Why I Oughta...

Nat and I were out on Black Friday and the fine folks at Toys R Us did everyone a favor and dropped the price of this toy submarine exactly $0.00.  What an amazing deal!

Found this 'alternate footage' on YouTube this am of The Last Waltz.  Sound is pretty great. Keeping the tradition alive.  This is the 10th year of 'documenting' it via this here blog.  Well...not 10 posts, but the first one was back in 2004, so this is the 10th year of sorts.  Looks like this makes 8 of 10 years.  Not too bad. Here's my post from 2013 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2012 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2011 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2010 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2007 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2005 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2004 on The Last Waltz .

The first thing I bought this weekend at the Randolph Street Market was this Santa with a big bulb red nose.  He'll go great right next to our light up tree on the piano.

Along with all three kids, a Grammy, an Aunt Sisi and one nephew, we went down to the Randolph Street Market to score some vintage Christmas stuff this weekend.  (and yes...we did take the Swagger Wagon, thank you very much.) I'll document the new additions to the Christmas gallery later this week once they get set up into spots.

Look who arrived in the mail:   Santa ! We put in the order for the Bumble (actually...we think we ordered three of them somehow!), so hopefully he's on his way to our house via the USPS.

We picked up these guys (and Rudolph!) at Menards over the past few weekends.  They each have a belt buckle that you can push and make them say their catchprashes (like..."now....this won't hurt a bit."). There are four of them in total that you can purchase: Hermey, Rudolph, Yukon and Santa.  We had three, but not Santa. The issue?  Inside each of the boxes is a 'puzzle piece' that you put together and get a special order code for a exclusive Bumble figure that you have to mail away to receive. Think of this as kind-of a new-age "D-R-I-N-K  Y-O-U-R  O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E". We *had* to get the Bumble.  *Had* to. So...off to Ebay I went.  Found a Santa for a bit more than they sell them at Menards and I pulled the trigger.  We're waiting on him to arrive (hopefully today!) and then the girls and I will assemble the puzzle and see how we can get the Bumble.

I am the KING of stripped screws.  Putting screws in.  I strip them.  Taking screws out.  I strip them. We're getting some painting done and I had to take down some bookcases.  I took out a bunch of the screws, but encountered one last one:  and it was awfully stripped out. But...fortunately...I had this little kit on hand called "Speedout" .   See that screw in the top photo?  That's AFTER I finally got it out of the wall. Thanks to the Speedout .   The Speedout is a series of 2-sided bits.  You pop the "a" side into your drill/drive and you bore a slightly bigger 'hole' into the screw head.  Then, you flip the bit over and use the 'b' side to 'grab' the screw out. I received the Speedout from my in-laws for my birthday earlier this year and I had not used it before this weekend.  Now?  I'll keep it in my work-bucket and use it all the time. Watch this video.  I swear...this was my exact experience.