So.....we are in the process of closing on our record breaking 3 week closing. (They want to be in on Aug 12th).
Inspection - Done - all came out okay and we can fix the four things they want for $25 bucks (Thanks Bob!!)
Appraisal - Done- Have not heard anything yet so hopefully that means good
Termite inspection - Stupid bug shelters - Here is the story
When we bought the house 4 years ago, a man named John P inspected our house and commented on his form that "OLD termite shelters had been found on the S.W wall of the N. Crawl space." His recommendation was "No treatment needed" because there was "Evidence that treatment had been given by holes drilled in floor on front stoop".
Our realtor made no big deal out of it and neither did we - No bugs found -the inspector said you're good to go.
Flash forward to yesterday. A gentleman came to inspect our house and found 'Termite Shelters" on the South West Floor joist in our crawl space. No bugs were found, just 'evidence' that bugs were there, and 'evidence of damage'. NO big deal right? That is the same thing the last guy found. Well, this guy is recommending treatment to the tune of $1600. And....it's the same guy who owns the same company who inspected four years ago!!!!
What floors me is that when we re-did our kitchen and knocked a wall out, the sub floor was pretty badly damaged and so we replaced it all. Now we have new joists and sub floor. The stuff before - the stuff he inspected and was damage 4 years ago which he did not write in his report - is now all nice and new.
Bob and I have been down there looking and all we can find is one shelter that is about 1.5 inches long. (He marked on his sheet the entire wall area had shelters) Now don't get me wrong, if there are termites there, we need to pay to have it cleaned up. I am not trying to get out of that. What upsets me is that a few months ago a house was bought in a neighboring town and it passed home inspection and termite inspection. A month or so later Termites were found and the house had to be knocked down because of the damage. Needless to say there are a lot of lawsuits going on for that one and everyone is worried and now recommending treatment.
We don't think this is going to scare the buyers away, but you never know! UGGGh It's amazing how powerful the inspectors pen can be just by what he writes....he can stop this deal dead in it's track by a careless lack of explanation. So.....if you bought your house, and had old shelters when you bought it, get down there and knock them off now so you don't forget before you sell it. FRUSTRATION!!!!!!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Chim-chim-a-nee
That was an attempt at the Mary Poppins show where they are all climbing on the roof and singing and dancing. That's where Bob and I were this weekend, on the roof, but we were not dancing. We bought chicken wire and fixed the screen that surrounds our chimney to keep animals out. Both of us are afraid of heights, so to be standing on the roof, on a ladder propped up by two boards and supported on the low side by Bob was a bit scary for me. But we got it done and checked it off our list of home repairs. Only two more to go.
We bought all the supplies to mount the outlet flush in the wall, but it is going to require that we crawl (or shimmy) in our crawl space to run a wire up a wall and to the new location. Not looking forward to that, but the new owners wont let us drop the box into the crawlspace like we asked.....so....we'll be crawling with the bugs next weekend. Oh joy.
On a bright side I realized that it will only cost us $25 in materials to fix everything they wanted. Granted, we had to risk our lives on the roof, and get over the arachnophobia of our crawlspace, but at least it's cheap.
I could not find the pictures to post of the kitchen like I said in my last post, so here are some pictures of our painted paneled room. We should have done this much sooner than we did.
Homeowners tip: You can paint paneling, you don't need to sand it, just use a primer.
The stripes below are from a brush to fill in the grooves, then we used the roller to cover the rest.
We did this project over a week. Painted one wall each night when we got home from work. Used some extra paint in the process, but it worked out pretty well.
I was going for an accent wall, and did not like the green once it was on the wall, so we changed.
Decided on Cayenne instead of hunter green.
We really should have done this earlier.....very dramatic change in the room for a cheap cost.
We bought all the supplies to mount the outlet flush in the wall, but it is going to require that we crawl (or shimmy) in our crawl space to run a wire up a wall and to the new location. Not looking forward to that, but the new owners wont let us drop the box into the crawlspace like we asked.....so....we'll be crawling with the bugs next weekend. Oh joy.
On a bright side I realized that it will only cost us $25 in materials to fix everything they wanted. Granted, we had to risk our lives on the roof, and get over the arachnophobia of our crawlspace, but at least it's cheap.
I could not find the pictures to post of the kitchen like I said in my last post, so here are some pictures of our painted paneled room. We should have done this much sooner than we did.
Homeowners tip: You can paint paneling, you don't need to sand it, just use a primer.
The stripes below are from a brush to fill in the grooves, then we used the roller to cover the rest.
We did this project over a week. Painted one wall each night when we got home from work. Used some extra paint in the process, but it worked out pretty well.
I was going for an accent wall, and did not like the green once it was on the wall, so we changed.
Decided on Cayenne instead of hunter green.
We really should have done this earlier.....very dramatic change in the room for a cheap cost.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Ms. Fix It
Lets play a game.
Can you guess what this is a picture of?
(No, not the paperclip....the thing next to it. )
I'll give you 3 guesses
a.) part of my sneaker that fell off
b.) a moon rock from Mars
c.) the reason that for the last 3.5 years I have had sucky hot water pressure at my kitchen sink and have hated washing my dishes with a wimpy stream of sorta hot water coming out of the faucet!
I am guessing you already figured by my tone that the answer is c.
Here is how I found my mystery piece of plastic. We had our home inspection done and the first 3 of the 4 items turned out to be easy fixes. They were the following:
1. Replace missing screen around chimney - how often does one go up on the roof and notice that there is a 6 inch hole on one side of the screen? Not very often, but Bob and I will be up there this weekend securing some chicken wire around that hole.
2. Electrical outlets in dinning room are reverse polarity - Hmmm..that's odd....found out this is not really a big deal unless you are plugging in a surge protector and super complex electrical items. Thanks to that great WWW we confirmed it was just a mater of switching some wires. Black goes to copper and Red goes to silver on the outlet....too bad all our wires are black...that will just take a bit more time.
3. Low hot water pressure in kitchen sink , so low that the sprayer would not turn on. - This is something that I have learned to live with. We redid the kitchen 3.5 years ago (I'll post those pictures next) and ever since, the flow of hot water sucked from that faucet. I remember the first month I hated the fact that my soap would not suds because the stream of hot water would not create any bubbles. I just learned to live with it. It was a brand new faucet so we thought it was some big piping thing and would cost lots of money to fix. Today it took me one alan wrench, a pair of robogrips, and 3 minuets to fix it. 3 FREAKING MINUTES AND I DEALT WITH THIS FOR 3.5 YEARS!! Come on! We are Mr. and Mrs. home improvement why on earth did we not think of this before now! We've laid tiled floors, grouted showers, laid wood floors,seated toilets and even sweated some of the main copper pluming in our guest bathroom. And we didn't think to take the facet apart and see if something was blocking it? Okay, i am over it, thanks for listening.
4. Electrical box in lower level needs to be flush mounted to the wall. - This is the one that might prove difficult. We used to have a bar downstairs and removed it. There is an electrical box coming out of the floor by the wall that used to be inside the bar cabinet. We are hoping they will let us drop it down into the crawl space and secure it there. Otherwise we are going to have to cut a hole in the paneled/plastered wall, re route the wire through a different spot on the floor and probably call a profe$$ional to do it. We are waiting on the call back to just drop the box.
I just got done washing dishes....I had hot water pressure...life is good.
Can you guess what this is a picture of?
(No, not the paperclip....the thing next to it. )
I'll give you 3 guesses
a.) part of my sneaker that fell off
b.) a moon rock from Mars
c.) the reason that for the last 3.5 years I have had sucky hot water pressure at my kitchen sink and have hated washing my dishes with a wimpy stream of sorta hot water coming out of the faucet!
I am guessing you already figured by my tone that the answer is c.
Here is how I found my mystery piece of plastic. We had our home inspection done and the first 3 of the 4 items turned out to be easy fixes. They were the following:
1. Replace missing screen around chimney - how often does one go up on the roof and notice that there is a 6 inch hole on one side of the screen? Not very often, but Bob and I will be up there this weekend securing some chicken wire around that hole.
2. Electrical outlets in dinning room are reverse polarity - Hmmm..that's odd....found out this is not really a big deal unless you are plugging in a surge protector and super complex electrical items. Thanks to that great WWW we confirmed it was just a mater of switching some wires. Black goes to copper and Red goes to silver on the outlet....too bad all our wires are black...that will just take a bit more time.
3. Low hot water pressure in kitchen sink , so low that the sprayer would not turn on. - This is something that I have learned to live with. We redid the kitchen 3.5 years ago (I'll post those pictures next) and ever since, the flow of hot water sucked from that faucet. I remember the first month I hated the fact that my soap would not suds because the stream of hot water would not create any bubbles. I just learned to live with it. It was a brand new faucet so we thought it was some big piping thing and would cost lots of money to fix. Today it took me one alan wrench, a pair of robogrips, and 3 minuets to fix it. 3 FREAKING MINUTES AND I DEALT WITH THIS FOR 3.5 YEARS!! Come on! We are Mr. and Mrs. home improvement why on earth did we not think of this before now! We've laid tiled floors, grouted showers, laid wood floors,seated toilets and even sweated some of the main copper pluming in our guest bathroom. And we didn't think to take the facet apart and see if something was blocking it? Okay, i am over it, thanks for listening.
4. Electrical box in lower level needs to be flush mounted to the wall. - This is the one that might prove difficult. We used to have a bar downstairs and removed it. There is an electrical box coming out of the floor by the wall that used to be inside the bar cabinet. We are hoping they will let us drop it down into the crawl space and secure it there. Otherwise we are going to have to cut a hole in the paneled/plastered wall, re route the wire through a different spot on the floor and probably call a profe$$ional to do it. We are waiting on the call back to just drop the box.
I just got done washing dishes....I had hot water pressure...life is good.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Stretching
Can you put your left ear to your left shoulder?
Watch this while you try.....:)
(I found out my camera takes videos but these are not very good quality, and we found out you can't rotate them like you can pictures, but Kevin and Kristy need to watch this....It's too bad you don't have sound....)
I think we have a new activity this Thanksgiving...
Watch this while you try.....:)
(I found out my camera takes videos but these are not very good quality, and we found out you can't rotate them like you can pictures, but Kevin and Kristy need to watch this....It's too bad you don't have sound....)
I think we have a new activity this Thanksgiving...
Sorry for the kink in your neck now...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
100 push ups
So, my brother was trying this program where after 6 weeks you can do 100 pushups in a row. hundredpushups.com . Bob and I started on Tuesday and my shoulders are sore today....I am a wuss! The program does looks pretty easy so I'll keep trying.
Three days a week (MWF) with a day of rest between each session
Do 4 sets of push ups each day
# of pushups depends on your level after the first test
I remember my days of playing volleyball at Bradley and how strong I was then.....I forgot how nice it was to be able to lift things and not really strain over it. If this program works out, I'll be strong by the time we move and have to be lifting and moving around all our boxes....I'll keep you updated.
p.s. that was the first time I used a link....hope it works
Three days a week (MWF) with a day of rest between each session
Do 4 sets of push ups each day
# of pushups depends on your level after the first test
I remember my days of playing volleyball at Bradley and how strong I was then.....I forgot how nice it was to be able to lift things and not really strain over it. If this program works out, I'll be strong by the time we move and have to be lifting and moving around all our boxes....I'll keep you updated.
p.s. that was the first time I used a link....hope it works
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Reminiscing...part 1
We are moving out of our house after 5 years. My parents were here last weekend and reminded us of all the things we have done to this place. We put in a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and laughs to improving our home. So......at Lisa's request, here come some pictures.
Here is a painting project in our spare room. It used to be our computer/den. Imagine two engineers trying to measure and tape off the grid, and agree. I had my way, but we ended up doing it Bob's way and it worked out okay.....:)
(We were not done painting the door white...that's why it looks bad in the picture.
We have also learned a lot through different projects.
1. Peeling paint on the ceiling does not mean old paint......it could mean water damage from the upstairs bathroom.
2. We suck at drywalling. (especially when your house is made with some funky dimension of plaster board, not the standard 1/4 inch drywall.)
3. You can cover a bad drywall job with textured paint on your ceiling but it sucks!! (We bought the kind you mix into paint and then 'easily roll on with a roller'. They lie....don't bother trying it. )
I'll keep posting more of our fun remodel jobs...stay tuned
Here is a painting project in our spare room. It used to be our computer/den. Imagine two engineers trying to measure and tape off the grid, and agree. I had my way, but we ended up doing it Bob's way and it worked out okay.....:)
(We were not done painting the door white...that's why it looks bad in the picture.
We have also learned a lot through different projects.
1. Peeling paint on the ceiling does not mean old paint......it could mean water damage from the upstairs bathroom.
2. We suck at drywalling. (especially when your house is made with some funky dimension of plaster board, not the standard 1/4 inch drywall.)
3. You can cover a bad drywall job with textured paint on your ceiling but it sucks!! (We bought the kind you mix into paint and then 'easily roll on with a roller'. They lie....don't bother trying it. )
I'll keep posting more of our fun remodel jobs...stay tuned
Monday, July 21, 2008
Let's make a deal
It's funny how everyone plays that game when buying a house. Why can't it be like a store.....Here is the price, pick out what you like and then come and pay what is on the price tag. But I know when I am on the other end, I am going to want to wheel and deel as well.
Anyway....as of 9:30 last night....it's a deal! (As long as the moving company can move us out by Aug 12th). We also need to find a furnished place to stay for up to 6 weeks. The details will work themselves out, I am just greatful to have the thing sold.
God's hand has definitly been involved in this one. We prayed that doors would be open and shut and we would know where we were supposed to go and that definitly happened. (Although Jennifer and I probably really prefered one of those doors stayed open:>) The other big one was why our house was on the market as long as it was. (I know the market is slow right now, and I am biased toward my house, but...) We have had it listed since March and every realtor that came through (over 20 showings) commented that it was a great house and there was little that could be done to improve it. (I watched a lot of HGTV when I was traveling to Tifton and knew 'How to Sell your House', 'Designed to Sell', and all the other how-to shows on staging, decorating, painting, etc for when your house was on the market) Well as it turns out, guess who bought our house? It's a new pastor and his wife that are moving in to town. Perhaps God was saving it for them.
Either way, now it will be a whirlwind of details that need to come together to get us out by the 12th, but I have faith....:)
Anyway....as of 9:30 last night....it's a deal! (As long as the moving company can move us out by Aug 12th). We also need to find a furnished place to stay for up to 6 weeks. The details will work themselves out, I am just greatful to have the thing sold.
God's hand has definitly been involved in this one. We prayed that doors would be open and shut and we would know where we were supposed to go and that definitly happened. (Although Jennifer and I probably really prefered one of those doors stayed open:>) The other big one was why our house was on the market as long as it was. (I know the market is slow right now, and I am biased toward my house, but...) We have had it listed since March and every realtor that came through (over 20 showings) commented that it was a great house and there was little that could be done to improve it. (I watched a lot of HGTV when I was traveling to Tifton and knew 'How to Sell your House', 'Designed to Sell', and all the other how-to shows on staging, decorating, painting, etc for when your house was on the market) Well as it turns out, guess who bought our house? It's a new pastor and his wife that are moving in to town. Perhaps God was saving it for them.
Either way, now it will be a whirlwind of details that need to come together to get us out by the 12th, but I have faith....:)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
YYYEEEAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!
We got an offer on the house an hour ago!!!! Bitter sweet because that means this is really happening.
It's lower than we wanted and they want to be in by Aug 12th. That's like 3 weeks away!!! We're working on the details. Stay tuned...........
It's lower than we wanted and they want to be in by Aug 12th. That's like 3 weeks away!!! We're working on the details. Stay tuned...........
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Dentist, Tongues, and great inventions
I went to the dentist today and unfortunately have to go back tomorrow for a ‘touch up’ on two of my fillings. I have some temperature sensitivity around two of my teeth and the dentist wants to go ahead and clean them out and fix them. Boo for cavities…
As the hygienist was cleaning my teeth I started thinking about my tongue. I try to be a helpful patient and move my tongue to the opposite side of my mouth when they are working. ( Don’t laugh at me, you all do it, you just don’t admit it out loud to anyone). So when I got back to work, I was looking in the bathroom mirror and opened my mouth and moved my tongue around to see if it was actually helpful……it’s not..…next time you are alone in front a mirror try it. Your tongue is actually pretty fat. And when you try to smush it to one side, you don’t really save that much space on the other side. If I was a hygienist, I would probably laugh for the first few months at my patients tongues as the flop around in their mouths.
Do you remember spit bowls? The dentist would hand you a cup of water to rinse with and you would have to try to sit up in a reclining chair and spit into this small bowl that sucked the water down….(and then you had this stream of spit that you had to figure out how to gracefully get rid of and hope they didn't see). Yeah, now they squirt the water into your mouth and have this L-shaped straw thing that you just close your mouth around and it sucks the water out of your mouth….genius! If your dentist doesn’t have one, they need to get one.
As the hygienist was cleaning my teeth I started thinking about my tongue. I try to be a helpful patient and move my tongue to the opposite side of my mouth when they are working. ( Don’t laugh at me, you all do it, you just don’t admit it out loud to anyone). So when I got back to work, I was looking in the bathroom mirror and opened my mouth and moved my tongue around to see if it was actually helpful……it’s not..…next time you are alone in front a mirror try it. Your tongue is actually pretty fat. And when you try to smush it to one side, you don’t really save that much space on the other side. If I was a hygienist, I would probably laugh for the first few months at my patients tongues as the flop around in their mouths.
Do you remember spit bowls? The dentist would hand you a cup of water to rinse with and you would have to try to sit up in a reclining chair and spit into this small bowl that sucked the water down….(and then you had this stream of spit that you had to figure out how to gracefully get rid of and hope they didn't see). Yeah, now they squirt the water into your mouth and have this L-shaped straw thing that you just close your mouth around and it sucks the water out of your mouth….genius! If your dentist doesn’t have one, they need to get one.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
pictures
Okay, random post with some pictures to support some of my older posts....
Here is my newer car that is Champaign, not red. Also, not sure if you can get a good look at the driveway, notice the white spots on the driveway?...that's not dirt, its the asphalt rubbed off.
Here are two pictures of the new driveway all freshly sealed and.....crapped on by some bird...nice and white on the left hand side.... not even 24 hours after the sealing had finished...
Here is our poor front door. I mentioned it earlier about a bad weekend project. Here is a quick recap...
Wanted latex paint, went to store and they said use rustomleum front door paint, I said great and got it dyed to match, get it home, it's oil not latex...yuck, paint first coat....bad color, doesn't match shutters....get another can that is better color, but oil paint coverage sucks and the roller that we are using leaves lint all over the door (Even though it is 'lint free!' ) and takes like 3 hours between coats to dry. We finally put the doors back up at 7:00 at night and find that the glossy paint really highlights the dents in the door, I think they are from the adhesive that is holding the metal to wood door. Now we need to re sand, prime, and paint again with a flat latex!!! ugh!!! This project sucked!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Ants
This past weekend Bob and I sealed our driveway. I grew up with a concrete driveway so I never knew about sealing. If anyone ever moves and finds themselves with a asphalt drive, here is what I have learned over the past four years.
With asphalt, you have to seal it every year (Or at least you are supposed to). It's kinda like sanding and refinishing wood, but without the sanding, you just fill in the bumps and cracks and put a smooth coat over it.
You can use a liquid crack filler to fill the small cracks.
You can use a thicker filler that is more like black soupy gravel to fill the larger cracks.
After you fill in the cracks and let it dry, you take a big squeegee broom type thing and pour the gooey sealant on the drive way and then smooth it out. It's kinda like adding a new coat of thick paint. It really makes it look nicer and acts as a protective coating.
Anyway, while I was sealing there were ants running around the drive way. I started thinking that these ants only have a 2-D picture of whats going on....they see the ground and then the pool of gooey sealant I am trying to spread around. They walk around trying to find their way out, but all they see is goo in front of them, so they turn around and try another path. I, on the other hand have a view from the top and can see the big picture. If the ant would only go the way I try to persuade him (AKA push with a leaf), them he would not get stuck in the goo. I think that's how God looks at us sometimes. He has the big pictures and knows where we should go, be we humans, in our infinite wisdom, think we know what's best and run head first in the direction we want to go...then we turn around and try something else......How frustrating for Him to watch us do this over and over again. On the other hand, how comforting to know that He sees the big picture and is watching out for us. If only we would learn not to fight that leaf that is pursuading us in a certian direction.......
With asphalt, you have to seal it every year (Or at least you are supposed to). It's kinda like sanding and refinishing wood, but without the sanding, you just fill in the bumps and cracks and put a smooth coat over it.
You can use a liquid crack filler to fill the small cracks.
You can use a thicker filler that is more like black soupy gravel to fill the larger cracks.
After you fill in the cracks and let it dry, you take a big squeegee broom type thing and pour the gooey sealant on the drive way and then smooth it out. It's kinda like adding a new coat of thick paint. It really makes it look nicer and acts as a protective coating.
Anyway, while I was sealing there were ants running around the drive way. I started thinking that these ants only have a 2-D picture of whats going on....they see the ground and then the pool of gooey sealant I am trying to spread around. They walk around trying to find their way out, but all they see is goo in front of them, so they turn around and try another path. I, on the other hand have a view from the top and can see the big picture. If the ant would only go the way I try to persuade him (AKA push with a leaf), them he would not get stuck in the goo. I think that's how God looks at us sometimes. He has the big pictures and knows where we should go, be we humans, in our infinite wisdom, think we know what's best and run head first in the direction we want to go...then we turn around and try something else......How frustrating for Him to watch us do this over and over again. On the other hand, how comforting to know that He sees the big picture and is watching out for us. If only we would learn not to fight that leaf that is pursuading us in a certian direction.......
Sunday, July 13, 2008
forgetfull me
Bob and I were getting ready for another garage sale last week and he was cleaning out our 'junk drawer' that is in the kitchen. I don't like to leave him alone to 'sort' because he throws things out that we need. (Or at least, I think we need) Well, I walk downstairs mid-sort and look in the trash can and see a small bottle of touch up paint for my car. Without thinking I blurt out.....'I paid $35 bucks for this thing...you can't throw it out!". Bob's response was to look at me in silence....I look back at him waiting for a response and then it hits me. Two months ago we bought a new car...(Well, new to me, it was used) My new car is champagne color and the tube I am holding in my hand is for the red car I traded in. OOPS. I smile and say never mind and he just shakes his head and keeps sorting.......It's amazing how much he can say without saying anything at all.
Today we left church and were walking to our car. (We drove his Jeep). He just couldn't resist putting in a jab and commented, "he maybe you should give your touch up paint to her". I look up and notice a red Camry parked right next to us with a lady sitting in it. I smile at him (well not a real smile, one of those, 'very funny ha ha' smiles) and laugh and then look closer...the car has the same body style as mine was...it has the same worn paint pattern on the side view mirror as mine had.....it has the same scratches by the key and handle as mine did!!! HOLY COW THAT IS MY CAR!!!! I tried really hard not to stare because the lady was sitting in the car waiting for us to get in so she could open her door, but IT WAS MY CAR!! What a small world! I saw my car today :) after having it for 9 years, I kinda grew attached and didn't realize until I saw it again.
I think I need to start naming my cars so that when I see them again owned by someone else I can tell the story with a name instead of 'my car' or 'it'.
Today we left church and were walking to our car. (We drove his Jeep). He just couldn't resist putting in a jab and commented, "he maybe you should give your touch up paint to her". I look up and notice a red Camry parked right next to us with a lady sitting in it. I smile at him (well not a real smile, one of those, 'very funny ha ha' smiles) and laugh and then look closer...the car has the same body style as mine was...it has the same worn paint pattern on the side view mirror as mine had.....it has the same scratches by the key and handle as mine did!!! HOLY COW THAT IS MY CAR!!!! I tried really hard not to stare because the lady was sitting in the car waiting for us to get in so she could open her door, but IT WAS MY CAR!! What a small world! I saw my car today :) after having it for 9 years, I kinda grew attached and didn't realize until I saw it again.
I think I need to start naming my cars so that when I see them again owned by someone else I can tell the story with a name instead of 'my car' or 'it'.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Squats and World Records
Some guy broke a world record today by sitting in 39,250 seats at the Rose Bowl. Can you imagine? He is 56 years old and has been 'dreaming about this for 20 years'. He now holds the record for popping a squat more than anyone else in a 48 hour time period. (he has also sat in every single seat in some stadium in Michigan....it was over 100,000 seats.)
How does one train for this or should we ask why would someone dream for 20 years to do this? I get tired doing 'legs of steel' with Tammie Lee Webb and that only last for 45 min. I couldn't walk for two weeks if you made me squat for 48 hours. I don't know what would be worse, the guy doing the sitting, or the guy who has to be the judge watching someone squat for 48 hours.
I think I am going to look up the record book and find something I can do to try and get my name in the books. If I find a group thing, I'll be calling some of you.
How does one train for this or should we ask why would someone dream for 20 years to do this? I get tired doing 'legs of steel' with Tammie Lee Webb and that only last for 45 min. I couldn't walk for two weeks if you made me squat for 48 hours. I don't know what would be worse, the guy doing the sitting, or the guy who has to be the judge watching someone squat for 48 hours.
I think I am going to look up the record book and find something I can do to try and get my name in the books. If I find a group thing, I'll be calling some of you.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Brr....
It's 80 degrees outside and I have on a jacket. Why do so many companies waste so much money on air conditioning cost? I literally get goose bumps when I walk through one area of the office. It's July and I have a space heater on (As do other people in the area). It is so waste full.
On a side note.....we have someone looking at our house right now. I hope they like it and want to buy it!! That would make our lives less stressful right now. September 29th is getting closer.
I'll post later about our 'fun-est' house project yet...painting the front door. I hope to have some pictures.
On a side note.....we have someone looking at our house right now. I hope they like it and want to buy it!! That would make our lives less stressful right now. September 29th is getting closer.
I'll post later about our 'fun-est' house project yet...painting the front door. I hope to have some pictures.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
$1000 jeans
I read an article at work today on MSN. High end jeans are a big industry and one of the few that are doing well right now. Here were some of the stats
Jeans costing over $75 increased 24% this quarter while
Jeans costing under$75 only increased 2% this quarter
The article stated that $200 for jeans was a sale price. Dolce and Gabbana sell jeans for $3,950 and there are some jeans that are bedazzled with Swarovski crystals that cost $10,000. If you ask me, be-dazzled is be-dazzled, if it was done at home in someones basement, or with 'SWAROVSKI' crystals.... they are all going to fall off once you sit down and slide across the chair your sitting on, or when you 'skooch' into your limo you are going to scratch the leather.
I look down at the jeans I am wearing at work trying to think how much I paid for them (Yes, we get to wear jeans to work everyday...about 2 months ago, to help with moral they sent out a flyer saying we could wear comfortable clothes to work everyday until the plant closes) They are actually the last pair I bought and I was with the girls on a shopping trip somewhere a few years ago. They were on the clearance rack at GAP and I think i paid around $20 for them. Is that sad that the last pair of jeans I bought was at least 3 years ago?
I also only own 4 purses and about 16 pairs of shoes (4 of them are tennis shoes- which by the way, I don't play tennis with, but that is what we call them.....sorry...that's a whole different post). And I have had the same purse for the past 3 years. I don't change it out each season ...GASP!
I guess I am just frugal and out of style. (And hopefully I can retire at age 55 because of it)
Jeans costing over $75 increased 24% this quarter while
Jeans costing under$75 only increased 2% this quarter
The article stated that $200 for jeans was a sale price. Dolce and Gabbana sell jeans for $3,950 and there are some jeans that are bedazzled with Swarovski crystals that cost $10,000. If you ask me, be-dazzled is be-dazzled, if it was done at home in someones basement, or with 'SWAROVSKI' crystals.... they are all going to fall off once you sit down and slide across the chair your sitting on, or when you 'skooch' into your limo you are going to scratch the leather.
I look down at the jeans I am wearing at work trying to think how much I paid for them (Yes, we get to wear jeans to work everyday...about 2 months ago, to help with moral they sent out a flyer saying we could wear comfortable clothes to work everyday until the plant closes) They are actually the last pair I bought and I was with the girls on a shopping trip somewhere a few years ago. They were on the clearance rack at GAP and I think i paid around $20 for them. Is that sad that the last pair of jeans I bought was at least 3 years ago?
I also only own 4 purses and about 16 pairs of shoes (4 of them are tennis shoes- which by the way, I don't play tennis with, but that is what we call them.....sorry...that's a whole different post). And I have had the same purse for the past 3 years. I don't change it out each season ...GASP!
I guess I am just frugal and out of style. (And hopefully I can retire at age 55 because of it)
Monday, July 7, 2008
24601
Last night was a sad night in our household.......we lost our oldest fish, 24601. (or as Kevin called him - 90210) By lost I don't mean he jumped out and hid...I mean he is dead, as Bob says D E A D....dead.
Let me explain the name thing......I got Bob a tank before we were married and we bought about seven different fish to put in the tank. He was not allowed to name them until they lived at least two weeks. He never named them, so I took it upon myself to come up with names that would be easy for me to remember. For instance:
Strawberry Loach = I named him 'patch' for strawberry patch
Sucker fish (to get the algee off the tank floor) = 'Hoover' (like a vacuum)
Puffer fish (Big round fish with little fins) = 'Goodyear' (he looked like a blimp)
8 striped something fish = 24601 (for you Les Mis fans that was the song of John Valdon (Sp?). 24601 was his prison number and our fish looked like a prisoner)
Those of you who have been to our house know how big this stupid fish was and that he was the only one left in our tank because he ate every other fish we tried to buy. He survived two different tank moves and grew about 3 inches larger than he was supposed to. About a year ago we gave up buying new fish for our tank, because we would come home and they would be floating at the top with tell tales signs that they had been nibbled on.
In a way, It's good that he is gone because I had no idea what we were going to do with him, I was not going to take him with us to Georgia. I can imagin myself in the airport with a ziplock bag and a fish trying to get through security. We didn't want to give him away to friends because he would eat all their other fish.
He also picked a good time to kick the bucket. He was too big to get with our fish net, so Bob had to use a stick to get him to float at the top and grabbed him with a plastic bag. He is also too big to flush, so luckily today was trash day, so he did not have to sit in our trash and smell up the garage.
RIP 24601
Let me explain the name thing......I got Bob a tank before we were married and we bought about seven different fish to put in the tank. He was not allowed to name them until they lived at least two weeks. He never named them, so I took it upon myself to come up with names that would be easy for me to remember. For instance:
Strawberry Loach = I named him 'patch' for strawberry patch
Sucker fish (to get the algee off the tank floor) = 'Hoover' (like a vacuum)
Puffer fish (Big round fish with little fins) = 'Goodyear' (he looked like a blimp)
8 striped something fish = 24601 (for you Les Mis fans that was the song of John Valdon (Sp?). 24601 was his prison number and our fish looked like a prisoner)
Those of you who have been to our house know how big this stupid fish was and that he was the only one left in our tank because he ate every other fish we tried to buy. He survived two different tank moves and grew about 3 inches larger than he was supposed to. About a year ago we gave up buying new fish for our tank, because we would come home and they would be floating at the top with tell tales signs that they had been nibbled on.
In a way, It's good that he is gone because I had no idea what we were going to do with him, I was not going to take him with us to Georgia. I can imagin myself in the airport with a ziplock bag and a fish trying to get through security. We didn't want to give him away to friends because he would eat all their other fish.
He also picked a good time to kick the bucket. He was too big to get with our fish net, so Bob had to use a stick to get him to float at the top and grabbed him with a plastic bag. He is also too big to flush, so luckily today was trash day, so he did not have to sit in our trash and smell up the garage.
RIP 24601
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Facts about Fireworks
In celebration of the 4th, here are some useless facts you can share with your family and friends while at the BBQ's this weekend.
-Legend has it that the Chinese made the first fireworks in the 800s, filling bamboo shoots with gunpowder and exploding them at the new year with the hope that the sound would scare away evil spirits.
-The first recorded firework in American history were set off by captain John Smith, famous for the story of Pocahontas.......' Just around the river bend......' (For you Disney fans)
- 3 sparklers burning together generate the same amount of heat as a blowtorch
- The worlds largest firework was set off at a festival in Japan in 1988. The shell weighted over half a ton and the burst was over a kilometer wide
Color information from Factmonster.com
Early fireworks were enjoyed more for the sound than the show—in its simplest forms gunpowder explodes quickly, leaving a terrific bang but not much to see other than a rather brief golden glow. Over time people discovered that using chemical compounds with greater amounts of oxygen made the explosives burn brighter and longer. The multi-hued displays we know now began in the 1830s, when Italians added trace amounts of metals that burn at high temperatures, creating beautiful colors. Other additives also produced interesting effects. For example, calcium deepens colors, titanium makes sparks, and zinc creates smoke clouds.
Science Project Time
Also, did you know that on about.com - chemistry they actually tell you how to make your own sparkler! I just need to go the store and pick up 300 parts of potassium chlorate and make my 10% dextrin in water solution.
Have a happy 4th
-Legend has it that the Chinese made the first fireworks in the 800s, filling bamboo shoots with gunpowder and exploding them at the new year with the hope that the sound would scare away evil spirits.
-The first recorded firework in American history were set off by captain John Smith, famous for the story of Pocahontas.......' Just around the river bend......' (For you Disney fans)
- 3 sparklers burning together generate the same amount of heat as a blowtorch
- The worlds largest firework was set off at a festival in Japan in 1988. The shell weighted over half a ton and the burst was over a kilometer wide
Color information from Factmonster.com
Early fireworks were enjoyed more for the sound than the show—in its simplest forms gunpowder explodes quickly, leaving a terrific bang but not much to see other than a rather brief golden glow. Over time people discovered that using chemical compounds with greater amounts of oxygen made the explosives burn brighter and longer. The multi-hued displays we know now began in the 1830s, when Italians added trace amounts of metals that burn at high temperatures, creating beautiful colors. Other additives also produced interesting effects. For example, calcium deepens colors, titanium makes sparks, and zinc creates smoke clouds.
Science Project Time
Also, did you know that on about.com - chemistry they actually tell you how to make your own sparkler! I just need to go the store and pick up 300 parts of potassium chlorate and make my 10% dextrin in water solution.
Have a happy 4th
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Glow Worms
A friend had a post about a glow worm toy of her daughters and it reminded me of a funny story of my husbands when he was little.
One day, Mrs. Landi (my mother in Law) began smelling this rotten smell....it kept getting stronger all morning long. After looking around the house and trying to find the source of the smell, she determined that it must be gas. So she shipped the kids (Bob, his brother and sister) off to the neighbors house while she called the Gas company and waited for someone to come. A gentleman arrived with all his equipment and began looking around the house. Mrs. Landi followed him around looking as well. They spent 30 min looking in every room and still could not find a gas leak. (This is where you start thinking....'I thought this story was about a glow worm???'.....well here is the tie in). While they were in Bob's bedroom looking for a gas leak, Mrs. Landi happened to look over at the lamp. Sitting in the lamp shade, tucked up close to the light bulb was Bob's toy glow worm. He had wanted it to 'charge' and so the bright kid that he was, shoved it in between the light bulb and the support rod on the lamp shade. This was before the battery type worms that you squeeze and they light up. The smell they had discovered that morning was the glow worm melting.
Mrs. Landi was so embarrassed that she didn't tell the gas guy, just thanked him for coming over and verifying that there was no gas leak and that she would keep looking to try and find the source of the smell. Needless to say, Bob's glowworm had melted beyond recognition, but they learned that melted glowworm smelled like a natural gas leak.
One day, Mrs. Landi (my mother in Law) began smelling this rotten smell....it kept getting stronger all morning long. After looking around the house and trying to find the source of the smell, she determined that it must be gas. So she shipped the kids (Bob, his brother and sister) off to the neighbors house while she called the Gas company and waited for someone to come. A gentleman arrived with all his equipment and began looking around the house. Mrs. Landi followed him around looking as well. They spent 30 min looking in every room and still could not find a gas leak. (This is where you start thinking....'I thought this story was about a glow worm???'.....well here is the tie in). While they were in Bob's bedroom looking for a gas leak, Mrs. Landi happened to look over at the lamp. Sitting in the lamp shade, tucked up close to the light bulb was Bob's toy glow worm. He had wanted it to 'charge' and so the bright kid that he was, shoved it in between the light bulb and the support rod on the lamp shade. This was before the battery type worms that you squeeze and they light up. The smell they had discovered that morning was the glow worm melting.
Mrs. Landi was so embarrassed that she didn't tell the gas guy, just thanked him for coming over and verifying that there was no gas leak and that she would keep looking to try and find the source of the smell. Needless to say, Bob's glowworm had melted beyond recognition, but they learned that melted glowworm smelled like a natural gas leak.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
$ Ever wonder.....?$
How do places like blogspot.com make money? They offer me the chance to post and make it all very easy, but I don't understand why? They would only be doing this if they get something out of it? Are they selling my email address to people? Can you buy things from them like different templates and other neat things you can add to your blog? Or is it like cigarettes and nicotine? They get me hooked on blogging and then a month from now make me pay $19.99 to maintain my site and $0.99 for every picture I want to download? What's the catch and how are they making money? Or is this just one of googles 'pet projects' that they can spend money on because you loose track after a million billion dollars?
Hmmm.....I wonder......
Hmmm.....I wonder......
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