  |
So my house security system false alarmed a few days back, and I was on the work line when the monitoring company called my cell phone, so I could not tell them not to send the police. Once I looked up the phone number and verified they were a monitoring company, and then checked the web interface for my alarm system, I scrambled back home and arrived about the same time as the patrol car [...]
The previous owner indicated that it was originally used by the Army to move around aerial surveillance cameras when they were not actually in their aircraft. I have no idea – tried researching the serial numbers on it, and did not come up with much. In any case, the entire top lifts off (no hinges) courtesy of those cool tension latches on the front and back, and it is more than [...]
Alright, old guys, time to do your thing. Better Half found this cute little night table at a thrift store in the area, and before we do something crazy like spray-paint it or refinish it or whatnot, we want to ensure it is not something important/special/rare/etc. Apparently the brand was big back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but that rather predates us by a bit. The only identifying marks are “NO. [...]
Well, we pushed the button yesterday, and it will not actually take effect until tomorrow, but I figure it is worth calling today. Yesterday, we paid off 66% of our home’s mortgage. Once it posts tomorrow, we will have paid off 75% of the total mortgage between FEB10 when we bought it and tomorrow. And we plan on paying off the remainder of the balance sometime next year. Why? Fairly simple: our mortgage [...]
Come back in a month. Although, in all seriousness, at the rate my little pepper plants are producing, I may have a few of these to give away (or perhaps even sell, once I have had a chance to do some basic quality control on them) in the near future… On a related note, a rain barrel might have been our best garden-related investment ever. We have not had measurable amounts of [...]
For scale, the birdhouse is about a foot tall. And, unfortunately, the image quality is degraded due to this being later in the evening and the camera being at the fullest extent of its zoom. The sad/funny part is that I am fairly certain there is a bluebird family living in that box right now; as I asked Better Half (who took the picture), imagine something of appropriate scale landing on your house… [...]
So what happened with the saga of the basement lights? Well, there is a sordid tale behind it all… but the shortest story of all, since I doubt you all care about the particulars, is that on the recommendation of some good-and-generous folks, I purchased a new switch to replace the old one, and, on taking the old one out of the wall, I noticed that it had more wires going into it than [...]
No, seriously, do any of my readers have any training, formal or otherwise, in home wiring, AC electricals, fluorescent lighting, or related topics? We are having a rather peculiar problem with our basement drop-ceiling lighting, and while we have reached the extent of my limited electrical theory knowledge, we want to make sure it is not something stupidly obvious before we call in the big guns…
That might as well be a drawing of our house… (Courtesy of my father-in-law, original cartoon by Buck Brown.)
Yesterday, as Better Half and I were headed to bed, the following conversation about our heat pump installation transpired: Better Half: You’re getting an HVAC for your birthday. [singing] Happy birthday to you… [/singing] Me: Can we put candles on it? That would be awesome. Better Half: [singing] It comes with an air handler too… [/singing] Sure enough, when I got home from work today, there it was: While I have [...]
I got home today and scampered downstairs to the basement to pick up my camera and go see how our baby cardinal was doing. Incidentally, he had fledged and apparently moved on, but I did not know that at the time, and I only thought briefly about the funny looking leaf on the floor of the basement as I headed into my office. Having grabbed my camera and started to head upstairs, I … ZOMGTHELEAFISRUNNINGACROSSTHEFLOOR!!! [...]
One of the things you will see us pro-rights activists harping on from time to time is "situational awareness". What does that mean? Well, the snarky answer is, "Exactly what it says," but the more-complete answer can be delivered by way of a story. Last week, I was coming home early from work to meet up with HVAC technicians to try to get our upstairs heat pump replaced (scheduled for this Wednesday… thank God), [...]
Since I am fairly certain no one believed me, I give you photographic evidence of our aforementioned rail-mounted sparrow: Bear in mind he is camped out there with our door open (but screen closed), our box fan running, us talking, and now me taking pictures of it with a DSLR and its integral flash. Either that guy is one hell of a sound sleeper, or he just does not care. Now to [...]
Well, that was a surefire way to not get a lot of sleep last night… Thanks to the reasonably temperate weather we have been enjoying here in Eastern Tennessee, we have mostly been getting by with simply leaving the windows open at night – the house does tend to get a little warm during the day, and it might not be as cool as we would prefer when we go to bed, but it is [...]
I just spent the last three hours filling this thing‘s bags about 12 times – for reference, that is enough to just about fill our 55-gallon trash can, put a thick layer on top of our garden, and fill the remaining half of our compost bin. … And the leaves in Knoxville are just starting to turn. Stupid droughts. In other news, ground up dead leaves do not taste very good… [...]
Incompetent cable technicians who use two-way cable splitters in places where they should use inline couplers deserve to be forced to use 56k dialup for the remainder of their natural lives. In other news, I positively despise drop/suspended/tile/whateveryouwanttocallthem ceilings – sure, in this case, it let me fix this particular frak-up, but I still hate them. [...]
I know have said this a few times before, but if you value your money, and you want to use it for something other than correcting his work, never, ever, ever use Hammonds Contracting LLC, of Knoxville, TN. That is all.
This is not what I expected to step on… in my kitchen: He figured out how to escape the tupperware before we could get a coin out for scale, but, if he ever stretched out straight, I would guess it would measure about a good six inches or so. Apparently it is a ringneck snake, probably a northern one at that, and is currently out in our flowerbeds. I need [...]  |
 |
|
Copyright © 2005-2013 walls of the city - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa 42 queries. 0.743 seconds. |
||
recent comments