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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed  |
Friday, September 30, 2005
Living RoomI am so excited to get home this afternoon! Our living room furniture was delivered around 9:30 AM. Sidenote: I can't even place a value on the benefit of having someone home all the time. It's priceless. Danielle totally LOVES the furniture, which means the furniture's perfection is maximized. Danielle is very particular. I can't wait to get home! Next step: stereo/plasma stand for the living room. This is the area where I am most particular. Stand will need to hold my plasma TV, as well as all my stereo equipment. It also needs to hold a center channel speaker. I checked out high-end Bello stands, and I really didn't see anything that fit my needs. I did see the perfect stand at Marshal Fields. I need to go back there and evaluate. For the time being, I might just bring up my 32" from the basement, as well as the speakers and stereo equipment. I'm going to have to run wire up the attic to get the surround sound speakers looking nice. Not looking forward to that job. And knowing myself, it's not going to be drilling a hole into the wall and a hole into the ceiling: I'm going to have to buy wall plates and do it correctly. Man, I dread that job. I can't wait to order a plasma TV. I think I'm going with Panasonic. I've done so much research on plasma, my face is blue. I'd really like a Pioneer Elite, but at double the cost, I don't think I'm getting double the TV. So now the decision is either do I buy a 42" or a 50"? Damn hard decision. I want the 50", but if I get the 42", it might justify getting a nicer stand. I don't know. I just can't wait to get home to see the living room furniture. posted by Dino at 12:45 PM (permanent link) (0) comments More Deep CleaningKitchen is starting to come together! We just finished cleaning every cup, mug, glass, plate, bowl, saucer, etc., that we received from our wedding shower, and organized them in our new cabinets. Kitchen ceiling and walls still need fresh paint, but I'm waiting until after baby is born to do that. Same goes with the backsplash. I want ceramic tile, but I might just end up making the backsplash out of the countertop formica. Last night was another labor-filled night. Everything that we moved from the kitchen into the living room, had to either find it's home back in the kitchen, or get moved down into the basement. I think I ended up going up and down the stairs 100 times. There's my workout for the week. The biggest burden was carrying down all my hard liquor that once had a home in the kitchen cabinets. That's another thing: Danielle and I aren't even big drinkers. I don't know why I have so much alcohol. I think it's probably because I bought a cocktail cookbook and ended up buying every type of alcohol possible... never know what someone might ask for. What an dumbell. I guess I'll end up doing what every East Sider does: build a bar in the basement, along with a pool table and dart board. If I was an Italian, I'd also have a second kitchen, a wine cellar and a cigar smoking room. At least I'll have a place to keep my alcohol, not to mention the 100 different types of wine glasses stuffed into our kitchen cabinets. Just when you think you're finished with remodeling your house, something else comes to mind. When does it end? After clearing out the living room, next step was to do a deep cleaning of the hardwood. I vacuumed every nook and crevice in that room, then followed it up with a mopping of Murphy's Oil Soap. I love that stuff. Room was so clean you could eat off the floor. I was spent and ready to unwind. I was readying myself for a quick session of World of Warcraft, followed by a deep, hearty slumber... "Umm... since you have the vacuum and the mop and bucket out, we might as well do all the rooms! Yeah... that would be great (said in Office Space tone)." [sound of wind behind dumped from sails] or [sound of a deflating balloon] "You're kidding, right? It's like midnight right now." One hour later... master bedroom and computer room are completely dedusted, vacuumed and floors mopped. I guess I'm glad I got that off my plate. It's very nice living in a spit-shined house. It's been quite a while, especially in comparison to my bachelor days. I played about 30 minutes of World of Warcraft before retiring. Boy, when my head hit the sack, I was out like a light. posted by Dino at 12:29 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Thursday, September 29, 2005
A Good Type of CaptivityOne of the thoughts on my mind lately has been that of the utter loss of freedom and independence that a newborn brings to one's life. There was a time where the only thing that consumed my thoughts were wondering whether to buy a dual-core Intel processer, splurge on a new motherboard, or hack-n-slash some orcs in the World of Warcraft. Now I'm noticing that my thoughts are shifting from "selfish" to "selfless". My thoughts are now being consumed to: 1) Making sure that my financial well being is sound and secure in order to provide for my offspring 2) Making sure that my family is financially well-provided should I unexpectedly die 3) Making sure that the home environment is secure, baby-safe, clean and enabled to efficiently and safely raise a child The change of my thought processes in my neural net is so profound, I had to write about it. The loss of freedom and independance is terrifying. On the flip side, losing freedom due to being the sole provider and caregiver of offspring that is 50% similar to myself, and 50% similar to my wife is one of life's gifts that is something that I can't even put into words. Next week, I will have reached one of life's milestones: parenthood. I am smitten with excitement. posted by Dino at 2:38 PM (permanent link) (2) comments Shower Gifts Finally Find RefugeAfter almost a full year, our shower gifts finally find refuge in our new kitchen! Our original plan after Danielle and I were married was to start looking for a new house, and keep all our good stuff stored in boxes to expedite moving. As many of you know, we looked and looked and looked and we could not find a house that met all our expectations. So we decided to stay put and update the house-- mainly the kitchen. The kitchen was completely gutted right down to the builder's floor. I was pretty impressed at how quickly the kitchen remodel occured. The contractor started Monday and was 90% complete by Friday. Floor was installed next Monday and Tuesday and entire kitchen was completed on Wednesday. So Wednesday night, in a World of Warcraft style mania, Danielle and I deep-cleaned the kitchen, then packed the cabinets with all our new goods. We started around dusk, and we didn't finish until 3:30 AM. We jumped from level 25 to 30 in just seven hours! Everything is falling into place perfectly. Our new stove is being delivered as I type, and tomorrow, we take delivery of our living room furniture. The living room hasn't been used in the eight years I've lived in the house. Now, it will be one of our focal points. A plasma TV is just a decision away, which means I have some work ahead of me to wire speaker wire in the attic for surround sound speakers. I'm not looking forward to that labor. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with the current Klipsche speakers. They are humungous. My desire is to have the living room theater wrapped up by Thanksgiving. The most time-consuming part will be to decide on which plasma to buy, as well as what type of table/stand to buy for the TV and stereo equipment. I'm so looking forward to HDTV. What's next? I think next major milestone is the baby, followed by painting the kitchen (sorry we're late, baby) and new carpet in the family room. House is really coming together. posted by Dino at 9:34 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Testing Email (Scanned @ Decoma)
I also added "links" and "recent posts" to the side nav panel. I really I wonder if audblog still works? posted by Dino at 2:28 PM (permanent link) (0) comments TechnoratiI did a few things to the blog: 1) I indexed my blog with Technorati. This is a site that interconnects other blogs to one another... kind of like a web within a web, if you will 2) I reintroduced the "title" feature on my blog. Reason I did this is I can email my blog. The subject becomes the title. Plus, I was getting tired of bolding out a heading every time when I wanted to title my entry. Now it's automatic. Not sure how it's going to affect (I still don't know when to use affect or effect) my archives, since none of those entries have titles. Perhaps there will be double postings. I use the title feature in my Baby Blog. Curious to find what Technorati will do for me. posted by Dino at 12:13 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Nesting WoesI can't believe how how much work still needs to be done in the kitchen before our baby is born. The floor was installed yesterday. I am counting my lucky stars and hope that the kitchen contractor is finishing up with the floor trim and quarter-round, as well as finish sanding of the ceiling and soffet. My work woes are a whole other issue. I need to completely prep, sand, patch, sand, TSP, prime, and paint the entire kitchen (ceiling and walls) this week. I hope the baby gives me this weekend off. Also, we bought a new stove that will be delivered on Thursday. Good thing Danielle is off now. We're now looking at the refrigerator and the kitchen table with landfill eyes. Yikes. It's a little overwhelming considering what needs to be done in a week. I'm just concentrating on the kitchen right now. Also on our immediate to-do list: 1) Living room furniture is arriving in a few weeks 2) Family room carpet is being replaced 3) Plasma TV still needs to be purchased 4) Living room rug needs to be purchased (the committment decision is what's going to kill us) 5) Deliver a baby It's semi-exciting packing three months of duties into a weekend. I think Danielle and I both work well under pressure. posted by Dino at 10:28 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Monday, September 26, 2005
One Week To Go!I can't believe that I'm becoming a father in one week. It's surreal. There's so much to do still. Hopefully the kitchen will be done by Wednesday, so I can prep, prime and paint the kitchen. It's a big job. I think the tile backsplash is going to have to wait until after the paint. That's a big job too. I'm busting at the seams with apprehension, anxiety, and excitement all at the same time. posted by Dino at 10:40 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Virtual plague spreading like wildfire in World of WarcraftVirtual plague spreading like wildfire in World of Warcraft Wow. No pun intended. A virtual disease in WoW? Now I've seen everything. Read the article above by clicking the hyperlink. posted by Dino at 11:51 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Police Character Sketch ToolUltimate Flash Face v0.42b Got this link from Demo. It's pretty neat. It let's you make a character sketch from an assortment of facial parts. Thought it was worth posting. posted by Dino at 1:34 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Monday, September 19, 2005
What a Weekend/Monday!Wow. We sure accomplished a great deal this weekend! The chores were numerous that they migrated into Monday... we took today off. Let's see... Saturday I replaced my Jeep windshield frame. It wasn't a pleasant job. My old windshield frame was totally rusted out. Dave Aultman from work painted it for me about a year ago. I finally got around to putting it on. Why now? The only reason that I have put it off is that it was parked in the garage. Poor Danielle... she parked out in the driveway with our butlers. She's quite the trooper. Now that it's fixed (almost, I still need to secure the hardtop header), the Jeep can sit outside with the butlers' vehicles, since I won't have to worry about water entering the cockpit. It was a total sieve. When it rained, buckets of water went behind the dash and onto my feet. Not so good with electrical systems being behind the dash. Sunday was a big day too. Not sure I mentioned it before, but Danielle's Cougar was ready for the glue factory. Transmission was all out of wack. You couldn't put the car in gear without it rolling backward about ten feet. Put her car in reverse, and it would take a few seconds for it to catch the gear. Those were the side-effects. What I thought was the "cause", also became a side-effect of the real problem. Her transmission leaked fluid by the bucketful. There are at least three quarts of ATF in my driveway, half of which probably leeched into the groundwater through the soil. It was a living nightmare. Whenever she drove her car, it would leak. I was convinced her car was ready to be crushed and sold as scrap. I used logic and reason to solve this problem. Whenever I would fill her transmission with ATF, it would drive fine. As soon as it heated up on a hot summer day, it would leak like a sieve. I took it into a transmission shop, and they tried to look at it. The manager came out and said they tried filling it under pressure, and fluid exploded out of the dipstick. They told me to bring it back a few days later so they could drop the trans (for $800). No way. The dealership was only going to give us $1500 for it, so it didn't even make sense to consider a rebuild. So last night, I got my hands dirty, and energized my brain... pressure filling caused ATF to come out of the dipstick... intermittent leaking... leaking only on hot days. I HAD to look into this. I plugged in my Actron engine diagnostic tool and it registered a fault code of TCC solenoid - System/Performance. TCC solenoid is the torque converter circuit solenoid. Those things are inside the trans, usually accessible by removed the trans tray. Danielle's car doesn't have a trans tray... her trans is split down the middle... it's a hemispherical two-piece trans. If that solenoid was bad, it would cost a minimum of $800 to drop the trans, plus the labor to replace. I was starting to consider donating the car to charity... let them iron out the burden. So I started sucking ATF out of the dipstick. The reading on the dipstick showed that fluid was dangerously too high. WTF? Did I add too much? I have a pump with a tube, that I forced down the dipstick. I started pumping that shit out. It came out way to easily. Then it dawned on me... pressure... vent tubes... Eureka! I thought! I was hopeful... I got my air compressor hose out and started pressurizing the tube jammed down into the dipstick tube. ATF fluid quickly started rising up the tube. If I didn't jam my thumb over the other end, I would have been covered with ATF. What an ordeal that would have been! So I wondered... do I have a clogged vent tube? So I pressurized again, and jammed my thumb over the tube... and I listened... I could hear a pinprick of air escaping from somewhere... but where!? I let the trans equalize slowly and repeated... It was weird! The air pressure sounded like it was trying to escape out of the battery! WTF!? How on earth could that be? I then examined the battery and noticed that the battery breather tube was connected to another tube. OK... so I unplugged it... The revelation fell on me like a ton of bricks! As soon as I unplugged the black tube from the battery, the vent tube floodgates opened. The transmission was breathing again! Here's what I think happened... I replaced that battery at the start of winter last year. The battery had its vent tube with a connector on the end. The last time Danielle got an oil change, the derelicts from the oil shop probably thought that they need to connect the trans vent tube to the battery vent tube. The two tubes are coincidentally close, and since the battery had a connector on the end that accepted the same size tube, the oil technician probably thought he should connect them. All I can think of is that it was fine during the winter since the trans was always cold, but as soon as it got hot out, it started becoming an issue. So, to make a long story even longer, the trans vent tube was trying to vent INTO the battery. Since the trans pressure had nowhere to go, the only other escape was through the dipstick tube! That's why her transmission was leaking! So the cause was improper vent tube (or clogged vent tube) and the effect was a leaking transmission... the effect of that was low fluid... the effect of that was a TCC fault code, as well as a driving experience from hell. So I fixed her Cougar Sunday night, cleared out the fault code from her engine computer, and topped off her trans fluid. I then drove it hard for the rest of the night to see if the fault would trip again. It didn't! Car drove like a champ! It was like brand new again! Monday comes around, and we're off to the races again. I spent the morning doing a deep cleaning on the inside of her car. It looked like new when I was done! I touched up a few dings here and there, and totally fixed her cracked fascia. Car was ready for a car show. Our kitchen contractors arrived around 10 am, along with our cabinets. They got started right away. Danielle took her car to the OB, and I spent the next hour or two covering up everything in the family room (it's adjacent to the kitchen). I then sealed off that wing of the house (basement, kitchen and family room) from the main living wing (living room, bathroom, and bedrooms). Now "we live in a duplex" as coined by Danielle. Contractors have a key for their duplex, and we have a key for ours. They could easily come through the plastic into our duplex, but it's fun to pretend that they cannot. If we need to go to the kitchen, we go out the front door and into the side door. It's silly, but it's fun to pretend that we have a duplex. As soon as Danielle got back, we left the contractors to their work, and we went onward to our Monday chores... We did some banking, and then ended up at our next scheduled stop: the Chrysler dealership. After a little shop talk, and manipulative bargaining, I conned the salesguy to offer us a price on a Pacifica we couldn't refuse. I used tactics such as "GM Envoys are so much roomier, we can't decide...", "2005 model year... that's old news, salesboy... we want a 2006... unless you can subtract a year's worth of residual value, blah blah blah, and make me want a Pacifica over an Envoy...". He knew I was an impulse buyer, that spent 75% of the car buying experience on research, and 24% on the negotiation, and 1% on the actual transaction. When he sees me, he sees "drumstick" like hungry cartoon people see when looking at Bugs Bunny. He didn't want to lose the sale. And remember about the trans fix on the Cougar? Well, it paid off, with dividends! On Saturday, I would have taken $50 for the Cougar. We ended up with a trade-in price that was more than fair. It was right in line with the trade-in value listed on Kelly Blue Book. Amazing! It was sure sad to see the Cougar go, especially after I fixed it and put it back into tip-top shape. The trade-in was key... Long story longer, we bought a Pacifica today! Danielle is now a proud owner of a Pacifica All-Wheel-Drive. Other than a Kenworth semi truck, it's probably one of the roomiest vehicles I've sat in. I love it. I can't wait to try and fail at doing doughnuts in the snow. Finally, I installed both of our Graco baby seat receivers in our vehicles. I'll tell ya what... you gotta love the new automotive seating "standard" of the LATCH system -- designed to attach baby seats. It took me all but 15 seconds to attach. It was a welcome delight. I love "standards". Our baby will be safe and sound due to automotive and baby-industry ingenuity. Off to dinner to unwind... Dani is STARVING! posted by Dino at 8:06 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Monday, September 05, 2005
Labor Day Weekend FunWe didn't accomplish anything of epic proportions this weekend, other than relish the joys of Mark and Linda's wedding, and play dressup as John and Jane Doe Consumer. Mark and Linda's wedding was awesome. I love outdoor weddings. They got married outside the Rochester Museum (there was even an archaeological dig site of some relic log cabin). and the reception was at San Marino Club. Pictures of course on already published. The next day, after surviving a hangover, we did a little window shopping, looking for rugs, Nikon D70's, plasma TV's, and we even reconoitered Costco. My take on Costco: We finally bit the bullet and purchased a membership at Costco. We were probably the last family in Sterling Heights to get one. They don't accept credit cards other than American Express or your bank's debit card. Hmmm... so much for accumulating points on our Amazon.com credit card. Also, the only difference between the Gibralter Trade Center and Costco is that the vendors leave Costco before the store opens. Sure, everything is a little cheaper, but the choices made me feel like I was stuck in an interactive QVC rerun. What's up with no bags at the checkout? And what's up with getting strip-searched at the exit? The membership is novel, and will probably be used well when we're getting ready to bunker down for Hurricane Leroy... not really sure what we're going to do with a 24-pack of lint rollers. We also did a little camera and plasma shopping. I'm ready to make my big-ticket purchases of a Nikon N70s and some sort of plasma TV... either a 42" or 50", in either Panasonic, Pioneer or Pioneer Elite flavor. Hope everybody is having a great Labor Day weekend! It's going to be a little tough this year, biting into a juicy 1/2 pound hamburger, knowing there are people still seeking refuge a few thousand miles south of us. posted by Dino at 12:00 AM (permanent link) (2) comments Thursday, September 01, 2005
More DirectNIC Blog from New OrleansVery sad we live in a country where not only are survivors asking for water, they are requesting .45 ACP ammo. The Interdictor: "We've got a prayer! Huge convoy of fuel and generator engineer types affiliated with Bell South just moved down the street toward their building. That's where 2 of our OC3s that went down are at Bell's main. Finally, this is important: Message for Tenants of 650 Poydras - Poydras Center We recieved the below email from building management. We are asking for help from tenants in our building. We need bottled water, hand sanitizer, general cleaning supplies, self cleaning stuff, germx, baby wipes, etc.. Big diesel gloves. underwear. (34, 36, 38's whatever), socks (white), razors/deodorant men's and womens, a portable chemical toilet, .45 ACP ammo if possible If you have any of the above supplies at the office and you are willing to let us borrow them then please send us: 1) your suite number; 2) the supplies that you are willing to let us borrow; 3) the exact location of where the supplies are located; 4) your contact information; and 5) some form of laundry detergent. If you do the above we will: 1) be able to get into your suite to obtain the supplies; 2) While getting the supplies we will also check your suite for damage and perform a little work to help you mitigate damage; 3) we will track what we borrow; 4) we will pay you back; and 5) we will eventually send you a status update. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Maurice Faucheux [mailto:denmaur@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 7:04 AM To: mfaucheux@hertzgroup.com Subject: Hertz New Orleans Properties Dear Tenants, We at Hertz Investment Group sincerely hope that you and your loved ones survived Hurricane Katrina safely and with a minimum of loss. We also hope that the coming period of recovery goes smoothly for you. I would like to pass on to you Hertz Investment Group's plan for the immediate future. Members of the Hertz Management Team remained at each of our New Orleans properties throughout Hurricane Katrina, in order to mitigate damage and to survey the effect of the storm on the properties. We have now retained the services of a specialist in commercial disaster recovery to assist us with repairing and restoring our properties as quickly as possible. The company will deploy a Catastrophic Action Team (CAT), that will being working to return our properties to Class A condition as soon as state and city officials allow access to the city. In the interim, Hertz Investment Group has created a website www.HertzNewOrleansResponds.Com which will provide our tenants and the community with status reports on our progress. The website will also offer each tenant the option of creating a password protected bulletin board, which can be used for communicating confidentially with staff and employees directly on the website. Tenants will also be able to submit questions to Hertz Group management via the website. Our website is expected to be on line and fully functional tomorrow, (Thursday). We encourage you to utilize the services that the website offers during this difficult time, to follow our progress and to communicate with your friends, co-workers, staff and employees. Sincerely, Maurice A Faucheux General Manager Hertz Investment Group posted by Dino at 6:15 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Pictures: direcNIC.com Versus LootersdirecNIC.com Versus Looters (Pictures near end are directNIC.com versus Katrina) Another great link above. posted by Dino at 6:04 PM (permanent link) (0) comments The Real New OrleansThe Real New Orleans Blog from NOLA: The Interdictor Don't rely on the media for accurate information on what's really going on in New Orleans. Read this guy's blog above, and make sure you read the comments. posted by Dino at 5:59 PM (permanent link) (0) comments |
