Rants

76,000 Nitpicks

The contractor is done. Well, all except for he’ll be back next week sometime to install the bottom molding around on the outside of the new walls of the small bathroom. He left behind a few little things that need to be taken care of, might be easier for me to go ahead and take care of them, but I might just leave them for his return. There is one part of the bathroom wall that didn’t get totally smoothed out, probably missed it because it is hidden by the usually open door. The light fixture above the mirror was wobbly and I asked him to tighten it down, but it didn’t get done ( I fixed it tonight.) There is a crack in the grout in the corner seam of the stand up shower, that he touched up today with just some success.

The one that is most noticeable was not within his control. We bought Price Pfister porcelain cross handled faucets for both showers and one for the bathroom sink in the big bathroom for two reasons, 1) we like the look and 2) they would match our already existing faucet in the small bathroom. The existing one works in a manner such that you turn both knobs counter-clockwise for on and clockwise for off. We were thrown for a loop when we started to use the new shower in the small bathroom. This set works by turning the cold counter-clockwise for on and the hot clockwise for on. Now in the newly completed big bathroom at least the shower/unit controls are identical to the ones in the shower of the other bathroom, but incredibly the vanity faucets are just the opposite of the shower units, you turn the cold clockwise for on and the hot counter-clockwise. So now we have to learn how to operate 4 separate faucets in three different manners. I hope I don’t scold something important.

Today on the way home from work the Emperor reached the 122,310km (76,000 mile) plateau.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 132

What Next?

The Home Shopping Network is going to start showing movies? First MTV, AKA Music Television, stopped playing music. Then CNN Headline News started doing stuff besides continual 1/2 hour news shows. The Weather Channel has stopped doing the weather 24/7. And now, tonight, the Cartoon Network is showing Jurassic Park 3. That’s not a cartoon. Although I guess some argument could be made that the CGI dinosaurs are and Bill Macy has a face that only a cartoonist could love…

We went for a nice walk in Hitchcock Woods this morning. It has only been a little over a week since our last visit and the woods have been transformed, all the dogwoods and the wild azaleas are flowering, plus all the other trees are budding and turning green. I took a couple dozen photos on our walk and I learned two things: 1) I suck at photographing flowers and 2) the add an image thing isn’t working in WP 2.5. Fixed.

Totally forgot about the FRS playing on TV this afternoon. Stumbled on the game in the top of the ninth inning and watched them go down in a ball of flames to the Jays for the 3rd straight day. Plus it just seemed so wrong to hear voices I associate with Braves baseball on a channel that used to do every Braves baseball game calling an American League game. Their record now stands at 3 wins and 4 loses, not a great start. At least the MFY are only 3 & 3 and we can blame the rocky start on the whole 3 country, 12 time zone road trip. Tuesday is the home opener where the players will get their World Series rings and the 0-5 Tigers are in town. Time to wake up and start looking like you want to repeat as WS Champs.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 100

You Want Me To Go In That?

We are struggling to find the perfect new toilet for our small bathroom. Our major requirement is that the toilet not stick too far out from the wall. Our current one is only 26″ and most everything out there is 29-30. A short one-piece unit like we currently have would be nice and a comfort height toilet would be a definite plus as well. You would be surprised how hard it is to find a combination of all three.

I found what I thought was the perfect solution: the Kohler Purist Hatbox. Until I saw the price – $3198.80. Yikes! That’s for white, if you want it in black it is $1500 more.

I though I would show it to my wife and try and get a reaction when I sprung the price on her. Donna took one look at the picture and said, “Its ugly!” The price reveal had just lost all it’s punch.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 97

Even On The Net The Commercials Are Loud

Just got through watching the first segment of last night’s New Amsterdam and when it went to the Toyota Corolla commercial the decibel level jumped 4 fold.

So far my toying with WordPress 2.5 has not been very positive. The My Netflix plugin doesn’t work (no big deal.) When I did have it working, the new image uploading thingie didn’t place the alt or title tag in the linking image, so it didn’t have a title on the Lightbox2 pop up (I think I can hack that.) Now, tonight for some reason, I can’t upload an image at all, it uploads and then stops with this: An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later. (Deal breaker.) Then, once the upload fails, I cannot navigate away from the post page without getting a 412 Precondition Failed error. I will have to test this out as it may be just a plugin conflict. This blog remains the same for now as I’m testing the upgrade using the thumbdrive.

Toilet shopping is harder than you might imagine (at least for us.)

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 96

Weekend Wrap Up

We went downtown last night to get an ice cream. The place was hopping. That was to be expected because the middle jewel of Aiken’s Triple Crown, the Spring Steeplechase, was yesterday and it routinely attracts 30,000 people and a lot of them hang around town long after. The restaurants were packed and there were several venues with live music. We arrived at the Sweet Cow Creamery at just the right time, we were next in line to be served and by the time I paid for our ice cream there were a half dozen people storming the door to get in.

This morning after watching last Thursday’s episode of Lost with breakfast, we went out and got lost in Hitchcock Woods. As usual, we were not really lost, we just didn’t know exactly where we were. The map hasn’t been updated in a long while and there are quite a few new trails that can confuse us for a short while.

To help you through the next few dark days until April 24th, go to the Lost Island Video and see want some talented Losties have created.

So far I am 31 of 48 in my March Madness picks leaving me only 20 points behind the leaders and next round games are worth 15 points. That’s the good news, the bad news is that there are still 15 of the 21 people entered ahead of me. Unlike last year when I watched none of the games, this year I have actually watched a few of the games. The b-ball players these days love their tats. There was one guy playing for Memphis who I could have sworn had the whole Declaration of Independence tattooed on his upper arm.

We are taking the day off from work Tuesday because the BMW’s are coming to town. We can’t start driving until 9:00AM, but that is OK because I have the perfect way to spend those pre drive hours — baseball. The FRS open the season in Japan against Oakland and the game starts at 6:00AM on ESPN2.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86

I Hit The Rent Limter. Again.

Monday we placed two red envelopes in the mail. This morning I got 2 emails from Netflix saying that they had received the discs. So far so good. This afternoon I got one email from Netflix saying they had shipped one movie. Why not two? Did an email not get sent? So I checked my queue and there at the top it lists movie number 2 as shipping on Wednesday. WTF? It is not like it listed long wait or even short wait. Why the delay?

It just happened a couple weeks ago too. I mailed one back on Thursday, Friday I received the email telling me they had received the disc. They didn’t mail my next movie until Monday. Again why the delay?

I can almost forgive the one where the movie arrived back at the distribution center on December 30, but didn’t ship one out until the 2nd of January. But I can’t, because they actually received 2 movies that day with one being shipped out New Year’s Eve (which is still the next day.) Why the long delay?

My favorite delaying tactic is that whenever they get a movie back and for whatever reason, your next movie isn’t at the closest distribution center, they even tell you it will be shipping the next day from another distribution center. So not only do you have to wait 2 or 3 days for the mail instead of the usual one, but they add an extra day right from the git go. Haven’t they ever heard of the internet? It should take seconds to get the word to the next distribution center that I want that movie, not hours.

I’m being throttled, but what am I going to do, switch? Netflix is still the best fit for us and I think they know it.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 75

I Guess I Should Have Opted For The Road Hazard Warranty

The car has been handling a little quirky recently and I figured it was time for an alignment. The car tracks straight when you let go of the wheel, but seems to need constant attention to keep it in the center of the lane. Almost felt like I needed new shocks, but that shouldn’t be an issue because I just had new one put on back in August.

It couldn’t be a low tire as I keep a pretty close watch on the pressure, checking it every Saturday along with the oil level. Wait a minute, the last couple of Saturdays I haven’t done it for one reason or another. Maybe I should go check. I just did. Right rear 27-1/2 psi. Right front 27-1/2 psi. Left front 27 psi. Left rear 15psi. Ruh-roh, Reorge! Dis-mounted the tire and found what looks like a small nail about 2 inches in from the sidewall. Should be able to get this one plugged, depending on how long it is. The last time I found a nail in the tread area it was so long that it tore into the sidewall. Judging by the diameter of this nail it won’t be that long.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 72