Toilet Story

During home inspection of our new house, the inspector said the wax rings beneath the toilets need replacing.

I thought, "well, since the toilets are old and we need to uninstall them to replace the wax rings anyway, why not replace the whole toilet?"

Then I found out about York Region's Water For Tomorrow toilet rebate program, so we had been researching and shopping for the different toilets eligible for the rebate.

We had our eyes pretty much set on the American Standard FloWise Dual Flush Elongated Toilet, because we "tried out" the one-piece version at Home Depot and liked it.  (No, we didn't actually "use" it in store!)

Then, on Thursday, Daniel IM-ed me about a grand opening special at Lowe's: a "Buy One Get One Free" offer of the two-piece version of this toilet, Friday to Sunday only, for the first 300 customers only, limit 2 per customer!

Problem: How many were we buying?
Answer: There are 4 toilets in the house, but we don't really plan to replace the basement one until later.  So 3.  However, Mom said she wants to replace her toilet too, so she'll take the 4th one.  They initially wanted to replace all 3 of their toilets as well (so we were planning to buy a grand total of 6!! toilets), but ended up changing their minds.

Problem: Who were going?
Answer: First, our "advance scout" (a.k.a. my dad) went to the store and asked about the "limit 2 per customer" part: it means each customer gets to take 2 home, not 4.  Since I got to stay with Isaac, someone else had to go with Daniel to get our required 4 toilets.  That means my parents, because the store was actually closer to their home than ours!

Problem: When did we need to hit the store?
Answer:  The store opens at 7am on Friday.  On one hand, toilets aren't exactly an impulse-buying item, and there are no other promotions or items are crazily on sale at limited quantities, so there's no need to line up like Boxing Day (or Black Friday for our American friends).  Besides, Dad asked the store staff about the promotion and they clarified that the store had 600 of these toilets on hand, so it's not "first 300 customers of the store" but "first 300 customers buying the toilets".  On the other hand, our "advance scout" reported many people seemed to be interested in the toilet.  So Daniel and my parents decided to meet at the store at 6:30am.  Daniel ended up being customer #30 and my parents were #40 and #41 respectively.

Problem: How were we going to haul the toilets home?
Answer: We considered different options, such as paying the store $75 for delivery, renting the store's cube van for $19, whether the toilets would fit our cars, etc.  In the end, the three of them just carried the toilets home in their cars.

Problem: Where were we going to store them?
Answer: My parents' garage, since we don't have possession of our new house yet!

One Little Monkey Rolling on the Bed...

... he fell off and bumped his head!

That happened once the night before and once last night, when Isaac was put in bed but I didn't go to bed yet.  That's despite me built a "wall of pillows" around him.

Unfortunately, he has grown so strong and managed to kick some of the pillows loose, falling off our bed.

Fortunately, Daniel has moved himself and his memory foam mattress top from the living room back to our bedroom and had been sleeping in the bedroom since.  Isaac fell onto Daniel once (daddy had to wake up early) and onto the memory foam another time.

Unfortunately, our bed is a MALM, which had a 3" wide wood trim around the mattress.  Which means Isaac very likely would've bumped his head or some other body onto it.

Fortunately, Isaac didn't seem to be hurt, although he was (understandably) crying feverishly.

We have since "fortified" our "pillow fortress" with more comforters and such.  Hopefully it'll hold until we move, where we'll (hopefully) have a better sleeping arrangement.

The Search for a Media Centre

Ever since we have bought our LCD TV, we have connected my old, first-gen, PowerPC G4 Mac Mini to it, hoping to use it as our media centre.

Only to find the Mac Mini is so yesteryear, so inadequately-powered that it can't play high quality (for example, 480p H.264) video in full screen.  The HD videos (720p H.264) taken with my Flip MinoHD aren't even watchable.

"What good is a media centre if it can't play media??" Asked Daniel.

So, we set out to search for a Mac Mini-replacement.

The current-gen Mac Mini, equipped with Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz processor, plays the HD content fine.  (I tested it out at the Apple Store in Fairview, plugging my Flip into it.)  However, at minimum $669+tax (student discount), it is a little out of budget.

Then I found the ASRock ION 330.  Unlike the Mac Mini (which is a Macbook trapped in a desktop case), the ION 330 was designed to be a media centre: it has HDMI, 7.1 channel audio, GPU capable of decoding even 1080p H.264.  There's a version with Blu-Ray drive as well, which Macs don't support.

Did I mention the white model was almost as sexy as the Mac Mini sitting in the TV bench?

However, the Nvidia Ion platform is too new for me to plunge.  The ASRock ION 330 is the only ready-built Ion computer out there, and I'm not quite ready to be the lab mouse.  The Atom 330 CPU is also underpowered comparing to the general purpose Core 2 Duo the Mac Mini is equipped with.  Plus, I can only find the black, no-Blu-Ray version at Canada Computers.  Since we plan to get a PS3 some time down the road, we can live without Blu-Ray, but if we're going to get the ION 330, I want it in white!

Then, somebody suggested "why not a PS3?"

I Googled around and found out, to my surprise, the PS3 does almost everything I want it to do (if I plug in an external hard drive).  I can watch Blu-Ray, H.264, WM9, and DivX.  I can browse the web.  Unlike the stupid iPhone/iPod Touch, the browser has Flash 9 and Java support.  I can work around the "no Bit Torrent client" problem by using Torrent Relay.

(It even runs Linux!)

The only video formats I may need but are not supported by PS3 are RMVB and QuickTime.  It also lacks a DVD burner.  I suppose I can still keep my ancient Mac Mini plugged in for those purposes.

Now we just have to wait for the PS3 to go on sale or drop in price/size.  (The size part is important because it is 1/2" too tall for our TV bench.)

Things I Miss

As every parent warned me before I delivered and as every sane person can imagine, there are things I used to do pre-baby that I can't or won't do now.  Here's a short list of things I miss:

• Listening to music -- It's hard to listen to (my) music when I can't listen when Isaac is napping (I have to keep a keen eye on when he wakes up).  I've been so behind on Cantopop.
  
• Karaoke -- I miss the singing part, not the drinking part.  Not knowing the latest tunes makes a boring karaoke session anyway.
• Drinking -- I'm only a very-occasional drinker, but I do feel like having booze sometimes.  I haven't drunk since I knew I was pregnant.  It's been a long, long time.
• Sushi/sashimi -- Listeria was the concern when I was pregnant, but now it's just the fear of potential allergic reaction--Isaac's, not mine.
• Lobster, oyster, clams, and other shellfishes -- Again, I don't want to risk an eczema flare-up.  Last week I had a take-out dinner at someone's house and the food ordered were ribs, scrambled eggs with oysters, and clams.  Not a fun assortment.
  
• Dining out -- I know, I know, it's possible to have a nice dinner with a baby in tow; restaurants don't turn away babies.  But we've tried and so far it's too much effort (and potential disaster) for what it's worth.  Besides, we'll have to work around Isaac's bed time.
• Korean food -- Korean food is in its own category because they don't half as good as take-out, and the restaurants are usually very baby-unfriendly.  Plus, spicy food might trigger eczema too.
• Traveling -- We had a couple of road trips, and Isaac just couldn't stand drives longer than two hours, even with stopping.  We still haven't dared to fly.  We'll probably do that in September though.
• Gaming -- I'm talking about uninterrupted night-long gaming.  That hasn't happened because my Wii isn't even in my house now, and we've just packed our PS2 last night.  Hopefully I can have my Rock Band back after I move.
• Watching TV/movie -- Again, I'm talking about uninterrupted entertainment.  I have been watching TV and even DVD, but I have to tend to a crying Isaac even after he has gone to bed.  Something like a long-haul Lord of the Rings-a-thon is impossible.
• Programming -- I haven't touched coding in months now.  I miss it.
• Meaning (or meaningless) adult conversation -- 'nuff said.
  

Baby Outgrowing His Clothes So Fast

Little Toe Sticking Out

Isaac has always been a bigger-than-average baby. He has been wearing clothes meant for babies 3 months older all the time. For this summer, we had to buy him clothes sized 12 months to make sure they'll still fit him by late summer.

We always keep his wardrobe small, resulting in a fairly light load of baby laundry run almost daily.

That's why we're left with holey clothes like this...