Projects - Kitchen Faucet

Well after buying a new Kitchen Faucet about 3 months ago and it sitting in the basement collecting dust I finally got it installed this past weekend. I hate anything to do with plumbing and water. I am not a small man and it always seems like, plumbing projects get me to squeeze into really small spaces and bang on pipes, normally breaking crap.

Getting the old faucet out wasn't too bad this time, I have gotten pretty good at knocking them loose with a couple of vise grips. Once I got it out I put in the new faucet which was easy, then I connected up the water lines and turned the water back on. Both of the connections leaked, tightened them up and then only one leaked. Pulled that one off taped it up with Teflon tape and retightened it. Still leaked so I tightened it even more and the leak got worse. I remembered that I had this problem once before and had gotten a paste that sealed the threads. Put this on, tightened it up one more time and everything worked great.

Finally I have a good faucet to use in the kitchen. The whole reason I had to replace it was that I broke off the aerator including the threads and it made a terrible noise when you turned it on low. Another project bites the dust.

 

Technorati tags: Facuet, Kitchen, Plumbing, Teflon Tape

Heart Stress Test

So I had a good time yesterday, I got to go into the doctor for a heart stress test. I have had really high blood pressure lately and was feeling a heaviness in my chest when working out sometimes. I went to the local hospital for the test which is nice because I didn't have to run all the way to St. Cloud to do it.

Well what they do at these things is take your blood pressure and heart rate at rest both laying down and standing up. Then they have you take off you shirt to put on a bunch of probe patches all over your torso. Well for those patches to stick they not only have to shave patches off you but have to "rough" up the skin with what they call "scratch pads". Basically they rub you with sand paper which is fun let me tell you.

So after they got me all prepped I got to sit around waiting for the doctor for about 20 mins and then they put my on their treadmill. You start off at a walk and every 3 mins they raise the speed and incline of the treadmill. Every couple of minutes they take your blood pressure and they watch your heart on their equipment. When by the time you get to level 5 you are running up a hill and I am getting quite tired, thankfully I made it.

Everything in the test turned out well and man was I sore later that day. I guess I should have stretched first. Oh well. Now how do I get my blood pressure down.

 

Technorati tags: Heart, Doctor, Stress Test, Running

BBQ for the 4th of July

BBQed for 9 hours yesterday, I cooked a turkey on the grill for the first time. Did it real slow with indirect charcoal and smoked it with apple wood. I basted it in butter about every hour. The turkey came out pretty good, I had a little bit of a hard time not overcooking the breast while still getting the legs done. The turkey legs are typically about 20 degrees behind the breast and you want both of them to end up at about 165. Problem is by the time you get the legs to 165 the breast is at 185 and getting too done. We tin foiled the breast when it reached 165 and finished the legs, seemed to work pretty good.

The favor was wonderful, I think I really like the apple wood. After about hour 8 I was looking up ways to get both the breast and the legs done at the same time and found a trick I might use next time. Cool the breast with an ice pack while the rest of the turkey is at room temperature before putting it on the grill. You want to make up this 20 degree difference in cooking speeds so if the breast is 20 degrees cooler they both should get to 165 at about the same time.

 

Technorati tags: BBQ, Turkey, 4th of July

There goes the Neighborhood

So can one house on your street ruin the entire neighborhood? The answer is yes! We had a nice quiet neighborhood and lived on a less traveled street. When we moved in it was great, all the neighbors seems to have kids and it was nice and quiet for the most part. I mean every now and then we would get a loud motorcycle but nothing on a regular basis.This is good for me because I have two little kids and neither one likes loud noises.

So in the past couple of weeks someone moved out of their house down the street from us, thankfully not next to us, and I think they started renting the house out. Single handedly the people who moved in have doubled the traffic and noise level on our street. At any one time there are between 5-10 vehicles in their driveway. Most of them beat up old trucks with loud exhaust and crappy cars with no exhaust. Mopeds, scooters, motorcycles, you name it and all loud. This has royally pissed me off and I hope they can't pay rent and get kicked out.

It is really sad when one house ruins it for the rest.

 

Technorati tags: Neighbors, Loud