• Tag Archives House

  • “Conscience, man’s moral medicine chest” Mark Twain

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I ordered the above print from http://www.cooleycooley.com. One of the things that I find is the more cool art stuff that I go looking for, the more stuff I find that I want to put on my walls.  Unfortunate but true.

    Okay, I’ll confess. I bought an Apple product a few days ago. *Sigh*

    I’m not an Apple hater. Really. My family had Apple products back in the 80’s before Apple was “cool”.  After I saw Kevin Brown play with MacPaint, I told my dad that we needed to get one.  I have many MANY fond memories of playing Infocom games for hours – and teaching me how to type in the process.  We had a Mac 512, Classic, Plus. I didn’t start fooling with PC’s until the mid 90’s – when my (now ex) father in law got me into building them.

    As a dude, I like being able to take something apart and fixing it.  Not that I could have done that with the old Macs, but after learning how to do it, I like the control. So, I resisted for a long time on the iPod/MP3 player front. I’ve blown through a bunch of low end Creative MP3 players. I like them all, but when my Sony theater speaker system came with an iPod compatible dock – I couldn’t use them.  It got put on the back burner for a while.  I don’t have a CD player anymore for my stereo (other than my PS3) so after talking with my brother (who’s been using Macs for years doing graphics but oddly enough has a Google Droid phone) I picked up a used Nano compatible with the dock that I’ve got.

    Despite the fact that I can’t stand the fact that iTunes jacks up if you don’t install it on the C drive – or it did, not sure if it’s still an issue or not – it was installed.

    As soon as I installed it, I jacked up most of my media library as it took over and I was trying to do stuff simultaneously.

    The iPod is totally cool. I get it. It works more better (mo-bettah?) than all my other MP3 players ever did.

    Except………………

    The normalization feature of iTunes SUCKS. So I had to go convert the entire library to MP3 and then run it through some 3rd party programs to settle down the volume jumps between albums/songs.

    In other news, I rolled my sprained ankle yesterday while I was mowing the lawn. It wasn’t bad, but I screamed “OW”. None of my neighbors ran over to see if I had accidentally chopped off my own foot or something.  I guess continuous screaming would bring them over.


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  • “I thought that our defense stymied them all day, and really played extremely well,” Les Miles

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Never underestimate the power of outside influences to screw things up.

    My sleep schedule has been inconsistent, to say the least. I was up until four last night. Knowing that I was expecting a delivery from Fedex today, I slept on the couch so that I wouldn’t miss the delivery. Unfortunately, rather than being a regular delivery, it’s a no-longer-available out-of-stock youth sized snowboard for my daughter. So, I needed to receive it today. With my impending travel plans, I couldn’t risk missing it.

    So, I awoke at one, and checked the front door. No delivery. I would have heard if someone knocked and even had my home alarm off so that I wouldn’t set it off when I yanked the door open (as I have often done).  So, I checked FedEx’s website and sure enough, it said it had been delivered!

    The FedEx lady is usually pretty good. Long story short (and an hour later), I retrieved the snowboard from the house two doors down.  *sigh*

    In other news, I found a completely gorgeous neck-through Robin Machete – for a great price! But unfortunately, I’ll need to liquidate all my guitars (except two) to justify buying it. It’s a gorgeous guitar, but ….now….is….not…the….time. Must….resist!

    *Edit* Couldn’t resist….now here.


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  • “We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks-that’s show business.” Edward R. Murrow

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Sneaky Freak

    My neighborhood does not have an HOA. I did that on purpose because getting bitch slapped by an HOA every other week didn’t sound too appealing. On one side, there’s always the risk that one of my neighbors can set up a bunch of cars on cinder blocks and make an absolute mess. But, so far I’ve been pretty lucky. I’m one of three homeowners on my street who….uh….isn’t as retentive about my lawn. So, both neighbors on either side of me are usually LAST when it comes to mowing their lawns. I’m somewhere in the middle – sometimes I mow before everybody else, but sometimes I mow near the end. With my ankle in wobbly condition, I knew I was going to have to put it off. The rain didn’t help.

    My ankle was in reasonable shape this morning – so I went ahead and mowed my front yard. I was on a roll, so I decided to go mow my ex-father-in-law’s front yard. He DOES live in a development with an HOA and I’m positive he’s received a “nasty-gram” in his mailbox for his overgrown yard. They left last Tuesday and he hadn’t mowed before then. I stopped by to check on his reef tank on Monday (one day too late) and his son told me that he had already put water in the tank. Oops. But with the rain we’re getting off and on, I knew he wouldn’t have time to mow – so I went ahead and did it for them. My EFIL isn’t getting back until Thursday night (with my daughter) so at least that should give him a little break. Good deed for the day.


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  • “I tried to get [Dewberry] on our team. But we’re right on the dividing mark for the North and the South.” Tommy Tonelli

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    So here’s a picture of the biggest Dewberry bush in my backyard right now.

    Dewberry bush #1

    The poor thing is getting chewed up pretty well. So I ordered some ladybugs to see if they can take care of the pest problem for me.  This bush is the biggest of the three (possibly four) so far. I say four, because I planted one and at this point I’m not sure if it’s growing or not. I think I can recognize the leaves, but my yard is so overrun with everything else it’s hard to tell.  Luckily, it’s sprouting new leaves almost faster than they’re getting chewed up.  I call this one #1 because it was the largest of the ones I planted. Should have taken “before” pictures, because when I planted it – there was nothing. From nothing – to this. I’m pretty pleased with it.

    Now to clear out the REST of the flowerbed. *sigh*


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  • “They need a good cup of espresso to keep them going.” Edward Stevenson

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Ahh….I’m in heaven……just heaven.

    In other news, my refrigerator is holding a steady 60 degrees Fahrenheit……which means that my freezer defrosted and I lost all my frozen stuff.  The milk hasn’t quite gone bad yet, so it may not be a lost cause yet on that side.  Repair is scheduled for tomorrow.

    Maybe I should start writing that paper. D’OH!


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  • “What we’re looking at this year is an exponential increase in interest in alternative spring breaks.” Jeff Rubin

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    This is officially my first spring break in about….uh…..nineteen or so years.

    I don’t really consider it “spring break” since I still have to do pretty much all the normal crap that I do during a normal week. I just don’t have to go to class.

    Today I shall be writing a paper for my Texas Politics class – due next Wednesday. Three pages (no big deal) – but procrastination (much like blog posts) abounds.

    My daughter is now officially hooked on “Lost”. After I plowed through seasons one through five on Netflix, I decided to pick up the box sets when I find them cheap. She watched the first episode, and from the other room, all I could hear was, “OMIGOD, OMIGOD! OMIGOD, OMIGOD!”. Normally, I really don’t find myself that interested in network television, but “Lost” is a pretty brilliant show. Since I was able to watch all seasons pretty successively, there was no “lag” between seasons and therefore no letdown when the writing changed direction. It’s definitely a different show than it was in the beginning, and it should be interesting to see how it wraps up.



    📂This entry was posted in School 📎and tagged

  • “O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping!” William Shakespeare

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Oops.

    For the first time, I wore my Flat Duo Jets shirt today.

    When I picked my daughter up for school, I should have REALLY noticed the imperceptible eye widening……but I didn’t. I just chalked it up to her “normal” not liking whatever I’m wearing.

    Off I went to the courthouse to file a Deed on my house. I’m there and the cop at the metal detector motions to the three other officers that are there, “Hey, lookit his shirt!”. Then I went into the clerk’s office. The clerk’s eyes got huge and he says, “You know you’re in the courthouse right?”. I said, “Well, it’s not illegal…..”

    He says, “Well, I wouldn’t walk around downtown or anything….”

    Kinda funny. I kinda forget that most of the world isn’t on the same wavelength as me. It reminded me of the time in high school when I wore my “School is Hell” t-shirt.

    I really didn’t think anything of it, but Mr Strickland (the band director) didn’t take too kindly to it.

    They made me turn it inside out. D’OH!


    📂This entry was posted in School 📎and tagged

  • “We’ve come up with a plan that’s going to look good at the end of the day, so it looks good on television.” Chris Creed

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Things are swimming along on the refinancing.

    I got another envelope from the Nielsen group. Which means I got two more crisp $1 bills.

    Go me. Home ownership has its privileges I guess.

    If Nielsen could send me another 500 of those envelopes a month, we’d have a deal.


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  • “My fault. Obviously a brain cramp. I had nowhere to go. It was just a mental mistake.” Bernie Williams

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Pretty crappily interesting day.

    After I got out of class, I got a message on my phone that my house alarm had tripped about 30 minutes after I left.

    Great.

    So, I drove home, managed to not be freaking out, minimally speeding….

    And then in the final mile of being home, I opened my car up and passed two cars – I was doing about 60. My radar detector tells me I’ve been hit by laser!

    I pull in front of the cars I was passing and there’s the cop – I turn, and he doesn’t do anything…..so I keep driving, and he pulls over one of the cars I passed (?,!,?)

    Fine by me. I get home and my front door was not latched right when I left and had blown open. Nothing missing.

    By this time, I’m exhausted. My espresso machine is still in pieces, and I’m still trying to track the steam valve down. I thought I could survive without it, but it’s TOUGH.

    Got my Back to The Future trilogy discs in….what a great movie(s).

    Worked out (hard) for the second day in a row and I am SORE. This week is only getting harder.

    🙁


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  • “The meek may inherit the earth, but the other kind inherits the mortgage” Noah Goldstein

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I feel like such a grown-up.

    I’m negotiating with the bank in an attempt to refinance my mortgage. I’m not in any trouble, I just want to lower my interest and my monthly payment while I take this time in school.

    After talking with a friend who just got a house, I realized that I can get a better deal with all the uncertainty right now.

    Granted, when banks look at my credit score, a choir of angels sing……

    I forgot – my super-duper espresso machine has sprung a small leak. Which REALLY sucks. I can’t find the part anywhere. I do NOT want to send it off to get fixed, but I may have to. Fuuuuuuuuuuudge.


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