Chromilo Amin

Our kitchen garburator had been out of order for the past few weeks and I thought I would give it some tender loving care this Christmas Holidays because we'll need it. It's a Mainline Model 1900 and has been very dependable for the past 6 years. This happened a few times before and all I did was run a wooden barbeque stick through the serrated edges of the garburator blade to dislodge whatever gunk was in there and that did the trick. It didn't this time and I was ready to spend some money.  I was tempted to call our plumber and have them fix this for me (here take my money) but I thought to myself, how hard can this be. I was also tempted to take the whole thing apart to clean whatever was causing the blade to not spin but I'm sure I would have lost a few fingers or two if I did that. What did work was using something everyone already has lying around the kitchen - a butter knife. Take the butter knife and find the gap in the blade to insert the tip of the kn...

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to spend time waiting for a loved one in a waiting room while they undergo a major surgery. And the feeling of hopelessness is almost always apparent as everyone waits for the surgeon to come out and deliver the outcome. Anxiety and self-reflection often follow this feeling of hopelessness as we try to find solace and comfort in each other. We almost always put our faith in the almighty, praying often and asking priests to provide blessings for the sick. We become overly spiritual in times like these and would be nice if we kept this level of enthusiasm regularly. It is understandable however and in addition to our increased spirituality, we also question our own mortality. We ask what we would do differently in our lives to avoid the same fate. We promise to take better care of our health, to exercise more often, to eat well, to get a health checkup more often, to love and take risks, to have no regrets, and more importantly, to be at peace with ours...

I've had a few people ask about the details of our day trip to Victoria, BC as foot passengers on the ferry. Due to this, I thought it would be a good idea to write about our little adventure, outlining the benefits as opposed to taking your vehicle on the ferry. While planning for the trip, I found that you can get some discounts by purchasing your tickets using a BC Ferries Experience prepaid card which has to be loaded with a minimum amount http://www.bcferries.com/experience_and_coast_card/what_it_is/ . You start out by choosing your departure port. We took the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay route which I was told didn't qualify for the discounts unfortunately. We drove to that port and looked for the park & ride parking lot where we parked for the whole day for only $11. A shuttle bus takes you to the ferry terminal and back every 10 minutes or so. You have to make sure you make it back by 11pm however because they lock up the gates at that time. We barely made it back...

For the past August long weekend, we went down to Mike's Beach Resort (http://www.mikesbeachresort.com) in Lilliwaup, Washington which is about 2 hours west of Seattle. Thanks to Jade, Kim, and Ava for setting up this memorable family vacation. It would have been nice if my mother was able to join us as originally planned but her health problems just made sure that didn't happen. The resort was very popular because of all the oysters and clams. Fish and crabs were also in abundance but not as much as the oysters. They were everywhere. This was our first trip here so I have a few things that I can provide expert advise on to make your visit more enjoyable. 1) Book the Honeymoon Cabin. I know you save some money by booking the family cabins because they can house multiple guests in bunk beds but the bathrooms are very tiny and not in the best condition. On top of that, the hot water tanks appear to be shared between family cabins and the community washrooms because we ran...

We had an issue with our Panasonic NN-P994SFR Genius Inverter 2.2 cubic feet counter-top microwave oven. Initially, it would draw too much power and cause our breakers to trip. At first I thought it was because we were sharing the circuit with some other appliance but that wasn;t the case. This happened twice, tripping the breaker each time but continued to work on a breaker reset. On the third time, the LED display didn't show any life and that was that. My wife called a friend with some background in electronics and he suggested replacing the fuse. That sounded like a great idea and he said he would come over and have a look. He brought his ohmmmeter and we opened the microwave oven. Continuity tests showed that the fuse indeed blew and he asked if I had a spare. I said I would have to go and buy one so in the interim, he completed the circuit by tying thin strands of wire to the ends of the blown fuse. We put the covers back and plugged in the microwave oven. The LED display s...

Quick tip for new baby stroller owners: Do not inflated your deflated stroller tires at a gas station air pump. The reason for the above tip is to avoid the uneccessary expense of replacing the entire wheel because of a tire explosion which was so strong and extreme that it shattered the rims. It cost me $40+ to purchase a new wheel at Phil&Teds which I could have easily spent on manual tire pumps instead. The maximum recommended is 22 PSI for baby stroller tires and using the air pumps at the gas station makes it hard to estimate that unless you use a tire gauge. The tires exploded while we were at a food court, while we were immobile and kids weren't even seated in the strollers. It just popped and caused everyone to look because it sounded like a gunshot. Glad nobody got hurt from any flying wheel rim debris.

This is the second year we have donated to Samaritan's Purse www.samaritanspurse.ca for the Operation Christmas Child program. Here was last year's post talking about what we put in the box http://www.chromiloamin.com/2011/11/donate-to-operation-christmas-child.htm . It's always a worthwhile cause to donate instead of just buying family gifts during Christmas. Don't know about you but that always stresses us out. We will drop off one shoebox filled with toys, clothes, and school supplies for a 2-4 year old girl. As usual, we have also included a monetary donation on top of the $7 fee to cover shipment charges for the shoebox. Here are the items my wife was able to cram into the box this year. Can I just publicly say that she is awesome at all this especially under pressure. It's too bad the kids were already asleep when we put this together because they would have enjoyed preparing the gift box which contains: - Lion plush toy - Toothbrushes - Bars of soap - Cray...