TU Rob

I'm thinking Pinterest must have been pushing the dollar gold coins back in the day. Wife told me about it, and I went and got a roll when our daughter was about to lose teeth. The first few were fine. The last one I still vividly remember. Waited up until after midnight to slip back and play the tooth fairy. At least 30 minutes goes by, and she comes downstairs bawling her eyes out. She said "I saw what you did" and there in the middle of the night we had to tell her the tooth fairy was just something fun parents did for their kids when they started losing teeth.

But we kept the gold coins going for her younger siblings. They never spend them, heck my kids never spend any cash they get. They give it to me after birthdays and Christmas and want to order something from Amazon.

And this one is a little further away, but China Bistro on Rocky Ridge in Vestavia is a great authentic Chinese place. It would be about 10-15 minutes from the Met to get there, and it is really more of a takeout place. Not a lot of seating inside.

Grand Cantina on Acton Road for Mexican has been good. Get the steak, not the chicken. Everything we've ever ordered with chicken as the meat has been watery soupy chicken, but the steak is great.

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Bryant is a Carrier product, and WeatherKing a Rheem product.

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I've got a Rheem Sure Comfort 14 SEER 4 ton unit. Had it installed in the fall of 2020, and it has been a beast. Also has a gas furnace, and we paid $7,100 for it back then. I wouldn't hesitate to go with any Rheem product after replacing our old Lennox.

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Figure a set of dumbbells through 50 lbs, a treadmill, and if I’m lucky, a cable machine. Yall’ve seen it. The standard hotel ‘gym’. Need a 5 day program.

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You almost described my home gym perfectly. I've got fixed dumbbells in 12, 15, 25, and 30 lbs, and two sets of adjustable handles and plates to go over 30. I've got 4 25 lb plates so I can quickly load 50lb dumbbells, and I've got a variety of 5, 7.5, and 10 lb plates. Throw in my Peloton and a good set of resistance bands, and I can work every body part. A good dumbbell program on a 3/4/5 day split will work wonders.

While this isn't the ideal solution, a lady that works for me was telling me about her dryer ducts. It vents down into the basement, and instead of exiting the house, they have some sort of catch bin, that she cleans out monthly. She said it was there when they moved in, and because of where the laundry is, it would have been a really long run to exit the house, reducing efficiency. It would have been another 15-20 feet to an exterior wall. You might try something like that, and install it in an accessible place in the attic.

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How did you like desoto? I’m going to be up there in a couple of weekends with my kids age 6 and 11. Anything we definitely need to do?

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We went last year at Spring break. We opted not to do the primitive campsites, so we were in there with all the RVs and Campers. It was a fun trip, and only the second or third time we camped. The main reason we went there was for the Zipline course through the trees. My youngest was 6 at the time, almost 7, and my older son was 11. My youngest is usually pretty fearless, but he absolutely freaked out once we climbed the stairs up for the zipline course. I thought it would be my older one, and it honestly shocked me. We backed down, and they gave us a voucher good for 5 years, so we'll go back when he's a little older. The same company also runs the ziplines in Alexander City, so we might try that one instead since it is a little closer to Birmingham.

They loved the camping and playing in the woods. We just set up our tent on the gravel pad. Just checked my emails, and we had spot number 73. It was around a curve in the road, and there were some old railroad ties for steps down to a lower level where we had the firepit, and tons of woods for them to play in. There's also a pretty decent playground, hiking trails, and a few other things nearby. They also have TV service and sold Coax cables at the country store where you check in. Had I known that, I would have thrown an old TV in the car to watch some March Madness. It is really a good setup for car camping or RVs, and we didn't even go to the primitive areas.

I've heard great things about them here and elsewhere. Our Maytags are starting to give us issues. About a month ago, a dryer heating element gave out. I replaced that and cleaned out all the ductwork, but it is still taking longer than usual to dry. Since I had the panel off, I also cleaned out everything inside the dryer, not just the ducts. A couple of days ago, the washer started acting up. Taking a long time to fill, and I haven't had a chance to drag it away from the wall to see about replacing the hoses or if anything is clogging up the water inlet. Hopefully it is something simple, but I'm starting to think after 8 years I've gotten enough out of them, and am willing to pay more for the Speed Queen.

All that being said, are there certain models I should be looking for or avoiding? We've got a local appliance place that carries them.

Shower at night if I've worked out. Shower every morning. If don't have a reason to leave the house on a Saturday I might skip that morning.

The only ones I have been to overnight are Oak Mountain, Rickwood Caverns, Desoto, and Gulf State Park. Me and some other dads were talking about getting a camping trip in at each park that has campsites. For boys age 7-13 or so, which ones that you've been to have more than just camping. An example, Oak Mountain is massive, has a BMX track, fishing, archery, playgrounds, a golf course, kayak/canoe rentals etc.

We were thinking of taking the boys somewhere nearby this weekend since we've got a holiday weekend and also Friday off from school Cheaha, Lake Lurleen, and Wind Creek are fairly close to where we are in Birmingham, so those are high on the list for trips this year. Campsites near or on the water are a plus, but not a dealbreaker. We'd also like to not be bunched in with a bunch of RVs and Campers. Something more primitive would be great where we can set up in the woods, build a fire, maybe do some fishing, and maybe some mountain bike trails for older boys and short hikes for the younger ones.

If you have the space, they're great. Not sure if this brand is still around, but I had the Char-Griller dual. Added the offset smokebox on the charcoal side, and it had a gas burner off the gas side as well. It looked almost identical to this one:

Lowe's royal gourmet