South & Lombard, Tuesday Afternoon.

I could use a little luck this week. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

September 4, 2008 10:25 AM | link to this entry | comments (0) | filed under life

F*** Verizon.

So here I am at Panera again using their wi-fi because Verizon DSL is down in my area. For the fifth time in a month. The guy on the phone decided my trouble was worth $10 and credited our next bill, but I think what they're doing is deliberately plugging and unplugging the router every couple of weeks to get DSL customers like us to upgrade to fiber. (Strangely enough, fiber was the first thing Mr. $10 wanted to talk to me about). So I'm about a millimeter away from calling the *gulp* cable company.

Labor Day Weekend was filled with lots of labor. There are four coats of water-based polyurethane down on the porch floor, and I started installing baseboard yesterday. I don't know how well the water-base will hold up, but working with it is about a million times easier than oil-base.

The nursery is one step closer to being finished: the futon is out and a new dresser/changing table is in. IKEA, in their infinite Swedish wisdom, decided it would be a great idea to make an entire family of furniture and then offer each model in a different color scheme. So the big honking chest of drawers is offered in a pleasing dark brown stain, and the normal, changing-table sized dresser we like is offered in white melamine and red or yellow stain. We opted for the low price tag and red stain, figuring it wouldn't clash with the wall color. I like it better than I thought I would.

Back in 2003 we were browsing through an antique store and stumbled upon an old glass shade which looked perfect for a nursery. This weekend I bought a new light so that I could ditch the glass and use the fixture to finally hang it. it turned out the glass in the box was busted into about thirty pieces, so everyone made out alright.

I also cleaned up the Jeep and put the seat base in. I'd like to extend a hearty middle finger to the Graco corporation, who see fit to add a WARNING label and a DANGER sticker to every flat surface of the seat, base, and stroller, but can't be bothered to spend five minutes to design an installation guide properly. No wonder so many people get this shit wrong. I have to assume that the lap belt goes through the two big loops in the plastic base, but that whole thing seems sketchy and loose to me. So I'm going to get it checked out by the fire department and then bungee the shit out of it so that it won't move an inch.

That cabinet I've been working on since last freaking year is slowly nearing completion; the main section is finished but I had to resand and stain one of the doors because it went way too dark on the final coat. The shelves and back are finished, and hopefully with a couple of coats of poly on the doors it'll be ready for assembly.

September 2, 2008 1:14 PM | link to this entry | comments (2) | filed under general

Flat Out.

August has been a marathon, so I haven't been writing much around here. I'm dealing with a lack of time and anything very important to say, sadly. You wouldn't know it from the hackneyed sentences and dangling conclusions of my posts, but I do spend a lot of time trying to make sense of the voices in my head and then write down what they say in a logical fashion. This means I've got a pile of half-finished entries from the last few weeks, most of which you will probably never see. The other problem is that because I'm either hunched over my keyboard or sanding something on the porch, I don't get out much, so I don't have anything exciting to talk about other than the same three subjects.

Some things I am interested in, in no particular order:

The Nikon D90 is a prosumer-level DSLR with a full-size 12.3 MP chip (something only found in the pro grade camera bodies), high/lo ISO performance, 3 inch LCD, and HD Video. MSRP is $1000 for the body, and we'll have to see what it retails for, but it looks like I've found the successor to my D70.

I love the final shirt in the Venture Brothers Shirt Of The Week Club, featuring the steely visage of (now deceased) Henchman 24. Money is tight, though, so I will probably pass on it.

Based on a comment left in a BoingBoing Gadgets post, I am once again using Remote Desktop to control my music server, in the basement, from my iMac, on the third floor. I didn't realize all the functionality of the Remote Desktop application was built into OS 10.5 and compatible with 10.4. So what does all of this mean? I can now add ratings and playlists to the machine downstairs from my desk, making life a little more random and a lot less difficult.

Oh, and there's this:

What I'm trying to do is apologize for sounding like a hamster on a wheel. I promise I'll make it up to you in the coming months.

August 27, 2008 12:57 AM | link to this entry | comments (0) | filed under life

From the Vine.

When it starts smelling like Bubblicious on our back lawn, we know it's time to harvest grapes. This year's initial pick was about 6 lbs., which Jen quickly made into jelly and canned.

August 26, 2008 10:16 AM | link to this entry | comments (1) | filed under house

Sanding, Part 2.

Sunday afternoon, I rented an edging sander and worked my way around the porch.

Before:

After:

Using an edger is like wrestling a greased pig while trying to thread a needle. One must be very careful with the machine, as it will take off a quarter-inch of wood in only a few seconds. My forearms, knees, and lower back sound like the audience of the Jerry Springer Show this morning.

Returning the sander last evening, I lucked into a clearance sale on 1"x6"x10' board—something I've never seen before—and bought all of the baseboard wood for half the normal price. I think I may be going back today to get more for the den.