Defcon 4

Yesterday just before dinner Cathi mentioned that she bought her own Birthday Present. I didn't think much about it but asked how much she spent. She hesitated. "OK. Let's play the Hi Lo game from Price is Right.", I thought. "$300", I said, "Lower", $200, Lower, $100?, higher, $150?, nope $160".

Ok. What'd you get? "Some kids software." Huh? Cathi is usually complaining about how much time the kids are spending on the computer and she buys some kids games? Well these were supposed to be educational. I asked where she got it and this is where the Star Trek Red Alert sounded throughout the house.

"Sulu, raise shields!" I thought after she said "from some door to door sales people". I asked her if she already paid, "Yes", "OK - where's the software then?". "They'll deliver it here in a few weeks". My blood was starting to heat up quickly at this point. Defcon 4 had been reached.

Bill Gephardt would have probably agreed that a spanking was in order. But my anger management counseler's image appeared in my head telling me to just cool off and go on a walk. I took some deep breaths and asked for the receipt. The software was 10 CD's full of crap games. What I mean is games that was probably a Computer Science major's summer project and looked good on paper, but without the software in hand, installed and tried, made the $160 seem way over priced.

During the next 10-15 minutes I voiced my displeasure, but did so without causing a huge family crisis. I told Cathi that she needed to contact the sales people and get the money back. She agreed and apologized which was good, but very unsatisfying as she didn't really try to argue her case. I was also unsatisfied because I wanted the solution NOW and I also wanted to know with complete certainty this wouldn't happen again and was concerned that her turn to my line of thinking was so quick that she was just trying to avoid an argument rather than really understand my reasoning.

By the time dinner was over I was back to normal and Defcon 5 was reestablished.

After dinner I went upstairs and started helping Cathi fold clothes when I heard the doorbell ring and Jacob running upstairs smiling and saying "Mom, I found them for you down the street and said you wanted to talk to them". The sales girls were back. I can see why they smoothed Cathi over. Pretty Irish college girls trying to earn money over the summer. They gave me their 5 minute spiel including pictures and short descriptions of each game. But I wasn't budging. They gave us back the check and asked us to go through the cancellation process on the receipt.

So some lessons that hopefully were learned:

1. Don't let door to door sales people in - unless its a neighbor kid doing a fund raising project. That's OK - cause it's more like charity rather than buying something you need


2. Communicate before buying something over $100


3. Don't pay for something from a stranger unless you get the goods in hand.


4. Software, especially simple kids games doesn't (or shouldn't) cost that much!


5. I'm going to buy a "No Soliciting" sign for our door

I'll buy some flowers for Cathi though since the incident was disarmed so nicely, and she didn't get angry at me even though I was pretty hot. Afterall, it was HER birthday present which I made her return. Maybe she can get something for herself that she really wants.

Low Reunion 2007

Sunday I finally got around to downloading the pictures from the Camera an putting them into this webpage.

Hot Water Heater Expansion Tank Failure/Replacement

Yesterday when I got home and just when we started to eat, Jacob said "Dad, its a good thing you gave us that Family Home Evening lesson on how to turn off the electricity, gas and water in case of emergency. In the basement where the soft water tank is there was water spraying out of a pipe and water was everywhere, so I turned off the water to the house."

What the heck! I was home for probably 15 minutes and it comes up just as we start eating? I went down and turned the valve to the house back on see a spray of water coming from the top of a blue tank that was labeled "Potable Water Expansion Tank - Watts Regulator". Didn't have a clue what it was or its purpose. I did see that the stream of water was hitting some studs and floor joists. It hadn't been damaged too long, probably half a day or so and the leak while small, was pressurized and spraying about 12 inches away on to the wood.

I looked at the leak and it was due to some corrosion near the opening. I called Roto Rooter to see if they could come out and fix. Got an appointment for the next morning. I filled up two tubs with water and got a pitcher of ice water for drinking put into the fridge. Turned off the water and still the stream was happening. I unscrewed a cap on the bottom and noticed a valve that looked like a air valve on a tire. I got a pencil and pushed on the center pin and air came out and the pressure dropped and the water stream stopped.

In the morning I thought I would just stop at Home Depot to see how much a replacement tank was. I found a tank that was blue but it was much bigger and was fed from the bottom. I asked a guy there and he explained to me what the purpose of the tank was.

Many residential meters allow water in, but not back. When water is heated up it expands and builds pressure. Hot water heaters aren't designed to handle this pressure and since the water flow can't go back into the street there needs to be a mechanism to handle that excess pressure of water coming from the water heater. This tank adjusts and regulates that pressure. He took me the location of a replacement tank and it was only $49. Here is the model I bought. It was still only 7:15 am so I figured I would just go home and replace it myself.

On the way home I asked Cathi to call Roto-Rooter (who called her and postponed the appointment to 9:00) and cancel. Going without running water in your house even for a few hours is a huge pain! I can't imagine the inconvenience that people must go through who don't have running water.

Replacing the tank was easy. I turned off the water heaters the night before and drained the house line completely. I removed the tank, put teflon tape on the threads of the new tank and screwed it back on. Turned the water back on, relit the hot water heaters and that was it! Only cost me $50. Wish I would have gotten an estimate to see how much Roto Rooter would have charged me for the part and for labor. It took me about 20 minutes in labor and $49 in parts. I bet I saved at least $100.

My quest to 220

For the past 10 years I have loomed around 240 pounds. Well the time has come to lower that to 220. Then once that milestone has been reached, go for 200. So in order for this to happen I have resolved to do the following:

1. No more Mountain Dew (or any soda for that matter)


2. Eat breakfast, medium lunch, light dinner (no eating after dinner)


3. No deserts


4. More fruit


5. Drink lots of water


6. Bike with Cathi in the evenings (5 days a week)


7. Play more intense table tennis


8. I will add more techniques to this list as time goes on

I'm hoping that I can be down to 220 by September, and then 200 by Christmas. I'll update how things go.

Another reason why President Bush is lame

I could go on and on why I think President Bush is a complete doofus, but when he allows a colleague to go unpunished (at least for jail time) for his crimes, it demonstrates his disregard for the justice system. I'm not claiming to be a scholar on the situation, but it appears that President Bush is letting the same crime that caused President Clinton to be impeached, to go unpunished. Why the hypocrisy?

He, and many other politicians (not just Republicans) are making me lose faith that we can really have honorable and righteous men represent us in our Government. Maybe we should consider a woman?

Albion, Idaho city park location

This Friday (6/29/07) is the annual Anderson family reunion at the Albion, Idaho city park. Here is a google placemark for the exact location.

2007 Utah Summer Games results

If you don't want to read this summary, but want to see some good shots click here for some video clips of the tournament.

Thursday David To (a co-worker of mine) picked Austin, Jacob and myself up at 11 to head down to Cedar City. The tournament didn't start until Friday so we just relaxed the first evening.

Friday morning Austin and Jacob played in their 14 and Under, as well as the 17 and Under divisions. Austin took 4th in the 17 and Under and 1st in the 14 and Under divisions.
Jacob took 4th in the 14 and under division. Austin was extremely annoyed at losing one particular game and I needed to spend a few minutes with him to calm him down. David To also played in the 40 and Over category. He took 4th in that division.



In the afternoon Austin and I played in the Class A doubles. There were two categories for Doubles, Open and A. Open being reserved for the great players, and Class A for the, well, beginners. Doubles was a double elimination tournament which meant that if you lost twice you were out. We played two different doubles teams and beat them. On our third match up we played a couple of brothers. One of them was especially good at chopping. Austin was getting frustrated with that style and was unable to adjust to his extreme backspin. We lost that match. We went to the losers bracket.

We played a couple more times and won which put us in the finals against the same two brothers that had beaten us earlier. I had hope that Austin would be able to quickly adapt to the backspin chop style in order to get a win and he did! We won the first three games. This meant that we both had 1 loss. If we beat them again 3 out of 5 one more time then we would get the gold. I could tell that the one chopper brother was tired and had lost alot of drive to play his best. Austin took advantage of that and played his best. We won the next three again. Honestly, we could not have done it had Austin not adjusted his game and learned how to return the low chops that were coming his way. I was very proud to be his partner!



Friday evening we went to KFC and came home and swam in the hotel pool. Watched School of Rock on TV with Austin while David and Jacob both sacked out real early. On Saturday we woke up at 6:30 and got ready to leave, had breakfast and went to the gym at 7:45. We warmed up a ton. I was a little stiff. The preliminaries for the Singles were set. I was seeded at second (Class A). Austin had to play a difficult player for the preliminaries which knocked him into the Class C Division which was the lowest. This was especially hard for Austin to overcome. He didn't want to play in the lowest division.

Jacob was also in Class C. Jacob was having so much fun playing with Kenny Majors that I often had to go track him down to get him to play. He would go over to the Olympic Weightlifting event and sweet talk lifters out of their Power-ade drinks. He would run over the women's basketball event as well and chase girls. Where he got his energy is a mystery. He just played around in his matches and took dead last in the entire tournament. He didn't shed a tear, he had fun strutting around like he was something really bad.



David To was placed in the B division. In the preliminaries I was to play against Meg. I knew her from years of play at the Wasatch Front Table Tennis Club. I knew that she was rated about 300-400 points above me and that it would be a complete dream to beat her. She won the first game. I won the second game. The third game was a deuce game, but she stole it from me. The third game she kicked me around real good and won 11 - 1. It was an enjoyable match up. I was pleased with the win and the near win on the third. After the matches were all done and George was doing the Division assignments he asked me if I would mind playing in the Open. He said that the games I played with Meg were the closest of all the preliminaries and that the Open needed another player to make things more even in the A Division. I was honored! I was hoping to get in the Open so I could be the underdog for a change. Usually I have been in divisions where I could medal. Now I was in a division where I could fight like a monster and have nothing to lose.

There were 8 people in each division and the singles were a round robin which meant that everyone had to play 7-8 games against everyone. Of all the people in my division I won one person (Carol Davis), almost beat another (2-3 against Doug Hansen), and took one game from every one else (except Meg and Byron who beat me 3-0). I did play my best and left very satisfied that I had stepped up in my play. I still have a long way to go and can improve a ton more, but was happy that I didn't actually place last in my division and opened the eyes of a few of the really good players. I was second to last in the Open Division (7th place).

Austin again played some tough players and ended up with Bronze Medal in the Class C Division. David To took 4th in the Class B Division.

When we left the boys were hungry but we wanted to get on the road so we said we might stop later. They slept the entire four hours so we didn't stop and got home at 9:30 pm. It was a fun and tiring tournament. Looking forward to improving over this next year and going next year. Austin still has some major anger issues that we need to work on. I don't know why he has such a hard time considering he took home three medals (2 Golds and 1 bronze). I also was lucky to bring home a Gold myself thanks to him in the doubles. Jacob expressed an interest in changing over to shake-hand grip. I have since hidden his paddle and given him one of my old paddles. Will need to work with him to learn how to hit using this new grip. Hoping that his competitive drive increases. I wish I could somehow steal some competitiveness from Austin and give it to Jacob. Then they both would be balanced in the amount needed.