The Hampton Times

Pretty funny bit from SNL a while back: Crisis of Conformity For some reason, I think this will be me in about 15-20 years at my kids' weddings.  It would be cool to rock out the classics for the kids...  Heh heh.

Winter officially starts (on the east coast of the US) today, December 21st, 2010 at 6:38 PM. Happy Winter Solstice!

This is just a follow-up to my last post about our Samsung FP-T5084 plasma TV.  After our TV failed to power up the other day (for the second time within a year) and Samsung rejected our warranty claim because the warranty had expired, I found out from the Samsung service rep that the power supply unit had been replaced last year (under warranty, of course).  When I priced the power supply online, it was available for about $130 at most electronics specialty shops, but eBay also had it for about $90 plus shipping.  It was then that I stumbled upon a YouTube video of a guy who had the same problem I did with the Samsung FP-T5084 TV.  In the video he shows how to remove the back panel and replace one of three small fuses found on the power supply board.  Problem is, no one seems to carry the fuse in brick & mortar stores.  Places like Radio Shack, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowes didn't carry it.  Since I work in Philadelphia, I thought for sure I'd ...

First, let me reiterate: Samsung SUCKS! My wife and I purchased a 50" Samsung plasma TV in March of 2008 for about $2300. In December of 2009, the TV refused to power up. When I Googled the problem, I found that it seemed to be a common thing related to capacitors blowing out in the power supply or something. Fortunately, the TV came with a 2 year warranty, so I called Samsung and they had a repairman out within about 3-4 days. Angie said the repair guy was in and out of here in about 20 minutes. Of course, this meant that we had to take the TV down from the wall mount for the repair and then put it back up afterward.    Today, Angie told me she had trouble getting a picture on the screen. When I got home from work, I found that the TV wouldn't power up!! I can't even describe my frustration with Samsung on this one. If the authorized repair person doesn't ACTUALLY fix the problem, then how can I be expected to pay for the SAME repair less than a year later? Sam...

Category: Parenting 1. "STOP taking your brother's Mighty Beanz®!!" 2. "Watch out for the sticker bushes!" 3. "Stay on the hiking path, please." 4. "Don't throw the rubber junk at each other!" (on the ground at the playground) 5. "WHO keeps farting??" 6. "Stop crashing your cars into the walls and furniture, please!" 7. "Stop crashing your cars into each other, please!" 8. "Don't throw/roll your cars down the basement steps!" 9. "Doesn't anyone want to play with the new train tracks I put together?" 10. To Adrian: "This is a 'No Whining' zone!" 11. "Three chesseburger Kids Meals, please.  All plain, with chocolate milks." 12. Dillon: "Jason won't listen to me."       Me: "What do you mean?"       Dillon: "I mean he won't do what I say. He won't play with me."       Me: "Lately, Jason only wan...

So... Angie had a photographer come to the house about a month ago and take some photos of the baby.  It was a free "sitting" fee and you get one free 5x7 picture.  Of course, you have to eventually sit through the full court press sales pitch before you'll get the free pic (if you ever actually get it), but that's the deal. Anyway, the photographer was very nice (according to Angie), and she told Angie that she'd be willing to sell us the CD full of the digital images for like $40.  She said that the business "doesn't really take care of the photographers" and she'd be more than willing to sell us all the images for cheap.  Unfortunately, Angie never exchanged contact info with the lady, so a few weeks later we were contacted by the main office to schedule an "in home visit" so we could peruse the photos. After much debate with herself and many unanswered phone calls (I swear the guy at the office called us about 8-10 times), Angie...

Halloween 2010 was a lot of fun.  We all went to a pre-Trick or Treat party at a neighbor's house for some music and food.  Around 5PM, I took Dillon, Jason and Adrian around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating while Angie took Cameron back to the house for feeding and diaper changing.  (Already sounds like a hoot, don't it?) The boys and I hit quite a few houses while we made our way back home.  They had only been out for about 30-40 minutes before I started hearing complaints about their feet hurting, or "I want a drink of water."  So when we got home I asked them if they just wanted to stay in and help give out candy or go back out.  They said they would help with the candy. A couple of days earlier I had decked out the garage with a ton of bright-colored posters and cutouts, old Halloween costumes, pumpkins, skeletons, etc.  I went to Home Depot and bought about 4 or 5 black light bulbs to hang in the garage.  It turned out pretty cool ...