A Busy Day Off With TheBaby

I guess I’ll catch up on the rest of the weekend before talking about last night. Friday night we all headed to my sister Kelly’s place with a truckload of tools and I helped her and Chris put up crown molding in their bathroom. It was a nice small room and went pretty smooth. We only had 1 corner with funky angles and after a little silicone it looked great. We got a bucket of KFC and chowed down on that mid project. After the silicone was up we played some Wii big game hunter and it was pretty fun.

Heath headed to a scrapbook meeting after dinner then Pumpkin and I headed home after the wii around 9. We both got to bed around 10:30. Saturday we scraped wallpaper and cleaned up the house and worked on lots of random projects. I went to pick and pull early on to look for a few things, primarily a window for the van.

I know everyone is surprised this window is gone and you are just hearing about it now. I think it was the weekend after new years and I was working on the van trying to figure out why the battery was going dead when it sat for a long time. I was running the van to charge it up and trying to chip ice off the inside of the window and I accidentally locked myself out while it was running. I had the hood up so I took out the battery but it kept running. So I tried to lift up the side of one of the side wing windows enough to hit the button to open the window so I could unlock it. It was like -10 out and of course the window shattered before I could get to the buttons. So it sat there windowless until this weekend.

I went to pick and pull to look for a window, a piece of hose and shocks for my truck. Before going I decided to grab the fuel hose I had that was leaking so I could make sure I got the right size. While taking off the hose I found out it was really hard to get to part of it and not really that important of a hose. So instead of replacing the hose I tried out this fix.

I tore the hose off at the gas tank and stuck a wine cork in the hole. I used some zip ties to make sure the cork does not come out and just to be sure I wedged some wood chunks above it to hold it in place.

While under there I forgot my headlamp and came back for it 2 days later still there and lit up.

Pick and pull was a bust they had several econoline vans but none with my windows and no other vehicles that were the right size. I did find one Nissan Xtera that may have the same shocks as my truck and decided to give them a shot.

However as I started to remove them I pushed on the middle a little and it cracked right through.

So I left empty handed and went back to wallpaper removal. On the way home I got a $9 piece of Plexiglas and some $45 shocks at O’Reily. That night I cooked up some stuffed peppers and meatloaf.

Heath made a batch of twice baked potatoes.

Heath’s mom and sister were not far so they stopped by to help us eat all the food. Sunday was more wall paper scraping and working on stuff. I traced the window on my Plexiglas. 

Then I scored with a razor blade where I drew my lines and broke the glass on those scores. I drilled a few holes for the bolts to go through and put it up.

It does not look stock but will keep out the rain and snow and critters. I could peal the cover off so it would be clear but I feel like no one looks out this window and the cover adds some strength.

Next time I go to pick and pull I’ll look again for the right piece.

I also took off the rear shocks on my truck.

The shock at the top was completely broken and not doing any good.

Eventually Heath and I relaxed and watched New York and San Diego play some football while eating leftovers then headed to bed early.

Monday Heath went to work and I got busy messing on stuff around the house like filling in a large hole in the drywall in Peanuts room. When Pumpkin got up I got her changed and fed then we headed to O’Reilly to return the new shocks and get almost $100 back. Then we went to Walmart for dog food and primer, then Lowe’s for a pipe warming cord but they were out so we went to Southerlands for one. Then to Aldi for a cart of fruits and vegetables and a few other things. Then we headed to Advance Auto for $20 stock shocks. Once home we unpacked and ate. Then Pumpkin ate again and again. Finally she fell asleep and I climbed under my truck.

It was at this point I realized my headlamp was under the van and rescued it first. Not only would my new shocks work better but they looked so much cooler then my old shocks.

The shocks were super easy to replace I just had a big nut and washer on each end to tighten into place. Once my truck was in good shape again I headed to Peanuts room to wipe down the walls with a big sponge and get up any glue or wallpaper scraps left. Pumpkin woke up during this and watched for a bit but got cranky and wanted to eat and be changed. So she ate a couple more times and then we headed downstairs to work on some computer and tv stuff. She had a great time kicking her monkey on the play mat but I did not make any progress on the computer stuff.

Heath came home and took over feeding Pumpkin for a while so I unloaded the logs from the back of my truck and her car that were there for weight during the ice. I cleaned out the back of my truck and loaded up the old queen mattress, box springs and frame. We cooked up some salmon, brown rice, cabbage and broccoli for dinner. It was good but not enough calories for me. After dinner and I met Jon and Tony at Ugly Joes for a beer and some discussion on mountain climbing and Colorado and stuff. Then I headed to Stooks house to deliver the bed. We unloaded it and had a beer then I headed home. While I was gone Heath’s uncle from California had stopped by to visit Heath and meet Pumpkin.

He was gone when I got home so Heath and I played with her and watched some TV till we were all ready for bed.