{just another blog}

Apparently while I was at work today....

Barbie and Ken won king and queen at prom!!

 

Congrats Barbie and Ken!

It's ALIVE....IT'S ALIVE....

If you were at my house tonight you would have heard the sound of an engine running.

Not just ANY engine...but a BOAT engine.

It was a little touch and go over the past few days on if the engine would run. From what I understand after listening him explain it, the power was getting to the coil but the coil wasn't putting enough power out to make a spark. After many trips to the computer (where his mercruiser manual was located) and back out to the boat and back to the computer and back to the boat. A tip to the auto parts store, then another trip to a different store and THEN today yet another trip to the boat place.

Then finally tonight at 6:10 pm.....

 

 

 

 

The original decals were long gone, so Tom makes some up at work.

 

It looks like the good light is shining down on the engine....it is ALIVE...it STARTED and it runs beautifully!!

All this equals...

 

 

One very happy husband.

Now the next test......is she sea worthy?

Stay tuned!

What a way to start summer vacation.

Hannah broke her shoulder/arm. She jumped off the swing at the playground and landed on her shoulder. It wasn't broken enough to need a cast, but it is broken enough to be immoblized. She really has been a trooper and she really hasn't complained too much.  She has had it on for 2 weeks and only one more week to go.

Her only complaint this far?

Not having slings in several different colors to match her outfits.

We never do things the easy way.

Last fall Tom decided we needed a boat. He sold all of his R/C stuff and bought an old but "solid" boat.  It was a "steal" at only $700. He bought it off Ebay...you know the only place to shop when you are Tom. Well E-bay and Craigslist. The boat was located a few hours away and on one of his days off, he went to get it.

He brought it home, and took it for its maiden voyage on Lake Springfield. Something wasn't right. I don't remember the technical terms he used, but basically it wasn't running right.

He brought it home, and checked the oil. It was the color and consistancy of chocolate milk.

I know, you are asking yourself the same damn thing I asked him.

"Is that a BAD thing?"

Apparently yes. When your oil looks like chocolate milk it means you have water in your engine.

Guess that "steal" wasn't really a steal after all... at least on our end anyway.

OK so Tom had a new plan. He wanted to pull the engine out of the boat, go over every piece with detail and find out how/why water got in the engine. This is like Christmas to Tom. HE LOVES nothing more than to take something apart and put it back together.

Sounds daunting right? I asked.."Babe, how the hell are you going to accomplish that?"

He has a friend (he always has a friend) that is going to hook his tractor bucket up to the engine, lift it out and set it in Toms truck.

Next comes taking the engine apart. Do you know how many parts an engine has?

A lot, that's how many.

To make a long story short, the engine has finally been put back together... despite spending way too much money on a very old boat, and despite every tool Tom owns has been stolen...tonight, they put it back in the boat.

That guy on the tractor is Dave he was in charge of lowering and Tom was in charge of alignment. I really wanted shots of the engine in the air, but yeah...the couldn't wait for me to get there and they started with out me.

Every part of that engine was at one time spread out and organized on our garage floor.

EVERY SINGLE PIECE.

EVERY SINGLE PIECE has been looked over and checked out to see how water could have gotten in the engine.

Turns out, there wasn't much wrong with that engine.

The water most likely came from the exhaust shutters being broken.  I don't quite know what they are or what they do, but I do know they are not part of the engine. 

Don't think this has a happy ending just yet....he still has to hook every thing up and put on the lower unit (or to us lay-people the thing that the propeller turns on). Then he will take it for another spin on Lake Springfield. Cross your fingers.

With the money we initially spent on buying the boat, plus the money we spent re-doing the engine, we could have had a nicer, newer boat. But that my friends is not the Dale way. Because according to Tom, the easy way isn't as fun.

TV Commentary.

Ok so let me just put this out there:

I LIKE WATCHING REALITY TV.

Or trash TV as Tom calls it.

More specifically I LOVE watching the Housewives on Bravo.

It started with Orange County, then New York, then Atlanta and now I heart New Jersey.

I probably heart New Jersy more right now because I think Teresa Guidice  and her "bubbies" are feakin hilarious!

The season finale was awesome.

What will I watch now that it is over?

I have been gone, but I didn't go anywhere.

Ummm hi!

Yes, it has been awile.

No, I didn't forget I have a blog.

I have had a million blog entries started....in my head you know, but never found the time to put it to web. Then one week turns into two, and so it goes.

We last left off with Tom recouping from surgery. He is doing quite well and he was released from his Dr. He is now RUNNING which, according to his surgeon, is pretty unheard of at this stage in the game. But Tom has an awesome attitude and the will to be back to "normal". GO TOM!

We also left off with my van blowing a spark plug. You remember that right? Well it happened, it was loud, it was scary, and I didn't trust my van any longer.

Was it a random thing? YES TOTALLY RANDOM.
Could it happen again? No, but yes.

This fear comes from my wheel coming off at 65mph once and I never trusted that car the same way again. So call it PTSD..or call it crazy I didn't trust my van anymore.

This is me trying to tell you I got a new car.

A 2009 dodge Caravan. I know...don't swoon all at once!

This is THE actual van in my driveway. We got a really great deal and got some pretty neat upgrades.

We got the van juuuust in time to visit Tom's Mom for Mothers Day. We could never buy her any gift better then giving her the gift of us. She declared it "The Best Mothers Day EVER". Now she was either telling the truth or she was being sarcastic. You decide. I like to think she was really really happy.

We all got dressed up and went to church with her....

 

We went to the lake for Memorial Day. no pictures. I didn't bring the camera. My mom bought a house near the lake that has an in-ground pool. To say the pool needed work was an understatement. We spent the weekend cleaning out the pool with Michelle's family. We did have a day at the lake on the boat so not all was lost.

We decided to go again the following weekend because we wanted more fun. We got more than we bargained for when we came back to find our garage had been robbed.

If they wanted to hurt my husband, they knew right where to get him. He said kicking him in the balls would have been better than this.

Every tool he owned was GONE.

Wait I take that back, he did find a wrench and a screwdriver on the floor. So they didn't render him totally helpless. Let's all hope that every bolt he will ever unscrew is a 3/16th size and every screw a phillips!!

We have been dealing with insurance and let me tell you, we got screwed when we got robbed and now the insurance company is getting a piece of our ass too. Yeah I know that was vulgar. But that is pretty much how this process feels.

Those are the highlights of the past 2 months. You can fill in the gaps with the kids arguing, having sleepovers with friends, me crying over the fact they my son will be a junior next year, lots of commentaries that would have made good blog entries if I had remembered to write them down, and just a bunch of life in general.

In the near future I hope to change the header of this ol' blog, especially since I am coming up on my 3 year blogivesary!

Until then, see ya!