You are here: Home / 2007 / Archives for December 2007

Getting Stuff Done

December 9, 2007 By

Here’s what I’ve been able to cross off my list from the post below this one:

  • Make craft for my Mom I started it – it’s in progress
  • Make craft for a friend of Boyfriend This will probably not be a Christmas Gift at this point. Maybe a mid-year gift.
  • Make a stocking for Boyfriend with no sewing machine and remedial sewing skills I have the fabric cut and pinned. I might go to Joann to see if I can use one of their demo sewing machines instead of stitching it all by hand.
  • Find blank address labels amongst my stuff in the garage so I don’t have to buy more when all I need is 2 sheets I decided to just hand address them. Afterwards, when I was looking for something on my desk, I found the damn labels.
  • Sign, address, and mail Christmas cards
  • Burn and send latest CD for mix exchange working on this one – I need to test the two that I made to make sure I’m not having an issue with my burner
  • Find time to finish Christmas shopping, as soon as I figure out what to get Only a few more quick things to get!
  • Mail Christmas presents to family back home!
  • Which means I need to buy the right size boxes, so I guess I should finish shopping first, eh? Got this info written down for today’s shopping excursion
  • Make banana bread out of bananas I didn’t eat before they turn to total mush and rot through the counter Slightly burned it. Might have temperature problem with this oven, since I have never burned things before cooking in this oven
  • Regularly scheduled Thursday night oil change with our friends at the Greasy Spoon. The food is great, if you like it greasy! Must remember to get salad next time. Must convince myself that a salad will satisfy me.
  • Attend Sweet 16 for our friend’s daughter Friday night, which will likely be followed by an after-party for the adults No after party, but the party was a success.
  • Keep from getting myself committed to the loony bin or having my insanity making the national news. Still working on this one

Boyfriend and I are supposed to go out to finish shopping today. He wanted to get out by 10 so we can be home by 2, but he hit Level 70 last night in his silly little game, and that’s where he sits right now – in front of his computer. I was up early for a weekend, got my websurfing done, addressed and signed my cards, updated my checkbook, wrote down box sizes for stuff I need to mail, and even found a tiny bit of surface space on my desk. Boyfriend just announced that he will be taking a shower shortly, so I guess it’s time to get myself all prettied up to face the Christmas crowds.

Just so you know, I’ll be writing my annual Christmas post soon, and dating it Christmas Day, so it will stay up on top until Christmas. My blog address is in all my cards, so my family and friends will be stopping by to see what’s up with me (I hope!)

Filed Under: Holidays

Scheduling Leaks

December 5, 2007 By

The other day I stopped by the apartment office to remind them that I still have a puddle of water under my sink. I know they are having major issues with other things like leaky roofs and heaters, but some acknowledgment would be nice. They’re so very nice when I go in there, but then they never call. I did manage to figure out where the leak was – sort of. Seems that the lines to and from the dishwasher have water dripping down them. Oh, and there’s a clamp missing on one of the lines, which may not necessarily be the spot where it’s leaking, but is definitely a disaster in the making. I can’t exactly put a bucket under it, because the water seems to be not only leaking out of the various places the hoses connect at the top, and where that connection connects to the faucet, but water also runs down these hoses and dribbles all over the place. Perhaps instead of a bucket I can try to fit a kiddie pool under the sink. As it is, the floor of the cabinet is so rotted out that there’s a huge dip in the floor. I think the only thing holding it together is the peel and stick vinyl tile that maintenance put down to fix cover up the rotted cabinet. If they ever decide to come and fix it, it will be interesting to see what their solution is.

In other news, time is careening towards Christmas at a breakneck speed, and I still have so many things that I need to get done. Here’s a close to complete sampling:

  • Make craft for my Mom
  • Make craft for a friend of Boyfriend
  • Make a stocking for Boyfriend with no sewing machine and remedial sewing skills
  • Find blank address labels amongst my stuff in the garage so I don’t have to buy more when all I need is 2 sheets
  • Sign, address, and mail Christmas cards
  • Burn and send latest CD for mix exchange
  • Find time to finish Christmas shopping, as soon as I figure out what to get
  • Mail Christmas presents to family back home!
  • Which means I need to buy the right size boxes, so I guess I should finish shopping first, eh?
  • Make banana bread out of bananas I didn’t eat before they turn to total mush and rot through the counter
  • Regularly scheduled Thursday night oil change with our friends at the Greasy Spoon. The food is great, if you like it greasy!
  • Attend Sweet 16 for our friend’s daughter Friday night, which will likely be followed by an after-party for the adults
  • Keep from getting myself committed to the loony bin or having my insanity making the national news.

I’m sure there’s more that I just can’t think of right now. And, of course, as if the weekends need to be any busier, there is a possibility that we need to go to Colorado the weekend of December 15. Please, let’s do it after the holidays, and if we have to go, please, Santa, bring me some winter boots size 8 1/2 narrow for Christmas. Living in Vegas means that I don’t need to have winter boots unless we actually go somewhere that has winter, and everyone who has seen South Park knows that Colorado has snow year round.

I’m gonna try to cook some banana bread now, if I don’t blow up the kitchen or something. We ended up with pizza for supper tonite because I went shopping to get stuff to make Shepherd’s Pie and forgot potatoes. There are 3, count ‘em, THREE, ingredients in Sheperd’s Pie and I forgot one. I don’t know where my brain is today. Hopefully I have enough of it to get the banana bread right. So, I’m gonna go insane make banana bread and try to get to work on a craft or two, and try to keep reminding myself that plenty of sleep and my full-time job are good things and not getting in the way of everything I have to do this month.

Filed Under: Grrr, Holidays

Revolution

December 3, 2007 By

There’s lots of talk in the blog world about some of the changes that Blogger has made recently. Two of the latest firestorms concern photos and comments.

Blogger makes it easy to upload photos, and they give you a decent amount of storage space so that for those of us who don’t usually post pictures, but like to now and then, we don’t have to use a third party host for our photos. I thought it was some sort of fluke at first. When I went to take a closer look at a picture that Blog Bloke posted, I was prompted to download it. Huh? On their issues page, Blogger offers a workaround for this. Nice that they show you how to get around it, but what about all those people out there who aren’t so technically inclined? That was one of the appeals of Blogger. In fact, I believe their tagline is (or was) “Push-Button Publishing.” The ease of use and everything they offered is one of the main reasons I decided to set up shop here, and having access to the code to fine-tune my template for free kept me here. Still is, actually.

But then there’s the comments. Previously, anyone could comment with any email address. Now commenters MUST have a google/blogger account and related email address (read: gmail) to be able to comment. I have one, obviously, so I’ve not had an issue leaving anyone a comment, but my comments have been way down. I know with my measly little personal blog that comments can be rare at times, but even with my reduced posting schedule I’ve still been able to pull in at least 1-2 comments per post. Now they’ve nearly disappeared. Blogger does offer some psychobabble help about OpenID and something about Blogger Draft, but again, there’s the ease of use issue. Hello!!! A bit more research revealed this site, Blogger in Draft, which has a post about the new comment feature. Considering all the venom being spewed around the blogosphere regarding the new comment features, and the comments on the Draft blog, it seems the politicos are at it again.

There’s been a lot that has been going on at Blogger and Google lately, and a lot of people seem to be pissed off at it. For a while there it seemed like the changes were for the good – Blogger allowed custom domain names, they frustrated a lot of people but ultimately came up with a decent thing with Beta. They had something for nearly everyone – access to the html for geeks who wanted to customize, but super-easy for those who wouldn’t know code if it hit them in the head. Now they seem to be abandoning the blogging for everyone mantra and going for world domination.

I am, for the time being, staying here at Blogger. I have had it at the back of my mind to switch to WordPress, something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now. I do have a blog at wordpress.com, but I also realize that it’s the Little Tykes version of the full-blown wordpress.org. I’m getting an idea, though. I really like the ability to add extra pages to my blog, which would let me add an extra level of personalization. Right now, though, I just don’t have the time. Snoskred is offering hosting and help setting up a WP blog at bargain-basement prices, which could very well be someone’s Christmas miracle.

Blog Bloke and Devilish Southern Belle have both been detailing their Blogger frustrations and what they’re doing as a result. For me, the comment thing is getting to me because I like comments. I don’t get tons, like I said, but they’ve nearly dried up at this point. I like the blogging community, but Blogger is making difficult for those out in the wild blue internets to be a part of that. The new rules are almost like a secret handshake, and it’s leaving a lot of people out of the club.

I’m giving this some serious thought, and after I make a couple of Christmas crafts that I haven’t even started yet, mail my Christmas cards, send out some CDs for another mix exchange, and make Boyfriend a stocking, besides working full time, having a busy social life, and all the other mayhem that December brings, I just might do it. I’m this close. I’ll be looking at it more in depth after the holidays.

Filed Under: My Blog

Falling Apart

December 1, 2007 By

Not me. No, I’m fine. My apartment, on the other hand, well….

A couple of weeks ago I found water under the sink. Again. I put in a work order with the office but they have yet to call us to schedule a time. In the meantime, I figured out where the leak was coming from, and Boyfriend tightened up a loose connection. However, the floor of the cabinet has sagged even more, and I swear the only thing holding it together is the peel and stick vinyl tiles that they used to “fix” it last time.

Last night when I was cooking dinner, I heard a weird thump. Looking around to find the source, the silverware drawer looked a bit off. It’s not supposed to be tilted like that. At first I thought that it had come off its track, but it wouldn’t lean like that. No, the drawer was on the track, but the track had come off the back of the cabinet. Oh yeah. That’s fun. Sitting here again this morning, Boyfriend and I looked at each other and laughed when we heard it collapse again.

We’ve already decided that we are going to be looking to buy a house so we can hopefully move when the lease is up. At least then when stuff like this happens we can have fun fixing it ourselves instead of bitching about the apartments that are fixed by maintenance people who don’t know shit.

Edited to add: Boyfriend went to the office to pay the rent, and inquired about the status of our work order. Due to the heavy rain all day Friday and Friday night, the office was flooded, and quite a few residents were complaining of leaky roofs, so I guess the puddle under our sink is no longer a priority. I guess we’ll remind them about once a week or so until it either gets fixed or the mold kills us, whichever comes first.

Filed Under: House