Crib Candy
Just in time for me to not be able to afford any of it. Nice stuff, tho.
Cool Stuff.
There’s all kinds of wacky stuff in here I’d buy. (via)
Gas Station Prices.
MSN trying to out-Google Google. Still, it looks kind of handy… Update: doesn’t work in Safari, naturally.
Gulp.
Wow. I had no idea about this. I’s a good thing we’re nuking our credit card debt this month. (via)
My MasterCard is 100% paid off. (Breathes sigh of relief.) Now to pay off the San Francisco trip on Jen’s card…
I seem to have a burgeoning business doing some IT consulting—really, I’m just filling in for a friend—but it’s interesting to see how many people are in need of good Mac help. Last night I resurrected a dying drive from an iMac and got it ready to burn to DVD, which will make the clients very happy. They bought an Airport Express for use as a wireless base station—I wasn’t aware you could use it as a stand-alone base station; I thought it was just a remote extender for an existing wireless network. Stupid Bill!
I posted my 100-disc CD changer on Craigslist this morning after several abortive attempts through the Pennysaver. (Lots of calls from sleepy-sounding methheads asking what color it is. Go away, freak-boy.) Selling this will hopefully finance some other minor electronic purchases that I’d like to make.
Question. Jen and I were talking last night about TV theme songs, and she brought up the album that got made back in the 90’s where rock stars remade a bunch of their favorite tunes. We then tried to think of the song we’d cover if our respective Imaginary Rock Bands hadn’t broken up (over creative differences, naturally.) She mentioned Electro-Woman and Dyno-Girl. I voted for the Fat Albert theme and the Underdog song, only to find they were both covered already. What TV theme would you cover if your IRB was still together?
I don’t have any kind of snarky joke to play on you folks; let it be known that I would have a sense of humor if I had more time.
This is a very nice site for all my mid-century modern peeps out there: Meteor Lights features lamps and shades from the 50’s for the modern bohemian. (via Boing Boing)
Money. Jen and I have been in the middle of a bureaucratic nightmare with Baltimore Gas and Electric since we first opened the door to our new house. It involved the last vestigal traces of an operational doctor’s office after they hauled the desk, waiting room chairs, miniature skeleton, and filing cabinets out of the front rooms: two electrical meters bolted to the basement wall, clicking merrily away on commercial rates. The sellers graciously offered to have it converted to a single service, and footed the bill—a quiet man named Ben came and wrestled the rat’s nest of Eisenhower-era wiring into a single, beautiful panel with about fifteen empty slots, signed the work order, and disappeared into the warm October afternoon like Robert DeNiro in Brazil.
Since then, we’ve battled the faceless drones at BG&E to get two bills consolidated into one, which has involved repeated visits from representatives of the company, a three-month wait for somebody to hook up the outside service (while the HUGE main feed wire into the house hung loose at the bottom of the basement steps, promising swift death to anybody brushing up against it with a laundry basket), another wait for somebody to finish the job inside, then an inspection, then another inspection to make sure we aren’t using the house commercially to grow pot (that’s what the greenhouse is for), and then a call to a drone to actually consolidate the bills.
The sum of this lovely exercise came today: $675 in current and backdated charges for gas and electric. Kinda makes that check I just wrote for $1.43 for the water bill look that much better.
Last night Jen and I sat and talked about our options in light of all the drama at her office. Ordinarily, after hearing some of the stories she’s told me about that company, I would have told her to leave months ago (and in fact I have), but our upcoming wedding has precluded any career moves to date. She’s been scared to leave because the money is good, and she’s been doing excellent work, but now that the new directive is to return to the old ‘look’—which is about as professional as a Kinko’s business card—there’s no point in staying. Meanwhile, details of the
This isn’t the first time we’ve been through employment upheval; in fact, we’re getting pretty good at it. We have structured our expenses around one income, and while it won’t be comfortable, it won’t be the death of us, either. The wedding, which is the single greatest worry we have right now, seems to be on track and mostly paid for. So we hope you’ll understand if we don’t join you for a night out at that swank restaurant, but suggest domestic beer and a pizza at home instead.
In looking through the classifieds last night, I realized that the Baltimore Sun redesigned their site—moving away from the ill-advised ‘Sunspot.net’ portal approach and embracing their actual name. While I still think the front page is way overloaded with information, and poorly laid out to boot, there’s improvement in a few areas, and it just looks better. (Plus, the emloyment section has a ton of good design jobs right now. *whew*)
See, this is why the Republicans want to preserve the sanctity of marriage. So that intelligent role models like this couple will educate future generations about the holy bond of matrimony. (…Simpson. Simp—son.)
Rawk! Dept. I’m listening to Sleater-Kinney’s One Beat. I find it sadly hilarious that these ladies rock out harder than 3/4 of the panty-waisted Nü-Metal acts on the dial these days. Sadly because the songs are melodic, individual, and exciting, and they get zero airplay. Remember when songs were melodic and they rocked? (Yesterday I leaned over to Todd and said quietly, “Remember when that chick was prom queen? Oh, Wow.” Without missing a beat, he said, “Take it off! Take it all off!”)
This Link Will Be Dead In 3 Months Dept. This truck makes me wish I had $5K+ to spend right now.
This morning Jen and I made the first preliminary plunge into weddinghood by opening a joint checking account at the bank, which means that we actually have to save some money to put in it. Today we’re venturing out to a few places to look at bridesmaid’s dresses and wedding bands so that we can cross those off the huge list of Stuff We Really, Really Need To Get Done Quickly.
Yesterday I was iced in at the house and got some more work done in the Blue bedroom. Now that the demolition part of the rehab is over with, which is the easiest part, I started cutting shims for the plaster and replacing the baseboards around the room. The doorframe is back in, and the sections of plaster that fell out have been replaced with patches of drywall, which will require seventeen applications of mud and sandings—this after I thought I was done with all that crap.
In more optimistic news, it looks like the patch job on the roof over the upstairs office is holding firm. Two solid days of icy rain, thawing snow, and general moisture have failed to leak through to the wall below, so I’m going to chalk that up in the ‘fixed column’ and prepare to start the long repair job.