Coconut

I thought it would be fun to buy a coconut and let the kids crack it open.  Like they do on Survivor.  Except we have hammers and screwdrivers. 

Would the kids like the coconut water?   Yes or No?  We got one of each . . .

This is Florida

Because people with blogs really want to show you their family vacation photos.

Kennedy Space Center

During our Spring break trip to Florida we made a stop at the Kennedy Space Center.  This was much less expensive than Disney or SeaWorld and NASA was pretty incredible.  

One of the first exhibits we wanted to see was the space shuttle Atlantis.  After watching a movie about the shuttle program the screen lifts up and you are looking straight at the shuttle.  It was impressive to walk around this close to the shuttle.  There was an elevated viewing platform and many stations that explained what you are looking at.  

 After the Atlantis exhibit we took the bus tour around the property that took us near the launch pads and past the vehicle assembly building.  The scale of the building is hard to imagine because it sits alone in an open field.  The bus driver and Wikipedia tell us that this is the largest single story building in the world and one of the largest buildings in the world measured by volume.

Originally built to build the Saturn V rockets it will be used for the new rockets that NASA is developing for deep space travel.

 At one end of the bus tour they let you off in a building where you can learn about the Apollo program.  If you thought the shuttle was impressive (I did) than you will be even more impressed by the scale of the Saturn V rocket on display.  On top of this massive rocket sits the small pyramid shaped Apollo capsule.

When we left for Florida we knew we wanted to find something interesting to do but hadn't decided on exactly what.  Once in Florida Cari suggested this trip and it was a huge success.  You can easily spend a full day at the Kennedy Space Center and the two older kids seemed to really enjoy this stop. 

Eventually we all Post Easter Pics

Easter tradition is to take a family photo.  This year was no different.  You just get to see my family photo a few weeks after everyone on Facebook posted theirs.  This way I stand out from the crowd a bit. 

We also held our annual Easter Egg hunt in the yard.  This year the eggs were hidden a bit harder and one golden egg was placed extra hard. 

Unfortunately, going easy on the kids all these years hasn't taught them anything in their ability to find actual hidden eggs.  After a time they started to give up and we gave Cari and Amanda a chance to find the golden egg.  Guess who got the prized egg. . .

Why is this so Hard?

I have several posts that I would love to sit down and write but sitting down to write is not a priority of the limited time available these past few weeks.  Hopefully soon you will start to see more posts.  Easter egg hunt pictures will be up before Memorial Day, Memorial Day post will take place around July 4. . . you get the idea.

But today I wanted to ask... Why is it so hard to take a nice picture with my family?

Hymn 302

A New Bathroom Experience

I think we are long overdue for a bathroom change up.  It's probably not something that everyone is comfortable talking about but something that effects every single person.

The problem is that as the Earth's population grows and clean water becomes a bigger concern we need to find ways to conserve water.

My proposed solution is a toilet that uses no water.   Think about how many times you flush over a gallon of water into the sewers each day.  Multiply that by all the toilets in your community.  That's a lot of water we can use for other purposes.

This new system that I propose be placed into every home by the end of summer and in restaurants by the end if the year is basically a large version of a kitty litter box.  I have named this innovation the granulal toilet system or the GTS.

I anticipated some push back on this idea at first and that's why I have been testing the system at home for the past two months.  I wanted to work out some of the bugs before going public and I wanted to be able to answer your questions once you install one in your house.

During my testing I realized pretty quickly that a standard cat litter box was not going to work for regular human use so I quickly upgraded to an under bed storage container.  These were shallow enough to be comfortable for use but held enough volume that I didn't have to scoop out the litter after each use.

Clean up is pretty easy thanks to the great clumping power of modern cat litter formulas. Once installation becomes wide spread we will see some great innovation in granual toilet systems.  I predict self cleaning boxes with mechanical scoopers during the first 9 months.  As a bonus, if you have cats you can share a box and have one fewer boxes to scoop out! A win / win no matter how you look at it.

Another benefit is that GTS won't be tied to water supplies and drains.  If you need to move your litter box closer to the TV, do it!  If you want to move it into your room at night, do it!  If you want to set up additional boxes for increased capacity during a party, do it!  That's the beauty of this flexible system.

It is estimated that using GTS in a home will save the average family of four about 880 gallons of water each week!!!!  With all this water no longer needed to be flushed down a toilet we will have more water available for things like watering our lawns and washing our cars during the dry season.  I just don't see how any of us can go wrong by switching over ASAP.

Once we get the population on the system the next project will be tackling the 40 gallons you use for each shower that you take.