by on July 24, 2007

Quick Apartment Update: Clean and Dry

The carpet is still a bit damp from the water extraction and cleaning, but the place smells better than before the big blow up. After working 10 hours yesterday, I didn’t have much in me to do anything, but it meant a lot to K, so I got up the gumption and busted out the following:

  • mopped the bathroom floor with bleach water
  • cleaned both tubs with bleach water
  • cleaned both toilet bowls “just in case”
  • replaced both shower liners
  • washed the dishes that we didn’t get to because of the evacuation
  • delivered a trunk-full of trash from the event to the compactor

Today, dear, sweet K is putting away our overnight bag and tidying up the rest of the apartment to our normal “we’re home and not physically challenged” appearance. I like it that way now that I’m constantly around someone who has shown me what that is like. I used to be the biggest slob in the world, yet I couldn’t stop cleaning last night. Freak. /grin

Filed Under: Personal
by on July 24, 2007

Starbucks Is Raising Prices Next Week


Cooking.comAccording to Reuters, Starbucks is planning to raise drink prices 9 cents per cup because of the increase in the cost of milk. This will be the second price increase in less than a year. Though the story does not directly state it, we know for a fact that milk prices are rising because the corn normally fed to cows is now being fed to our cars because of the big push for ethanol.

Livestock farmers are now paying outrageous prices for feed for their herds because corn farmers are sitting on what amounts to oil fields. When is someone going to come up with an idea that doesn’t affect nearly every stinking item on the market? The only thing we could to worse to our food economy that I can think of off-hand is to raise sugar prices. Sure, we might be healthier, if people actually stopped consuming sugar, but that won’t happen for a very, very long time.

Filed Under: Blogging
by on July 23, 2007

Add Bling to Your Posts; Use Royalty-Free Photos

View My PortfolioI have noticed and read a lot about how a simple image brings a lot to a post, especially an intriguing article. It relates to the reader, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Who wouldn’t want to add 1,000 words to each post in such a small space?

I recently started using iStockphoto.com to get small images that I can use in my posts and use for series identification and better story-telling. My own photos don’t always bring as much emotion to what I write as I’d like, so I used to just leave it as stand-alone text. That was a mistake.

More things to remember; very important things that will save you a lot of grief:

  • Don’t copy random images from Google image search. They could legally belong to someone.
  • Don’t ruin a good picture with a stupid title or alteration. Use good design sense.
  • Try to complement or contrast your blog’s color scheme when you can.
  • Do your best to choose a picture that contributes (adds more) to your post.

Purchasing a royalty-free photo or graphic will put you at ease from being issued an order to remove a picture and improve your blog’s curb appeal.

What other ways do you see images helping your posts or documents?

UPDATE:

I was remiss in adding something that I wrote for my primary blog a long time ago:

Easy Bling for Your Blog Without Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is crazy expensive, so not everyone has good tools to edit their shots. What if you could use an online editor and then save it back to your computer or upload it directly to your Flickr account? Pix-en-ate lets you do just that. FOR FREE!

Filed Under: Blogging, Design, Writing
by on July 23, 2007

Back to the Basics #2: Be Grateful for What You Have

Back to BasicsIt is amazing how much we take for granted in America. Sometime around 11:00 am, I was pondering how blessed we are to have a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms so early in our marriage. To get a house that has any more than what we have now (that can support more people and guests), it’s going to take a house as nice as my family finally got after I was 16. Wow. Those thoughts quickly disappeared into how bad things can get in a flash.

Just after noon, one bathroom backed up, but not in any normal way I have ever seen. We’re talking major overflow and the toilet just would not stop. I had to tip-toe through 1/2″ of toilet water to get to the valve to shut off the water. Of course, this deeply disturbed upset my wife, and freaked me out, because I saw water seeping into the edge of the bedroom carpeting (no molding piece to keep water in the bathroom… brilliant!). We quickly got a towel (ineffective in every sense of your imagination) and our bucket and sponge mop. By the time I got half of the bucket full, there wasn’t any water left on the floor; it had all been absorbed by our master bedroom’s carpet!

Maintenance on-call said “ok” to my issue, but didn’t say anything more. An hour later, I went to the clubhouse to complain to a live person and the maintenance guy was there calling a “real plumber,” as he called them. As it turns out, my entire building was experiencing problems. I went back home and we waited and watched TV to take our minds off of the mess of towels and stuff everywhere.

At least it wasn't this badThen the second bathroom did the same thing, but stopped at the top of the bowl. I turned off the valve there, and went to see if the plumber was there yet. Nope. Minutes later, we heard major plumbing gurgling, so I thought that things were moving again. Yes they were, but not in the right direction. Things were moving into our tubs, one clear and one… let’s say cloudy. Ewww. Both tubs were at least 10″ full and the water level was just below the drains in the sinks. Crap (no pun intended).

By then it was time to start a contingency plan for the night. We called K’s parents and they laughingly said to pack our bags for a couple of days (which may not end up being too far off the mark) and come on over for a lasagna dinner.

As we left, we asked the maintenance guy whether it was him or the plumber that was going to be him or the plumber that was going to clean our tubs. He (hopefully ignorantly) said, “Neither. As soon as it gets unclogged, the water will go down and all we have to do is rinse it with warm water.” Right. I love rinsing e-coli with water. We’ll see what the weekday maintenance guys and the property manager say today when I call.

Got a toilet that flushes and dry flooring? Enjoy it. I know we will when we get it again.

UPDATE: K stopped by on the way to work this morning and saw a carpet cleaning service business card in the door. It said “water extracted, carpet cleaned” in handwriting. She opened the door and saw a nicely cleaned carpet throughout the entire apartment (even the office) and the tubs were debris-free. She got new shower liners already and we’ll clean the tubs with bleach and vinegar when I get home.

Related Post:

Back to the Basics #1: The Golden Rule

Filed Under: Back to the Basics, Personal
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