Living the life of a house-husband

oaklandballistics — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:40:26 +0000

a fun fishing game

oaklandballistics — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:00:40 +0000

My sister-in-law gave my two kids each a fishing pole. This was very nice and the kids really wanted to use them. The trouble is that I’m not really a fisher. I don’t like to eat fish and I don’t like to go fishing. In order to allow my kids to use their new toys I devised a game where i attached magnets to the fishing one and they would fish for objects. Currently I use magnetic shapes that are to build with but they work great. Something I didn’t think of was that this would help my youngest learn shapes. I would ask him what kind of fish he caught and he would respond with, “a triangle fish.” I realized that you could do this with any type of object, letters or numbers or colors. It’s a fun game and the kids are learning something.

the road trip potty

oaklandballistics — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:06:51 +0000

We just got back from driving to Disney World and back. We chose to drive based on the price to fly and then rent and had to drive. One thing that we felt we would have to overcome was the constant stopping to go potty that our three year old would inevitably have to do. See, he’s a new toilet user and when he realizes he has to go, it has to be now. The solution to this came in the form of a small portable potty from Kids R Us. It was great. It folded up very small and the bags contain a small absorbent pad like a diaper. The idea was to let him use the potty while the car was still moving. I know that this wasn’t the safest thing to do, but my wife and I considered it a rational risk. That little potty saved us about 10 stops in total and about the same number of unders.
We took another road trip right after we got back from Disney, but this time it was only a four hour ride instead of the 20 hour drive. We couldn’t bring the potty since we drove my truck instead of a Navigator. The Navigator had room for the potty with two of the four back seats folded down but my truck doesn’t have a flat space like that so the idea was out.
In short, this little portable potty can save lots of time on the road but only in certain vehicles.

find it games

oaklandballistics — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:37:58 +0000

If you have a rather compulsive child then I have a great game for you. It’s called Find It. You may have seen these in stores. They are cylindrical tubes with hexagons on both ends and lots of little plastic beads inside. Mixed in with these beads are a number of odd items like lettered beads, a balloon, a rubber band, an eraser and so on. The idea is to shake and shiver the Find It until you find everything on the checklist. Four adults, myself included spent a collective 2 hours completing one of of these. It got to a point that we had to find an item, the penny, to prove that it was indeed in there (it was).
You can find the games just about anywhere but the website is here. Its really great and worth checking out.

credit score protection

oaklandballistics — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:31:34 +0000

I was interested in protecting my credit since it all anyone talks about nowadays. With all of the identity theft I felt it was worth looking into.
For starters, I found that it is not that widespread. Most people, if they are a victim, are only out a few 10s of dollars maybe 100. There is a very small number of people who get taken for a lot. Second, the easiest way to avoid the problems is to avoid shady things. Don’t respond to the emails and popups.
Third, those companies that offer to protect your credit don’t do anything that you can’t do on your with a little work. Here is a link to a website that talks about how to do it yourself. It costs $30 for each of the three credit agencies to lock your credit score and then $30 each to unlock it if you need to apply for a loan or something.

http://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2008/06/04/102143_never-pay-someone-to-protect-your-identity.html

credit score protection

oaklandballistics — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:31:34 +0000

http://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2008/06/04/102143_never-pay-someone-to-protect-your-identity.html

automatic shower cleaner

oaklandballistics — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:47:03 +0000

We have used the Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner for a few years and I really do like it. It does seem to keep the shower cleaner. I had a thought about how much of the shower it actually cleans so I decided to conduct a test.

When we finished one of the bottles I modified it so I could put some food coloring into it and actually see how much of the shower it reaches. I didn’t tell my wife I was doing this since she might not like the idea of spraying food coloring in the shower. I also used the guest shower since I wasn’t sure what would happen. After spraying the modified shower cleaner it became clear that it really covers a lot of the shower. Here are some pictures:

I know the pictures aren’t the easiest to tell but you can see where the spray hits and where it doesn’t. You can also see that I have the cleaner mounted as is prescribed. All in all, I was very happy with the results of the test. The spray isn’t the greatest at the back of the shower but there wouldn’t be as much water hitting that section as well.

t.e.d.

oaklandballistics — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:24:25 +0000

Since I don’t have a paying job i often have an urge to contribute to the family financially. It’s pretty hard to accomplish this since I don’t have a job so I usually to save money some how. My later attempt is to monitor the electricity that our family uses.
I chose a product that was featured in the Wall Street Journal called T.E.D., or The Energy Detective. It’s one of three devices that is compatible with Googles Powermeter which is an online service that helps to monitor and analyze your power usage.
I partly got the device just because I thought it would be fun, but I am finding that just because it’s there I am trying to keep it down. By there I mean that it has a small display that shows how much electricity you are using at that very second. It will also show you how much money that will cost you if you kelt that up for an hour or a day but I haven’t received my latest electricity bill to get the rates which will then be entered and TED will calculate it.
It was very easy to install. TED recommends having an electrician install it but I did it myself. I would recommend an electrician since you have to deal with the electric panel removed and there is a lot of electricity in there. Having said that, it only took me about five minutes and we were up and running. You will need wifi in order to utilize Google.
All in all, I am finally realizing how much our air conditioner really uses and how much all of our devices use when we are sleeping and not using anything. I am going to be purchasing small adapters and gizmos that will help cut the cost even further. I’ll keep you posted.

my cool bike helmet

oaklandballistics — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:26:52 +0000

I bought a new bike helmet the other. I never wore one as a kid or teenager and really don’t care for them. I’m not even totally sold on them as being necessary. Since I have kids and I have to set a good example. I had an old one and I didn’t really like it. I bought a new one to set and example, something that I at least feel socially acceptable in.
Another part of biking that I learned is why it is necessary to walk the bike across the road sometimes. My 6 yr old has trouble getting started on the bike sometimes. Crossing the street can require so lit second timing, even at crosswalks. This means that it is necessary to walk instead of ride in order to catch that little window of time that is allotted to pedestrians.

ah…the stresses

oaklandballistics — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:23:44 +0000

So I’ve been a stay-at-home dad for a full school year now. I made it through pretty well. I’ve been put under a lot of stress lately and it started to take it’s toll on me and the family. We are deciding whether our 6 yr old Ben should remain at the current school or move, I have been offered a coaching job at a new school, I had a huge order for my small toy making business and our house was being painted. All of these things were just too much for me to handle. I completely lost it last weekend. I wanted nothing to do with either of the kids. I just needed a break. I sort of got it, but my wife was very mad at me all weekend.

I feel much better now. I just had a lot going on. It’s tough trying to be the perfect parent. I feel that I should always be spending more time with my kids and that alone is a lot of stress. I have been trying to relax and to handle the stress better. It’s easy right now since those previously mentioned stresses aren’t around but what happens next time? I am really going to try to figure this out. It’s never easy and I don’t want my kids to think that I don’t want them around, even though I really didn’t want them around.