New Lawn Mower and a New Found Love for Consumer Reports

With spring and summer time comes my favorite time of the year: The season of yard work and lawn cutting. I say this with absolutely no sarcasm, I LOVE to mow a lawn. I am not sure exactly if it’s the smell of freshly cut grass, or the sense of accomplishment when you finish, or just how a yard can look 120% better after a fresh cut but I do know that if this radio thing doesn’t work out, I would be more then happy in the landscaping business.

Now, with my first house comes the purchase of my first lawn mower. Seeing how I take lawn mowing very seriously and I don’t make any major purchase on whim, I knew I would need some help to decide which mower was the right for my yard. I found that help with Consumer Reports and their ultra helpful website comnsumerreports.org. I CAN NOT STRESS how much I love me some Consumer Reports. Imagine a company where all they do is just test things out. And they report on EVERYTHING from Cars, to digital cameras, to kitchen knives, to coffee. The next time you want to over analyze your purchase of a meat thermometer, this would be the place to do to it.

But let's get back to the mower. I started my journey by watching the Buying Guide that taught me all the stuff to look out for in a good mower like cutting performance, discharge, start up, and other special features. Take a look for yourself:


Click Here if you can't see the video

The most helpful tool from consumer reports was the ranking of the best gas push mowers that they tested. In the top 5 were:

1. Lawn-Boy 10640
2. Cub Cadet 11A-18MC
3. Bolens 11A-414A
4. Poulan Pro 96130008
5. Craftsman 38905

I printed out and took this ranking with me to the Home Depot. When I got there, I almost couldn’t believe that they had the Consumer Reports highest recommend buy in stock waiting for me.

It was the Lawn Boy 10640, a 20-inch mower with no-prime starting and can side-discharge, mulch, and bag all while being backed by a 2-year. AND 40 bucks lower then the suggest retail price. Sure enough, that was all I needed to make that purchase.
So starts a summer full of lawn cutting with my new Lawn Boy. The first cut was nice and smooth, a very nice, even cut with great mulching. We’ll check in through out the summer with how the Lawn Boy is running and, I am sure, plenty of more valuable information from Consumer Reports.

Chelsea's New Trick

Sooo, I am very excited I was able to make this happen.

Chelsea's New Trick from John Laur on Vimeo.

Not quit as cool as Molly's "Give someone a beer" trick. But I love it.

"O"pening Day Photos

Katie, Bobbie and Troy - 3 tickets, 3 friends, a bunch of other people and here are the photos:

Bobbie and Buzz - pre game

J.T. was an early front runner for the Mr. Pat look-a-like contest.

O'Connell gals

Bobbie and work buddy Mike

View of the field

Troy, Bobbie and souvenir cups

O's Win 10-5

Brian and Mr. Pat celebrate the victory

John and Bobbie (and a sneaky Troy) at Mothers Fed Hill

A Father and his Daughters

Troy signing up for this year's Hot Dog eating Contest. A huge effort - He came very close to winning, just like last year.

Nervous John, Confident Troy

Mr. Pat and Mr. Matt - BFF for over 20 years

All in all a great day and looking forward to big things this season for the O's!

Birthday Party On Strathmore

Ain’t no party like a Strathmore party, cause a Strathmore party don’t stop. Well at least until John passes out on the couch watching reruns of The Office. But that would happen for this party to celebrate Bobbie’s 27th birthday. A shin dig that started with Bobbie saying “I don’t want anything too big for my birthday” turned into a pretty nice sized bash with a four person Party Planning Committee (known as the PPC).

The evening began with a nice dinner with friends and family. Lauren’s Chicken Tacos, Kristin’s Home Made Mac and Cheese, John’s Sweet Baby Ray’s Meatballs and a green salad started off the food with desert consisting of Katie’s Confetti Cake and the KEY LIME PIE THROWDOWN! See that what happens when two people bring the same dish to a party, you have to have a throw down!

So here are the two pies:

Kristin’s the one that actually looks like a Key Lime Pie where as John’s was yellow(?). Now on with the taste test.

if you can't see video, click here

While John’s pie may have won the taste test - it was true, Kristin’s Mac and Cheese was the best dish, in fact, it was the only dish that we would not have left-overs of the day.

After dinner, the party became a typical House on Strathmore bash. There was good friends . . .
A dance party . . . .
And of course flip cup . . .
This is where Bobbie, the birthday girl had a legen…wait for it...dary performance during a round of survivor flip cup where she knock off 4 guys in a row to take home the championship.
So, all in all a pretty successful Party on Strathmore and a great birthday party for Bobbie.

Big thanks to all that came and HUGE thanks to the rest of the P.P.C.!

Thanks to Katie O'Connell for additional photos.

Vacation Blog 3: Rincon Bar Crawl

Well, come on, it was vacation and what would vacation be with out some delicious local cocktails?

Bar #1 – One of the MANY Roadside Bars. About every mile in Rincon there are these little roadside bars which are just a shack with a pool table, a jukebox and some cheap drinks.

I had been eyeing up these bars since we made it to the island, so I was very glad that it was our first stop. Our bar tender did not seem to know too much English so our drink orders were fairly simple. Rum and Coke for Mr. O’Connell, Passoã and Orange Juice for Bobbie and her Mom, and for me - Medalla Light, my go-to beer in Puerto Rico (only 3 carbs and its “full of Spirit”).

Bar #2 - Shipwreck Bar and Grill

For me, Shipwreck can be described like this – simple décor, fun feel, and GREAT appetizers. They had some pretty killer calamari and an interesting take on Jalapeño Poppers – it was more like a single fried cream cheese and jalapeno cake, if that makes any sense. For drinks this go around: Mr. O’Connell and Bobbie had their favs, Vodka Tonic and Rum and Diet, respectively. Mrs. O’Connell had the Medalla Light and I went with the frozen Piña Colada.
It was also here that Bobbie adopted a new motto:

Bar #3 - Villa Cofresi Hotel & Restaurant

The good times rolled on at this little hotel hut bar. It was just at the end of hotel's open air lobby and next to the swimming pool and featured an excellent view of Rincon beach. What made this place a lot of fun was their famous "El Pirata" drink, or Pirate Drink. It’s a pretty toxic mixture of multiple rums and other ingredients, including evaporated milk, served to you in a coconut. Our bar tender lets us in on how the drink is made:


Click here if you can not see the video:

Yo Ho Ho Yum . . .

Bar #4 - Calypso Cafe & Tropical Bar
The final stop is probably one of the most talked about watering holes in all of Rincon - Calypso Cafe & Tropical Bar. Calypso is noted mostly as a surfer’s bar, and for good reason. The beach is home to one of the world’s great surfing locations and with the Calypso’s great selection of munchies and active night life what surfer would not love to be at this great beach hang out. While there, I highly suggest ordering the Jalapeño burger, so good I had to visit the bar more then once to get another taste. Calypso also features a great gift shop to pick up items for those back at home.

Vacation Blog 2: Sea Glassin' Adventure Fun Time

One popular pastime in Puerto Rico is goin Sea Glass huntin.’ Sea Glass, in a weird way, is pollution turned pretty. To be more specific, it is glass found on beaches along oceans or large lakes that has been tumbled and smoothed by the water and sand, creating small pieces of smooth, frosted glass(Thanks wiki).Apparently Rincon has a big history for having some of the worlds finest sea glass. So when in Rome, do like the Romans or when in Rincon do like the Rinconians(?) and grab some sea glass. Here are pics from our adventure which also included Mr. and Mrs. Gerlitzki and Mr. and Mrs. O’Connell:

And here is what we ended up taking home with us, which should make for some pretty fun Arts and Crafts projects: