Category Archives: Chuckling

The Long and Winding Road: Our Journey with Contractors

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First the good news: the project is finally completed. When our last cat Kirby died in March we realized this was probably our best opportunity to get some projects completed in the house. Our home was built in 1969 and has been well taken care of. The previous owner sank a great deal of money into the kitchen and that was one the things that attracted us to the house. We were, however, a little puzzled that the master bathroom had not been touched and had all the original fixtures. We’d known for a long time that we wanted to update it.

We also thought this was a good time to replace the flooring. Most of the house (except the kitchen and bathrooms) had hardwood flooring and while we like not having to care for carpeting, it was time for a new floor. We like the look and feel of bamboo flooring and also like that it is “green” (ie, more renewable than other hardwood floors).

We also had a good contractor in mind. They are friends (actually she is Nancy’s brother’s ex girlfriend, but “friends” is an expansive term). That meant we trusted them to work on our house when we were on vacation the beginning of May. We realize what a gift we had that we could leave town and know the job was getting done. The original hope was that they would start work the day we left and by the time we were back the floor would be complete and the bathroom would be mostly complete. We expected it to take 2 to 3 weeks.

We should have known better; it’s finally finished after about 5 weeks. In the interim it’s been a comedy of unforeseen/unforeseeable delays and errors on the parts of some of the suppliers. The bathroom pretty much went as planned and that wasn’t the problem. The flooring, on the other hand, was a different story.

Here’s how it went from my memory:

  • The first part of the job was to remove the old flooring. That’s normally a pretty easy process as there are standards on how floors are laid in the beginning. However, whoever laid the original flooring used some kind of glue or cement that I can only describe as Kryptonite that went directly on the slab under the house. The guys who were doing the job had to literally jackhammer the old flooring off. About the time the floor was supposed to be completed they were about 75% of the way toward removing the old floor.
  • They underestimated the square footage of the flooring they needed to order. We asked for some decorative work to be done just inside the front door and this threw off the estimate. This meant that when they were completing the job they ran out of wood with only 2/3 of the spare room done. The whole thing had to stop while more flooring had to be ordered and shipped from the East Coast.
  • Here’s where it actually gets frustrating: Ordering more of something that you’ve already ordered should be a fairly simple job. But the flooring people (and let’s be clear here, not the contractor) ordered the wrong stuff three different times. Each time it had to be sent back and the new order had to wend it’s way across the country. Oh yes, and when the correct stuff did arrive, it needed to “season” in the house for 3 days before it was installed.

Again, the end result was excellent and we are pleased with the flooring, but exasperated at how long it took. What was supposed to be finished around May 10th wasn’t done until June 5th. And again, to be fair, we were thrilled with the contractors and highly recommend them (let me know if you need a reference) and they have learned to stop using these flooring guys. Also, I was clear that I’d rather have it done right than fast and didn’t accept any suggestions of shortcuts.

We’re glad it’s over. Next step: a new cat. Stay tuned.

Baltimore: It's No Hawaii

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It’s the beginning of May and that means it’s time for Nancy’s annual PAS meeting. Last year was in Hawaii and we knew it would be hard to beat. While Nancy goes to meetings, I get to explore the city and do some genealogy research. Or at least I could if it weren’t raining the whole time. We’re planning to leave today and it’s been raining nonstop since we arrived.

Baltimore may appear to be a strange place to do family tree research, but there is a connection. Some of my ancestors were Acadians who inhabited present day Nova Scotia (I was called “Acadia” then). In 1763 the British deported them. My ancestors went to New Brunswick, many went to New Orleans (where they became Cajuns) and a few went to Baltimore. One of these was my 2nd cousin, 6 times removed, Daniel LeBlanc (1729-1810) who died in Baltimore. The chance of finding his tombstone is essentially nil (the original cemetery was abandoned and the bodies moved with the stone. Stones at that point were marble and would not have survived 200 years and a move) but perhaps there were some descendants I could trace. Alas, the idea of taking a bus halfway across town and tramping around a cemetery in the pouring rain didn’t sound very appealing and I’ll have to wait until my next trip to Baltimore for this.

The good news department is that we leave today for Virginia. My nephew Nathan is graduating from Old Dominion University on May 9th and I’ll be able to be there for that. I just hope the weather breaks.

Final Score: Skunk 1, Cat 0

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As many of you know, Nancy and I are supervised by an 18 year old cat, Kirby. Lately he’s been showing his age and now every morning I have to give him blood pressure medication. Lovely. Anyway, last night he decided to “make friends” with a skunk who had gotten into the backyard. It didn’t go well for anyone, except perhaps, the skunk.

If anyone is interested, the old standby, tomato juice, does not work. The recipe for getting rid of the smell is not, as you may think, tomato juice. Here’s what you do: 4 cups Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 cup Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon dish soap. Now for the fun part: mix them together and rub them into the cat’s fur. That’s right: mix a liquid into the cat’s fur. It combines all the fun of giving the cat a bath with the added benefit of using a liquid that burns his eyes. Fortunately the skunk did most of his damage on Kirby’s paw and we didn’t need to do much to his face.

Now to get the smell out of the house….

The Prius Enters His "Terrible Two's"

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The beauty of buying a car on St. Patrick’s Day is that it’s easy to remember the anniversary. It was two years ago today that I bought my Prius. As of today I have 53,900 miles on it. That sounds pretty substantial and I guess it is, but given my job and the miles I drive for work, it’s not bad. If you’re interested in the math, that comes out to 26,950 per year, or 2,246 per month, or almost 74 miles per day. I’m still getting about 45 miles per gallon and I have one of those coveted stickers that allows me to drive alone in the carpool lanes. All in all, not a bad deal.

From Super Tuesday to the Potomac Primaries, and Why Is the Delegate Count So Confusing?

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It’s now a week since Super Tuesday and it appears that the nomination picture is slowly coming into focus. On the Republican side Mitt Romney dropped out of the race; that made some sense as he and Mike Huckabee appeared to be splitting the social conservative vote. Interestingly enough his exit speech talked primarily about Iraq and the War on Terror which was never a major part of his campaign.

This has essentially paved the way for John McCain who is now the presumptive nominee of his party. You would think this would be good news for the GOP but it isn’t. Long simmering hatred of John McCain has boiled over, especially with Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. I have to confess I don’t know much about what they are saying as I don’t have the stomach to listen or read very much.

I’m still trying to keep track of the delegates. It’s become dramatically more difficult and complicated than I thought. I’m writing this before we have the results of the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. primaries, and as I write (for example), NPR gives Barack Obama 994 pledged delegates and 160 super delegates (for a total of 1,154). CNN gives him 1,181; MSNBC gives him 958. Finally Fox News gives him 1,154. Perhaps the best irony is that Fox News and NPR are the only organizations who agree.

I’m using NPR numbers simply because NPR is the news organization where I get most of my news. Right now I’m attempting to keep track of delegates using an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a good way of keeping track but this type of spreadsheet doesn’t translate well into html or xml. In future days I’m hoping to translate these numbers into a table that I can post.

Speaking of the delegate count, I’ve been doing some reading about why this is so confusing. Earlier I talked about how some places are using projections. I’m also learning a great deal about super delegates and uncommitted delegates. The best explanation I’ve heard is from the NPR show Fresh Air on January 31st. Terry Gross interviewed David Rohde from Duke University. Here is a synopsis of some of his points:

  • Several of the candidates who have since dropped out of the campaign had delegates. At the conventions those delegates can still vote for their candidate but don’t have to. They are essentially now free agents and can change their votes at will
  • The states of Florida and Michigan moved their primaries to January against the wishes of their parties. The Democrats say they will refuse to seat any delegates from those states and the Republicans will only seat half of them. That is what they are saying now but there is nothing to stop them from changing their minds and seating those delegates. That could prove to be a nightmare as several candidates didn’t campaign in those states
  • Of the delegates at the convention, the Democratic Party has designated 796 (20% of the total) as “super delegates.” They are senior members of the Democratic National Committee, current, and former office holders. Bill Clinton, by the way, is a super delegate. We can assume he will vote for Hillary and several of these politician have endorsed a candidate but nobody is bound to anyone until the convention.
  • In the Republican Party there are also super delegates, but each state can also allocate delegates who are uncommitted, regardless of who wins the primary or caucus.

Had enough? OK, this puts me at odds with many of my friends, but I love all this chaos and complication. It makes for a more interesting race. Hang on, we’ve got months of this stuff.

Groundhog's Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Tsunami Tuesday, and Mardi Gras: This is Too Much Happiness

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I’m writing this a few hours before Super Bowl XLII. It’s hard to keep up with everything.

Our friend Ann is a big fan of Groundhog’s Day and sent us three haiku’s. I’ve enclosed one:

Rays of sunlight call
Awake, O furry sleeper
Has winter now passed?

Here in San Diego, Super Bowl Sunday has brought with it a bit of a dilemma: It was the New England Patriots who knocked the Chargers out of the playoffs. On the other hand, there is no love loss with the New York Giants because their quarterback is Eli Manning. For the uninitiated, Eli was drafted by the Chargers in 2004 even though his father Archie Manning had previously announced Eli would not play for the Chargers, even if he had to sit out the entire season. The Chargers traded him to the Giants but nobody here has forgotten the snub. As for me, well again this year I just hope it’s a good game.

In the political world we are just a few days from Tsumuni Tuesday (also called Super Tuesday) where 22 states, including California, go to the polls. Most commentators think the nominations may be set by Wednesday only because there are so many delegates are up for grabs. I imagine I’ll be staying up late on Tuesday, because it’s not only Tsunami Tuesday but it’s also…

Mardi Gras: Fortunately most of the festivities happen as the polls are closing but it’s my favorite argument that Catholics are the most fun. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday” and it’s the day before Ash Wednesday. It’s a day for eating, drinking, and exposing one’s self too much because there’s no point in doing penance unless you have something good to confess.

Finally, if you scroll down the left column below all the independent candidates you will find something called a Truth-O-Meter. It’s sponsored by Politifact.com. I heard about them on NPR. They monitor political ads and check to see how truthful they are. Interestingly they allow bloggers like me to place their “widget” on our site without any advertising. This is worth keeping up with.

For What Indeed Is the Sound of a Thousand Termites Dying?

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Today we got back from a few days at the Marriott Residence Inn. It was hardly a vacation as we were there because our house was being tented for termites. Yes, the little critters had found us and were attempting to run the entire house through their digestive system. We worked with Lloyd Pest Control who tented the house on Thursday the 29th and removed the tenting today. They use a lethal gas called Sulfuryl Fluoride (it goes by the brand name Vikane) and it’s serious stuff. Not only did we need to vacate the house but we had to remove all the plants and double bag all the food. It’s nice to know that the house is no longer infested but I’m glad it’s over. It was a major pain having to go to work while living in a hotel; it was also strange knowing that I couldn’t get back into my house. In any case I highly recommend both the Residence Inn and Lloyd Pest Control but I hope you don’t need to use them.

He Clearly Suffers From an Irony Deficiency

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On August 7th Matt Murphy caught Barry Bond’s 756th home run and has become an instant celebrity. The obvious question here is what the 22 year old will do with the ball. It seems obvious that the ball (tainted though it may be) belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. So what do you do if you have something that belongs in the Hall but could fetch $500,000 if sold? Matt’s answer is this: “Ideally, what I would love to happen would be for someone [ie, not me] to buy the ball and donate it to the Hall of Fame. It’s a piece of history and belongs in the Hall.” I guess the idea of donating it himself isn’t an option.