The Moser Station

With cake:

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with the Richey’s and got to see the newest addition: Ava Claire

We also celebrated Meemie and Grandad’s 60th anniversary. Meemie even told a story about how there was some confusion early on when she worked at a restaurant and there was a guy that kept coming in and wanted her to wait on him:

In August…

• People found out what I do at work:
  
• We got to catch up with some friends from Purdue at Keith and Sarah’s Wedding:
  
• We made our annual trek to the Dairy Bar:

  

• We had great weather and turnout at Margie’s auction:

  

  
  
  Lots of things sold well, especially the car:
  
  
  

• And ending the month at Quaker Haven with family:
  

  And of course there was Strawbery Pie:
  

Jeff and I had a good trip to Cumberland Falls in Corbin, KY this past weekend. Our goal was to get some fresh air, relaxation, and see great views. We accomplished all three. Here are some of the highlights:

The DuPont Lodge          Official vacation shirt     Hungry raccoon!

Can you identify?            Postcard perfect             Worn out - Wii impersonation

Self portrait #1                 #2 - I’m taller - tippy toes

Smart Car (Lodge)            Not-So-Smart Car (Kroger)

Setting up for a picture:

Saying “Goodbye:”

The “birthplace” of Kentucky Fried Chicken!

June’s almost over! Hard to believe things have gone so quick.

We’ve had a run on home-ownership things from needing to get a new fridge:

to a water softener to help out with our hard water:

to getting a new-to-us mower:

I was able to bike to work on Thursday, June 19th. It was a bit of a challenge, but a good workout. The lesson I learned is that biking 15.1 miles one way is easier in the morning than the afternoon. All told though, I think I’m up for doing it again. But, I won’t be doing it everyday

Anne Marie and I once again participated in the Fishers Freedom Festival 5K race by power walking. As usual, Anne Marie  beat me with a time of 36:23 and I was a little back at 36:35. A coworker of mine who is into racewalking also competed and led all of the walkers with a time of 35:02. Maybe we should train for next year to get a better score and to perhaps need less ibuprofen for our shins.

We’ve also been able to have some visits with family, including a Staub family reunion (my grandma on my mom’s side) and catch up with many people that I’ve grown up with. It’s amazing to see all the new kids (who like to hide underneath pool tables :))

This year, Emma treated us to a soccer game on her birthday!

And of course, there was cake:

And a kiss from her brother:

Happy Birthday!

April and early May had a lot of things happen:

From Abigail and Brian’s wedding:

To preparing for my presentation at Indy Code Camp.

To being able to spend time with Anne Marie’s sweet Great Aunt Margie. She lived a full and adventerous life and had many stories to tell and shared her love generously with her family and friends. She passed away early this month. (Obituary link)

We were able to celebrate her life on Tuesday:

And this year we’ve got video:

We had a good time in Pymatuning (3/13 - 3/16) again this year.  Feel free to click on the above “map” to take a view of the site.

And if you just want silly photos, well, here you go

In what will probably be a new low for posting content on this blog, I thought I’d share a hopefully end to a long running drama.

For well over a year, Anne Marie and I had been frustrated about our toilets always clogging. They’d clog on 3 small squares of toilet sheet paper and water. It was getting so bad that every day brought a plunger experience. I had tried just about all I could think of. I even bought a fancy closet auger in an attempt to make sure there was nothing backing up the toilet.

I asked Chad’s advice for what could be done. After we tried a couple of things to increase the water flow, he suggested replacing the toilet. Several guys at Home Depot concurred that it was probably due to me having an early model of “low flow” toilets from the 90s. “Mike” said that he’s had similar problems and the new toilet did the trick. With a quorum of do-it-yourselfers peer-pressure, I thought I’d give it a try. I thought it would be a long ordeal, but Chad assured me it was simple.

We started at 11 PM on Saturday night and were at “flush test” time by 12:41 AM Sunday morning:

As you can see from the pictures, we probably went a bit overboard on testing some paper tests.

Pumped from the sweet flushing action, I decided to install another new one in our master bathroom. It took me a little longer than Chad to install it, but not much. I had my flush test by 6 PM on Sunday:

Things that were unexpected:

1. Toilets are only held on by two bolts (under the plastic caps)
   

   and..

2. There is a huge wax circle that creates a seal between the toilet and the house plumbing:
   

   and it’s nasty to take and old one off. Do your best to stop the airflow (for obvious reasons) while you scrape off the old wax:

   
3. They make water supplies that have a “flood detector” built in that prevents a toilet from running all day and soaking everything. For a few bucks each, it was worth it:
   
4. Toilets come in round and elongated sizes. Always make sure you get the right cover to match:
   
5. My toilet of choice, the American Standard Champion 4 has a nice flush that effortless takes down anything (don’t ask). The guy at home depot proudly proclaimed that it could take down 100 golf balls. But seriously… why would you ever want to do that?!

Thanks to Chad for installing the first one and giving me enough confidence to install the second!