Showing posts with label House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House. Show all posts

Monday, November 29, 2010

Two stories with the word "smuggled" in it

Saturday, I'm sitting up in the living room watching something (Glee? Hannah Montana? Wizards of Waverly Place? Phineas and Ferb? Something) and all of a sudden, Bradley starts barking up a storm.

It was the kind of barking he does when he sees Lawn Boy working back there and he can't get out there to play.

I peeked out the back to see if someone smuggled into my back yard. Alas, I saw nobody.

He continues barking. Almost as if there's Zombies out there.

So I head downstairs and see him staring out the patio door and barking up a storm.

I get there and peek and see nobody out there. Alive or undead.

Then I see it!

On the patio there is a SQUIRREL!

And Bradley was trying to inform said Squirrel that s/he shouldn't be out there 'cuz it's HIS patio.

I quietly open the door and let him storm out, chasing the squirrel up the tree. That'll teach him! (Ok, probably not, but it was fun to watch)



So, some random girl from the other side of the floor comes over here and says very shyly, "hi..."

I go very energetically,"HI!!!!!"

She asks if we're the appropriate people to go to with Essbase installation issues.

I said "not particularly, but I'm feeling in the holiday spirit to not let you deal with desktop support, so I'll help you!"

She looks over on the side of my desk and points and says "is that...."

I said "Yep, it's a water feature!"

She says "They let you bring it.."

I said "Yep, I smuggled it in!"

She looked blankly.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Who the Internets thinks I am

So, on my facebook page, I started the discussion about the 2010 Census and something came out on Internet searches in "public databases."

The site brought up is Spokeo.

The example link provided against someone looked a little uncanny, so I decided to search for myself.

This is what it thinks I am:
Ok, early 30's, check.
Caucasian, check.
Single, check
Reading? Seriously?
Gemini? Um... NO!
Children? Ok, they get that one as a TECHNICALITY
And I like to think my neighborhood is Above Average!

But, that's not all that's on the page:
Again, loves reading? Seriously? Do they think I'm my sister?
Healthy Living? They obvi don't go through my trash!
Subscribes to magazines? No I don't. The one magazine I get, I don't know how I'm getting it and how to stop it!
Donates to causes? Ok, only aminals!
And, really, I'm not interested in politics.

But wait, there's more!
There's that technicality of children again.
It thinks I don't have central air or heat? In this state? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
And seriously? Home value? I WISH! Can a home be valued that much without central? In this state, that is -- obvi Massachusetts would be different.

I went further. I searched my sister under her maiden and married names. Her married name has next to nothing, but her maiden name has a bit more. And her husband looked pretty uncanny with all his interests.

Alas, it didn't have my grandmother, and she's been in that house for like 85 years.

Guess we can't truly trust everything on the Internets!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

I dub thee "Dooky Head"

When you move into a previously-lived-in location, you're bound to get mail for strangers.

Previously, my house was owned by a church. So, I'll get lots of religious things in the mail. And occasionally a letter for a previous person saying their car loan is in default or their student loans are in default (I guess God really doesn't care about them enough to make sure their credit stays good).

Anyways, yesterday I received the strangest piece of mail:
Yes -- that's right -- it says "Dooky Head" -- and the address is mine. I'm debating calling Progressive and saying "Excuse me sir or madam, but I think you misspelled "Dookey". If I do call, I'll keep all three of my readers updated!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Coupon Conundrum

I'm going to prefix this blog posting with I do NOT condone the methods outlined below. I didn't quite realize what was going on with part of it.

So, as part of my home projects I needed to purchase six R-30 bulbs. A trip to WalsMart was in store.

Arrive there and my really awesome and hot boyfriend manages to find some bulbs in the clearance aisle for 3.43 each.

Next we head to the Self Checkout aisle to.. well.. check out!

As I'm scanning the bulbs, my really awesome and hot boyfriend notices there's a 75 cent off coupon. We begin peeling them off as we scan them. There's one missing. Oh well. Scan the first coupon and *bam* - 75 cents removed from the total. I put the coupon in the coupon holder as requested. Scan the second coupon and it tells us the coupon has been used the maximum times. I start reading the coupon and it doesn't say "limit one" so we ask for the CSR.

CSR comes down and scans it and it doesn't scan. But she still throws it in the coupon holder. She also states she cannot manually do them and cancels the coupon that was already used. We then decide that we'll do six different transactions as the line was empty (shocker, eh?).

So, we move lanes and we're down two coupons (and missing the one), and we decide to the coupons six times by putting the coupon label in instead of the coupon for half of them.

Six transactions of 2.89 later (3.43 minus .75 plus tax) I have six receipts and six bulbs.

I get into my truck and begin discussing how irritated the WalsMart manager will be once they go to check the drawers. One drawer will be short 2.25 (three coupons) and one will be over by 1.50 (two coupons). Then the kicker came out: I was informed the coupons had expired back a few months ago.

Apparently the way coupons work is the barcode stays the same no matter what. It is up to the cashier to verify the expiration date. It's a "known issue" when it comes to self checkout lanes. So, WalsMart is really out $4.50 from my coupon adventure. This wasn't intended, but seems a bit fair after the evil CSR person was so evil and unhelpful.

...And for those of you who call going through the line six times a retail person's nightmare -- the ONLY reason we did it that way was 'cuz nobody was in line behind us. Otherwise I woulda been a little more courteous of other shoppers. I'm not THAT evil (usually) :)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Good thing I don't cook!

So, this past weekend's project was supposed to replace the Service Entry Cable to my house. As I've said before, my current setup is underrated for what I want.

But I didn't expect this!

Unfortunately, it was raining all weekend, and there's no way we're going to risk playing with electricity in the rain. But, we DID get the 225 pounds of SE cable run up through the hardest part of the house (the 20 or so feet we needed to put up in the central attic). I swear, if I was ready to rewire the whole house's electrical right now, I would TOTALLY move the breaker box somewhere else more convenient to that whole ordeal. Alas no.

Anyways, my really awesome boyfriend started looking at the existing crappy SE cable (ya know, the one on a 150 amp breaker outside). And we looked it up, and learned it's only REALLY rated for 115 amps. (He calls it "mobile home cable").

Then that got me to thinking about what my Hot Chiropractor said the other day -- "Why don't y'all cook?"

Yeah -- if I cooked, ran the dishwasher, kicked on the air conditioner, and ran the dryer at the same time, I'd probably burn the house down!

...It's a good thing I don't really cook!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Weekends are crazy

Well, we started to figure out exactly what I needed to get my house network wired and such.

Except, my awesomely hot boyfriend started planning around other things and the scope creep came into play.

You see, here's my goals:
  1. Network my house (Satellite boxes and other things are now wanting network connection for this that and the other. Buying wireless adapters all over the place is crazy, so let's run ethernet around).
  2. Get an electric tankless hot water heater -- that will save money since I'm not heating water in the event I want to use it and provide more room in the utility closet for my mini network rack.
  3. #2 causes a problem because I've only got 150 service into the house and I need like 200 (or was it 250? I couldn't remember -- I just needed bigger wiring to meet #2's requirement)
  4. I also, at some point, need to replace my HVAC system since it's about 2/3 of my age. I was pondering around the same time as #2 so I could get rid of Georgia Natural Gas. But, that requires #3 to have been done.
With all this scope creep, the budget has been blown out of the water. I need to seriously sit down and figure out which order I want parts 1 and 3 done in. Partly due to cost, but mostly because I have a wonderful man helping me and I don't want him to feel burned out or have him think I'm using him for his skills. They're great projects to do, but I also want to spend quality time where we're not sweating because of the extensive work we're doing.

...So, if anyone wants to donate to the projects fund, you can donate via PayPal at... :)

Monday, February 16, 2009

Because nobody would believe me...

Because nobody would believe me, I decided to show what I did on my three day weekend.

Note: This is NOWHERE NEAR complete. I still have another half the house to do (and I don't get another three-day weekend until Memorial Day, I think), but it's a great progress!

My apologies for not having "Before" shots. If you google-image "Hurricane Damage", I'm sure you'll find things of what it used to look like.

First, let's take the Master Bathroom. It hasn't been REALLY cleaned in quite some time. And by "REALLY cleaned", I'm including scrubbing the shower. I think it looks pretty good:
And, for those of you who know me, that's beyond impressive. Then, let's go to the master bedroom. There were things all over the place in here. But, cleaning it allowed me to do something I'd been wanting to do for over a year: Fix my bed. You see, it's an IKEA bed, and there's cross-braces. Well, the instructions didn't tell me exactly how to install the cross braces, and I found out that if they have the slightest bit of give, they will allow the sideboards to bow enough to allow the bed to try to fall through. I had rigged it temporarily, but now it's safe and secure:
Looks impressive, huh?

Now, for the biggest change (again, I apologize for no "before" picture) is the room known as "The Storage Room" -- You know, that room that gets used as the equivalent of an attic or basement because you don't have either, but have too much junk to keep? Like Christmas and the like. Well, here's the "After" pic of that:
In all, I got the upstairs pretty much done. The living room will be tackled next since I have an afternoon left. I had hoped to make it to the kitchen, but I guess I'll have to find time during the week.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Productive Weekend!

So, I had a VERY productive weekend. So productive, in fact, I cannot recall another weekend where I have accomplished so much. So, without any further delays, here's my essay on what I did this past weekend:

My Weekend by SmplyUnprdctble

My weekend was a very productive weekend. It started Friday night when I bought a fridge, Washer and Dryer from HH Gregg, then went to Eleven's birthday party at Jocks and Jills. It was quite funny when my really awesome (and hot) boyfriend bought her a birthday shot. Her face was AMAZINGLY HILARIOUS. I ended up finishing the shot for her. I expected lighter fluid, but it was actually pretty good. After the partay, we went to Home Depot to grab a few things for the door job planned for the weekend.

I woke up early on Saturday to go Saturday Sampler (quilting) with Princess Sparklepants. After seeing our February square, we're really excited over the color scheme that was picked out. After the quilting informercial, we went back to my house so she could meet my really awesome (and hot) boyfriend. She didn't follow through with the double-dog dare I provided her with on Friday, but she thinks he's "a total cutie!" :)

Boyfriend and I started cleaning out the garage Saturday while waiting for the delivery folks to bring my appliances. Two trips to the dump later, I had a mostly clean garage. You might even be able to fit two cars in it again! The delivery peeps were late (they claimed I never answered the phone when they redid the route, but that's not the case -- besides, they could have left voicemail). I didn't care, as long as I got my stuff in a timely fashion. Eventually, we started demolishing the door out and (after a few snags), got the new door back in... mostly. There were a couple oddities (bent hinge, unplumb walls, etc), but his ingeniousness got it into place. Starting to get snappy due to hunger, we decided to break for the night and I took him out to dinner at Benihana.

Sunday, we got up early and went out to eat at the Original Pancake House. I had never been there, but it's GOOOOOOD. Definitely worth going again. We returned back to the house and finished up the door. We got it all put together with the exception of the molding on the inside. We also made my garage door no longer the most unsafe in the neighborhood. We went to eat at a local mexican place (for cheaper than breakfast... and we had adult beverages, even), then went to bed.

I need to get a pic of the awesome job we (ok, Boyfriend) did on the door. I'll post it here at some point after the trim is complete.

Now it's Monday and I'm wanting the weekend to come back. I didn't get a chance to do the one thing I REALLY wanted to do this past weekend. Watch RENT: FLOBNOB! I guess that's what next weekend is for.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

I always spend too much when shopping

So, as we all know, my refrigerator died. Now, I know in ancient days people survived without fridges, but I'm in modern days. I don't hunt my food and eat it the same day. And I enjoy my Fanta Zero Orange cold. So, the quest went on to find a fridge.

Side note: My really awesomely hot boyfriend said he thought he knew what the broken piece was and he'd fix my existing fridge. I decided there was no guarantee it would work, and this puts me with one less purchase when I redo my kitchen at some point in the future.

So, I went shopping around.

I've decided I hate shopping around. But, the first place on my list was HH Gregg. My chiropractor suggested I go there. Dude there was very friendly and "guaranteed" I wouldn't find a better price around. Of course, I never believe that line, so I still shopped around (besides, I didn't have the money in my account and I wasn't going to open another credit account). He also saw me eyeing the washers and dryers. I've wanted a new set for a while. Front loader -- simply because my comforter doesn't fit in my current washer. He said he'd give me an AWESOME deal if I bought all three.

Shopping around at Bestus Buyus and Sears proved mostly pointless. Neither had associates that really cared to help. Bestus Buyus had the best rates for delivery @ $30 (HH Gregg claims it must have been a special I stumbled upon). I laughed at Sears when they said $45 delivery -- then add $20 for weekend delivery -- then add $10 to take the broken fridge away. (For the record, HH Gregg was $70)

I decided to go to HH Gregg and make said purchase. And I went in with a budget that if dude could really meet, I would purchase all three with him, if not, it was just the fridge. He entered all the numbers in the system for Suggested Retail Price and I'm like "uh, dude, DEFINITELY no." -- then he made adjustments, basically giving me the extended warranties for free. Brought it down some. I was a little iffy, so I started moving things around. (I almost felt like one of those "find the ball" people shifting things around... I don't want this, I want this, there's a sign that says this...) -- in the end, I got the extended warranties (on all but the dryer, but I may go back and get that later), and the washer / dryer stands for free, and I got a nice chunk off the prices. I don't know how we came down to the number that ended up, but I'm not arguing! It was slightly over my budget, but I REALLY wanted the washer / dryer, so I went for it.

I get them delivered this afternoon. I'll be thrilled because my comforter REALLY needs to be washed. I had been planning on trying to get it to a laundromat, but kept running out of time. I can't wait, I'm excited!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

It died.

I get a request last night to put a glass in the freezer. I oblige and think "something's not exactly right here." But don't really think anything further.

A few minutes later I think "Well, if he wants a frozen glass, maybe he wants ice. I don't have any ice right now, so let me put a container in the freezer and make some ice."

I open the freezer up again and realize something's horribly wrong.

I open the fridge part and see that the magic light is on.

Touch something in the freezer. It's thawed out totally through.

That's right, the fridge I got for free from the Leasing Wench was no longer working.

Since I'm dating someone wonderfully handy, when he got to my place, he decided he wanted to take a look at it. He did something and got the compressor to come back on, so it's working right now. But the little bit of food I had in the freezer is kaput.

I had hoped that the free fridge would last me until I redid my kitchen so I could buy it all together. Apparently not. Sometime this week I'm going to have to find time to find a fridge I like (that I'll have to build a kitchen around).

Any suggestions?