This has been a pretty eventful week, let’s go ahead and just coast on into the weekend. Sound good to you? For me this will be a weekend which will be spent elsewhere. Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar? This weekend I’ll be making a trip to Raleigh, NC to visit ITP-readers Lisa & Randy and, hopefully future-ITP-reading son (hey, I plan to do this for a long time).
Life Without A DVR?
As odd as it seems, I will soon be living a life without a DVR. No, thankfully I have not been laid off (at least not that I know), but my super-duper beta box has been tagged for obsolescence and I will have to turn it in. While I am eligible to receive another settop box as part of the engineering beta program, the only models available are non-dvr devices. Yikes! What am I going to do? Watch commercials? NEVER!
It’s True, I’ve Ordered Government-Supported DTV Converter Coupons
In other television-related news I’ve gone and done something that some of you out there should consider. Yesterday I signed up to receive a couple of $40 coupons to be used toward the purchase of digital-to-analog converters for when analog television pretty much goes bye-bye in February (assuming the “deadline” doesn’t get extended, again).
People who subscribe to satellite or cable television should not panic, but if you have that old tv out in the workshop or whatever, and you want to be able to use it after the digital transition then you should consider applying for a coupon. Why not save $40, right? Fuck, for what I paid in taxes this year the Government should be sending me brand new big-screen HDTV digital televisions instead.
To get your coupon(s) head over to the Government’s website for digital television converter coupon distribution.
ITP Flickr Pic
My final shot from last weekend.
Hey look! It’s the weekend! Perhaps I should shoot some shots for next week’s blog.
When I Hear Scratching In My Bedroom I Want It To Be A Person Doing It
The onset of Winter unfortunately has turned into the onset of vermin season in my attic again. Yesterday I failed to mention that I was awakened at 2:00 AM by the sound of some critter making its Winter homestead in my attic. One of the other “opportunities” I now am presented is to go up into my attic, root around, clean up some previously-depositied animal scat using my shop vacuum, and toss out some new poison for my unwanted tenants to consume.
Let’s see….
- soffit replacement
- sewer plumbing / replacement
- living room ceiling repair
- interior plumbing repair
- minor electrical work
- gutter repair after the tree limb fell in August
- and now another swing at animal removal
The tax deduction has been fine, but I don’t think I’m going to make a killing on the selling price when I final get to sell this house. Why do I own a house again?
Something’s Fishy At Amazon
When I received my new French Press last week I was somewhat confused and disturbed by the fact that the packing list included in the box was not for my order. Instead it was for some woman named Susan who lived in Pennsylvania (and damn me for throwing that thing out the other day!). Yesterday I received a strange email via LinkedIn from some guy in Mountain View, California who said that he received a gift for the birth of his new child and my packing list was in the box. Not knowing who I was and seeing that the packing list mentioned a Nissan Insulated Thermos he figured that I’d have the packing list for the gift. He was also trying to figure out who sent he and his wife the gift. I sent him a reply telling him about the packing list in my box, which I had thrown out the day before, and told him that I could be of no further help with his search.
Another curiosity I’ve been seeing at Amazon recently is price fluctuation. Over the past few days I’ve been looking at these small-screen “netbook” laptops and each time I go to Amazon the model I look at seems to have a different price! Unfortunately the price is not always lower either, it’s kinda like playing the stock market.
OS X Leopard Here I Come (Finally, And About Six Months Before “Snow Leopard”)
What better way to test my sanity than to upgrade the operating system, right? With the (now successful) purchase purchase of my newly-refurbished last-generation MacBook I have decided to bring my other Macs up to the latest operating system, Leopard. Of course I choose to do this once I finally get my backup strategy configured to my liking. Hell, this will probably test this strategy to see if I’ve done it right as I’m sure I’ll accidentally be deleting something I want to keep during the upgrade process.
In addition to this my final Windows machine is starting to breath its last gasps of air. The battery for the laptop has given up the ghost and is able to keep the system running for all of about two minutes, and the power connector for AC power is becoming flaky as well; for no reason whatsoever it kicks over to the battery even though I’m still plugged in. I’ll keep the old guy around for a while, but I see my self soon becoming a Mac-only household… at least for as long as I live alone.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – fair
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Guided By Voices — “Teenage FBI” LOVE this song!
Website Of The Day – From my office window I can see former CompUSA which is now Total Wine & More. Drinking problem? Drinking in no longer a problem.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 12 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 4
Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0
Ongoing
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 4
November Goals
1) Lose no fewer than three pounds
2) Drink no soda
3) Run no fewer than 75 miles
4) Bike no fewer than 100 miles
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
It is Friday indeed! Have a great week-end with Lisa and Randy.
I love your pictures of Fort Mountain….reminds me of what a great week-end that was. I will be volunteering at the Pinhoti 100 miler this week-end in Alabama along with Sarah and Ray, UD and Little Easy. I hope we have another nice week-end. As a cripple, I am forced to volunteer at races for the rest of the year.
Let the critters live in the attic…they’ll keep you company this winter!
Maybe you should just burn your house down and collect the insurance money. I know some good lawyers.
HA! Yesterday I read a story about a guy who burned down his house because he was clearing cobwebs with flames. And all I thought was “Dammit, why didn’t I think of that?!”
Have fun in Alabama. Hopefully for you the rain that is supposed to hit Raleigh tomorrow will blow through AL today.
Sal- don’t give him any ideas… where would we have the Super Bowl party?
And Paulie, you never made it clear- did you get the right product with the incorrect packing list? Sounds like someone’s package fell off the conveyor, making everything out of sync.
Please have fun in NC. (Hi Lisa and Randy!!!)
-FP
Total Wine & More is where you can go build your own 6-packs of beer. So, go! Go! Build now!
Have a good, safe trip and great weekend! I’m finally getting my furniture back from the ex this weekend and then am going to try to coerce Phil into doing some photography with me too. Either that or just drink lots of beers. Haven’t decided yet. 🙂
@Steve: It’s going to take a lot of work to get the house ready for the Super Bowl in ’09. And who knows what my TV situation will be like then. Yikes!
@Stacy: Yep, you build your own six packs based on individual bottle prices. Sounds like a gimmick to me since you get no discount. If my six pack is just the sum of the six bottles in the pack, why don’t I build a “seven pack?” I will be going to Total Wine on my way OTP to deliver some Atlanta brew to the non-pregnant half of Lisa and Randy.
How’s it a gimmick when you get to try 6 different beers for about $1 a beer? I think it’s more a gimmick when you have to buy a 6 pack of all one beer not knowing if you like it. Y’know?
I think it’s just a “6 pack” because the holders are already in sixes. 🙂
Allan can give you some hints on how to not get busted for arson…….. but if you take all your valuables out before the fire, it does look a little suspicious.
As for the DVR, why don’t you just buy a stand alone tivo? we have one that isn’t associated with any cable or dish system, and it works just fine. You will go crazy without the pause & backup features…. or at least I know I would go crazy. I have a terrible attention span becasue of the damn thing now.
No, the guy told me that the price of the six pack was the sum of all of the individual beers in the six pack.
As I understand it, if I had
2 @ $1.00
2 @ $1.49
2 @ $1.99
My six pack would cost $8.96 (plus tax)
The store obviously sells each beer individually, what’s the benefit of “building my own six pack” then?
It doesn’t matter if I don’t like the beer I bought, I’ve got Paulie, Harold and many others that will be glad to drink it for me.
@Barb: No TiVo for me. It’s the only product for which I have contempt because of their lawsuit against Dish Network (of which I am a stockholder). I’d rather give up tv than to help them succeed.
@Martha: I’m here to help, especially when it comes to drinking weird beer.
Still…. a 6-pack for $9 is not a bad deal considering you’re getting micro-brews and specialty beers… $1.50/beer? Where else can you get beers that cheap?
If you are just going to get the kind you like already, it probably doesn’t make sense, I agree. But I still think it’s a good concept for when you want to try new ones. I’d much rather waste a buck-fiddy on ONE beer I end up disliking than a whole 6-pack of them.
I think my point is being missed… 😉
I agree that single bottle sales is awesome! I love trying new beer and if I don’t have to gamble with a six-pack purchase in order to figure out if I like it, that’s great!
What I don’t see is the benefit of “building your own six pack” when there is no discount associated for buying six beers. All you are getting is the liberty to put six different beers into a single cardboard holder, which really isn’t all that awesome if there is no price savings included.
Speaking of weird beers, we never did plan our beer-muda triangle beerfest. Now that we have a beer-muda square it might be time. Maybe in the spring, when the weather is nicer and I (hopefully) have the new deck?
@ Sal, thanks again for such a great weekend, I really enjoyed myself, even if all I could say when I was finished was that it sucked, I’m already looking forward to next year. Thanks for the picture also, I think I was trying to smile.
I’m down with a weird-beer drinking day. While perusing my basement last weekend I was shocked how much “can’t buy in GA” beer I had stocked up in the basement.
Sal, last weekend sucked. Didn’t you read Monday’s blog. 🙂 LOL! If there is a picture of my smiling on trail it’s a faked rye smile because I was in massive pain for the most part.
Damn, I’m a little ticked! I just updated my Taco Mac beer list, adding the three that I had last night. However, I’ve noticed that the three beers I consumed on August 18th are not found on my master list that was printed out last night. Argh!
“Damn, I’m a little ticked! I just updated my Taco Mac beer list, adding the three that I had last night. However, I’ve noticed that the three beers I consumed on August 18th are not found on my master list that was printed out last night. Argh!”
Paulie has such a problems in life 😉
Well, I much prefer him complaining about his damn beer problem than his non existent love life!
You people kill me. I’m lucky to have so many problems about which to bitch. 😉
Still blogging at 11:14? Looks like leaving at noon is looking less likely…
Will be on the road by 1:00 PM