been trying to help Brandon when we get the pool, he loves to try kicking the air outside of the water which is not helping him move much.

The last few weekends we have been making some minor landscaping changes. We took out the flower garden in the front of our house as it just was a haven for weeds after the spring flowers bloomed. We also removed all the mulch around our backyard patio. We replaced the mulch with keystone rocks and also tried to accent the rock stepping stones with grass seed. Of course it rained hard the day after we seeded so I except to see all the grass growing in the rocks and not around the stepping stones. The picture above is the future home to the grass. Here is one of Aiden helping with the river rock we used in the front.

Today we bought Aiden his first bike. From when we got home until almost bedtime he was out riding it around. He also loved to inform all the neighbors and neighborhood kids about his new bike. I hope he will enjoy it enough so I can stop having to bolt on the bike trailer on our family outings!

This Friday I took a vacation day to start on the project.  After Brandon left for school and Aiden was at day care I immediately jumped into action as “Handy Man”.  I moved the dryer and washer away from the wall, disconnected the gas line and saw the first obstacle, 6 years worth of dust and grime.  Vacuum in hand, I spent the next ten minutes sucking up the dirt and grime, emptying the container and finding where a few of those lost socks ended up.

After detour number one the next step was removing the existing wire shelving.  With the right tools the crappy shelving was gone in minutes, just gaping holes left in the wake.  After patching the holes with spackle it was time for the first break of the day to let it cure.

Sanding was performed after an extended break (how did the kids get home already?) and it was edging time. Friday night and the priming coat was done.

Saturday was two quick coats of paint, not much to mention here other than we had a few helpers, thanks Brandon and Aiden.

After the paint was dry I got to hang our cabinets and install the doors and finally reuse the wire shelving above the sink to allow us to drip dry some laundry.

Successful project one done!

Rick out.

The one major problem is that the heater has no idea when the garage door is open. It will happily keep on pumping out the heat even when the door has been left open. With kids in the house and sitters the door sometimes gets left open and I come home to the garage heater going.

With a small bit of effort I remedied this by installing a switch on the garage door so the heater does not heat when the door is fully open. The switch is wired so that the heater still has power which is important to allow it to cool down if it was running before turning off. It also allows the heater to still run if I need to crack the door to ventilate the garage for painting or staining projects.

The basic wiring idea is to wire the switch onto the common line (W on most thermostats) of the thermostat. In my installation I had the momentary switch set to be Normally Closed, NC, so that by default the thermostat works and only when the switch is pushed in will it break the circuit which lets the heater think the space is warm enough and stop heating.

So to start with lay your wiring from the thermostat with about a foot extra and along the ceiling to the top path of your garage door. At this point you will use your scrap wood to mount the switch in such a fashion so that when the door is fully open it pushes the switch. I just opened my garage door and mounted the boards in place so I did not have to guess. (See the below images as a guide).

For the wood scraps, one board I fit into the garage door track which had two available screw holes I could mount wood screws through to secure the board. To that board I mounted another at a 90 degree angle to attach the switch. I had a left over arcade button from a previous arcade build that I attached to the switch but this is not entirely needed. Just one more screw holds that in place. The painters tape was just used to hold the board in place long enough for me to screw it in place and also to hold the speaker wires I used. The screws along the back side ensure there is no play in the switch so it will not get loose over time.

After securing the wires to the wall and switch it is time to wire to the thermostat. I forgot to take pictures of this but it is simple enough. Just open up your thermostat and you will see two or three screw posts. W, and Rh, Rc (or just R). Unscrew the wire that is currently connected to W, attach one end of your new wire in it’s place. Then solder or wire nut together the original wire and your second strand of wire from your switch. Close the thermostat up and crank the temperature to test. Ensure the heater turns on with the switch not clicked, and that when you do hold the switch the heating element turns off. The fan may still be running to cool the unit and that is as designed.

A problem you may face is that you wired the switch up to be NO, Normally Opened, instead of NC. This would result in the heater only working when the switch is pushed in. Ensure you have the current momentary switch and have your wires attached correctly so it is NC, Normally Closed.

Now enjoy your warm garage with out having to worry about if you are wasting money when your garage door is opened. Also to the right in case you are wondering, is a picture of my thermostat, again just a standard model nothing special.

While this has been a sad day on us we know it is the right thing for Aiden’s best interests. We will always remember the smiles and joy he brought to our home. He was there during the hardest parts of our lives and helped us through them. It is hard to imagine coming home everyday and not be greeted by a wagging tail and a slobbery kiss. While that is true I am sure Max will do his best to put the smiles on his new owners faces and bring them the same joy he shared with us for many years.

Max, you will always be in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers.

(Until I can upload pics you can go to his old gallery: HTTP://gallery.fryar.org/ )

We have been to a number of fairs and events this summer and that has been keeping us really busy. The boys really enjoyed the antique tractor’s and log cabin pioneer village in Hastings a few weeks back.

This past weekend we went to the Washington Country fair, again the kids had a great time and did not want to leave. The car also almost did not let us leave.. At some point the battery acid leaked from Danith’s van’s battery and corroded through the terminal connectors. It was corroded so badly it took a number of hours and the help of her parents to get the correct parts to limp us home. I spent most of the next day grinding off a bolt to replace the terminal connectors.

Last night we were able to go on a family bike ride. I got to toy with a new program on my phone called “Sporty Pal”. This uses the GPS on my phone to track speed and map out the route we took. Below is the 3.2 Mile route through the neighborhood. Looks like a perfect 5K training run, next time.

Hope to post again soon.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves mostly.. The kids enjoyed seeing the animals that were on display. We remembered to bring a pair of binoculars and the camera. Amazingly the camera’s lens just fit in the eye pieces of the binoculars so I have a few shots of “extreme” zoom. A little blurry as the auto focus could not quite focus, but close enough.

Aiden loved the giraffes the best and Brandon and I liked the prarie dogs.

The boys also loved all the kids play ground areas the zoo has. Now there is at least 3 large play area which is a great feature to let the kids run off some energy between animal sightings. With out these play areas I doubt we could have spend the 5 hours there we did.

We did not have time to hit the indoor water animals so we will save that for our next visit. So enjoy the pictures below.

1. More tee ball
2. Brandon’s class play – E I E I Oops
3. Trip to Green Bay
4. Helping out Andersen Windows @ MS150
5. Fryar Deck 2009 Project

Every Tuesday and Thursday has been tee ball with Brandon. Him and his team are getting much better at fielding the ball and throwing it to the person manning the bases. They have not gotten may outs but they seem to be paying more attention to it. Brandon’s hitting also has improved. A few times last week he hit balls to the outfield and took the max double play he is allowed. Four more games and he is done with tee ball and advances to coach/machine pitch next year.

In early May all the first grade classes put together a play called E I E I Oops. Basically it is the standard EIEIO song but the cow forgot what it is supposed to say so the other animals need to tell him what he says. Brandon played a chicken, so we dressed him up and he had brightly colored feathers. His speaking part went well, he remembered his lines and spoke loud enough to hear him. And best part is we have the whole thing on tape to torment him on his High School graduation!

In mid May we went to Green Bay Wisconsin for a running event there. Danith ran a 5K and her sister ran a half marathon. This event is cool as not only do the runners finish by running through the stadium, they get brats and beer at the finish line. While there we toured the field, Brandon loved it. We stayed at a water park and both boys did not want to leave. A good time was had by all.

This past weekend Danith’s sister Megan rode in the MS 150 which is a bike ride from Duluth to the twin cities metro. Megan is riding for the Andersen Windows team and we volunteered to man her tent and help provide water and food at the finish line. It was a nice warm day with a gentle breeze, the boys enjoyed sitting and watching the riders and helping where they could. After a few hours the boys had enough and we had to pack up and head home.

This spring as people were pulling on our aluminum deck railings they started to pop off due to the wood warping (Cheap Menards wood). We thought it would be best to rip out those failing railings and replace them with wood spindles before someone got hurt. So at the end of May we ordered the wood and started tearing off the old railings.

At the same time we wanted to resand the entire deck and put a better stain/paint on it. So every free hour has been spend sanding the new wood, sanding the old deck frame and painting the new wood. This last Saturday I rented a large drum sander and resurfaced the decking floor to make it more even and reduce the bumps between the deck boards. It looks nice at the moment but still needs a final light sanding before we start painting the decking.

Today I plan on finish sanding the decking so Danith can paint the decking and a few joists. This will allow me to start assembling the already painted posts and railings. Hopefull we will be done with this project before the end of June!

Last month Brandon also finished up his bowling league. He got his first real trophy as his team came in second. In related bowling news, we attended a charity bowling event to raise money for MS and Aiden got to bowl for the first time. I have not downloaded that camera yet but he was really cute. He would ask if it was his turn to bowl right after he took a turn. Eventually we got Brandon and Aiden their own lane. During that event I bowled a 210 to take the high game and I also managed to take the high series award and came home with a new tee shirt.

Due to budget cuts, 3M has outsourced their building security with a cheaper solution. This goose and his mate decided it was a good idea to build a nest right next to the main employee entrance at 3M Center. One would sit on the nest and the other would stand by the glass and hissed at everybody walking by. Yesterday the chicks were finally born and they have resigned their position at 3M. I wonder how many crooked plans they foiled in their tenure.

When I first opened the box last night I was greeted with a plethora of items, various kit-kats, some hard candies and some chip like items. Some had obvious pictures like the banana kit-kats, and some had English text describing the flavor like Teriyaki, some had a picture like little shrimp, and finally some were just Kanji text. Each was going to be a surprise.

Last night we saw this item, a teriyaki corn stick and decided to give it a shot. Upon opening the packaging Danith was the first to comment on the very strong odor. Yes it was definitely covered in a heavy teriyaki flavor. Brandon took the first bite and here is his reaction. I took the second bite.. Tasted like a really thick Bugle that has been soaked in Soy sauce a bit too long. Unfortunately this one we did not finish.

Next was a chocolate item, again we had this one last night. These were little chocolate pyramids with a pink tip. I assume this is supposed to be chocolate covered strawberries. These had an excellent chocolate flavor with the usual fake strawberry. They were quite tasty and Brandon and I quickly finished off the box. Now this is more like it!

Next was a snack from Calbee. I have had some of their previous snacks and they are always a potato based snack with some special flavors. Based on the packaging I would guess shrimp. I was imagining a cooked shrimp flavor but upon opening the package it smelled just like fresh caught raw shrimp. Popping one into my mouth the taste was very similar to the smell. Actually not too bad, but a different shrimp flavor than say a pack of Ramon noodles. I finished off the bag except for one that I tossed to Max. He did not see eye to eye with me on this one and after smelling it for a good two mintues decided to pass.

Stay tuned for more Japanese food sampling!

Let me start with the recent and work backwards. This weekend we decided to replace our leaky kitchen faucet with a new one. The old one was leaky, cheap and ugly. It could have probably been repaired and saved, but why when we can have a nice new faucet in it’s place.

After shopping around at Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards we bought a Moen Torrence edition brushed nickel model. Looked nice except the sprayer was cheap looking, but we did not care as we have a better sprayer that I would just hook on.

After getting it home and the old sink taken off I took an inventory of the parts needed.. Two hose extensions.. Oh and I needed to hook up our old sprayer. Well that is the hard part I guess. Moen faucets come with a quick connector for their sprayer, however the Kohler one we have has a compression end. So first trip to Menards and I picked up what I thought would work.

Getting home I had to use the hack saw on the new faucet to remove the “quick connector” and was left with a 1/4 MIP male pipe fitting. The same connector as the Kohler sprayer! But alas the inside diameter of the pipe was too narrow so the sprayer did not fit. Back to Menards for an extension.

Second trip to Menards for the extension coupler. Well I forgot that I needed a Male – Female coupler and just picked up a Male – Male one. Doh! Third trip for the right connector and 30 minutes later we had a new kitchen faucet.

Other news.. Brandon had his friend Hunter spend the night Friday, his first sleep over at his house. It went very well other than the occasional melt down where he wanted to do something and Hunter wanted to do something else. Typical 6 year old stuff.

For Easter Aiden got a new big wheel. He loves it but is not big enough to pedal it yet. I will get a picture of him on it shortly. Brandon got new roller blades from the bunny, again a picture will be coming soon.

Summer sports are starting this week for Brandon… Tee ball Tuesdays and Thursdays and Swimming MWF. In May he is starting Golf lessons and Dad gets to come with to dust off his rust.. Hopefully in time for his Golf weekend on May 28th.

Danith is scrap booking again, so time to print out more digital prints!