Month: March 2008

So, as some of you know, I am redoing my master bathroom. It’s outdated. I want it anew. New paint. Newish walls. New mirror. Anyway, day one was me pretty much doing investigation into sizes, flooring, colors, and tearing up a few initial things. Upon my first initial tearing up though, I discovered that there was a soft spot in the wall. Day two was me tearing up that soft spot (there were several months in between these days… I got busy). You can see a picture here:

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While tearing up the wall, I discovered I had carpenter ants. I killed what I could, and tore out the insides of the wall. While doing this, I discovered several things. The first being that my house does not have plywood underneath the siding. Siding, then studding, then the inside of my house. A tornado would shred this place. Anyway, I also noticed that the wood had begun to rot. Either water was getting in, or the ants were bringing it in.

Day three, today, consists of me tearing up the tile floor underneath the linoleum. I know that my time is limited, and the project will go slow, but I figured if I did not tear up the floor and be forced to look at ugly greyish plywood, I’d never move on the project. So this is forcing me to get moving. I’ve also discovered that I will probably have to replace the floor under the toilet. I had planned on replacing the toilet anyway and to repair some of the piping for it. It’s been leaking, and apparently, made it under the tile, and the floor is a little soft. We’ll see. I don’t plan to use that toilet for a while, and will need to let it dry out before I venture further there.

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A few of the things I’d like to do:

• Wainscoating in the shower room
• Chair rail in the other half of the bathroom
• Over-the-toilet cabinetry
• Raise the shower head
• And much more…

You can see more pictures on the Photo Gallery.

So today, Danielle and I made an apple pie. I have not ravaged it yet however. I so want to bite into it, but I must wait and bring it to her place tonight, so we can ravage it together. We had a lot of fun cooking together, and I hope to do more of it in the future. Here is a picture:

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Also today, we went to Colt Creek off 471 in North Lakeland. We joined her aunt Carrie and fiancé, Edd. It’s a beautiful state park. I suggest you check it out. Parking is two dollars. Open all day. You can bike, ride horses, fish, or just have a cookout. You can see our pictures from the trip on the gallery here. I had commentary, but it didn’t come over when I typed it in, and I don’t feel like retyping it. So deal.

Well, I went to Walmart, and found these neat little tupperware-like packages for lunch. One will fit a sandwich, the other will fit round crackers (quite perfectly I might add for the kind I like). And last is a rectangle one for whatever. I also found some neat drink things that have a frozen center to keep it cool. And last but not least, a lunch bag that fit it all perfectly.

Ok. So I made a sandwich. Unfortunately, I discovered that I did not have any mustard, so I had to use barbecue sauce. I stuck it in the freezer Sunday night. I also got crackers, and some pineapple slices and a fork. It put all of that in the fridge inside the lunch bag.

In the morning, I pulled out the sandwich, and moved it to the bag, and took off. Two and a half hours later, I got to my office. Pulled out the sandwich and gave it a little bend. Crack. Yeah, it was still frozen in the center. Luckily, I have a microwave at the office, so I nuked it for a bit. Other than that, my lunch idea worked out great. I also found another compartment under the lunch bag, where I will be keeping cookies for a little extra. Mmm… cookies.

So my idea needs a little rethinking. Instead, I am going to do this. The night before, I will move the sandwich to the refrigerator. This will give it extra thawing time, but still in a cool environment. I am testing this theory tomorrow. But there will still be a microwave present, just in case. Oh, and I finally found some mustard in little jars. Thank you Trisha. Well, I don’t know about this last Christmas, but Christmas’ past.

So I was at the office till about 12:30 last night. Got in bed around 1:30. I had an appointment this morning at 8:30, so I wanted to get as much sleep as possible. I was going to wake up at 7:30. Around 6:30, it started pouring rain. Normally, no big deal. But I left the cover open on the back of my truck. With my tools in it. I ran out of my house in my underwear, grabbed the ladder (the reason I had it open in the first place) and yanked it out of the truck. Closed the top, and ran back in. I was soaked. Dried myself off, and tried to get more sleep. Didn’t get much.

So I had this thought today. I stopped at Burger King for lunch, and afterwords, my stomach wasn’t so happy. I’ve been eating way too much fast food lately. But the reason I keep eating there is because it’s fast, and cheap. So, I’ve concluded that I must find a way to make a “bagged” lunch fast and cheap. I can only make it cheap by buying in bulk. But when I buy in bulk, it goes bad because I can’t eat it fast enough. So here is my though. Frozen lunches. On Sunday night, I can premake my lunches for the week, and freeze them. This allows me to make it fast, by just grabbing a frozen lunch “package”. By the time I get around to eating it, it will have thawed enough for me to eat it, allowing me to leave it in my truck in a bag of some sort. So I will be making some practice lunches this weekend to see how it works out. Obviously, there will be a sandwich, either with meat or PB&J, and some sort of side item. I’d like “healthier” items that either last a while, or can be frozen. Any ideas? I also have the issue of a drink. I can either have bottled water, which could get expensive, or find some sort of sealable cup where I could have some pre-ready.

So I haven’t run the A/C in months. It’s kept my electric bill incredibly low. Well, last night was hot. So I put on the A/C. It didn’t blow. No air from the vents. I can hear noise. But no air. So I put it to fan only, and walk outside. I couldn’t hear the fan inside. Crap. I kick it a few times in case it was a loose connection, or a lizard on the connection frying away. They do keep getting chopped up in the the fan at the top. Makes a loud clunking noise as their body bounces around. Leaves them in pieces. So I go to bed but I amazing sleep extremely well. Anyway, I check it this morning by taking the cover off. Still doesn’t work. So I just leave the fan switch on. Maybe it will come on. A little while later, I walk by a vent, and I hear the air blowing! YES! So I think it is working again. I’ll have to check it out again when I get home tonight.

So I’ve got several people complaining that I haven’t written in here in a while. I’ve been extremely busy with all kinds of things. Work and play. So, here is a review of the last week.

Berns was amazing. The food was excellent. And it really was not as expensive as a I thought it would be. Of course, it was also fun to be pulling up in a limo. I wore black pants and an ElectroNerdz orange shirt. I LOVE the shirt. It is in the wash right now, hopefully not getting destroyed. I also wore a tie and black jacket, which I hadn’t done in a while. I did not get drunk like I wanted to, but I did get a little tipsy in the beginning since I was drinking something, and hadn’t eaten in a long while. The limo ride home was also very interesting in ways. You can see a few pictures from the night here.

On Monday, I helped Danielle move into her new apartment. It’s actually a very nice location for the price. So many things are within walking distance, except for an actual full blown grocery store, but is accessible by a short bus ride.

On Tuesday, I attended an InfoSec World expo. I walked through about half of the exhibit until I just got completely disgusted. I did not see a single computer running Linux. All of them Windows, except for one Mac. I was there to meet some of the sales team for Astaro, a product that we sell.

On Wednesday, I had my teeth cleaned. It was kind of messy, as their cavatron was spilling water all over me. And my hygienist was constantly thinking I was in pain, when honesty, I very much wasn’t.

On Thursday, I finally took my Concealed Carry class. In about 3 weeks, I’ll be able to carry a concealed weapon. The class was amazingly easy. I told her what I knew of gun safety in the beginning, and she said that I’d have no problem. I also learned a better way to hold my Glock and seems to make shooting a little easier. I can’t wait to practice more. And when I used the range there, at 9 feet, I hit every bullet (nine total) in the black (pretty much the bullseye) center of the target… from behind (the target was turned around so you couldn’t see the center)!! After that, I had the utmost fun driving around in downtown Tampa making wrong turns and trying to find parking and almost forgetting to put quarters in the meter. I had to go to Tampa to get my fingerprints scanned. When I got to the station, and walked up to the desk, before I even opened my mouth, the officer said “Getting your finger prints scanned?”. I asked him later if it happens a lot. They said they get about 25 people a day for various reasons, Concealed Carry, real estate, etc.

Today, I saw an accident minutes after it happened where a small car was crushed between two tractor trailers. I think the guy in the car was alright, as his door was open, but I didn’t look inside, because I was too busy driving, unlike everyone else in front of me, who were too busy looking at the accident.

In other news, Danielle and I are technically dating now, “casually” that is. I had some interesting run-ins with her family and friends on Monday. Such as the crazy uncle whom looks like my old boss, but without the ponytail, and her friend Greg, whom was a very nice guy, among others.

Well, that is the weekly update. I hope you enjoyed your reading experience. Be sure to check back in the future for more interesting stories from the life of Jason.

So here I am at home at 11:45pm on Friday night. And what am I doing? Cleaning. Yep, cleaning. I cleaned the showerhead, now all sprayers spray. I went through my fridge for old food (such as milk that expired on February 5th… yes, over a month ago… and no, I was not still drinking it). I am about to grab the vacuum. I washed almost all of my clothing. I washed all my mirrors. Speaking of mirrors… I’ve had the same mirror above my sink in my bathroom for five years now. For five years, I could never see the top of my head. It just wasn’t tall enough. I’d have to lean down. So I was washing it tonight, then I stopped in the middle of cleaning it. My brain started making connections. Synapses were firing. Then it felt like someone smacked me in the face. I grabbed the longest flexible object around. I got an idea of the length of the mirror going across. Then I checked it for the height of the available area before me. I stopped for a few short seconds with my mouth gaping open. I immediately ran to my truck to get a screwdriver. I ran back and unscrewed the plastic holders on the mirror. I grabbed the mirror from both sides and rotated it 90 degrees. I set it in its groove, and gently pushed it against the wall. Perfect. Fit. I couldn’t believe it. For five years, all I could see was from my nose, down. I can now see my entire head (maybe I don’t want to though!! HA!). Why did it take five years for my brain to recognize that if I rotated it, the width of the mirror would be the perfect height? I wonder what else around the house I will have epiphanies with.

Well, I must continue my cleaning. It’s time for a vacuuming. I will do it while listening to electronica music on The System on XM. I finally hooked a cable from my computer to my stereo system so I can play music loudly and shake the house and wake the neighbors (at midnight). I am thinking of plugging my computer into my TV and using it as a monitor. I am unsure of what the resolution will look like, as I am used to a nice high resolution on my laptop. I would also need a wireless keyboard and mouse. But this achievable.

Ugh. I haven’t written in a while. It’s been crazy. I’ve been unbelievably busy lately. I’ve got a few things going on my life that take some of my non-working time (but they are good things). I’ll get back to writing soon, and get some debates going. I also hear that I should be getting lots of baked goods soon, so I’m a little excited about that. Oh, and Saturday…. can’t wait.