Showing posts with label around the house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label around the house. Show all posts
Monday, May 30, 2011
Mr.Penguin learns how to change oil
Recently, the man gave me a lesson about how to change car oil. First, we had to gather all the supplies we'd need: funnel, oil, oil filter, and a container for the old oil.
Next, we had to lift up the car; we got these fun Rhino ramps from the auto store.
Then, we put the oil container under the car, and drain out the old oil. This takes awhile.
When it came time to pour in the new oil, I needed a little help from the man; the oil jug was pretty heavy.
Now, it's time to wait (again) for the new oil to drain in.
Time to check the oil level.
Oil level perfect; a job well done for the penguin and the man.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
A Bump in the Night
For those of you fans who regularly follow my twitter account you no doubt are wondering what kind of animal I came across the other night. Well, here's the story:
The man, the woman, and I were all tucked in watching another one of those pirate movies (side note: I think I would make an excellent pirate), when we heard a loud thump and scratching against the window. This made the woman jump out of her skin as she is not a fan of woodland creatures, ESPECIALLY if they are attempting to enter the house. The man ran outside to see what it was while I attempted to calm the woman down. Outside the man found this little guy and hollered for us to come take a look.
Seeing this guy appeared non-threatening I asked him for his name. He replied, “Rocky: The Flying Squirrel”. I told him “Nutsy” would be a more appropriate name since he attempted to sail through a window.
We chatted and he apologized for interrupting our movie and scaring the woman. After a bit, he said he had to move on because he is nocturnal, running around all night and sleeping during the day (crazy squirrel). Still, it was nice to make a new friend. I just hope in the future he is more careful by not attempting anymore nosedives into any windows.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
World's Best Sugar Cookie
The woman decided that we would make some spring sugar cookies this weekend. She's having a hard time eliminating chocolate and cocoa from her diet and is constantly racking her brain for low oxalate approved desserts. Of course, she couldn't make these tasty delights without her right hand penguin.
We used her grandma's coveted recipe, which, she claims, makes the best sugar cookies. The man and I were skeptical of this claim. But we weren't about to dissuade her from making us homemade cookies.
The woman and I made the dough yesterday, so today we just needed to cut out and bake the cookies. That's where I came in to
I decided to only bake half the dough, since I wasn't sure how well these cookies would be received by the man, and I knew the woman wouldn't be able to eat many. This only made two batches of cookies, thank goodness, since I would not only be baking all these cookies, but icing them all by myself as well.
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They don't take long to bake; after 8 short minutes, you have fluffy, beautifully golden, perfectly baked cookies. What can I say, Mr.Penguin is a master baker.
I let the cookies cool completely before I frosted them. We couldn't find Grammy's frosting recipe, so Mr.Penguin whipped up a batch of his own special buttercream icing.
It was difficult to ice all those cookies, especially the small ones. It's hard to hold a knife between your flippers and try to get the icing onto the cookie. It was a lot of work but I managed to make it work.
As for the taste, all I have to say is Grammy sure knew her stuff; she created one addictive sugar cookie,perfect in taste and texture. These aren't even going to last a day. I know that tomorrow the woman is going to have me baking and icing the rest of the dough.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Building a Plyometric Box
The man decided a good item to have in our gym would a plyometric box to increase his vertical jump. Depending on which side is up, you have the option of three different heights to jump up on.
I agreed it was a great idea, it just took some time to plan out how to make one. After mapping out our dimensions and design, we went to Lowes to buy the lumber.
Back at home we assembled all our tools and wood to begin building.
We had Lowes cut a panel of wood into the dimensions of the sides of our box, all we needed to do was saw down some 2"x2"s for added reinforcement. We decided to do this outside so we wouldn't make a mess in the Sweat Shop.
Fearing blisters may form on my delicate flippers, I decided to allow the man to have a go at sawing.
Now, I’m not about to get a splinter in my flipper, so I decided to take over supervising, while the man did all the manual labor.
We gathered up the support posts and took them inside to begin building. Everything seemed to be going well but then we hit a snag. As we were laying out the box to assemble it, we discovered a miscalculation; 4 of our support posts were about 3 inches short. We had some left over wood, but not enough to even make 2 posts. We were pretty disappointed. It was late and seemed pointless to run back out to the the [not so close] store to get one more 2”x2”. The woman and I felt really bad because we knew how excited the man was to have this man project. And once he started, he--understandably--wanted to finish it. The man was not ready to give up, he kept trying to make it work out. But you can't make a wood post magically grow 3 inches.
Finally, the man figure out why we miscalcualated. The pieces of support wood were only 1 ½” wide, not the 2” he assumed.
It took a lot of pleading and gentle prodding, but the woman finally convinced the man to just step away from his project to regroup and replan.
The man, being tenacious, was not willing to throw in the towel just yet, so we decided to just continue on building the box, omitting the interior reinforcement posts.
After all sides were drilled and glued in place, we tested it out. It was fine, strong enough to hold the man’s weight. We both let out big sighs of relief.
Can't wait to add this box to the man's training regimen.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Eye of the Tiger
The past couple weekends we’ve been watching the “Rocky” movies. Boy, I tell ya, it has really inspired me to start training. I, too, have the heart of a champion. I don't want to beat somebody up, I’m too sophisticated for such things, I just want to get ripped.
Lucky for me, the man bought some baller fitness equipment. I helped him organize and set up our home gym. We're slowly acquiring the proper equipment to get buff. I think we are going to call it Mr Penguin’s Sweatshop. It has a nice ring to it.
First things first, we had to suit up.
Then it was time to clean and organize the messy basement, so we had a nice clear area to work with:
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We bought some carpet to put down so we’d have some padding; it took 4 squares to cover the area we had cleared out.
Once that was done it was time to bring in the equipment. I had to show the man the best places to set up each piece.
After observing one of the man’s workouts, I think my talents will be best utilized in coaching and motivating the man, just as Mick did for Rocky. I can keep time for him as well as tell him what to do (I am an exceptional boss). I’m excellent at barking out orders.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Decorating Cookies
While away for Christmas I had the chance to decorate sugar cookies. It was nice because all the cookies were already cut out, baked, and cooled. They only needed to be iced and decorated. I was happy to join in on the fun.
There were snowmen,
snowflakes,
gingerbread men,
and most importantly, penguins.
It was a lot of fun and they tasted yummy, too.
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