IKEA. what fun.... not.

Who would've known?  I hate IKEA.  don't get me wrong.  I went there to buy products.   What I dislike is the endless maze, out of control children, people wandering with no purpose or mission.
We bought what we went for and got out.
That's when the fun and smiles began.
The trip to the truck.  (Nothing to do with what is in the boxes but simply moving the boxes to the truck.

That 'perfect' tool you can't find at the critical moment? I found it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was changing the oil in the jetta.  Put it up on the ramps,  got the correct size socket and ratchet,  placed the oil recycling container perfectly under the drain in the oil pan.
  Remove oil pan plug.  Check.   Assure all oil goes into container and not on garage floor. Check.
Get new oil and filter.
Find oil filter wrench. .....  um?
It's a cap wrench and not your normal tool.  We have 3 sizes of these - for motorcycle oil filters and VW oil filter caps.  I can't find any of them.  Any where.
Panic sets in.  I text Tucker from the garage asking for any insight of where this tool might be.
I remove the plastic cowling from my engine to waste some time while I continue to freak out.
And then I find the tool.  Right where I left it.  10,000 miles ago when I put the oil filter cap back on the jetta.  Sigh.  Just sigh.

Job complete and tool put on the shelf where it belongs instead of touring denver and the mountains on the jetta.

I forgot how much I love Showers

Friday morning I was up getting coffee, and checking e-mail etc. like I normally do before taking a shower, and I heard my phone receive a text...

"Did you have any hot water?  I didn't try hard this morning but it didn't seem like it was getting warm."

So I tried with no success.  I headed for the basement.

There was a couple inches of water under the water heater, but luckily more or less isolated there.  A few boxes got wet.  I shut things down and headed off to figure out what I could.

The heater was shot, leaking from the top of all places...  When I got back down to check on it, the water on the floor was gone.  Interesting since I know the main drain to the sewer is at the level of the TOP of the hot water heater...  I bet this hot water heater is sitting on the original dirt floor of the basement.

The first trip to the Hardware store was for a pump and short hose.

The pump said it could drain this volume of water in 20 minutes.  It took 1.5 likely for two reasons, the water couldn't drain from the tank fast enough, additionally the hose had to go up stairs and out the back door.

Some follow on projects getting a new heater and down the staircase Don came over to help with the gas and water lines for the new hot water heater.

At some point (one of my 5 total trips to the Hardware Store) Karyn had 4 pots of water on the stove???   She was planning a bath...

\

How often do you get to use a pick and shovel in the basement?

After a couple hours we had the new one installed.  But it was 9:30 pm on Friday.

Saturday morning!  I got to have a great shower!

Zany Sunday 2014 - The 30th!!! April 5, 2014

This year was the 30th Zany Sunday!

It was started Sunday, April 1st, 1984 by some friends who thought it would be fun to hang out and ski at A-Basin while wearing something silly (It was April Fool's Day, after all).

Tucker and I have been attending for many years and at some point we accepted 'most' of the responsibility for the event.

This year had many of the same players and some new ones as well.  It was a strange day with some snow and some sun.....

We arrived at A-Basin at 6am to claim our free spot on the 'beach'.  It was well worth the early morning wake up call!

Breakfast of Champions!

 Bill - wondering when the 'fun' will start.

 The 'fun' has started - putting up the tent, the sign and decorating the truck!

 Costumes were worn by all......

That's right, Bear Cheeks!

 The arrival of Phyllis!  One of the attendees of the 'original' Zany Sunday!!!!

 Paul showed too!

 The Great Gatsby!

The frog which I can only apologize to the vegetarians for him ending up on the Boca Burger box.

It was a great spread.  Thanks to Shawn and the smoked ribs!

 The 'helmet' races will never be done again.   The idea to sit on your helmet - or someone else's - and slide down the hill.  I lost but there wasn't a whole lot of sliding.....

 

Powder Day!

Another Powder day!

Back in November I went to the friends of CAIC benefit bash.  This is a really fun event, with prizes, silent auctions and a live auction as well!

I bid on several silent auctions, but only won two.  A cat trip for 4 at Keystone's independence bowl and a day guided raft trip.  We shall see about the raft trip...

The cat trip was this weekend (of course I had to schedule etc...).  In January I tried to book the trip, and the first weekend day open was 3/28.  We arrived and started the check in process.

The guides and the skiing was great!