Weekly Review - Week 31 (March 29 - April 2, 2010)

This week was Spring Break! We really needed this one, too. Of course, we always need a break this time of year. Our weather was gorgeous and we had a staycation instead of traveling. One of my goals for the week was to fix our drippy kitchen faucet. The drip had progressed from an occasional drip to a regular, frequent rhythm over the past months. Renaissance Man takes a hands off approach to plumbing repair and was all for calling a plumber. I remember watching my dad do stuff like this around the house and the business he owned, so I decided to give it a try. I logically decided is was a gasket issue. Of course, I had no clear memories of my father doing this, so the exact step by step process was fuzzy, to say the least. So, I headed off to our local Lowes Home Improvement. Now, people who aren't from around here may wonder why I specify Lowes Home Improvement and don't just say Lowes. It's simple, in our area we have a chain of grocery stores called Lowes and they get the short name. So, once at the store, I made a beeline for a plumbing department too seek out a wise, gray haired man to help me. Lowes Home Improvement usually does a great job at hiring knowledgeable gray headed men to help people like me. Well, I didn't need the gray haired man because the faucet manufacturer had a wonderful display with a cutaway of my faucet and a troubleshooting guide! So, I simply had to find my problem, follow the arrow to the part numbers and get the parts. I studied the cutaway for a few minutes so that I would know what to expect when I opened it up. In all, it was a very simple job to do. I was right about the gasket, but found it needed two gaskets and two springs. The guide also said that if that didn't work, there was a ball that would need to be replaced. I decided then and there that I would replace the ball 'cause I didn't want to have to open the faucet up twice.  When I got home, I opened my faucet with a wrench and dismantled it. Sure enough - the springs had sprung and the gaskets were disintegrating. I easily replaced the springs, gaskets and the ball and in less than 15 minutes had a drip free faucet! I am so happy! I spent $15 on parts and absolutely nothing on labor! I think a plumber would have been at least $75 for that job! 

Here is a picture of the sprung springs and worn out gaskets.

These are my dirty thumbs - I had washed them once before I thought to take a picture, so they aren't so dirty, but you get the idea.

On Tuesday, Rocket Boy had a tooth come out. So, what does this homeschool family do? We attempted to type the blood! Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful at collecting enough blood, so the test was a bit of a bomb. Here's a picture anyway.

Thursday and Friday we all worked on getting ready for this months Scouting for Food run. We stapled notes on paper bags and ran out of staples during the process. Renaissance Man went off to get staples and came back with 5,000 staples! We will not run out of staples for a very, very long time!  Friday, Rocket Boy's First Lego League worked a shift at the First Lego League booth at the regional FIRST competition. The robot ran better at the exhibition that it did at the state tournament in February! Sometimes things just work out that way! On Saturday morning, Renaissance Man  and Rocket Boy got up and joined other scouts from the troop and distributed the paper bags to a nearby neighborhood. The scouts will return in two weeks to pick up the bags - hopefully filled with food to donate to a local crisis ministry.

Next week we will be back to the regularly scheduled program!