Cornholio's back (my lawn mower is too...)

Let's start with Cornholio. Anna and I have used the expression that Champ turns into Cornholio from time to time. We have gotten a couple of puzzled looks with some friends and family not understanding the reference, so I figured I'd explain.

Most guys my age who had poor taste in comedic television probably watched a fair amount of Beavis and Butthead on MTV. Clearly the funniest episode was when Beavis ate a bunch of candy and with the help of a sugar high turned into "The Great Cornholio", then antics ensued. Of course the whole episode was fairly crude and mindless humor, but it was funny nonetheless. So what does this have to do with Champ?? When he falls into a really deep sleep, he puts his arms up above his head like a goal post which was part of Beavis' signature move as Cornholio. Champ has yet to pull his shirt over his head like Beavis, but I'm sure he may learn this later from his bad influences (like his Dad). I have included pictures below to help with the reference. As well as how cute he looks, we love this pose because it usually means the sleepless night is over and you can get about 3 good hours of sleep before he wakes up!



Now let's talk about my lawn mower. Most of you probably don't know that I have been struggling to keep my lawn mower running all summer. The engine has coughed and sputtered barely keeping the blade moving to a point of just plain embarrassment almost every time I've cut the grass.

I have run into a lot of people who have the false impression that because someone is a mechanical engineer they also have the skills of a mechanic. This is definitely not true. However, even though I lack all the skills I do fancy myself as handy fixing things around the house including our cars and such. Usually (like any good engineer) I just take it apart over a cold beer as if I knew what I was doing. Often times after not finding a shoestring untied or something obvious like this, I realize I have broke it even further. This leads me to actually do some studying or consulting someone who knows what they are doing for advice. At the end of the day, I learn something and the sick patient gets fixed.

This strategy has been very successful so far. I've done most of the maintenance on our vehicles and even repaired a few broken things on my truck and Anna's car. I say all this to lead up to my recent humiliation cutting my grass. My neighbor never said anything, but he gave me lot's of looks that I interpreted as phrases like "I thought he said he was a mechanical engineer" or "should I tell him that mower shouldn't sound like that?"

I have taken the engine apart about five times this summer trying to fix various things. Each time I was disappointed after not fixing the whole problem (part of which was the damage I had done while "fixing" the engine). After the last time, I was running out of patience. I sat down with a beer and had a talk with the mower. I told him that it was his last shot and threatened the junkyard if he did start performing. So after I got a pep talk from Charles (my brother-in-law who is a mechanical engineer who actually does know how to work on engines) and some advice, I took it apart one last time discovering a damaged gasket in the carberator. I didn't realize that this gasket also was also a diaphram that was pretty important for the engine to work properly (this must be why Briggs and Stratton so conveniently calls it a diaphram carberator). Anyway today after about 10 minutes and $4.32 later, I replaced the gasket and was finally victorious. This probably sounds ridiculous, but I celebrated my victory with a beer and felt like Tom Hanks in Castaway after he managed to start a fire on the beach. For now, I can poke my chest out with pride until I break something else!

-jeff