It's Obvious, Really

Recently overheard at our house:

Sweetness (coming upon her father, ITYW, lifting weights to capitalize on Old Man Strength): "Daddy, are those weights heavy?"

ITYW: "They're a little heavy."

Sweetness: "You should use smaller ones"

They Don't Make'em Like They Used To, eh?

I don't mind paying almost $30 for a 2 piece bathtub diverter valve assembly. Really, I don't. I know it's just some plastic and rubber, but the dimensions have to be reasonably precise, so I'll give the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt. I do very much mind pulling one out less than 3 years after initial installation and finding what you see in the pictures below.
Here, the stem had failed (the pointy part on the tip is supposed to be a flat), preventing rotation of the valve using the knob. That means it was very tough to switch the water from the spigot to the shower:
But over a year ago, water began to leak between the spigot and the shower head. I wonder why could that be? This picture tells the tale:

Notice the two holes on the rubber gasket on the bottom. Thirty dollars really ought to buy some pretty high quality rubber and plastic.

Struggling Big 3

Wifey and I recently decided that the windshield wipers on our Ford Freestyle, which we are quite fond of, were due for replacement. Wal-Mart did not carry blades that would fit, the brackets on the Freeztyle's wiper arms are not a standard size. So, off goes I Tell You What to Autozone, only to discover that these wiper blades are only carried by the car dealers. This is beyond retarded. I have now wasted two stops and will apparently have to get to the dealer when THEY are open to pick up these simple items.
Being from Michigan, I am loyal to American auto manufacturers. But by selecting proprietary windshield wiper blades in a car design, it is clear how out of touch the Big 3 is with the American consumer. After all, one of the biggest arguments against foreign cars when I was young was how hard or expensive it could be to obtain replacement parts. Here I am, as an adult, jumping through hoops to get Ford proprietary windshield wiper blades. No wonder foreign auto manufacturers are doing so well. Wifey's Nissan Sentra was compatible with the El Cheapo brand blades one can buy at Wal-Mart.
Henry Ford, Mr. Interchangeable Parts himself, must be rolling in his grave.

It Always is Such Torture, When We Can-not Watch The Show

Wifey, Sweetness, and I watched some episodes of Season 1 of The Muppet Show tonight. This was a thoughtful gift from the in-laws. This show premiered in 1976. The episodes average around 25 minutes of air time each, which I'm assuming was a 1/2 network slot at that time. Meanwhile, contemporary (Blues Clues, Little Einsteins, etc.) children's shows on DVDs time in at about 22 minutes. Shows for grown-ups (The Office, Arrested Development, etc.) are also about 22 minutes.
Let's crunch the numbers. If we assume an American watches an hour of television a night, and many do, that's an extra 6 minutes per hour of mind-rotting commercials. Take that over a year, and you get 2190 minutes of EXTRA commercials over 1976, or 5,840 minutes total commercials. The extra minutes alone are 36.5 hours of commercials.
Meditate on it.

If You're Waiting for Your Ship to Come in, It Had Better Not Be the Yamato

It looks like the U.S. military is batting 0.500 this week. I'm not counting the daily outstanding efforts put in by almost 200,000 soldiers in the Mideast. I'm referring to the big-time hit with a single shot of an anti-aircraft missile on a derelict satellite in orbit. And I'm also referring to the crash of a B-2 bomber in Guam, likely due to a malfunction.
First, the good: I read reports that the anti-satellite missile did not have a warhead, which means a disabling direct hit at extra-atmospheric altitudes and ridiculous intercept speeds. That's like shooting grouse with a .22 rifle, except much harder.
Now, the bad: That bomber cost $1.2 billion dollars. That's 1/2 of a new attack submarine, 1/3 of a new destroyer, or 1/6 of an aircraft carrier. Gone in a cloud of smoke. It is remarkable that such a marvelous (when not crashing) piece of machinery has only a crew of 2, as opposed to the crew of hundreds for a smaller Navy ship or thousands for an aircraft carrier. What an enormous responsibility in the hands of a mere mortal!
I guess this crash was still less of a waste than the battleship Yamato.

There's an Engineer on that Long Black Train

Last night I Tell You What and Wifey attended a Josh Turner/Carrie Underwood concert. I've been to a few concerts, but this one really was special. Wifey and I both really like Josh Turner, we only had to drive about an hour to reach the arena, and it was definitely our first real date since Sarah Joy was born. And it was a riot! You can check out videos here.
Mr. Turner's performance was exceptional, especially considering he missed a concert two days ago with the flu. The most remarkable thing was his voice. Not just singing, but plain old talkin'. If Barry White and Boomhauer had a love child, who then produced a son with the San Andreas Fault, that man would have Josh Turner's voice. The first couple of songs were so flawless that I wasn't sure if he was lip synching, but it became apparent that he was singing, and doing so very well. He did not disappoint, although that part of the concert was a disappointingly short 40 minutes or so.
Carrie Underwood is a good pop/country singer, and neither Wifey or I had a huge affinity for her. But, hey, we were already there, so we stuck around for the 100 minute show she put on. And we were quite thankful we did! It started out a little slow, but she really got rolling towards the end. She's a 105 pound waif, but it's all pipes. I saw Allison Krauss live a few years ago, and nobody has a prettier voice than her, but I've never seen someone sing like Ms. Underwood. I can see why she is so popular. She even pulled off a G'n'R double tribute (Cold November Rain/Paradise City) near the end that was legit.
It may be forever before Wifey and I get out for another evening like that, but we will remember this one till that day and beyond!

Only in America 2

I just took a look in our refrigerator, and there are "milks" from the following sources:

1. cow
2. soy bean
3. rice

This is due to wifey trying to make sure she doesn't drink dairy milk, which seems to offend Sarah Joy's stomach when feeding, but it still seems crazy to me.