Chromilo Amin

Now that the weather is getting nicer, it's time to bring out the charcoal barbeque grill and head out to the beach. That's what we did a few weekends ago and trekked to the local beach for some roasted pork chops and eggplant. These two are a great mix when served with white vinegar, chopped garlic, and hot chili. And last week, we had some roasted marshmallows until late while sitting around this fire pit. There was endless amount of firewood which made it easy to lounge about doing nothing but stuff our faces with roasted treats. Kids enjoyed it too by the way. SD47D624BC5P

We received the little guy's ice skating report card last week after completing the Preliminary set. His report card shows tasks completed and not completed which include these four incomplete items below: - Walk under hoops - Walk and pickup toys - Follow a circuit drawn on ice - Get up alone His teacher Trina puts in these nice comments on the report: "Awesome effort. You have done so well this set. Every day you are getting stronger and faster at standing up and taking some marching steps. Keep working hard. I enjoy teaching you and am proud of you. Very well done." I'm also really happy with his progress. He starts on the Preliminary Advanced set of lessons this week, so let's get it on!

The silver lining in tonight's clouds is almost visible but the never-ending saga of my MTD Yard Machine lawn mower continues. My brother responded to my original post here http://www.chromiloamin.com/2012/05/black-smoke-coming-out-of-my-lawn-mower.html saying that I basically need to do standard maintenance on the mower, like replace the motor oil on it, check the filter, etc. #DOH #FAIL. I removed the spark plug and air filter, then checked that the oil dipstick showed empty, and finally headed out to purchase the following: 1) Motomaster 4-cycle SAE 30 small engine motor oil; 2) Champion RJ19LM small motor spark plug; and 3) Briggs & Stratton 272235S air filter. These 3 parts and accessories purchased from CanadianTire set me back $22 including taxes. Fast-forward a few hours later, I finished maintenance on my mower, and was ready to start her up. It started fine with no black smoke so I was fairly happy at that point. I was able to trim through a few...

It took us almost a month since my little boy won this toy from Chuck E Cheese's by collecting 3000 tickets, mostly from the cyclone chamber. We weren't sure what to pick out given 3000 accumulated tickets and thought about getting the giant spider with exposed innards. Glad we didn't because we got to spend time together assembling this thing. We finally finished putting together this starship that doubles as a shooter which actually has a trigger and plastic spears for bullets. There were over 100 lego pieces so it required a lazy evening over a weekend to complete. It also comes with a separate dragon and a trooper, and provides endless playtime fun for the little guy.

I have never performed CPR (or Cardiopulmonary Rescucitation) on anyone and I think it's important to learn how. My wife applied the Heimlich Maneauver on some heavyset woman choking on a chicken bone at a food court some years ago. I thought that was awesome (and funny). Seriously though, saving someone's life is a critical life skill to learn. They offered a free CPR session the other day as part of May Life Safety Month so I attended. Here are my cryptic notes during that free session with regards to the A-B-C-D's of CPR and thought I'd post it here so I don't forget. Please correct me if I have misunderstood the steps anywhere here: "A" - Check their AIRWAYS If someone is choking, make sure you clear their airways by applying the Heimlich Maneauver. It takes an adult 20 seconds before they fall down and lose consciousness so you have to act fast. Here the steps: 1) Make eye contact; 2) Ask if they are choking; 3) Get someone to call ...

These photos were taken at the seawall in Stanley Park and English Bay this past weekend. I just poke fun that superglue was used but I know a lot of patience and hard work was put into making sure these artwork stay up. There was a decent amount of wind that day and I did see a few statuettes fall so I know that Physics was applied and that takes mad skillz.

Summer is almost here and just like me, you have probably started mowing and fertilizing your lawn. Unfortunately, my lawn mower is on it's last leg and I was barely able to trim the front and back yard before it started sputtering black smoke yesterday. Bits of smoke erupts from the exhaust return each time it sputters. To add to that, last week, the pull string snapped from old age so I had to improvise in repairing the string in order to get it to start. I've had this gasoline push lawn mower from my parents for almost 5 years now and they may have had had for 2-3 years before that. Take away is that it is old. It's a 11A-410A552 MTD Yard Machine lawn mower and has been stellar. I believe the unit just needs a new spark plug and is the cause of all the sputtering so I'll have to head out to CanadianTire before the grass takes over my yard. Do you agree that the spark plug just needs replacing?