Tales of my sons.

My middle son and his friend came tearing through the house, a little wet. They stopped and accused my youngest son of picking up the sprinkler and getting them wet. Then my youngest son came through soaked, dripping water on the floor. When I asked him if he sprayed his brother he told me, 'No I haven't been near the water' with a completely straight face.

This past thursday, I walked upstairs to find five small children. Two were my own. One was a little boy from the neighborhood, and the other two, well I don't know who they are or where they came from. My wife seems to have the situation well in hand. I promptly turned around and walked back downstairs.

My eldest son ran a cross country meet today. I was extremely impressed and proud of his performance. I have never been able to do anything quite like that, I have bad feet that have always made it difficult for me to run long distances.

The Bathroom Saga

Well the saga continues.

I met with Serv Pro today. The downstairs has dried out. Tomorrow a construction boss will check it out and recommend a method for fixing the ceiling.

The floor of the upstairs bathroom has not dried out. Tomorrow they will demo it and in the very near future, replace it.

Shannon is meeting with the claims adjuster now to make sure we're in good shape on all of this.

If you need to catch up, here are the first two parts of the saga.

Part 1

Part 2

Star Trek Humor

Star Trek & Monty Python


Star Trek & The A-Team

Toilet / Water Damage Clean Up

Shannon wisely called the insurance company. We leaned that if we didn't take steps to preserve the property insurance might not covern any claims, so we had Serv Pro come out. Serv Pro directly bills insurance and works with them, so that's a pretty good deal. At any rate, I was wondering how much help we would need, but I am very glad we called them.

Here's a video with the gear the brought in:

They had a sensor that could detect moisture in the walls and cealing, I knew ceiling would act like a sponge but I was truly surprised at how far the water had spread. It even went down into one wall.

When it's dried out the ceiling can be repaired. They may take out a large area of the ceiling, otherwise it won't match. It's very loud in our house right now due to the fans, but it's getting done.

The lipstick issue

This is a funny story posted by a friend of mine, Trey, on Facebook.

According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lip stick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.
He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
There are teachers ... and then there are educators

Cracked Toilet and Wet Ceiling

I need a cup of coffee.

I got up about 30 minutes ago, around 6am, to alarmed voices about a problem in the boys bathroom. I was worried we had an issue that would rival the infamous toys in the toilet incident, but it's not quite that bad. Unforunately the problem was upstairs and we've got some ceiling damage downstairs in the living room.

Here's a photo of the toilet:

It took me about 15 minutes to find the hairline crack running along the back of the tank. I spend my time initially checking all the seals and the hose running from the wall to the toilet. It never occured to me the ceramic tank was damaged, I didn't think three young boys could do that during the course of normal usage, but alas there it is. For now the water is off and the tank is drained.

So the real problem is downstairs, water accumulated in the floor all evening long and then damaged the ceiling below. Here are some photos of the damaged section of the ceiling.


The crack is just under a foot in length, but the damaged section is about 3-4 feet long.

I did a quick search and it looks like the toilet tank will cost around $60. I am most concerned about matching the toilet color. Shannon told me, it's
bisque. I'm color blind and I know how to work with plumning but the color is a bit beyond me. When I search for a 'toilet tank bisuqe' I get fancy looking 'Elizabethen' tanks which are twice as much. Maybe it will only be $60.

The real question is can I fix it before the Illinois Game.

The ceiling is a bigger concern. I've got the nearby ceiling fan on, hopefully helping dry it out. Perhaps it's not that wet despite the crack. It would be nice if it simply dried out in a day or two and then allowed for a quick patch. My wife has patched a popocorn ceiling. We'll have to wait and see.


======= UPDATE =========

I learned tanks and toilets do not match and are not universal. The recommendation is to replace the entire toilet. That's what I'll be doing this afternoon. The budget went from about $60 for a tank to $250 for a toilet. I've got the toilet, I just need to lug it up the stairs and get to work.

======== UPDATE =========-

The hose running pipe to the fill valve in the tank is about 2 inches too short. Otherwise, I am pretty much there. I'm going to have to run out and get a replacement. However at the moment, I am solo dad with my two younger boys, and my eldest may call for a ride any momement. My brother graciously offered to help, perhaps I'll give him a call.

======== UPDATE =========

It's finished. It works. My wife will call the insurance company about the ceiling, but my part is done, at least for now. Where did my Saturday go?

Good interactive quiz on email phishing scams

Below is a link to an online quiz regarding email security and phishing scams. 10 email messages are presented in the quiz, you must decide if the email is legitimate or a phishing scam. When the quiz is complete, information is provided why each message is or is not a phishing scam.

http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/index.html

See if you can spot the fake messages.