Nothin Much...

Just have some random things.

The Shutters....

Sharkey thought it was a good idea to take our outside shutters down to paint. They were a bit faded, I have to admit. I thought, "sure how hard would that be?" Well, our 2nd story is about 20 feet high. So I borrowed the neighbor's extension ladder. I was able to remove the shutters, but on the ladder, it started to do the shifting thing. And when you are 20 feet off the ground that's not so good. So shaking profusely I came down. I thought there has to be a better way to put them back up. My thoughts were this: "Hey I worked for Habitat for Humanity last year and they use scaffolding. I'm going to use scaffolding."

So off to the Home Depot we went. The rental guy asked us how high we were going. I said 20 feet. He said, you know instead of assembling, disassembling scaffolding you could probably get the job done with a 14 foot "A" frame ladder. We thought sure we'll give it a try and maybe that'll save us some money. Anyhow, here's how it worked for us:

It was too darn short!! I could only reach the bottom holes easily and the middle drill holes only by stretching. Lesson here is that a 14 foot ladder doesn't get you 14 feet in the air. It's more like 11-12 feet. So $50 later, we returned the ladder and picked up some Home Depot scaffolding 2 days later. Sure this entire folly cost us $200, but the money I spent wouldn't even have touched my medical deductible. And hey, I didn't die in a 20 foot fall from putting up painted shutters! BONUS!!!!

My Fight with the lawnmower....

So I was cutting the grass on Saturday and noticed one of the wheels was the wrong height in the front of the mower. So I shut it off then I proceeded to adjust the wheel from the side. Unfortunately I forgot that the mower's exhaust port gets extremely hot. So I have a really nice burn on my right wrist. It was amazing how quickly it happened, how stupid I felt when I did it, and how many colorful metaphors I was yelling in the back yard!!

How's This for Big Brother...

So when I bought my MacBook I decided to take advantage of Apple's financing package of 90 days same as cash. No problem, I have a great credit rating so I applied for the account in the store. Well you provide the normal stuff: name, address, employer, annual income, checking accounts, homeowner/renter, etc. So I filled that out and went to the next application screen. To confirm my identity, the next screen asked me questions about my oldest brother. Where he lived, how many kids he has, and what industry he's employed in. They were multiple choice questions, but I thought to myself, "HOW IN THE HECK DID IT LINK US TOGETHER!!!!" Think about it. Based on the information I gave it, there's some database that tracks my relatives and their families so it can ask me multiple choice questions about them. WHOA!!!!!

Apple's new Shuffle....

I'm a technogeek as you know. Yesterday Apple had a media event where they announced new products for this year. Check out the new Shuffle. I might have to get me one of these....

Where's That Slap-O-matic When I need it?

Today was a fun day at the job. I had to explain to a person on my team how our processes work and how the timing of things needs to happen. Mind you this person has been on my team for 2 years now. Can you say, "C L U E L E S S ! ! !" The worst part is he's so freakin' unaccountable too. That's a bad combo. Clueless and not accountable. This is especially bad when you are a project manager. My one regret about turning down the manager job was I could of gotten rid of him!!! I totally had to step away from that situation before I blasted him today. Where's that JP Slap-O-Matic when you need it?? Actually, I may have a new invention for this type of person, the JP Boot-O-Matic.