Year: 2007

Grant’s New Computer

Last Thursday Grant sent me an e-mail and said he would like some help in buying a new desktop computer that he could use for e-mail, internet, and QuickBooks. I asked him if he wanted a monitor and he said it should include that. So I went to Dell and priced out a pretty decent system. I had to add a couple of small extras to get it over $600 and get free shipping.

It arrived earlier this week. It still needed a few things. One was some way of getting on Grant’s wireless network. His router is tucked away and he didn’t want to run a cable to the new computer (I don’t blame him). Dell doesn’t seem to offer internal wireless cards for desktop computers. Fortunately Mom had given me her wireless USB thumb drive when Fry’s replaced her laptop with one that already had wireless installed. Also I told Grant I could give him some speakers which saved a few dollars.

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Fixing the Movies

I’ve spent a chunk of the last two weekends going through all of my movie reviews and fixing them up. A lot of times when I write a review, I might reference another movie I’ve reviewed and I’m too lazy at the time to put in a hyperlink reference. Also, because I usually write these on AMUG and then just copy them into a separate file for my web page, I don’t italicize movie titles like I’m supposed to. So I went through all of my reviews (I’m up to 238 movies reviewed over the last 10 years) and fixed them up. It took a lot of time, but at least this weekend I was doing it while I was encoding new episodes from Seinfeld Seasons 3 and 7 DVD’s (which I got a good deal on at Fry’s yesterday; now I have everything through Season 7 and will wait to buy the just-released Season 8 when the price comes down).

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Bathroom: Day 14

The bathrooms are essentially done now. I still need to paint the trim and ceiling, put in towel bars, a mirror in the main bathroom, a shower curtain, etc. But the big stuff is done. Stanley installed the baseboards using pre-primed wood, so in these pictures they look good, but actually still need a final coat of paint. Also I swapped out the old ivory switches and outlets with white ones, which makes them match better. I like the color and the contrast between the white trim, blue walls, and dark brown floor. The hall sink is much higher than a normal sink which is kind of nice.

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Bathroom: Day 13

It’s always a big day when the hardware gets installed. Today the hall bath got shower fixtures, the toilet, and pedestal sink. Stanley worked on touching up some other items and should install the baseboard trim tomorrow. Then it will be up to me to paint the trim and ceiling. The old trim won’t be a picnic. Originally Stanley was going to replace the door, but modern doors have three hinges and old doors like mine only have two, so I think he decided it was more trouble than it was worth to do the door, but that I could pursue replacing all the doors at some point in the future. The problem with the old doors, old trim, and old cabinets is that I just don’t see how they can ever be fixed up to look very good with all the damage and layers of paint they have on them.

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