Chromilo Amin

I noticed that water wasn't draining properly through one of the downsprouts serving the gutter from the top-most part of the roof, about 20 feet high. One can tell that the downsprout was clogged because rain water would fill the gutter and spill over a corner of the roof. I had to get up there and remove the debris but it was so high up and am scared of heights. I called around and received a few quotes. My sister said that she paid $100 to have her gutters at home cleaned but she might have said that she used a Groupon discount. Wife had someone come to the house and say it would cost us $300 to clean all our gutters. I decided to do it myself. My neighbor Martin has a ladder that extends to 20 feet that he lets everyone in our culdesac borrow as needed. However, it wouldn't be long enough to climb on top of the roof (and I wouldn't even if it was long enough). I decided to get one of those gutter hoses that extend to limitless heights and spray super high velocity w...

We went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle-Washington this past weekend and I thought it was a great weekend destination. Kids loved it because the little guy kept screaming at the top of his voice each time we went to see a new species; and my wife and I had a good workout because we went over the zoo grounds twice. The zoo is open until 6pm on the weekends so we made sure to come in early to have time to see all the attractions. To do this, we decided to stay overnight at nearby La Quinta hotel in Everett which is about 30 minutes away north of the zoo and then be able to easily get to the zoo the next morning. This hotel is also only 25 minutes south of the Premium Outlets and/or Walmart in Tulalip so that one could go shopping during the day before checking in at the hotel. There is a $6 discount for the Woodland Park Zoo from the hotel brochures counter so this is another incentive for staying overnight. The entrance fee was around $18 for adults and $12 for chi...

This is a continuation from my previous post titled "Product Review:  My Vitapur Water Dispenser Has Started Leaking" linked here  http://www.chromiloamin.com/2012/01/produce-review-my-vitapur-water.html .  I have since moved the unit to the garage to avoid damages due to  flooding mishaps and believe I have narrowed it down to a defective  water bottle. I have two 18L water bottles that I prefill to save me a trip to the  water depot whenever one is depleted. I noticed that one of the two  causes a slow but steady internal leak. I won't use that from now on  and will see if that finally puts an end to the madness. The user  manuals indicate that the water bottle could be the source of the  problem but just like maps, I never pay attention to either of them. That'll teach me.

Now that the weather is getting nicer, it's time to bring out the charcoal barbeque grill and head out to the beach. That's what we did a few weekends ago and trekked to the local beach for some roasted pork chops and eggplant. These two are a great mix when served with white vinegar, chopped garlic, and hot chili. And last week, we had some roasted marshmallows until late while sitting around this fire pit. There was endless amount of firewood which made it easy to lounge about doing nothing but stuff our faces with roasted treats. Kids enjoyed it too by the way. SD47D624BC5P

We received the little guy's ice skating report card last week after completing the Preliminary set. His report card shows tasks completed and not completed which include these four incomplete items below: - Walk under hoops - Walk and pickup toys - Follow a circuit drawn on ice - Get up alone His teacher Trina puts in these nice comments on the report: "Awesome effort. You have done so well this set. Every day you are getting stronger and faster at standing up and taking some marching steps. Keep working hard. I enjoy teaching you and am proud of you. Very well done." I'm also really happy with his progress. He starts on the Preliminary Advanced set of lessons this week, so let's get it on!

The silver lining in tonight's clouds is almost visible but the never-ending saga of my MTD Yard Machine lawn mower continues. My brother responded to my original post here http://www.chromiloamin.com/2012/05/black-smoke-coming-out-of-my-lawn-mower.html saying that I basically need to do standard maintenance on the mower, like replace the motor oil on it, check the filter, etc. #DOH #FAIL. I removed the spark plug and air filter, then checked that the oil dipstick showed empty, and finally headed out to purchase the following: 1) Motomaster 4-cycle SAE 30 small engine motor oil; 2) Champion RJ19LM small motor spark plug; and 3) Briggs & Stratton 272235S air filter. These 3 parts and accessories purchased from CanadianTire set me back $22 including taxes. Fast-forward a few hours later, I finished maintenance on my mower, and was ready to start her up. It started fine with no black smoke so I was fairly happy at that point. I was able to trim through a few...

It took us almost a month since my little boy won this toy from Chuck E Cheese's by collecting 3000 tickets, mostly from the cyclone chamber. We weren't sure what to pick out given 3000 accumulated tickets and thought about getting the giant spider with exposed innards. Glad we didn't because we got to spend time together assembling this thing. We finally finished putting together this starship that doubles as a shooter which actually has a trigger and plastic spears for bullets. There were over 100 lego pieces so it required a lazy evening over a weekend to complete. It also comes with a separate dragon and a trooper, and provides endless playtime fun for the little guy.