The Mallorys Online

As part of Jennifer’s baby shower for Jacob, her BFF Heather asked me to burn a CD for the day. I searched the Internet and found some recommendations, but I had a hard time finding a mix of current and older music. Here is what I came up with. Hopefully this helps people save time.

Blessed – Elton John
Sweet Baby James – James Taylor
You Are The Sunshine of My Life – Stevie Wonder
Baby Hold On – Eddie Money
You’re the Inspiration – Peter Cetera
Doin’ It All (For My Baby) – Huey Lewis
Baby Love – Nicole Scherzinger
Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston
I’ll Be There – Mariah Carey
My Wish – Rascal Flatts
How Sweet It Is – James Taylor
What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
Stay Up Late – Talking Heads
You Are So Beautiful – Joe Cocker
Be My Baby – The Ronnettes
Beautiful Boy – John Lennon
Have I Told You Lately – Rod Stewart
Always Be My Baby – Mariah Carey
Baby, I Love Your Way – Peter Frampton

Doesn’t the paint look so good! I was very excited to get the chair rail up!

Tools used:

• 2.5″ Chair Rail
• 2.5″ Finishing Nails
• Nail Setter
• Idiot Juice

I got started on the chair rail that meets the windows sill. I had painted all the rail about four hours earlier and it was dry enough to work with. I was so happy with my first cuts and the rail slid in perfectly! Working on the second strip I again cut a 45 degree to meet up with the first piece and got the first nail in no problem. Then I found the next stud with my handy, dandy stud finder and began hammering away. On the first hit through the drywall I thought it felt a little stiff, but not enough to cause any concern. My second hit was greeted with a hissing sound and the first thing that crossed my mind is “Oh, $hit, I hit a gas line!”

I yell for Jennifer and a few seconds later scalding hot water blasts through the drywall. I now know I hit a copper pipe in the wall that feeds hot water. Jennifer grabs some towels and gets on the phone with Roto-Rooter for emergency service. I have Jennifer hold the towels while I try to turn the water off to the house. I got a trash container to hold the water that’s spraying out of the wall and finally get the water turned off. Here is the initial damage:

Not too bad, right? I thought so, too, but I also knew we were going to have to cut the drywall open to get to the pipe. Roto-Rooter to the rescue! A plumber named Chuck greeted me and I showed him the damage. He asked me to open up the drywall so I had him draw a box to show me the size he needs so I don’t have to cut more than necessary. The picture on the right shows the drywall knocked away and the box he drew. You can see my little nail hold in the middle of the pipe. Chuck explained he’s going to cut the pipe and put a coupling on to reseal the pipe. Whatever, Chuck, just get it done.

Chuck gets the coupling done in about 30 minutes and we turn the water on … water sprays everywhere! The repair didn’t take and chuck has to now cut the pipe in two places and put in additional pipe with TWO couplings. I’m thinking, great now there is twice the chance of a leak. It turns out once the pipe got a seal it began to fill with water, which prevents the seal from taking as steam forces little channels in the weld. We emptied the hot water heater and tried again. Again, more water

came out, preventing the seal. Chuck gave it one last try by blasting the pipe with heat to dry it out. He then worked quickly once the final seal was started so the pipe didn’t have a chance to fill. It worked! Almost four hours later and it was fixed. What a disaster! I had to open the wall completely to allow the area to dry with the fan. The last thing we need is mold. Chuck also told me a much easier way to install chair rail is with Loctite Power Grab. It’s very tacky so it allows you to stick the rail up well before it hardens. I wish I knew that five hours earlier.

Check out some more pics of the wreckage.

Update: Click here to see how it all turned out.

Jennifer and I have switched to U-Verse for our Internet service and TV so we don’t need a landline anymore.  However, most home alarm systems require a landline for the monitoring service.  After some searching online, I found AlarmZone.com.  They offer a package that includes the GE Simon 3 wireless alarm system, as well as a monitoring solution over broadband, rather than a phone line.  Sounds great, right?  I thought it was exactly what I need so I filled out their web form and waited for a call back.  About ten minutes later I received a call from a lady at “Protect America” asking if I inquired about alarm service and whether this was the first time contacting the company.  I replied I did inquire and I made a mental note about the odd question “is this the first time contacting our company?”  This is where it starts to get interesting.

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Jennifer has noticed I’m very protective of her now that she’s carrying our little boy. There is something about knowing my wife is slightly more vulnerable that kicks me into a heightened state of awareness while we’re out and about. I feel a little bit like a Secret Service guy scanning the environment for threats while we’re walking across a parking. That may be a little dramatic, but it’s the best analogy I can come up with. Is my daddy-sense a hardened instinct passed down for millions of years or is this a product of our increasingly crazy society? Let’s see what the media burns into our eyes every day…

Five Shot to Death at City Council Meeting; Gunman Killed

Cops: Man, 80, Shot, Killed Sister’s Boyfriend, 52

Cops: Florida Man Killed Neighbor Over Lawn Grass Height

Cops: Dad Used Utility Knife to Circumcise 2 Infant Sons

Armed and Angry ‘Drunkenstein’ Planned Super Bowl Massacre

Cops: Man Wearing Garter Belt, High-Heels is Scaring Drivers

Out of the last ten stories posted on foxnews.com, six are of absolute lunatics. They’re out there folks, and I’m going to make sure I mark the crazy man wearing a garter belt and high heels before he has a chance to measure my lawn height and circumcise my son during a Super Bowl massacre.

I made the switch (finally!) from Dish Network satellite to AT&T’s new fiber based TV U-verse. The (second) installation took about 7 hours with 4 of those hours wasted because the installation tech went down the street to the VRAD to figure out why I wasn’t getting signal to my house. He discovered I was on the wrong port, whatever that means. After the signal came in the house they had to rewire a couple things in the house and I was off and running with the U200 TV package, Pro speed VDSL and the HD package.

Hit the read link to keep reading my impressions of the service.

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The E*Trade baby commercials!  I can’t watch these things enough.  I’m sure a large part of it is due to Jacob, but it’s hilarious regardless!