Robo-pipes!

This structure you see to the left is a result of a ongoing problem with my sink backing up. Saturday night, June and I were sitting on our couch enjoying a movie. We heard a gurgle from the sink. I found it odd, so I took a look. Nothing. But, to be safe, I put the strainer in the drain thinking that would help block anything that might come up the sink. How foolish. A minute later we heard a sound like liquid forcing its way through a tight spot. I ran over to the sink to see brown water rushing into it. BLAAARGH!! So, after bailing out the nasty water to the bathtub, I raised hell with the management and board of our coop. A crew of plumbers came in and busted out a hole to the main pipes and snaked it out with a large electrical snake. And, installed this industrial level piping on my sink. It has a check valve which is supposed to only allow liquid to flow one way. Overkill? Maybe. But, whatever helps water to no come back into my sink is all good. But, to be safe, I purchased this little baby as well. I highly recommend this to anyone that has any problems with backing up pipes. This is made to plug up pipes that have grooves that are too warn away for a screw on stopper. You just place the plug into your drain and turn the bolt. As the bolt tightens, the rubber expands. This creates a air tight seal. They're sold in all kinds of sizes and pressure ratings. I don't think that backing up drains would have that much pressure, so you probably don't have to worry about that. This thing cost me $3.50. Not bad for peace of mind. I got it at my neighborhood hardware store. But, there is much more of a variety online. Now, you know. And, knowing is half... something something. :)

I hear...

...helicopters flying off to the back and to the right. Finally, I have my surround sound. You would think that an audiophile like myself would have been had my surround sound system by now. Alas, I am also frugal, so it took me a long time to justify to myself that I should spend money to have sound surround me. But, as I watched movies, the desire to hear things happen behind me grew stronger. So, I began with picking up the center channel for the clear dialogue straight from the tv and not from a stereo position. And, as the experience was a success, my desire for the full experience grew. My wife sensed this desire growing. Maybe, she just heard me say enough. Either way, she knew I wanted the two speakers to finish my surroundedness. So, for my birthday, she bought me the final speakers to fill out the rear sounds. How awesome is that? Now we watch our movies in glorious surround sound... or we will once I pick up the cables to pull back to connect the speakers. They're fresh out of the box in the photo above. I chose to go with the Bose speakers. I tested Bose sets at many sound rooms and found that this set delivered the fullest sound. Now, I just need a tv and apartment big enough to hold the sound... June?

LEGO me!

I've always been a fan of LEGOs since I can remember. I hadn't played with them since I was small. A little while back I got a job working on some minifigs for LEGO. As I worked on the project I was reminded of how much I enjoyed playing with LEGOs when I was young. And, as I had to get reference for the project, I picked up the coolest set I could find... that didn't cost me too much. So, I got this series called Exoforce. I think its one of the coolest sets they have. I had one robot in this series. I recently found out that LEGO is discontinuing this series, so I had to pick up another robot. I picked up Aero Booster. Above, you see the before.


Here is the after. This series is one of the favorite robot products out there because it brings together two of my favorite things. LEGOs and robots. The fact that its super possible is huge. If you have space, I would highly recommend looking into picking up one of these sets before they are gone forever.

Aaaaand we're back

So, here's the dealio. As you saw in the previous post, we were packing to move to our new place...supposedly. The whole thing fell apart at the last minute. Coops SUCK! If you can do a condo, go for it. The situation is too long to explain. In a nutshell, our management and coop board screwed us. And, we ended up having to pull out of the deal because the board demanded something of us that was not a part of the original arrangement. And, ever since we pulled out, we had been trying to get our downpayment back. If you've attempted to purchase a place before...and had it fall through, you know that this is the tough part. In our case, the seller had good reason to be mad. It would have been aimed at the wrong party, but he still had good reason to be mad. So, we were sweating. We didn't know if we would get our entire downpayment back. The process was started by a termination of contract letter with the request of the return of our downpayment. Then, we waited... and waited. And, waited some more. Our lawyer emailed and called several times to no response. Finally, about a month of this, we threatened to report the seller's lawyer to the bar association. All of sudden we get a response that our check will be Fed Exed to us. With next day delivery even. Obviously, that rat bastard never sent out the check in the first place. Anyway, its all over. We got our entire downpayment back. It's deposited and its in the bank. Thank goodness.

packing up!

So, in the last post, we were starting to tighten up our budget with trips to Trader Joes. And, now, we are have begun the process that we were saving for. Actually, we're coming to the end of the process, but this is the crucial point. Approval, closing, and moving. We're still waiting for our approval meeting and closing. So, we do not officially own our next place yet. But, we have to move whether we get our place or not. A tenant is lined up to move in on the 1st of Feb. So, we are starting to pack up our little studio in preparations to make our move. It's odd how we've been packing a little every night for about a week now, but it still seems like there is so much more to go. There's just boxes piled upon boxes upon boxes. Good thing we have a good source for boxes. We have some good office boxes. Large and small filing boxes. I love how sturdy these are. We'll probably continue to use these for storage in our new place. We also have office moving boxes. Larger even sturdier boxes for moving heavier items. Hopefully, moving the apartment is all we'll need these for. :P Well, back to packing.