Last night our washing machine broke. It got to the spin cycle, but stopped before draining any of the water out. We could hear the motor humming, but nothing I did would make the machine work.

I searched around the web for a couple hours and found these two great sites that described problems that seemed similar to mine:

Sannerud.com “This site had a great walk throug with pictures.

Partselect.com “This site has a couple of pics, and the problem he described is similar to mine.

Fixya.com “This site has a detailed write up of how to change the coupler. This write up along with the Sannerud pics got me through the ordeal.

The first step is to collect the proper equipment:

• 1 box Mike and Ike
  
• 1 can Diet Dr. Pepper (Cherry Vanilla optional)
  
• 1 book on tape (I chose Star Wars Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice)
  

I spent a couple hours this morning driving around getting all the necessary parts and letting work know that I wouldn’t be in today. That got me through about half the book.

You’ll also need some kind of water pump to drain the washing machine. Here’s my water pump:

Keep in mind that these water pumps come in a variety of shapes and sizes,

so make sure you pick the water pump that fist your family’s needs and budget.

After I drained the tub, and followed the instructions on the pages above, I was disappointed to discovered that the coupling wasn’t in bad shape (apparently Gina had that problem fixed when we first started dating, and the heavy-duty coupling has held up pretty well), but that meant something else was wrong, like the transmission/gearbox. I sent out some emails, and while waiting for their responses, I pulled the washing machine’s water pump off in order to drain the last little bit of water in the tub. When I got the washer’s pump off, nothing came out. That’s because it was clogged by one of Lillian’s socks. And there is proof that washing machine’s eat socks.

I put everything back together, and it’s working about as well as it was before (which isn’t great, but it’ll do until we can afford the more expensive repairs).

When I was growing up I was always amazed that my dad knew how to fix everything. . . . I’m getting there Dad.

Last night we implemented the “cry it out” plan with my six-month-old son. His sleep schedule was in serious conflict with ours and we decided it was time for him to learn how to go to sleep on his own.

It was a painful experience, for a number of reasons:

• He was in a great mood just before we put him in his crib . . . at midnight . . . and I wanted to keep playing with him.
• Soothing him would have been so easy; he just wanted to be held.

How Spying On Your Kids Begins

Being first-time parents, we were nervous so we used a mirror to watch him from around the corner. That might not have been a smart choice on our part because it made it harder to resist picking him up. I felt sad for him as I watched him flail around, sit up and flop over, and scream while his giant baby eyes searched for us. But we toughed it out with only a few tears of our own, and after about forty minutes his sobs became whimpers as he lay face down in his crib.

The good news is that he only woke up three times during the night, and he fell back asleep after only a couple of minutes of crying. When I left for work this morning he was still sound asleep.

Our Reward . . . Almost

He slept better last night than he has in months, so he has been in a great mood all day. But, since he’s being cute and adorable, it’s probably going to be even harder to put him in bed tonight.