Dancing Baby

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.

Swine Flu Advice - latest info from Dept. of Health

Latest info from Dept. of Health...

If you wake up looking like this, don't go to work

IT Work in the Middle Ages

This is awesome. This really is what IT work is like sometimes.

Interesting blog post on health care

My friend Terry has a fascinating blog on economics. I've got a permenant link to the left of this blog. He recently posted again about health care. It was very interesting and worth a read:
http://terrynomics.blogspot.com/2009/08/ten-things-that-truly-have-not-been.html

The Fishman Cometh

Last Friday at during a Lunch & Learn (training) meeting I won a major award. No, not a leg lamp, nor a Red Rider BB Gun, I won a jar of Pickled Red Fish. Although I was not inclined to eat it, my 14 year old son was keen to give it a try. When he saw the fish first hand he decided
discretion was indeed the better part of valor and much to his mother's
relief he changed his mind. Thus there were no brave souls at the Noa
household willing to tackle the pickled major award.

Two co-workers had expressed interest in the fish, so I brought it
back to work with me yesterday morning. They did indeed sample the fish
and reported first hand that it was indeed edible, despite a rather
pungent odor. Both felt that one bite of the delicacy was more than
enough to satisfy their culinary curiosity, so I was still left with one
jar of Picked Red Fish.

If sent an email to the rest of the office offering them a taste or if they were inclined the entire jar. I did warn them to hurry as the hazardous
materials team will be arriving later this week to carefully dispose of
whatever remains.

Spiderman's Been Webbed!

My wife noticed a Spiderman Action Figure had been left on our back deck overnight. It looks like something decided to web Spidey!

Looks pretty cool!

I couldn't resist posting a few quick photos.

Fun at the fair

My mother took Shannon, the boys and I to the Illinois State Fair today. We had a great time.

Here is my middle son (7 years old) on the power jump ride at the Illinois State Fair.

Here's Shannon and the younger boys on the Ferris Wheel.

Eldest Son's Award Winning Artwork

I posted earlier that my eldest son won 3rd place for a painting at the Illinois State Fair.

Here is a photo of my son with this painting.

Here is the painting alone.


Here is the art that beat his.


...and the other painting that placed ahead of his.


He entered a sketch in another category that did not place.

The other painter in the family

I've posted about my son winning awards at the state fair and the county fair. Well my wife is a painter of another sort. Ok, not really but I have fabulous photos of her applying water proof stain to our fence in the back yard.

3rd Place in State Fair

My eldest son won 3rd place in the Illinois State Fair for his painting of a lioness. (the above picture of the lioness is old and is not complete, I'll post updated photos when I can.)

Here's a link to the Illinois State Fair web site.

Lost from Comic Con

I listen to the Lost Transmission, a podcast on. They are or rather were, just at Comic Con in San Deigo and watched the Lost a panel. They have audio from the panel in a special podcast which I recommend checking out. If video is more your speed, I found this blog post featuring video and audio from the panel.

I'm not quite done with the podcast, but so far just a lot of fun and not too many spoilers. They do seem to be indicating one of my pet theories about season 6 may be true.

It's good to get a Lost Fix.

1979 Klingon Happy Meal

Award Winning Art at the County Fair

My eldest son, who's just a week shy of 14 years old, entered four pieces of artwork in the Champaign County Fair. He earned three 1st place awards and one 2nd place award.

His oil painting of a lioness won 1st place in it's category.(the above picture of the lioness is old and is not complete, I'll post updated photos when I can.)

(this is the completed work at the fair)

His pastel drawing of a classmate won 1st place in it's category.



His charcoal drawing of a girl in an apple orchard won 1st place in it's category.



His oil painting of the eight cylons from Battlestar Galactica won 2nd place in the open category.


I will modify this post when I have photographs of the artwork.