So this last weekend while Marshall was at work I figured I’d attempt to do some laundry in addition to some much needed yardwork.  The yardwork ended early when I ripped a hole in my hand (see earlier post) and much to my dismay so did the laundry when I received an error code indciating the washer wouldn’t drain.  Dang it!!

I attempted to find repair instructions online and although several posts looked promising, I couldn’t figure out how to remove the front panel to get to the drain.  After promising my buddy Mike that I would call a repairman tonight if I couldn’t it out myself I realized the pressure was on.  I do NOT want to pay for something I can do myself.  Plus there’s my “fix-it-yourself” pride to think about as well. 

Fortunately I found this link which has excellent instructions for troubleshooting and fixing the problem I was having.  Sweet!  For anyone else who is thinking about attempting this and would feel more comfortable seeing what it’s all about, here you go.  =)

This is what all the fuss was about (missing piece at bottom of washer otherwise known as the “front panel”). I figured I could handle things once I got the front panel off, I just couldn’t figure out where the screws were. FYI, the screws are at the very bottom of the washer and require a 6.5mm socket and extender to get to.

Don't mind the mess around the washer (or the clothes that have been sitting in stale water since Sunday). "Oh, that's Naaasty" - Cleveland from Family Guy

Place a bag under the drain before removing the plug as you will have about 2-3 gallons of water drain from an undrained load of laundry.  Warning, if you’ve let this sit a couple days like I did this water will stink and stink bad.  Fortunately my nose is pretty well desensitized to wicked bad stenches as our dog Lotus has been sprayed by a skunk twice in the last month.  =)

A plastic bag works great for collecting the excess water left in the washer bin.

Once the water is drained, squeeze the black tube connected to the drain to see if any socks or other debris have become stuck. I used channel locks to easily compress the metal clip around the tube in order to disconnect the hose from the drain.  I wanted to make sure nothing was lodged in one of the joints where I couldn’t detect it from the outside.  Nothing stuck here so on to checking the drain filter.

There's a lot more room to work on a washing machine than a V6 Jetta thankfully. I was amazed that it was actually relatively easy to reach everything. =)

Wow, amazingly enough a bobby pin and rope pieces from one of Lotus’s dog toys managed to get through the drain plug and get stuck in the filter. Fortunately I was able to remove the debris before the motor burned out.

Disconnected black hose directly behind drain with nasty bobby pin and rope debris puled from the housing of the filter (see small hole between main drain and pump assembly).

Ok, that was the hard part.  Now to put everything back together again (ideally with no extra parts). 

Reattaching the black hose to the drain after confirming nothing was stuck in it.

After clearing the hoses and filter it was time to screw in the drain plug and reinstall the front panel.

Looks good.  But will it work??  Profit!!  =)

Hurray! 33 minutes left on my whites... mmm, clean socks... =)

Thanks to Rhondacat at www.fixya.com for her post on how to fix this problem.  Awesome info.  You saved me a repair bill and bruise to my ego. 

Super happy about fixing my washing machine (and having clean clothes tomorrow). Watch out yard, I'm coming for you next.

Ok so I thought I’d actually try and be a responsible homeowner today and work on my yard.  Hey everyone else is building sheds and mowing lawns and cornholing so I figured I’d get in on the excitement. 

There are all these nasty dandelion weeds in the backyard which end up getting stuck in Sierra’s fur and then end up sticking me when I pet her or worse, end up in the bed and I roll over them in the middle of the night.  =P  So after a relaxing and fun day yesterday I figured I’d pull out the shovel, throw on my furry boots and head out to tackle the nightmare that is my backyard.

Although I couldn’t find my gardening gloves I figured I’d still be ok with my tough elephant skin.  Well, let’s just say I vastly underestimated my own strength combined with a lack of gloves and after only 20 minutes ended up shearing off a good portion of my palm.  Lame!!

Do you know how difficult it is to get a picture of your own hand? I felt like I was playing Twister with myself.

Yep, my skin totally wussed out and decided to separate from my muscly hand. Boo... =(

So yeah, I guess I won’t be doing the same amount of yardwork that I had originally planned but I’m not giving up yet.  You may have won this round yard but I’ve got your number.  Just wait… 

I guess I can at least pick up the dead weeds I managed to kill. So lame, seriously. =P

The year 1979 is significant for multiple reasons including it being the year Sony introduced the Sony Walkman, the year my parents introduced me to the world (ie. I was born), and it was the last time the treasures of King Tutankhamun’s tomb had been on display in San Francisco.  Quite a year, I know. 

I’ve always been fascinated by Egyptian history, especially the story of King Tut the boy king who died unexpectedly and mysteriously at the age of 19.  I remember making and painting a plaster model of his death mask and seeing pictures of all the treasures uncovered at his tomb.  I never thought I would have the opportunity to see these items in person.  Although the death mask was not on exhibit I still got chills viewing the artwork and images that were created over 3,200 years ago.  It was amazing…  =)

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  There was a whole lot of adventure to be had before we even got to the museum.  Let me start at the beginning.  Marshall and I had decided to take BART into the city and that was a great choice because traffic and parking looked like it would have been a nightmare in Golden Gate Park.

Marshall and me at the beginning of our journey to the city. Happy smiles all around. =)

On the train to San Francisco a girl across from us suddenly started crying.  Then she stopped crying, then she started again and it seemed to be that whatever was causing her to cry was something very deep, like maybe she had just learned a family member had died.  Everyone ignored her crying (which seemed like the right thing to do) so I didn’t feel guilty about that but I did feel guilty about that fact that I couldn’t help silently trying to analyze the situation.  She had a tattoo with the name “Reese” on her neck and a tattoo on her arm that looked like it said “Thug For Life” and yet she was coming from the Dublin BART and was headed to the city.  Hmm… well I’m sorry for trying to analyze her life and hope she finds comfort for whatever was upsetting her.

After making it to San Francisco we had to transfer to Muni.  This was actually a lot easier than I would have thought however we screwed up the first part by getting on an inbound train instead of outbound so we had to get off at Embarcadero and then turn around to get on N-Judah outbound.  Thank goodness for good maps and friendly people on the train who informed us about the inbound/outbound designations.  =)

I'm so glad they had this map. Even with relatively good directions Marshall and I still ended up getting on the "inbound" (ie. wrong) train to go to the deYoung museum.

Next we weren’t sure about when the Muni bus/train would stop so Marshall pulled the “Stop Request” cable when he thought we were approaching our exit and we ended up getting dropped off about 4 blocks too early.  No worries though, I wore tennis shoes so walking was no problem.  =)

Finally after a nice stroll through the park we had reached our destination, the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.  Hurray!  I was so excited that I started chanting “King Tut, King Tut, King Tut..” as we approached the entrance.  Unfortunately my excitement was not to last as we were told upon entering that tickets were sold out until 5pm.  =(  But wait, a guy standing near the ticket counter said he had two tickets for 1pm (30 minutes away) that he’d sell for $30/ea.  I’m always suspicious of these kinds of transactions though so I told Marshall that we’d just leave and try another day…  (wipe away tear).  As we were walking out and I was saying how disappointed I was Marshall said, “you know what, let’s go back.  We can wait.”  Hurray!  Now I’m happy again.  =)

Hurray! We're going to see King Tut (or at least a number of priceless artifacts recovered from his tomb). I got goosebumps going through the exhibit.

This time when Marshall went to get the tickets, the guy at the counter said, “Wait, do you have cash?  If so, you should buy from this guy and then you can get in right away.”  Sweet!  An endorsement from the actual museum guys so that makes it official.  Two tickets please.  =)

The exhibit was absolutely amazing.  We also paid the $7/person for the audio tour which really helped me to take in all the information.  Apparently I’m more an auditory learner so this worked out well (and I didn’t even have to laugh to remember it). 

After going through the exhibit and purchasing a $50 book on the exhibit and history of King Tut (I couldn’t help myself, I love these kinds of books) we headed up to the tower and were treated to panoramic views of the city.  Awesome!

A view of the Music Concourse from the tower of the deYoung museum. The roof was very cool as it was covered in plants and odd domes with what appeared to be portholes on them.

An amazing view from the tower of the deYoung Museum. Awesome!

Then it was down to the gardens where I got to check out what appeared to be prehistoric plants and elegant floating lilies.  I would have spent a ton more time at the museum but unfortunately Marshall was dying from carrying a heavy bag (we traded off briefly and yeah it was super heavy) and he was hungry so we headed back to the Embarcadero for a bowl of clam chowder and salty sea air.

Super leathery dinosaur plants. Cool!

A lotus flower floating in a murky yet still beautiful pond in the deYoung Museum gardens.

Marshall taking a picture of me taking a picture of a picture of something else.... oh no I've gone cross-eyed. I gotta hand it to the new iPhone, nice picture quality. =)

On the way back to catch Muni we ran into this restaurant.  As hungry as we were, we were saving our appetites for clam chowder.  Gurgle, growl…. Ok, we better hurry up.

That's right. While I was in San Francisco I decided to open my own burger joint. I considered calling it "Tempjen Burger" but then decided to just use my full name.

Man I love that stuff.  We always go to “Chowders” on the pier.  I like it a lot more than the clam chowder in Monterey although that is good too.  =)  After feeding our stomach’s we headed out to the viewing stations and were lucky enough to catch a view of this crazy powerboat taking off into the choppy waters of the bay.  It looked totally dangerous to me but I guess that’s part of the attraction.  I like the colors.  =)

Just as we were coming out to the pier this speedboat took off with a bunch of rowdy passengers aboard. I'd never seen anything like it.

Then a picture of us with Alcatraz lurking in the background (we’ll have to go visit Alcatraz next time we go to the city as I love its lore as well).

A friendly passerby offered to take our picture. How nice. =)

And then an obligatory picture of the seals.  I don’t remember that sign last time I was there.  I guess that’s like proof that the sea lions you took pictures of were actually genuine Pier 39 seals.  “We’re the real deal!” – Sally Sea Lion

Pier 39 seals. They reminded me of Sierra when a few of them rolled over on their backs with their heads upside down.

Ah, my little gangsta baby, so susceptable to the cold. =)

At this point it was getting a little chilly and a little late.  We still had a long ride home on BART and both of us were exhausted from a full day of play.

I still had a bit of energy left in me so I had some fun attempting to climb and then balance on top of these rope hitches and then took more pictures.  It’s really beautiful over there.  =)

Practicing my mad balancing skills (I still fell off). =)

Relaxing in the gardens after a delicious bowl of clam chowder. So good!

View of the spiral arch near Pier 39 taken while standing directly underneath it. I like it. =)

Beautiful orange flowers near Pier 39. I had to stop to enjoy them.

Apparently the walk from Pier 39 to BART is only 1.4 miles but at this point my feet were killing me.  Seriously I guess I need to go with size 9.5 shoes next time.  =P

Heading back to BART after an awesome day of fun, sun and sea air.

And because I’ve always seen it but have never gone to check it out, Marshall and I crossed the street early to get a closer look at this modern art structure.  I didn’t realize it but you can actually climb stairs up and through the structure was was really cool.  Totally worth the little detour.

I've seen this structure every time I've walked from BART to the Embarcadero but never checked it out. It's actually really cool and you can take stairs up to get a birds-eye view of it all.

So all in all a super cool trip.  We got a little lost, had some aches and pains with all the walking but had a great time.  Thanks for the great trip Marshall.  =)

Well I got the opportunity to save another baby bird who had fallen out of its nest and happily it seems my efforts would pay off this time.  =)

It all started thursday evening when Marshall called me out to the backyard to point out a baby bird that our dog Lotus had found on the lawn.  Shortly after the discovery of the first bird, Sierra found a second bird that unfortunately had not made the fall from the tree.  When Marshall shined a flashlight up into the branches we found a birds nest that appeared to have disintegrated and partially fallen to the ground.  Although we had no idea what kind of bird it was despite my bad luck trying to save baby birds in the past (pet cat got one that I had been trying to teach how to fly and the second baked on the Jacuzzi when I was away for the day at my sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner) I thought I’d attempt to find a way to save the bird anyway.

However slim the odds I decided to put the bird into a large cardboard box and see what happened by the next morning.  To my surprise the bird was alive and appeared healthy.  From the living room I also noticed a dove walking around the area we had found the baby and then checking out the concrete where the other one had fallen.  Hurray!  Maybe there is a chance the mother would come back to the baby so I went outside, moved the baby bird, paper towel and nest bits onto the concrete and waited.  What came next?  Profit!  =)

Holy cow it worked! The mother came back and is taking care of her baby. Yay!! =)

By Friday evening the paper towel and nesting materials had blown away.  Not to worry though.  To my delight the dove and its baby had re-located at the base of the tree that they had originally been nesting in and seemed quite comfortable.  Ah, I’m so glad that doves are such good parents.  Another other kind of bird would probably be screwed if it fell out of its nest.

Although it looks like the baby is squished he's actually quite happy and healthy.

On Saturday morning I was lucky enough to capture the mother dove as she cautiously approached her baby after being frightened off when I  let the dogs out to use the bathroom.  It’s really funny how they completely sit on the baby without smothering them.  Don’t try this at home.

From my living room I saw the mother (or father) slowly approaching the baby.

Hurray! She found the baby and is now taking care of the little guy. =)

After two days I finally got my first close up look at the baby.  This is what the bird looked like after being sat on for hours by its mother and father (the parents share child-rearing responsibilities).  How progressive. 

Scraggly little thing isn't he?

After nesting next to a tree for a couple of days the baby decided for a change of scenery and moved next to the A/C unit where he blended quite well into the rocks and leaves.  Oh my gosh, is that a baby dinosaur??

It's a baby dinosaur!! Check out that leg!

He looks bigger and stronger already.  =)

Yep, he’s getting so big and strong that I’d only have one more day of looking for his latest nesting spot before he flew the coup.  This is the last place I saw him and I can only guess as to what adventure he’s on now.

The baby bird re-located multiple times and finally settled on a juniper cave towards the back of the yard.

So this morning as hard as I looked I couldn’t find my baby bird.  =(  I kept the dogs inside and watched for the parents to come into the yard but still no sign of him.  I’m hoping that he either found a way to squeeze through a hole at the bottom of the fence or fly over towards the creek and is continuing to grow big and strong.  I did my best to keep him safe (kept the dogs inside for 3 days) and protected him when I had to let the dogs out to use the bathroom.  Although I saw his parents sitting on the fence this morning with no sign of baby, I’m going to believe that is because he was strong enough to fly away to make his own way in the world.  Yes, I’m sure that’s it.  =)

Hmm, I saw the two parents this morning but no sign of baby... I'm sure he was just stretching his wings.

Gosh darn it!  Lotus just got sprayed by a skunk again…  Ah, nature…  =(