Snubber Ring, SeanSexy, Little Chub

The washer at the southern rental property (makes me sound rich, but it's all borderline debt) has been acting up and blew an internal hose. Rather than make several trips to Home Depot and risk breaking various bits and pieces, my brother and I called in an appliance repairman (I have yet to meet a repairwoman). He popped it all apart in about two seconds and then announced, "There's a problem with your snubber ring." (note the bottom area of the diagram). You don't want to hear that. Sounds painful. And obscene. While only a $10 part, it requires ripping apart much of the machine and, if you're talented, leaving the breaking mechanism partially intact while replacing it, before putting it back together. Around 1-2 hours of work - so presumably $100-$200. They generally fall apart after 5-7 years, but ours died in a year, prompting said repairman to note that ApplianceSmart had probably sold us a refurb without telling us. I had him clamp the hose and seal it back up, he tilted it toward the back for good measure to balance it a bit more, and gave the renters instructions to use a half load. The real fix will be to yank it in a week, store it in my garage, and give it to my parents as a cabin washer for half-size loads, or try to replace the snubber ring myself and let them do full size loads. The renters can bask in the glories of a new direct drive washing machine not from ApplianceSmart.

I got a Lil Chub for Kyle on my way to RAGBRAI. How does he repay me? By keeping it? No, he hid it in my bike bag and I had to give it back. Did he leave his Lil Chub in the rocks of his fish tank where Eryn hid it? No...he gives my wife a Lil Chub. I know, because I found it in her car. He claims I should geocache it - but if I do, it'll be at his house. The good news is that Kyle can now count Ryan Seacrest a metaphorical brother, because according to this TMZ post, he "gets a little chub" too.

My friend Adam is enamored of the phrase "Seansexy". What does it mean? Absolutely nothing, unless you're drunk and playing boardgames with Adam and Sean. Then it means several hours of Adam laughing and wishing he had a t-shirt to wear that said "Seansexy". This is my personal contribution using one of the online t-shirt making tools. I think we get a discount for three or more, although I wonder how often Sean would game if he had to look at Seansexy shirts all the time.

Mean Mr. Mustard gave me one of his more consternated looks this morning when I gave him his birthday present, three weeks late and wrapped in pretty purple fairy wrapping paper. After his failure to properly identify the central candle of the menorah in the Caribou coffee trivia, and his wife's assurance that his religious identity was tenuous at best (my paraphrase), I went in search of something that would help him connect with his heritage. I don't presume he wants to get in touch with his heritage, I just went in search of something. What I found was The Menorah Game, courtesy of an Israeli blogger/boardgammer/programmer I read, Yehuda. The Menorah Game is his creation, although you can't buy it. But my friend Kyle, with access to laminaters, printers, and sundry, printed me up a copy of the various items on Boardgamegeek, I printed the rules from Boredgamegeek, and bought a 1" scrapbooking circle cutter to punch out the Israeli menorah coins. I considered using chocolate coins, or some other real coins, as gelt, but even with the help of Sank from Old and in the Way, couldn't find something quickly enough to avoid being a month late. Regardless, it turned out nicely, and Mr. Mustard has three full copies of the game (240 coins - my poor squeezing muscle) so that he can host super-cool parties for up to 12 gamers. A big thank you to everyone who participated. Even if he's dubious of the game, he can't deny that his present was the concerted effort of a moderately sized posse. On a similar note, his wife made me a tin of walnut-chocolate chip cookies for services rendered. They were a hit in my work area and with my family and received many glowing compliments.

I've always said geo-kayshing. Then Sarah corrected me at a boardgaming day and said geo-kashing. I didn't argue, as I'd just made an assumption way back when. Apparently it's actually something of a discussion on the web, with a few posts noting that it's programmers, Aussies and Kiwis who tend to say kaysh. I'll have to ask my brother in law about that. At least I'm not some fool who says kashay.

Finally, if you got this far...a bit of Web 2.0 outsourcing humor at Techcrunch (original Doubtsourcing.com).