Thursday, July 21, 2005
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Ain't no stoppin' us in Copperopolis!
Rhonda and I frantically trying to get things together for the weekend. At 2 we'll be at Erica and Randy's wedding up in the O, then we'll be headed out east to Copperopolis to help out at the retreat. Which means an entire weekend in which no unpacking will be done. On the plus side, it's also a weekend free of trips to either Target or Home Depot.
I did get that dresser put together on Thursday night. I implore IKEA to put time estimates on their boxes. Or maybe a skill level, like a model kit.
More good news, Rhonda passed her CSET and her future as a teacher is pretty much secure once she finishes her remaining classes. We celebrated at Ramen Halu. I don't know how she can eat there so often.
OK, time to get packing. Long weekend ahead. Hopefully I'll be alive and back blogging next week.
I did get that dresser put together on Thursday night. I implore IKEA to put time estimates on their boxes. Or maybe a skill level, like a model kit.
More good news, Rhonda passed her CSET and her future as a teacher is pretty much secure once she finishes her remaining classes. We celebrated at Ramen Halu. I don't know how she can eat there so often.
OK, time to get packing. Long weekend ahead. Hopefully I'll be alive and back blogging next week.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
I fought the MALM and the MALM won
Dear IKEA,
I want to take a second to tell you how much I love your cheap particle-board furniture. Instead of only being able to afford a couple of nice pieces of furniture, my wife and I can buy a houseful of good-looking but mediocre quality furniture.
However, I have to say the instructions for your 6-drawer MALM dresser are disappointing. It's disheartening enough there are more steps to the assembly than hours in a day, and that I had to dig through a giant bag of screws and nails and little wooden pegs to find four screws for one of the early steps.
The coup de grace is that the next-to-last step is to install a brace to keep the thing from falling over and crushing someone in an earthquake. The problem is this could have been done way, way sooner. To make things much more fun for me, there was no hole in the smooth particle board surface for the wood screw. Because the dresser was already assembled, I had to try awkwardly to screw the screw in, upside-down and with my left hand, as there was no room to hold the screw with my left and the screwdriver with my right.
Finally, I just flipped the heavy bastard upside down so I could get the screw in right-handed and right side up. Of course, that was not after a solid twenty minutes of obscenities that will surely need to be apologized for this weekend at retreat.
So please, tell Nils or Inga or whoever designed this monstrosity to a) help a brother out by pre-drilling a small hole for the wood screw, and b) moving step 24 to, like, step 8. If the assembly time can be shortened to, say, a couple hours instead of a couple days, that would also be appreciated.
Cheers,
Chris
I want to take a second to tell you how much I love your cheap particle-board furniture. Instead of only being able to afford a couple of nice pieces of furniture, my wife and I can buy a houseful of good-looking but mediocre quality furniture.
However, I have to say the instructions for your 6-drawer MALM dresser are disappointing. It's disheartening enough there are more steps to the assembly than hours in a day, and that I had to dig through a giant bag of screws and nails and little wooden pegs to find four screws for one of the early steps.
The coup de grace is that the next-to-last step is to install a brace to keep the thing from falling over and crushing someone in an earthquake. The problem is this could have been done way, way sooner. To make things much more fun for me, there was no hole in the smooth particle board surface for the wood screw. Because the dresser was already assembled, I had to try awkwardly to screw the screw in, upside-down and with my left hand, as there was no room to hold the screw with my left and the screwdriver with my right.
Finally, I just flipped the heavy bastard upside down so I could get the screw in right-handed and right side up. Of course, that was not after a solid twenty minutes of obscenities that will surely need to be apologized for this weekend at retreat.
So please, tell Nils or Inga or whoever designed this monstrosity to a) help a brother out by pre-drilling a small hole for the wood screw, and b) moving step 24 to, like, step 8. If the assembly time can be shortened to, say, a couple hours instead of a couple days, that would also be appreciated.
Cheers,
Chris
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Helter Swelter
Just stepped out to grab a burger and, damn, it's hot out there.
What, it's supposed to be 102 today in Stockton?
Heh, never mind.
What, it's supposed to be 102 today in Stockton?
Heh, never mind.
Now playing
Before I forget, here is a link to the wedding video(!). You'll need to install Quicktime 7, which means if you're like me and you are on UNIX, you are S.O.L.
But that's OK, because you can also download the video for your PSP (that's Playstation Portable for all you who don't know, which would make the last paragraph completely useless as far as you are concerned).
So if you don't have a Mac or Windows or a PSP, then, yes, you truly are S.O.L. :)
But that's OK, because you can also download the video for your PSP (that's Playstation Portable for all you who don't know, which would make the last paragraph completely useless as far as you are concerned).
So if you don't have a Mac or Windows or a PSP, then, yes, you truly are S.O.L. :)
Prepare to meet your matcha
The matcha green tea Frappuccino Rhonda enjoyed at Starbucks Shinjuku Station has come stateside. They're also coming out with green iced tea and green iced tea lemonade.The Greener Side of Frappuccino® Blended Beverages
We actually had it at the Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble in the Campbell Pruneyard about three weeks ago, but I had heard nothing since and thought maybe it was just a test market. This morning though, the Starbucks near work was decorated in green and it made Yahoo! News, so I guess it's getting a push.
Rhonda says it is too sweet; we think they added a shot of vanilla syrup or something to sweeten it up for the big fatties of America. Or it could be the barista at B&N messed up. In either case, give it a shot.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Geek Celeb Sighting
I just went down to the caf to get some Chinese food and walked by James Gosling and his, for lack of a better word, entourage. Which, to someone who studied computer science in the mid-to-late-Nineties, is pretty friggin' cool.
I guess when you've invented the most important programming language in the past quarter of a century, you deserve to have some other geeks follow you around.
I guess when you've invented the most important programming language in the past quarter of a century, you deserve to have some other geeks follow you around.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
In other news...
The cable modem was set up today, as I was finally able to find the box with the router in it. Thanks to everyone who left comments on the house...
Dad scored us the scratch-and-dent special from Lowe's on a washer and dryer, so we'll be heading down to Stockton to pick those up in the morning. Rhonda's mom is staying with us for a couple days to help unpack, and probably to put our yard on life support as it's looking ugly.
Rhonda and I finally moved everything out of the apartment today (well, everything we plan to keep), and Marv and Jess came by to pick up my TV. Hopefully they were able to get it up their stairs without bodily harm.
Our delivery from IKEA came yesterday. Our leather couches look and feel fantastic, and they better since we spent five hours and over $2000 there last Friday. Our living room is starting to look like a picture from the catalog and is definitely the room in the best shape right now. I picked up a weight machine from the house down the street for thirty bucks (thanks, DJ) and some chairs off craigslist.
Lastly, no new home is complete without some new tech. So we picked up this at the Sears Outlet, and our smallish living room now looks like a movie theater. Giants games in high def are so clear and amazing you almost forget how much they've been sucking this season.
If I can find the digital camera and the USB cable, pics will follow.
Dad scored us the scratch-and-dent special from Lowe's on a washer and dryer, so we'll be heading down to Stockton to pick those up in the morning. Rhonda's mom is staying with us for a couple days to help unpack, and probably to put our yard on life support as it's looking ugly.
Rhonda and I finally moved everything out of the apartment today (well, everything we plan to keep), and Marv and Jess came by to pick up my TV. Hopefully they were able to get it up their stairs without bodily harm.
Our delivery from IKEA came yesterday. Our leather couches look and feel fantastic, and they better since we spent five hours and over $2000 there last Friday. Our living room is starting to look like a picture from the catalog and is definitely the room in the best shape right now. I picked up a weight machine from the house down the street for thirty bucks (thanks, DJ) and some chairs off craigslist.
Lastly, no new home is complete without some new tech. So we picked up this at the Sears Outlet, and our smallish living room now looks like a movie theater. Giants games in high def are so clear and amazing you almost forget how much they've been sucking this season.
If I can find the digital camera and the USB cable, pics will follow.
Lights-out weekend
Saturday was Moving Day. We had lots of help and, although we weren't totally packed, got most of the important things in the new house. Our help stuck around for a couple hours to watch the Giants game and have some appreciation tacos and beer, and after they left I got started putting together our bed.
We could hear that some people in our neighborhood were getting an early start on the July 4th weekend, as there were some firecrackers going off. So I had gotten about halfway through the bed when the lights dimmed a little. Then they were out.
I couldn't make this up.
Rhonda and I got a little panicky. After all, it was pitch black at 11 o'clock, we weren't very used to the layout of the house, God knows what was littered all over the floors, and neither of us had a clue where the flashlights, candles, or matches were. There was also the creeping feeling that maybe our new house had some electrical problem no one had told us about.
After stumbling around in the dark, one of us had the bright idea to find our cell phones. So in the dim glow of our phones, we were able to find the mattress and our pillows and set up camp on the living room floor. I went outside and saw the street lights were out, which made me relieved that it wasn't just our problem.
In the morning, we met our neighbor Kimo from the down the street, and he told us this is only the third time in thirty years the power has gone out. Lucky us, I guess. We didn't get power until three in the afternoon.
We could hear that some people in our neighborhood were getting an early start on the July 4th weekend, as there were some firecrackers going off. So I had gotten about halfway through the bed when the lights dimmed a little. Then they were out.
I couldn't make this up.
Rhonda and I got a little panicky. After all, it was pitch black at 11 o'clock, we weren't very used to the layout of the house, God knows what was littered all over the floors, and neither of us had a clue where the flashlights, candles, or matches were. There was also the creeping feeling that maybe our new house had some electrical problem no one had told us about.
After stumbling around in the dark, one of us had the bright idea to find our cell phones. So in the dim glow of our phones, we were able to find the mattress and our pillows and set up camp on the living room floor. I went outside and saw the street lights were out, which made me relieved that it wasn't just our problem.
In the morning, we met our neighbor Kimo from the down the street, and he told us this is only the third time in thirty years the power has gone out. Lucky us, I guess. We didn't get power until three in the afternoon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)