I Suck At Marshfield Tavern On Proprietor's Green

Today has been quite the busy day.

The day started off with a visit to Great Clips located in Hanover. A while ago, Karen and I received a flyer from Great Clips complete with coupon. If the coupon weren't enticing enough, the flyer mentioned how the place was for children and adults alike. Naturally, we decided to give it a try because my two year old daughter (Briana) has been in need of a haircut for some time. She's starting to look like a Japanese anime character.

Don't get me wrong. Karen would occasionally trim Briana's bangs. But since neither of us were experienced professional hair stylists, we thought maybe it was time to bring her in to see one. Interestingly enough, Briana was good during the haircut. I was quite pleased with her behavior. Granted, her haircut lasted probably all of five minutes, one minute of which was to get a booster seat. But all in all, it was good.

Following Great Clips, Karen and I ran some errands which included going to Briana's favorite store, Target, as well as going to the High School track where Briana wanted to run around. I was also able to go to the local Walgreen's in Weymouth to pick up a Blue Rhino propane tank, as well as the Home Depot in Rockland. I have been curious about Blue Rhino propane tanks for some time. And rather than continue my curiosity, I decided to just go ahead and exchange my existing propane tank for a Blue Rhino tank.

My existing propane tank is quite old. So exchanging it for a clean Blue Rhino tank was a no-brainer. And of course, the exchange was even more enticing because there was a rebate for the tank exchange. But like I said, we'll see how it goes with Blue Rhino.

Anyway, following my errands across the South Shore, I ended up back home only to spend the next couple of hours mowing the lawn. One of the reasons why it took so long was because there was just too much to mow on the side by my house. The past few days of rain hasn't helped either. The hours of lawn mowing, however, did let my mind wander and contemplate about things. Among those random thoughts were: maybe it is time to get a ride on lawn mower; maybe I should convince my friend (Andrea) to mow the lawn because it's a nice way to work on a tan; and what if I went to my high school reunion as someone else in an effort to see just how true the stereotype is that all Asians look the same.

For anyone curious, my 20 year high school reunion is scheduled for this year. I have debated about attending it. I would say that I have a unique circle of friends because most of my friends are from high school. I don't think a lot of other people remain in contact with high school friends the way my circle of friends have. So it's not like I'd be missing out on a whole lot if I didn't attend.

I did not go to the 5 year reunion, taking the stance that 5 years was not enough time to warrant a reunion. For most of us, it was going to be one year after graduating college. And really, what is there to say after that? I was on the fence for the 10 year reunion because that was possibly enough of a time difference.

Don't get me wrong. I am not avoiding high school reunions because I had a bad experience in high school. I guess that's not entirely true. Not having hot blonde cheerleaders like on television was definitely an awful experience. Just kidding. Some people I know dreaded high school. For me, high school was just a place to hang out with friends... with the occasional learning part thrown in of course.

Anyway, I'm on the fence for the 20 year reunion in part because... if people are like me and my adipose... then it will be interesting to see how much people have physically changed. But we'll see if I go. And for anyone curious, the whole reason that I even started thinking about doing something silly like pretending to go to the reunion as another Asian while mowing the lawn is because I recently received some Facebook message about the upcoming reunion. Some people had responded to the Facebook message, to which I thought: Who is that person? Did I graduate with that person? Is my memory really that bad? What if I responded to the message, would other people ask who am I? What if I went as someone else? Who could I go as... insert Asian name here to see if the stereotype is true.

Yes, I have a peculiar train of thought at times. Before I knew it, it was time for dinner. Speaking of which, Karen and I decided to take Briana and our three month old daughter (Bridget) to the Marshfield Tavern on Proprietor's Green, located in Marshfield. This may be a record as to the number of cities and towns of the South Shore that I have been to within one day.

Now I suck at Marshfield Tavern on Proprietor's Green. Neither Karen nor I have ever been to the "Tavern". I had only heard about the place because it was located near the Roche Bros... and an "active adult" community. But since Karen was interested, we decided to go. We weren't sure what to expect, in part because of the 55+ community nearby. As a side note, we drove around the 55+ community and I must say, the houses there are beautiful and spacious. I wish I were 55... and rich.

Regardless, the tavern was a great family experience. I had the fried haddock sandwich with sweet potato fries. The food was served promptly. It tasted good as Briana can attest to. The service was great. (For anyone curious, we had the apple crisp dessert too. Yum!) All in all, I would say the restaurant was a pleasant family experience. I'd definitely recommend the place to someone. I enjoyed it.

And the day did not end with dinner. After dinner, we decided to have a family movie night because ABC Family was showing Finding Nemo. For me, watching the movie was memorable because it was the first time Briana actually watched a movie. Most times, she would run around and play while something is on the television in the background. That includes her favorite show, Sesame Street... or Elmo TV as she likes to call it.

But not this time. This time, she cuddled right up on the couch and watched Finding Nemo. I thought it was a riot to see her engrossed in the movie. It was definitely fun.

All in all, it was a busy day... one that passed with a blink of an eye. It's days like these which make me wish I could slow down time to savor the moment.

I Suck At Changing Outlets And Switches

Yesterday, Karen and I went out for a little celebration. We ended up celebrating at our local hot spot, Not Your Average Joe's in Norwell. Needless to say, the food (and the bread) was delicious. (Cue Rachael Ray's "Yum-O" sound.)

One of the reasons for our celebration: our garage. Woo hoo garage! Who doesn't celebrate their garage? Anyway, contractors began renovating our garage yesterday. The project will definitely take longer than expected. The main installer (Keith), when he saw the size of the garage was surprised that only two days were scheduled to complete the job. (Keith seems to think the project will be finished in three days.)

Keith seems like a nice guy. He used to be in the Marine Corps (Semper Fi!). His dad used to be a carpenter and he was in business for himself for quite awhile. Unfortunately, he could never make money... not that his work was awful or anything, but apparently health insurance took a big chunk of change out of his pockets. Hence, he became a contractor for Home Depot as their corporation provided benefits. (It's amazing what you can learn in a couple of hours as he unpacks all of his tools and materials.)

Oh, and Keith is proud of his first and only video creation: a documentary he did on a fire that left his friend homeless for some time. Other than that, he is not too savvy with the computer. (Yes, I have too much time on my hands to get all this information.)

Anyway, for a while I have been organizing the garage... trying to clean things and get them... well, out of the garage. The purpose of all the organization was for this garage install project. The project would have started sooner, but Karen and I were away on vacation in Onset when the installers originally wanted to begin.

The entire garage project basically started on a whim. Some time ago, Karen and I were in Home Depot and one of the sales associates approached us. Always one to be polite, I listened to his sales pitch. The next thing you know, Home Depot scheduled a designer to stop by the house and look into the possibility of renovating the garage. Heck, the design was free, so why not?

After speaking with the designer, Karen and I started to think about the real possibility of letting Home Depot renovate the garage. Apparently, Home Depot purchased this company that has what is called a Viking system. (I think the company used to be called Viking... or Blue Viking... or something Nordic like that.) Basically, the Viking system is a bunch of panels that attach to the wall. Hooks, baskets, cabinets, etc. can then be attached to these panels at any location. And from there, organizing the garage will be easier to maintain.

The whole thing sounded great. Plus, I was really in no mood to tackle a huge project like the garage. After all, I still have the bathroom on the first floor that has been patiently waiting for my attention. So my resources are stretched a little thin. Having someone else come in and renovate the garage sounded like a good thing.

And so Karen and I signed on the dotted line and promised them an arm and a leg. (I don't really need my arm or leg anyway.) If yesterday is any indication of how things are going to be with the garage, then I am happy we decided to have professionals do the work. I have had no complaints thus far. Of course, it has only been one day.

The only thing that I had to do, however, was change the outlets and switches. Unfortunately, I suck at changing outlets and switches. Keith had put up the Viking panels on one side of the room. The panels look great. The only problem was that the old outlet in the garage was... well... awful. The outlet was painted over and rusted. Yes, very aesthetically pleasing.

Hence, the dinner at Not Your Average Joe's in Norwell. Not Your Average Joe's is located near the Home Depot. So after dinner, Karen and I went to pick up some outlets and switches to match the garage. (The outlets and switches... and the wall plates for them... are black, like the trim in our garage.)

Needless to say, I spent much of the night installing the outlets and switches. The outlets were easy to switch because they were on a separate circuit than the garage lights. Changing the light switch in the dark, however, was a little more complicated. I actually had to bring in a work light to install the switches.

And interestingly enough, the wiring for some of the switches: bad. As my friend (Cass) would say... "it's not how I would do it, but..." I would actually ground the grounding wire. That's just me. And I would actually make the three way switch work like a three way switch.

The three way switch in the garage does not properly work. Whichever end you are on, that side controls the light. I can't switch on the light from one side, then go to the other side. Sure, it's annoying. The three way switch in our front area of the house is similarly annoying. That switch does not function properly either and that was installed by an electrician. Damn three way switches.

Anyway, I did not have time to actually look into the matter of the three way switch in the garage. By the time I had discovered its peculiar behavior, it was pretty late into the night. In fact, I may have discovered the weird wiring during the airing of my friend's (Hot Amy) guest appearance on Quncy Access Television. Yeah, Hot Amy is famous now. I haven't seen the episode. I can't wait to watch it though.

Needless to say, I decided to leave the wiring as is. After all, it is just the garage. I suppose I could look into fixing the problem at a later date. But for now, the switch will continue doing its thing: being weird.

Hopefully the rest of the project will still go smoothly.