I had a voice mail at work today from a local IT guy at a customs office in Windsor Ontario. He was unpacking a switch I had configured and boxed up to be installed at the site. He said “Thanks for the switch – oh by the way, did you lose a gold ring?” He found my lost X-Ring (university grad ring) that must have fell off my finger and into the box. He’s going to mail it me.

It was about 2 months ago that I lost it. I thought it slipped off my finger when I washed my hands and dried it with paper towel since that was when I noticed it was gone and when I was screwing around with my hands. I even emptied out the trash cans and sifted through all the paper towels. Nice! I even called the jewelry store to ask how much a new one cost and she gave me a price that was more than twice what I originally paid. The price of gold went way up since then.

Life was more exciting when I thought Grape Nut cereal was actually grape nuts.

I think Subway switched from their egg whites solution to a ‘just add water’ powder now, I can tell the difference. They went from just okay to really really crappy. I think McDonalds is the only place that actually cracks and egg now.

We cancelled our home phone line recently and have moved to voice over ip (VoIP) which is basically telephone services over the internet. Unlike Skype you can use an ATA adapter, plug that in your home router and then plug your existing telephone(s) into that adapter. It converts analog phone signals into data to be transmitted over the net. So far so good. It was a $50 initial setup fee and then free forever so no more phone bill.

I think cable tv is going next since everything is on the net now anyway.

Painting that black stuff on your driveway is a crappy job. It’s not as easy as it looks, you can’t just roll it on and call it a day. You really have to push down hard to get the stuff in all the little holes and you end up breaking the broom stick roller extenders. Three of them.

I lost my friggin’ X-Ring today! I looked down and it wasn’t on my finger. I think I dried my hands with paper towel and it came off with it and into the trash. I looked but it wasn’t there.

We switched dog foods a few days ago and tried this Costco Kirkland brand food. The dogs were fine on it before but this time it’s been giving them the scutters. They both went on the floor a couple times because we didn’t hear the warning signs while we were sleeping. Other than that I had to get up every 2 hours to let them out at night so they can explode in the backyard ‘pooing area’.
Have you ever seen Great Dane explosive diarrhea on the wall and floor? It’s pretty crazy, it was about a foot in diameter! How do you clean something like that up? You can’t pick it up with a bag and you can’t quite soak it up with paper towel. You kinda just skim it up with a shovel.
The horror.

Jesse Ventura once said “I ain’t got time to bleed.” I experienced this tonight while working on home ventilation. He was right!
I cut myself a few times on some jagged metal while trying to properly re-do some air ducts that I temporarily put (taped) together when building my workshop. It was hot in my basement with no fan going, I had little time to screw around and had to get things up and running by 10pm.
I was using the angle grinder to saw off some air vents and to cut square holes for the vent take off things. I looked down and I saw I was bleeding a bit. Actually it was more than a bit, I sliced my finger so wherever I touched there was a bloody fingerprint. I put a bandage on it and kept working.
Probably a 1/2 hour later I but myself again. I said “Screw that, I don’t have time for this!” and just kept wiping it on my dirty shirt.

Paint in the ass bleeding. I hate screwing around with ventilation with a passion, but I think I don’t hate it as bad as painting.

So today I was driving down the road in the blistering heat and my car fan died. It blew air only on the highest setting and the air conditioning didn’t kick in at all. Bad time for this to happen.
I went to the dealership and asked what it could be. They said it was a heater resistor that cost $40 and they could put it in for about $80 labour, so $120. I asked what the thing was and how to replace it and they told me. It took me under a minute to do, problem solved.
Again…I’m no hero. I’m just a regular white guy tryin’ to make it in this world.

My George Foreman mini-grill is now my dedicated bacon cooker. Nice flat strips every time.