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- Mon, 16:48: Hey, Jo Welde , that weird full screen action when sharing a photo is gone for me today. on beta. you? http://t.co/5MF80aZ8ex
- Mon, 16:49: today's basket http://t.co/AJ5yOoTvD8 http://t.co/YTIPUvUA48
- Mon, 21:14: RT @richdemuro: Where is the site-wide option on Amazon to NEVER show me non-prime items? Like I would ever pay for shipping...
- Mon, 23:07: just got my first @yurbuds and i'm hooked but jeez guys, you've gotta make these for swimming! please, please, please??!!
Jun. 10th, 2014
Chef Anita is in the kitchen cheffing. We settle, ahead of time, what she is to make that day. Then, when she comes, she brings a suggested menu list for next time. Then she fills up the house with wonderful cooking smells. So, from the moment I wake up until dinner, I stay voraciously hungry. Usually, I've been eating my own cooking for a week or so and am ready for real food anyway. And, lunch is always an issue. I don't want to get in her way so I just grab something easy out of the fridge.
But, dinner, I know will be marvelous and delicious and something to really look forward to.
Something not to look forward to is a maybe broken dishwasher. I loaded it up last night and stuck in a packet of Cascade and turned it on and it ran as usual. This morning I went to empty it and discovered that the packet was not completely dissolved and the dishes were barely touched - well maybe the crud was a little more baked on than it had been. WTF? The thing takes so long to complete it's cycle that I didn't have time to run it this morning before Anita was due. So I'll turn it on this afternoon and see if it fails again. This is not something with which I want to fuck. But, I washing dishes by hand is not my idea of fun.
I have a cough that is not disappearing like I'd like it to. It's an irritant cough that gets in the way of my breathing. Plus the more I cough the more irritated my cougher will get and that will make me cough. GRRRRRRR I do have magic anti cough pills. They tranquilize the cougher and I think a lot of their magic is psychosomatic but whatever works. And I'm keeping a bottle of water next to me always for sipping. I'm ready for it to be gone but that's what I said yesterday. Sigh.
I got my domain names all ported over to the new registrar pretty much without incident. It took the 5 days because the old registrar is a meany pants and the old registrar is still showing they have them but whois shows they are at the new place. So... done.
Which means time to tidy up the Daddy List.
When my father died, my Mom handed me document - 3 pages - typed out neatly and in order - that my father had kept up religiously.
It listed all family members with their birthdates and social security numbers.
All his bank accounts with account numbers.
All his insurance accounts with account numbers.
The names and telephone numbers of his banker, his lawyer, his insurance guy and a couple of more people I can't even remember.
In short, this was everything we needed to know about his personal business and it was a godsend. I actually still have the document and used it just a month or so ago to get my brother's social security number.
But it also served as a guideline for me. And I made up my own Daddy List and even call it that. It lives on Google Drive in the cloud with copies on all computers and is shared out with my brother.
It has all the information he'll need if something happens to me. Bank and other financial account info, passwords, bullets and lists of all the details of my life. I've religiously kept it up. There are also two companion docs - Other Important Stuff (appliance serial numbers, and purchase dates, etc) - and Websites (host, domain name registrars, passwords, etc). I've kept them up as well.
When I went in to make the latest change, I realized that it was time for a refresh. I need to clean up stuff and reorganize it. When I die, my brother will not need to know the home phone number of the guy I last worked for 2 years ago.
So that's today's project. Clean up and reorganize and consolidate everything into Daddy List 2.0.
And in the middle of that, I'll go swimming. Oh and make a library drop off.
But, dinner, I know will be marvelous and delicious and something to really look forward to.
Something not to look forward to is a maybe broken dishwasher. I loaded it up last night and stuck in a packet of Cascade and turned it on and it ran as usual. This morning I went to empty it and discovered that the packet was not completely dissolved and the dishes were barely touched - well maybe the crud was a little more baked on than it had been. WTF? The thing takes so long to complete it's cycle that I didn't have time to run it this morning before Anita was due. So I'll turn it on this afternoon and see if it fails again. This is not something with which I want to fuck. But, I washing dishes by hand is not my idea of fun.
I have a cough that is not disappearing like I'd like it to. It's an irritant cough that gets in the way of my breathing. Plus the more I cough the more irritated my cougher will get and that will make me cough. GRRRRRRR I do have magic anti cough pills. They tranquilize the cougher and I think a lot of their magic is psychosomatic but whatever works. And I'm keeping a bottle of water next to me always for sipping. I'm ready for it to be gone but that's what I said yesterday. Sigh.
I got my domain names all ported over to the new registrar pretty much without incident. It took the 5 days because the old registrar is a meany pants and the old registrar is still showing they have them but whois shows they are at the new place. So... done.
Which means time to tidy up the Daddy List.
When my father died, my Mom handed me document - 3 pages - typed out neatly and in order - that my father had kept up religiously.
It listed all family members with their birthdates and social security numbers.
All his bank accounts with account numbers.
All his insurance accounts with account numbers.
The names and telephone numbers of his banker, his lawyer, his insurance guy and a couple of more people I can't even remember.
In short, this was everything we needed to know about his personal business and it was a godsend. I actually still have the document and used it just a month or so ago to get my brother's social security number.
But it also served as a guideline for me. And I made up my own Daddy List and even call it that. It lives on Google Drive in the cloud with copies on all computers and is shared out with my brother.
It has all the information he'll need if something happens to me. Bank and other financial account info, passwords, bullets and lists of all the details of my life. I've religiously kept it up. There are also two companion docs - Other Important Stuff (appliance serial numbers, and purchase dates, etc) - and Websites (host, domain name registrars, passwords, etc). I've kept them up as well.
When I went in to make the latest change, I realized that it was time for a refresh. I need to clean up stuff and reorganize it. When I die, my brother will not need to know the home phone number of the guy I last worked for 2 years ago.
So that's today's project. Clean up and reorganize and consolidate everything into Daddy List 2.0.
And in the middle of that, I'll go swimming. Oh and make a library drop off.
Bears - soup to nuts
Jun. 10th, 2014 02:12 pmI started knitting teddy bears the summer of 2005. I had a few months of knitting other animals but mostly it's been bears and usually it's been about 20 +/- every month so I have a process. (Here's the pattern if you want it.)
I buy most of all my yarn at Herrschners.Com - they have the largest variety of acrylic (the bears have to be 100% machine washable), soft soft, inexpensive medium sized yarn. About 4 or 5 times a year they offer free shipping for $35 or more order and I hop on that. If I am fairly stocked, I'll order about $35 worth (which works out to about 25 bears). If I'm low on stock, my order will be more like $80 worth.
When the yarn gets here, it goes into my green ottoman.
I pull skeins out of here to put into the knitting basket - the one that is pictured in this journal every day.
The stuffing is Fairfield Poly-fil. It's the best and it's always available somewhere. I sometimes order it online and sometimes drive to JoAnn's or Walmart to get it. I generally buy 10 pounds at a time. That's about all I have room to store. Not long ago JoAnn's had it onsale, online with free shipping. My Stuffing Nirvana!
I also use ChiaoGoo Red Lace Circular Needles - I use a #4 for the bear and a #1 to pick up stitches for the arms and ears. I have lately gotten them at Amazon. They only last about 3 or 4 months but they are fabulous and not outrageously expensive so when they break I just replace.
Yarn and stuffing morphed with needles and you get a bear. It's not rocket science!!
Then, when the bears are done, they go to the green chair.
Once a month I move them from the green chair to the back room to line up for the monthly photo. (They get too crowded on the chair that by the end of the month, I can't get a good picture of each of them.)
Then into big shopping bags - usually 3 - and off to The Seattle Baby Corner where they go out with supplies to indigent mothers of new babies.
There have been a lot of bears over the years and I don't plan to stop. It's a great excuse to watch junk TV.
Now, that's some fine customer service...
Jun. 10th, 2014 03:45 pmSo... I ran the dishwasher again and it's just not getting any water. None. That's probably why the dishes aren't getting clean. Just a guess, I'm not a professional.
BUT I know some. I have this great repair place. I love them. They have a tracker. The day of the service call you can watch YOUR very own repair person as he goes from call to call until he gets to you. It's fabulous. The last time he was here was November of 2012. He declared my dishwasher dead. I asked him what he would buy for a replacement, if he were me and wanted just basic washing of dishes. He said he'd get a cheap GE. They work great and are easy to fix with parts available everywhere.
So I march down to my appliance store down the street and buy a 'cheap' GE for $693 - delivered, installed and the old one taken away.
That cheap GE is now the broken one. I called the repair place to get them to come fix and was told THEY DON'T service GE's!! WTF???? Color me way not happy.
I called the appliance store and got a really nice guy who told me to call 1800GECares. Right. I'm sure they freakin' care. Oh I was pissed. Very pissed.
I call. I get a woman with a severe southern accent. And my prejudice born of years of living there kicked in - oh fuck, this is going to be as bad as I thought.
But, then, I realized that she had not asked me one stupid question and responded to each of mine with care and good answers and some humor. I gave her my name and zip code she had all of my data. I did not have to spell out or repeat anything. She asked if I wanted email confirmation and I had the email with all the info in it before we hung up. She turned out to be terrific and efficient and sweet and funny and I turned from a pissed off sour puss to a happy customer.
Her email had a 'tell us how we did button' so I did. Kind of a nice finish.
She asked at the end if there was anything else she could do and refused to come over and wash my dishes between now and Monday but I didn't really think I could take points off for that.
BUT I know some. I have this great repair place. I love them. They have a tracker. The day of the service call you can watch YOUR very own repair person as he goes from call to call until he gets to you. It's fabulous. The last time he was here was November of 2012. He declared my dishwasher dead. I asked him what he would buy for a replacement, if he were me and wanted just basic washing of dishes. He said he'd get a cheap GE. They work great and are easy to fix with parts available everywhere.
So I march down to my appliance store down the street and buy a 'cheap' GE for $693 - delivered, installed and the old one taken away.
That cheap GE is now the broken one. I called the repair place to get them to come fix and was told THEY DON'T service GE's!! WTF???? Color me way not happy.
I called the appliance store and got a really nice guy who told me to call 1800GECares. Right. I'm sure they freakin' care. Oh I was pissed. Very pissed.
I call. I get a woman with a severe southern accent. And my prejudice born of years of living there kicked in - oh fuck, this is going to be as bad as I thought.
But, then, I realized that she had not asked me one stupid question and responded to each of mine with care and good answers and some humor. I gave her my name and zip code she had all of my data. I did not have to spell out or repeat anything. She asked if I wanted email confirmation and I had the email with all the info in it before we hung up. She turned out to be terrific and efficient and sweet and funny and I turned from a pissed off sour puss to a happy customer.
Her email had a 'tell us how we did button' so I did. Kind of a nice finish.
She asked at the end if there was anything else she could do and refused to come over and wash my dishes between now and Monday but I didn't really think I could take points off for that.