Barhorst Brewed: January 11-18

Bryan and I are both trying to spend less time on our phones. He put a large 100 sided die in his pocket to get in the way every time he reaches for his phone. It gives him a moment to remember that he doesn't actually need his phone, he's just reaching out of habit. He reports that it is working as planned thus far. I finally activated the tiny smart phone that I purchased a couple of years ago for this purpose. It can do everything a normal sized smart phone can do, but the size makes it quite inconvenient to use for non-essential things. Importantly, I didn't install chrome, which has made a huge difference as well.

We had a snow day on Thursday, much to the delight of the children. It was a very laid back day. Kaitlyn and Matthias played video games together without fighting for several hours while Theo watched them. Olivia, Gretchen, and I played Eye Found It, a Disney I spy game for 5 year olds, and had a grand time. We then promptly packed it back up and put it on the donate pile because we are unlikely to play it again. I also pulled out Taboo to show them. Kaitlyn organized a recital that she recorded on her new camcorder. I'll have to see about getting the video put up somewhere.

Yesterday we went on a family adventure (from a scratch off book that we got for Christmas 2024) to the bowling alley. We have several of these books, and Bryan decided that if we were going to have any chance of completing them before Olivia leaves for college then we need to get moving. So we scratched something off and put it on the calendar for yesterday. We had to try to bowl the lowest score, but also each person got to dictate how to bowl for one frame. It was silly and fun, until I accidentally bowled a spare for Theo (Bryan's rule was that everyone had to pick a different person to bowl for them to try to drive up the score) and he immediately followed it with an accidental 9. Theo still managed to get third place after Bryan and our big winner, Matthias. We had some time left to bowl 7/10 of a real game in which Bryan wiped the floor with the rest of us.

It was also Matthias's unbirthday yesterday. He's a bit of a chore to cater to because he has a lot of specific requests, but we had "homemade pizza" (read: cardboard pizza -- this hurts my soul), bagel bites, and donuts. He originally asked for fried onion chicken as well, but then decided he didn't really want that. At least he picks things that I can just buy from the store and toss in the oven, unlike his father who wants things like Thai green curry and entremets.

Gretchen discovered a mermaid tail blanket from several years ago and dressed up fabulously. She wanted to make sure her fashion statement was documented for posterity. Pictures below.

Bryan got a giant soft blanket for Christmas from his sister. His first question was, "Are you sure this is for me and not for Johannah?" She replied that she got it because he complained that I always stole his blanket and this way he would have one to use. It is a fabulous blanket and, while I do leave it for Bryan to use at night, I love it more than he does.

Theodore has a way of playing with his matchbox cars where he bonks them into each other by flinging them together forcefully. If one turns around on its belly, it is dead and gets eliminated. He repeats this process over and over until he is left with one champion. This game gets played pretty much every day right now. He also wants you to know that he likes building car tracks and using boosters to make the cars drive fast.

Olivia had a high school placement test that worried her mightily but went well. She's very comfortable at the high school since she's been taking Spanish there this year, so she was at least not worried about finding her way around the location. She and Bryan and I also had to go in for a meet and greet with teachers/administrators so that they could impart important information and we could ask pressing questions. Two more things checked off the high school application list. I think all that's left is turning in financial aid paperwork, although sometimes they add steps to the checklist without telling me and I discover them later.

Our furnace has been doing this fun thing where it doesn't heat reliably. It hasn't dropped below 63 yet, but it does struggle to go much higher than that during the day. Until it doesn't, and then it's fine for a while. This was a problem near the end of last winter as well, so we nursed it through with the occasional percussive maintenance. At the beginning of this winter, I called someone. Unfortunately, the furnace was on its best behavior and the problem was not observed. Since then, it's been a game. Can I catch it not working when I also have time to be home to meet a technician? And will it stay not working long enough for him to drive to my house? This week I finally caught it. A faulty pressure switch was diagnosed and repaired. The furnace worked. But then a couple of hours later it did not work again. The tech came back. The fan in a can was the immediate next suspect, but was exonerated. He's thinking the control board, which of course is hard to find because the furnace is 20 years old, so maybe we should just get a new furnace. Bryan and I pretty much decided to continue on as we had been (after all, the basement has its own furnace if we end up needing to escape the cold) when the technician called with news that he had found a control board. So we're getting that fixed in the next week or two and hopefully our furnace will limp along with fewer diagnostic thwacks for a few more years.

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