Some things I am not good at

Some things I am evidently not good at:

• Writing regular blog posts. The last one I wrote that was not part of the 10-year anniversary series was when Finley was born.
• Phone surgery. The battery in my phone died (really died, as in full-charge-lasts-4-minutes dead), and as with many recent phones it was not accessible. For my particular phone, the only way to access the battery is to:
• Use a heat gun to melt the adhesive holding the screen on.
• Use a suction cup to pull said screen off.
• Use special phone repair tools to disconnect the screen from the circuit board.
• Unscrew about 20 tiny screws.
• Pop out the big metal thing covering the battery and circuit board.
• Replace the battery
• Reverse all that, except the adhesive, which is melted.
• Use special super thin tape phone repair adhesive to reattach the screen.
You can watch someone do it correctly here. I actually thought it had gone well, since I didn't crack the screen (the most common mistake in the process, apparently), but once it was all hooked up again the screen no longer worked. It was pretty disappointing. The battery worked, though! I did that part right. The phone can now last all day. It can receive texts and calls. You just can't see or answer them. Or do anything else.
To punish myself for this failure, I have been using family members' old phones since August. I have my dad's old iPhone 4S and my brother's old Samsung Galaxy S3. They are from late 2011 and early 2012, respectively. I have learned a great deal of patience.
• Growing head hair. This just goes without saying.

Things I am thankful for:

• My lovely wife.
• My two silly boys.
• The new little kumquat on the way.
• The rest of my awesome family (the ones who don't live at my house).
• All of my material needs are met.
• Most of my material wants are met. I even got a good Black Friday deal on a new phone.