October 14, 2000

As you can imagine, a lot of things have gone on in the time I have been away from my blog. We've moved into the new place. I'd like to thank Home Depot, now my very favorite store. I've changed two chandeliers (1 of them havgning two stories up!), showerheads, and painted the floor of my garage with an epoxy paint. Through all the work we are doing, from cabinetry to garage floors, Home Depot employees are knowledgeable and very helpful. I never thought I'd be able to properly acid-treat my garage cement, prime it and paint it, but they patiently explained everything to me and helped me to understand the whole process. They have everything I've needed, like this four part ladder that became a scaffold for changing that big chandelier in my front foyer. I've cleaned up the old house with their help, too, understanding spackle and drywall repair, painting, cleaning supplies, etc... This store is just GREAT.
The movers did a pretty good job. Only two things got damaged (my computer desk and a rip in my sofa vinyl). I think I can repair them both, but we'll see what their insurance covers (if anything.) They took a lot of care, but nothing can ever be perfect. I understand, stuff happens to everyone. My phone line is in, but my cable isn't going to be installed until the end of October.
Owning a house is great. I've got a nice sized side yard, that I'm thinking of turning into a gnarly graveyard this year for halloween. Couldn't do that in a condo (which I've owned before), and couldn't do that in the past rental. Before last year, we didn't celebrate the holidays due to a religious choice. But, we've come past that now..
Of course, now that I'm finally done moving stuff, I'm sick. My son must have given me this wonderful virus. I figured with all the ammonia I've sniffed in the past two days that the bugs invading my body would have died, but no luck.
My computer desk right now is a cardboard box flattened out on top of another box, but I'll survive. We have some custom cabinet people coming to give us a quote to build a whole 'office' center thing,
I bought some new shoes, leather casuals, and promptly got paint on the leather...ugh. I ruined a pair of black jeans by getting down on my hands and knees with all these cleaners.
One cleaning agent I worked with is called "Simple Green". We used it undiluted, and it works great for getting up grease and other stains on your counters and kitchen appliances. It's also biodegradeable and supposedly not harmful to the environment.
One thing I'd like to know is just how many coats of paint DOES it take to cover up a three-year olds wall scribblings? My son did it years ago, but I still wanted to call him on the carpet today when I had to figure out how to clean it off and paint it.

October 03, 2000

Went back to work today and worked hard to catch up on the 4-day weekend I had created. Lots of stuff to do, and I got mostly caught up. Still one unresolved issue, where I've been unable to contact this one customer. He's in Hawaii, so it's kind of touch and go on organizing the contact with him. I'm pretty sure I'll catch him on Thursday afternoon, though. The tag game is almost finished.
Had a couple of stuck services and one problem caused by some corporate changes (that YET AGAIN we weren't notified of in advance, despite promises to the contrary). I had known about this particular change from something else that occured (and broke) last week, so I was able to fix this problem quickly. Networking is very inter-dependent that way.
Learned a bunch about safety today, thanks to a minor accident in the office, and prepared safety training for my victims (I mean, employees), also looking to corporate for help. They promised me some support, and I hope they deliver well.
Came home, and the wife is overworked, the kid over-zealous, and the house a disaster (due to the move). I can't wait for this all to be finished. I'll be able to tie up a lot of loose ends tomorrow (like mail forwarding and getting some finished painting done). Oh, thanks go out to several people today. Like, The Post Office for allowing me to pick up my keys 15 minutes after they closed. And Xerox, who contacted US about a dangerous aspect of their product, a color printer that COULD possibly catch on fire. They called us and came out and repaired it. Firestone could learn something from them, I think.

October 02, 2000

Moved in (well, signed and paid for) our new house on Friday. Since then, I've been busy as a beaver, cleaning the yard, painting the garage floor, installing a cieling fan and light set in the master bedroom. My wife wants me to buy this beautiful chandelier for the foyer, and a nice new front door kit. We've done shelf paper in the kitchen that looks just fantastic. After we move in, I'll have to put up pictures on my web page. The builder finished alot of the things we had problems with, but nailing them down to do other things is difficult. I'll keep on them though.
Also had my first cub scout den meeting on Sunday. That went pretty well too! Cub Scouts is just bound to be a heap of fun, and I think we're going to get a big kick out of it. I need to better organize the den records and have a better system for collecting money (dues, patch money, etc) and tracking expenses. The scouts had fun and made a medicine bag. In it, they put slips of paper with kind words. And we did an ethics exercise as well. I've got to make sure that we work on the achievements for each of the boys too. Supposed to meet with the other den leader tonight to go over next weeks plan.
Bought a US flag too. I want to mount that on the house, but I'm still not sure where, on the garage or the main door frame. I'll look around the neighborhood for suggestions and see where other people put theirs.