Posted by Brad on July 31st, 2008 — Posted in Projects
I never finished cleaning my basement. I keep interrupting myself with other projects. I feel like I have Project-ADD or something. I keep jumping from one to the next, never finishing any of them.
Today’s distraction was the Pew Project. About a year ago, a local church was discarding some pews and I got one. It was super cool, but WAY too long. Yesterday I cut it down to size.
Getting the cut straight and fitting the end piece back on correctly was a little tricky. It involved a trip to Home Depot, but I finally got it. The final securements will be done today. I had to stain the cut part to match the existing color, and it takes 24 hours to dry.
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Posted by Brad on July 30th, 2008 — Posted in Journal
My shower has a decorative outer curtain and a clear inner curtain. A while ago, in anticipation of house guests, I replaced the inner curtain. When shopping for something suitable, I had stumbled upon a curtain that was said to be invulnerable to mildew. It sounded great. It cost more than other brands, but the clincher was a magical phrase that stood out from all the other phrases on the package: “Rustproof grommets”.
My old inner curtain had rust all over the grommets. It was one of the reasons I had to replace it. What manner of grommet was this that was proof against rust? I gladly paid the more expensive price and giddily hung the curtain.
Over time, my joy has turned to sorrow as the grommets have gone from shiny silver to rusty red. Dang. So yesterday I installed a new curtain. This time I didn’t look for anything magical. I went practical: my new shower curtain has no grommets at all. It was $2.99.
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Posted by Brad on July 29th, 2008 — Posted in Journal
One of the smaller projects on my list this summer was to finally get the stranded files off my old computer’s hard drive. I’ve done this before and used the method where you open up your computer and physically connect the old hard drive to the new computer’s motherboard. Yikes! That’s so much work!
I figured that in this age of modern technology, there must be some kind of cable that could connect to an internal hard drive and plug in to a USB port. I googled it. It exists! And I found it at a place called Newegg.com, which my regular Expert Geek advisor, Lloyd, uses all the time. My only concern was that this particular cable wouldn’t be what I particularly needed. The description of this device uses a lot of terms I wasn’t sure I knew. I ordered it, hoping it would work.
It came in the mail yesterday and it works! I’ve transferred all the files from “My Documents” and from the Desktop. I’ve also transferred all the iTunes files. I just hope I can figure out how to access the songs on this new computer. In the meantime, the hard drive has gotten quite hot. I’ve put a little fan on it to keep it cool.
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Posted by Brad on July 28th, 2008 — Posted in Projects
One of my Projects for this summer is to patch and coat my leaking roof. I thought I could use a product called Liquid Rubber. It sounds magical. But it won’t work with my roof, because the current top layer is an asphalt-derivative coating. So I’ll just have to use some run-of-the-mill elastomeric coating. Dang.
Before using the coating, I’ll have to patch leaks. I wanted to get a look at my roof to see if leaks were easy to spot or not. It was going to be tricky because I’d have to use an extension ladder to get onto the porch roof, then pull it up after me and climb up onto the roof proper. I asked Denis to help me because I hadn’t done it before and didn’t want to kill myself.
We climbed up onto the porch roof pretty easily, but the extension ladder was only barely long enough. We started pulling it up after ourselves so we could make the next climb and the ladder fell apart, leaving half on the ground below.
Fortunately, Denis had left the window to his bedroom open, so we could climb through and fetch the rest of the ladder. Whew!
Once we were up on the porch roof, the ladder only barely reached to the edge of the roof above. Denis held while I climbed. At the top, I froze with fear. I was pretty sure that if I did climb up onto the roof, I wouldn’t be able to come down again. I took some pictures before descending.
Here is my best picture of the roof. It’s not very good, but to be fair, I was scared out of my mind.
I tried to take a picture over my shoulder, because I was NOT going to look at how high I was. I only got a picture of my face, but it’s hilarious! Here is what Brad looks like scared:
I thought I could coat the roof myself. Maybe not. Apparently I have a fear of heights.
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Posted by Brad on July 27th, 2008 — Posted in Journal
I’ve never been much of a fan of crab cakes. They’re too rich for me. Plus, most recipes use mayonnaise, which I’ve been taught to fear more than communism. But for the last few days I’ve been craving crab cakes. I tried to satisfy the craving by having a grilled fish sandwich from the awesome barbecue place across the street from me… no luck. How strange to have this craving.
I think I might be pregnant.
I went to The Crackpot restaurant last night to put this craving to rest. I got a crab cake dinner, which was two crab cakes. It was much too much. I could barely finish one. But it was delicious. Craving sated. Plus, I have a crab cake for tomorrow’s lunch… as long as the mayonnaise holds out until tomorrow.
*jibblie* *jibblie*
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