Snow!

Thankfully, I have a snowblower. So, 30 minutes later, the driveway and walkway were clear. I thought I’d taken a picture of that, too, but I guess it didn’t take. Unfortunately, the streets haven’t been plowed, and I couldn’t easily clear the path to the mailbox without having to do the plow’s job. So, I sunk up to my hips in snow to get the mail. I’m hoping the plows will come before morning, and I’ll be able to clear that area, too.

The snow is light and fluffy. I wish I didn’t have to work. This is perfect ski snow!

I can hear you now

My Awesome brother-in-law and adorable nephew #2 spent a few days with us this past week. AwesomeBIL was installing a surround sound system for us in the basement, to go with our casino-won HDTV. He also built us a custom unit for everything to sit on, and it looks really good. The sound system is amazing for L4D2. I can hear exactly what direction the hunters and spitters are coming from. In fact, last night, I finished The Parish for the first time.

So, pictures!

Here’s what it looked like before, with the old TV:

And now here’s what it looks like:

We’ve got a 7.1 surround system and plenty of storage space for components and controllers. And, right now, DH is running in the basement while I’m upstairs, and I can hear the TV as clearly as if it were here. Hmmm…

Snow! For the blowing!

This past weekend, in anticipation of the zOMGWTFSNOWYQ!!!!FIRST WINTER STORMIZATION!!!!, we bought a Craftsman 250cc 28″ Two-stage Snowblower. Today was my first chance to use it, on the 2-4 inches of wet slimy snow that had accumulated on the driveway and walk, plus the six inches at the foot of our driveway (snowplow leavings).

So, filling the snowblower up with gas, reading the manual for how to turn it on, making sure I knew how to work the controls, and then clearing the driveway, end of the driveway, walkway, and plow accumulation area in front of our mailbox took me about thirty minutes. For comparison, doing that would normally take me and DH, working together, around 1-2 hours, depending on how good of a job we wanted to do…and the snowblower did a MUCH better job than we did. It was also fun to zoom around behind the snowblower (it’s powered, so it drives itself), though turning it is kind of a PITA and requires some muscling. Despite the snowblower, I still got very warm inside my long down coat and ended up shedding my hat and gloves to keep from sweating too much and thus getting colder.

So, I’m buzzing up and down the driveway at midnight, all happily snowblowing. I even took some time to do detail work here and there, but stopped short of really detailing the end of the driveway. I only had one “Ack! Jane, stop this crazy thing!!! Oh yeah, I just let go to stop,” moment, and no damage was done.

I drove it back up into the garage and went to park it…at which point I realized I had no idea how to turn it off. So then I had to fumble for the manual (which I’d put away while the engine was warming up) while it sat there humming away to find out how to turn it off properly. I mean, I could just yank the safety key, but I suspected that there was supposed to be some other things done first. I was right, too…you’re supposed to turn down the choke before you yank the key.

Overall, snowblowing was a fun experience. Normally, on snowy days, DH manages the snowplow end of the driveway, while I manage the light accumulation on the driveway and the walk, and apply salt as needed. I think I’m going to make him change jobs with me.

Oh!! And I’ve decided the snowblower needs a name. Any fun ideas?

Create a Sun Jar: TsuKata’s Edition

This is a derivative of the Instructables/Lifehacker “Create Your Own Sun Jar” instructions. My version requires no screwdrivers or glue, which makes it simpler and easier than their version. Make sure to read all instructions before attempting this on your own.

MATERIALS AND COST:

• Glass Frosting Spray – $5 at Ace Hardware
• Solar garden lamps – $2 each at Sears (5)
• Ball Mason jars – $5 for group of 5 on eBay, plus $5 shipping
• Duck Clear packaging tape – had on hand
• Optional: Dasani bottle wrapper – had on hand
• NO TOOLS REQUIRED!

TOTAL COST: $25 for 5 sun jars

TIP: You can use glue instead of tape. I used tape because these are prototypes. But, the tape is holding up pretty darn well, even in the heat, so I may just stick with tape until it wears out. (STICK WITH…get it? Ha!!)

STEP 1: Materials and Space

Gather all your materials. Set up a workspace outdoors on a sunny, dry day. Make sure you have a surface that you don’t mind spraying on. Check the wind to make sure you stay upwind of your spray.

STEP 2: Frosting

Frost the jars. This is pretty simple. Open your jars and put them on your surface facing down. Start by shaking the frosting spray for about 2 minutes (as per the instructions on the can). Then, spray the jars. Try to get an even coat. You can see on the one on the far left that I overdid the frosting a little. You just need a light coat. In fact, when it goes on, it won’t necessarily seem like it’s frosted. Make sure to get the neck of the jar, but DO NOT SPRAY THE LIDS. In my case, my jars had removable lids, which made this part MUCH easier. Allow the jars to dry without being touched for at least one hour to be safe.

STEP 3: Lights


If you buy the exact brand of solar lights that I did (or look for one that works the same way), it’s just a twist off cap. They make it easy to twist off because there’s an auto/off switch inside. Look for lights that you can just twist off, and you avoid dealing with screwdrivers. (Lifehacker and Instructables went a step further by actually disassembling the cap. I skipped this step, which is what makes my version faster and easier.) You also want to make sure that the lights you get will fit your jars. I went for the smallest ones, which were also the cheapest. And lastly, make sure that the lights don’t have any large lenses over the solar panel, as this will interfere with getting power once they’re inside the jar lid.

STEP 4: Lids


Put a “crown” of tape around the light fixture as shown. (If you accidentally put it on the wrong way, you can always remove the tape and start over.) Then push the crown back, kind of like how you would push a banana peel or candy bar wrapper back. You’ll end up with half the tape on the fixture and half around the fixture in a ring. Then, put the fixture inside the lid, so that the solar panel will face out once the lid is back on the jar. Push the tape down around the fixture so that it forms a seal with the lid. Make sure that all the tape is inside the boundary of the lid, so that you’ll get a good seal on the jar.

OPTIONAL STEP 4a: Colors

You can use clear plastic wrappers or wrapping paper to add color to your lights. Just tape a piece over the LED bulb. Check the Lifehacker or Instructables guides for more details on this optional step. (I did this with one of them just to check it out. It’s dead simple to add this later and/or change it after you add it.)

STEP 5: Waiting is the hardest part.

Let the lids charge with sunlight, and let the jars dry.

RESULT: Sun jars!

I tested them out in my bathroom, which is completely dark. With moonlight, I imagine this will be plenty of light for our deck. I’ll probably do up a second batch to light our porch and walkway at some point. And, I might use this as a gift idea for this holiday season…

The Pooh Room

The last touch on the Pooh room is complete:

The series of pictures toward the back is a relatively hard-to-find set of prints released by Disney back in 2001. I wanted them for my apartment when they were released, but I couldn’t afford them at the time. I found them on eBay, though, and I even got them far cheaper than the going rate because the seller quite possibly didn’t realize the value of a complete and undamaged set to collectors. Anyways, the set is called The Four Seasons of Pooh and shows the Pooh characters doing an activity for winter, spring, fall, and summer. I arranged them in a pinwheel both to evoke the cyclical nature of the seasons and, more practically, because it doesn’t require any special coordination on my part to make sure that they’re all straight with each other.

On the door, I have a hand-painted Pooh Room sign, also obtained on eBay and customized to my chosen text and coloring. The artist did an excellent job of color-matching to the color of the room. I am incredibly impressed. Click this link to see more items from this artist. I promise, you won’t be disappointed in her product or her customer service.

The other Pooh accent in the room is a set of baskets that are lined with Classic Pooh fabric. I got those from Target. I’m using one to hold the spare toilet paper (on the far side of the toilet). One is being used as a magazine rack. The third is on the sink as a catch-all place for things that I use frequently.

Yay! I’m so proud of this room.

Not again…

It feels like writing this will make it more real, so I kind of dread writing about it…but I need to get it out of my system, as well as inform the people who read this and thus care.

You know our brand new laundry/mud room? The one I spent all or most of Saturday moving everything back into? Well, my dear husband decided to do laundry today, to do me a favor…it was a very sweet gesture. He made sure the machine started up okay and then he then went into the basement to study. Unfortunately, it seems that the workman who reset the washing machine didn’t seat the output tube fully into the output drain. As such, the pipe fell out as soon as pressure got into it and spewed water all over the floor, which then flooded the carpet. If you look in the picture that I took in my last entry, you can actually see that the pipe isn’t in properly, if you know what to look for. But, we didn’t realize this, and because DH was in the basement, he didn’t realize it was a problem until midway through the cycle. I’m guessing 4-6 gallons of soapy water got dumped.

The ceramic tile did its job. The problem was that it spilled out into the carpeted hallway. And, because the rooms just got done, we hadn’t gotten the carpeting re-attached yet (another contractor, hired by the insurance company, was going to handle re-attaching the carpet and subsequently cleaning it). So, the water may have seeped out of the room, into the carpet, and then back into the laundry room between the tile and the subfloor. If that’s the case, we will have to have the floor all ripped up again and re-done.

::cries::

For now, we have the evil and noisy fans going again, 24-7. It sucks so bad because they slip into my mind unnoticed, until some random moment when I startle and realize that they’re there again. Pancake hates it, too. He’s so upset. He had just transitioned to using his regular litter in his regular place, and he was clearly relieved that things were back how they should be. He had explored all the corners and nooks. He liked the new shelving. Now, things are crazy in his house again, and he is not pleased. He keeps meowing piteously. I brought him upstairs with me and gave him pats and cooed at him until he relaxed, but he’s on edge. Poor kitteh. At least I understand the crazy…he doesn’t know what’s going on and why we keep doing this to him.

We’ll find out on Wednesday what the verdict is…cross your fingers and think happy thoughts for us that the water didn’t seep under the tile, or if it did, only a little that has gotten dried out by the dehumidifiers and fans.

New rooms!

Our bath and laundry/mud rooms are done! They’re so pretty. The laundry room, aside from the improvements to flooring, shelving, and venting, is very similar to before. The blue is slightly different, but it wouldn’t be noticeable unless you had a sample in front of you of what you were comparing against. But, the bathroom looks AMAZING. I’m so happy with it. The green is just a perfect color. Click below for pictures:

Door leaking from the top?

I need the collective brain…

Our front door is leaking…from the top. That is, we have a drip (or rivulet the past few days) of water that forms at the top center of the door and runs down into the house. It seems to form at the top of the wood frame inside the door and then drop onto the door itself and eventually either down the front of the door or the back of the door (inside).

We’ve consulted one handyman, and his diagnosis is that it’s because we don’t have an overhang above our front door (not a full awning, just a small overhang). As such the wood above our door has gotten wet for a long time (i.e., years) and is beginning to rot…and with as much rain as we’ve gotten the past few days, it’s acting like a sponge. My concern with this diagnosis is that…well, it’s not like we took the overhang off. There never was one. Why would any builder build a home without an overhang if this is the result? Wouldn’t everyone in our sub be having the same problem?

So…for the collective brain:

1) Does your front door have an overhang?
2) Have you ever heard of this problem?
3) What do you think the cause is?

Time Travel

As many of you have noticed, the blog has gone back in time to catch up on posts from our (very awesome, wanna go back NOW) Disney trip. As such, I skipped over quite a few events that would normally warrant a blog post. I don’t want to spend another month re-capping, so below is a one paragraph, catch-all summary of the things that were, January 2009. As is fitting for anything dealing with time travel, I shall start with Lost…

Lost is back on! Desmond’s baby named Charlie, the others speak Latin, woohoo! B* made me a cake with a Dharma logo. It was delicious…disappeared very quickly, did Ben turn the wheel, shift cake through time? Obama officially president, yay! Didn’t care about inauguration until the day it was on, then was sad I couldn’t watch live and had to work instead. Re-org’d at work into new group but otherwise similar. Got one estimate for the pipe burst repairs from the guy(s) who did our basement, liked their work, but the painting estimate alone was higher than was to paint whole basement. Something smells funny in Denmark, yo. Business name is of the form, [name] the [job]er…which led to Joe-the-plumber, bob-the-builder joking between DH and I. DH has been working odd hours at his second job. Very stressful. Ran Survivor at Mensa AGOG. Had to scramble to get to the minimum ten to play, but once we got there, it was AWESOME. Everyone had bonzer good time. Yay. Knee has been hurting alot lately. Also, period has been irregular. (Not related.) WTF is up with me? Wish knee would stop hurting. But yet, I will be going skiing on Saturday, yay! And knee can just suck on that, thank you very much. Pancake continues to be adorable kitteh. Races me up the stairs. I almost won last night, but only because he let me have a 5 step head start. Thought L4D was an evil time suck, but then Mr. Moo introduced me to Braid, which now is on my bedroom xbox (not mytsukata gamertag). Damn you, Mr. Moo! Got special L4D achievement last night for blowing the witch’s head off, Cr0wnd! Sweet. So cold outside. But weather Saturday promises to be ski-awesome. Found giant and strange fruit at the store, called Pomelo, is huge and we could kill a small child with it, but we won’t. Instead, will eat. Also got some honey tangerines. Enjoying finding and trying out new fruits. Finished second term of class, am 12.5% done with MBA. Group project ended much better than it started. Next term, taking two classes: Effective Leadership *coughbullshitcough* and Negotiations & Conflict Management (win win win). Hoping negotiations will make me awesome at negotiation such that I can help Mensa with hotel negotiation stuff. Will speak quietly so they have to lean in, then will change meeting location suddenly without notice…then will threaten to kill their daughter. Oh and how did Frogurt’s shirt fit Sawyer? Nonsense.

First Lostie to catch the embedded (very subtle) clue in the style of Lost gets something nifty, though I’m not sure what. Adoration? That’s nifty, right?

Laundry=yes; bathroom=no.

Our carpet on the 1st floor is dry. The basement still has some moisture, so the fans are running there. All the fans and equipment have been moved out of the 1st floor. We’re happy to have some quiet on this floor again!

We got our laundry machines hooked back up, though we still don’t have tile in the laundry room. That installation will probably take awhile. The adjuster is coming by on Monday, and we’ll get next steps from him then.

When the water damage crew came by on Christmas Eve, they noticed that we had excess moisture in the bathroom adjacent to the laundry room, and sure enough, when they ripped out the cabinet and the toilet, they found that the water had seeped under the wall and into the bathroom flooring and cabinetry. Our bathroom vanity/cabinet is ruined. The sink and associated stone is fine, but the tile in there had to be pulled up and trashed, and that area had to be dried out, too. Until that gets fixed, we have no 1st floor bathroom. If nothing else, at least we’re getting exercise running up 1-2 flights of stairs to pee!

Also, since we have this opportunity, I figure we can use it to do some updates to the 1st floor bathroom. It needed painting anyways, and we can replace the vanity base with one that is a bit more modern. We can also update the flooring and put in a better towel rack system. Right now, it vexes me terribly that the towel rack is inefficiently placed.