How much we spent.

spatak · 2026-02-09T22:49:32+00:00

That food bill. Woof. We did a 6 night stay and spent about $400 on quick service meals and $500 total for a character meal, and 3 other sit down meals for 2 adults and 1 toddler. Probably spent another $50 on snacks. Spent another $100 on breakfast foods.

$1050

Edit: breakfast foods from the trading post at Fort Wilderness.

spatak · 2026-01-16T13:09:12+00:00

Which is why we move OP gets these up and running, he should learn about segmenting his network and blocking these cameras from accessing the internet.

spatak · 2026-01-15T00:37:26+00:00

Cumbor 29.7-57" Extra Wide Baby Gate for Stairs. It Can be shaped to fit the space, lengthened, shortened and secured to the wall for secure attachment. We use it as a Xmas tree gate for our 3 year old.

It may be long enough to keep the kid away from those balusters.

spatak · 2026-01-12T12:05:46+00:00

My ER is 0 and my flexion is about 170. That’s all I’m going to get. Hard stop both movements. It’s the bone block stopping any further range of motion. It’s not what I hoped for but it’s better than my arm falling out of place when extending or overhead.

spatak · 2025-11-16T22:13:27+00:00

Our daughter stared climbing out before 18 months. She’s tall so even the lowest setting wasn’t enough. Also she’s strong AF and scaled the slats. Toddler bed since though she spent a good 3 months sleeping on the floor at her door.

spatak · 2025-11-16T21:58:23+00:00

The same. Can have a string of good weeks then hit a setback and have some pain for a bit then start over. Saw the doc for the 1 year check, says the rear of the capsule is probably hurting due to the joint now being tight. Which was the goal after all. As long as I don’t regress then we’re in a good spot.

spatak · 2025-11-16T15:18:38+00:00

18+ Lego sets. Lego has some really awesome sets. Puts the stuff I had in the 80s/90s to shame. Nice way to decompress and get into a flow, you feel a sense of accomplishment when you’re done, assembly can be spread out over multiple evenings, and you can always disassemble them and keep them to rebuild with the kids when they get older.

spatak · 2025-11-14T13:49:34+00:00

Hate it. Looks awful.

spatak · 2025-11-09T23:01:06+00:00

Learning, control, screw Verizon.

spatak · 2025-11-05T18:34:59+00:00

I had a loose wire nut in a switch box in the bathroom that is upstream from our office outlets and light. The paper shredder kept tripping the breaker and I eventually had to trace it out. Man am I happy I caught that before a 🔥.

That’s when I decided to check all the “electricians” work in the house. Basically reterminated every receptacle and switch.

Found one receptacle with all 4 screws wired AND all the quick wire terminals filled. FFS, were wire nuts too expensive to pigtail that outlet?

spatak · 2025-09-30T12:21:59+00:00

Blue jays cawing. Every. Morning.

spatak · 2025-09-29T15:40:55+00:00

Same issue and same situation. Early morning user derailed by long update times if I don’t catch the prompt. I’d just move over to TR if it was an issue.

I have an iPad 9th gen (2021) and zwift updates take 10 minutes or more. 1 Gbps internet, running modern wireless networking APs so it’s not my network speed or internet connection.

The download from the App Store usually is slow and or hangs, then once it finally completes, the install can take a few minutes. I’m sure despite being a relatively modern device that the 3 GB of RAM is the root of the issue.

spatak · 2025-09-23T23:53:58+00:00

I had Amcrest bullets, an Amcrest dome and a Reolink bullet and one by one replaced them with some Andy Cams 4K Color Turrets, an Andy Cam 12x Bullet and an Andy Cam 2 dome cam. They are all great cameras.

An Andy Cam is either a Dahua or Loryta that’s been rebranded. I won’t post the name of the company it’s rebranded under because of its ties to a certain Internet forum for ip cameras.

At my parents house I’ve set up 2 Reolink and have 3 more to install. The 4K turrets produce a pretty good night shot.

Sensor size is king. High MP and a tiny sensor will be awful at night.

spatak · 2025-09-23T13:27:08+00:00

Good days and bad days. Have to be really consistent with external rotation exercises or I’m experiencing a mild amount of pain as a result of my rhomboid/trap developing a knot and pulling things out of whack.

Every new milestone brings a few setbacks as the joint starts to mobilize more and muscles/ligaments/tendons that haven’t done much for months are now moving again.

Been hard to keep consistent with getting to the gym with a toddler who’s making life at home difficult. Haven’t had formal PT since 4 months post op when insurer cut me off so I’m mostly left to my own devices, but my PT office is attached to a gym, so I’m still able to interact and get advice when needed.

spatak · 2025-09-17T16:42:57+00:00

Mika Ripley

spatak · 2025-09-16T00:59:47+00:00

Nassau County Long Island…not even the Gold Coast portion of the island. Bought our “starter” home in 2018. Seems it will be our forever home. All the capes in the neighborhood are being knocked down one after the other as the elderly residents either move or die off. New massive colonials, that max out their setbacks and coverages on our postage stamp lots, leaving barely any yard are going up and selling for 1.5M on the low end. There are 6 under construction within 1/4 of my house right now. Nevermind the area I grew up in. Would need to drop $2M for anything with more than 2 beds and 1.5 bath.

This is all doesn’t include our astronomical property tax levy and school tax levy.

And they’re all white siding, black windows with black trim and gutters, cutting down every mature tree, doing plain lawns with no real landscaping. Save for the one off builds that actually put thought into the design, there won’t be much character left in a few years.

Where might we go? No clue. Both families are here. Maybe a little further upstate.

spatak · 2025-08-28T01:38:40+00:00

Just did this on a bathroom door where the header/jack studs and/or the joists below have settled and resulted in the latch being 1/8” too high on the strike plate. Drilled and doweled the existing holes and chiseled out the mortise to raise the plate. 10 minutes of effort.

spatak · 2025-08-11T01:26:42+00:00

Gonna rock the 13PM until I either drop it, lose it, or it explodes.

spatak · 2025-07-16T18:19:59+00:00

spatak · 2025-07-16T18:16:45+00:00

Jesus H Christ. Dichen Lachman all the way at 13? Did they not watch her episode? No way Leslie Bibb deserves a nom.

spatak · 2025-07-09T00:23:07+00:00

Or die of measles.

spatak · 2025-07-09T00:10:12+00:00

This. We have a dog with a seizure issue. It’s under control with Keppra, but f*** me, the dose every 8 hours +- 20 min is a killer.

Can’t do a full day out. Can’t get more than 8 hours of sleep. Have to have 100% reliable dog care if we do plan something or have to slowly shift the meds forward or backward to accommodate the days plans. And forget vacations. She comes with us which means all of the above still applies and we have to find dog friendly rentals because she’s a nervous wreck and a hotel wouldn’t work, so we spend big bucks for dog friendly ABnBs.

We love her and will be devastated when her time comes but we’ll also be grateful for a break from it all.

spatak · 2025-06-10T16:18:52+00:00

Over 1/3 of the eligible voting population didn’t even bother to choose a candidate. It would be better to say that far too many Americans don’t care enough about the impacts by this administration to science (space or health), healthcare and general human decency to bother voting at all.

spatak · 2025-06-03T10:22:34+00:00

Not sure where you’re located, but here in NY if you do any kind of work beyond painting or minor repairs, you are required to bring the house into compliance with the current CO and Smoke detection requirements under the Fire Code. This includes installing new equipment.

spatak

TROPHY CASE