Fourth of July...8,500 bottle rockets
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August 30, 2006
August 28, 2006
Allergy season cometh....
- Do you love Bacon? Do you love wallets? If only there was a way to combine those two great loves into a single thing. If only there was a bacon wallet. Jen totally found that one today.
- Interesting article on Micro houses and how they can affect the Urban sprawl and real estate bubbles. Think of it like a space age IKEA trailer and it'll make more sense.
- 3 Amazing photo's. One. Two. Three. I mean I've done some crazy things, but that's just nuts. And keep in mind I was just rock wall climbing last week.
- Oh yeah, I've been meaning to post a link to this for months. It's the best coffee cake you'll ever have in your life. No, seriously. I had some at the BBQ we had earlier and I don't think I included a link to the recipe.
- Tim sent me this a few days ago, More Jiffy Lube mechanics screwing people over, but this time on video. It just drives me nuts that there are crooks like this out there taking advantage of people.
You make kitty scared in the record shop
August 27, 2006
Power switch pinout for Dimension 8300
So I got this comment posted early today on my post about changing the case on my Dimension 8300:
so now i'm just trying to get the thing back together, exept i ripped the front panel ribbon right off of its connector. whoops again. so now the front power switch doesn't work. any idea which pins on the motherboard correspond to the powersitch? i may just wire a switch directly to it.
It seems he caught me in a generous mood, so I took my computer apart and did a little tracing. The connector on the motherboard looks scary, but there's nothing amazing going on aside from just putting a whole bunch of stuff in one single cable. The power switch is simply pins 20 and 21 on the ribbon cable. Just a standard momentary switch. I even took a picture:
August 26, 2006
Mysterious Rattle on my Insight
When we were driving back from O'Hare after our Honeymoon we both heard a weird rattle in my car. I didn't really think much of it because I just assumed it was some debris or something dragging along underneath (happens all the time with branches in my driveway).
So we pull over after our exit, and I can't see a darn thing under the car. So I start it back up and sure as shit it starts rattling away like a pebble in a tin can. So at this point I'm really happy of course, and I can't see anything...and honestly I'm not to comfortable chilling on the side of the road waiting for some schmuck to hit me. So we head home.
Getting home, the rattles just hella back, sounds like crap anytime the RPM's hit 2k, and honestly it's just really embarrassing to drive. I mean it's really loud. So all week I'm thinking a baffle came loose inside the catalytic converter or something, and I'm gonna have to shell out lot's of money. This is of course after I put it up on ramps and even jacked it onto two wheels to get underneath and poke at stuff. I couldn't find anything.
So today (and thank god I have a sister who runs a repair shop and is foolish enough to let me use it) I put the Insight up on the lift so I could get a good look underneath. What I found was that one of the heat shields on the secondary catalytic converter had some rust issues.....the two front bolts were still in place, but the metal connecting them had rusted right through, so at certain speeds and rpm's it was rattling like crazy using the rear two bolts as pivots. I meant they were so rusted I couldn't even get them off with a 10mm socket. So I ended up just taking off the shield and two back bolts. Voila! That damn, super loud rattle was gone.
And here's a diagram, with a star next to it to show the specific heat shield I took off...
You have no idea how relieved I am it was this easy to fix...
August 24, 2006
They call it a vacation, but the work just really waits for you
Man, it's going to take a while to catch up on all the stuff that happened while we were gone. Just picking up the house with all the hours Jen is working will take days.
So I'm still sifting through the 300mb of pictures we took on the vacation, rotating, cropping, adjusting contrast and stuff will take me at least a few days if not weeks. But our photographers have posted a sample collage they made while we were on our honeymoon.
We haven't seen any of the wedding pictures yet, so this is a first for us as well. Very nice of them to put something up like this so quickly.
August 23, 2006
Jen forwarded me this
Quickie..1
One day, a man came home and was greeted by his wife dressed in a very sexy nightie. "Tie me up," she purred, "and you can do anything you want." So he tied her up and went fishing.
Quickie ..2
A woman came home, screeching her car into the driveway, and ran into the house. She slammed the door and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Honey, pack your bags. I won the damn lottery!"The husband said, "Oh my God! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?" "Doesn't matter," she said. "Just get the hell out."
Quickie ..3
Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a husband.
Quickie ..4
A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to apply for a driver's license.First, of course, he had to take an eye sight test. The optician showed him a card with the letters: 'C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.' "Can you read this?" the optician asked."Read it?" the Polish guy replied, "I know the guy."
Quickie ..5
Mother Superior called all the nuns together and said to them, "I must tell you all something. We have a case of gonorrhea in the convent.""Thank God,said an elderly nun at the back. "I'm so tired of chardonnay."
Quickie ..6
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen."Careful," he said, "CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my GOD! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful...CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them.You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!!! THE SALT!!!" The wife stared at him. "What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?"The husband calmly replied, "I wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving
we're back
We're back from the Honeymoon and still playing clean up. We'll post later on after catching up on all the stuff to do.
August 20, 2006
UHF was awesome
August 18, 2006
number 1, I order you to take a number 2
August 16, 2006
Cute kitty pics
August 12, 2006
The best a man can get...
Well this is it, I'm as good looking now as I'll ever be in my life. It's all down hill from here, so come and get it while it's hot Jen, cause it's not gonna last long :P
August 11, 2006
Cruise control
Well, as of right now everything is set to go and is on autopilot. The officiant has been confirmed, the florist, musician, tux yadda yadda. My biggest responsibility right now is making sure I comb my hair right tomorrow.
Speaking of which ....I should probably get to bed. Tomorrow is a big day.
August 10, 2006
Master pooper's in da house....boooooyie!
Thought I"d share with you a humorous little handyman related story.
So, I'm getting married in....oh two days....and some of her family is coming from out of town. Now they are all staying with us which is no problem, but the only real kink is that means 6 people for one bathroom, and a downstairs 1/2 bath. Of course this is all my fault because I decided to demo the master bath to studs because we were going to redesign it.
Now I am a man who appreciates his bathroom time. I might want a book, a magazine, or perhaps to silently muse over the meaning of life and how we live it. But to suddenly triple the ratio of booty to porcelain is just crazy talk.
So I created the Ghetto toilet 2000 out of old parts lying around and a new wax ring. Oh and let's not forget the scrap 7/16" plywood left over from the subfloor project 2 years ago.
It ain't much...but it's all mine (and of course the mrs's)
August 09, 2006
3 days and counting....
So in the last few days we've really kicked getting the house ready into high gear. I've hung and swung two doors, and we finally got them painted. That and a thousand other little things that you don't realize you need to finish until 4 people come to stay with you.
Yesterday we picked up our bathtub from the Expo center, and some other furniture. And two days ago we picked up this little guy:
It's a wedding gift from my sister to Jen and I, a Fujitsu 50" plasma TV. They look all sleek and sexy, but let me tell you they are just as farking heavy as a big TV almost. But man...you shoud see my computer hooked up to that thing, it's AMAZING.....you can easily read the text and everything, it just treats it like a big monitor. Plus with using the DVI input the graphics on video games just pop out at you.
The only problem is, once you have a TV like this, you can really see how crappy standard TV is....it almost makes upgrading to HD a necessity. So yeah....thanks alot terri....ya bum :)
Seeing as how I've been so busy, I have a backlog of random pictures I was going to throw up here, so there they are in no particular order:
Nibbler playing in the shipping boxes from some wedding gifts
Gizmo forcing his love upon Nibbler
A picture of me trying to give away my last wiener...yeah, that doesn't sound good does it. Taken at the BBQ we had a while back
And last but not least....just a funny free internet coupon pic I stumbled across
Ok, gotta go...lot's to do today and not much time...
August 05, 2006
frustrated
I just spent 4 hours trying to install the most warped door in the world in our bathroom.
6 days till we're married, and 2 days until the in laws start arriving and we have no bathroom door.
it is truly a communal shitter right now.
I hate you Mastercraft....I hate you so much right now. I'm going to have to head out first thing tomorrow morning now and pick up a new one (only because every other door is mastercraft) and install it. 3 boxes of shims couldn't make your crappy workmanship straight. And when I was straight and level, you were cockeyed and wonkey. When I tried to move the door stop you just silently laughed to yourself. I hate you with the depth of a hundred poo flinging monkeys that have been eating nothing but cheetos and green tea.
grrrrrrr....rrrrrr................rrrr....
August 04, 2006
we have so many boxes right now in our living room
Man, I tell ya. I'm shocked at how much stuff we've received this week. The generosity of people right now really means a whole lot. I really look forward to sitting down after the wedding and writing thank you cards....which is right up there with "wants clothese for christmas" as a sign of me getting older.
So my DSL went down today...again...and somehow swapping out my Efficient 5861 router (with another spare one I had) solved the problem. It's totally weird....but maybe it's time to move on. What I'd really like to get my hands on now is a Netopia 3346n-002 to play with. And Bed Bath and Beyond didn't have any to put on the registry :P
Also I'm happy to report that my finger is feeling better. I smashed it with the hammer yesterday when putting in the door in the office :( In 30 years of odd jobs I've never banged my finger this badly before....farkin' hurts, but at least I was able to drain it. Then again I'm probably just a big baby.
August 03, 2006
Replacing a door 101
So I'm all about replacing the doors in our house, from the cheap hollow core doors to solid wood ones that we bought a while ago. And thinking it might be of some interest, I took some pictures.
Ok, so first what I did was rip the old one out. Now normally this would go a little quicker, but since I didn't want to ruin it I was careful to not damage it. I mean hell, it's a cheap door...but it still works and somebody might want it someday. First thing is run a razor blade along the trim so youd don't rip the paint off the wall. So after prying off the door trim I start to pry the jambs into the center, and then push them back so the nails poke through the wood putty enough so I can remove them on one side. Then I remove them, and I'm a big fan of the vise grip/pry bar method for this:
Ok, so in theory the old door is out. So what I do is clean up any left over nails, wrap up the old door, and stare in amazement at how crooked the wall it. Then I remember that there's no such thing as a straight wall in my house and move on.
Now to unpack the new door and install it. Sounds easy right? I've got a box of 8d nails and 2 packs of shims. Turns out I'll use most of them....this house is the devil. So I take the door off the jamb frame, and then put the frame in the rough door opening. Making sure to add a few shims on the bottom to take it off the pergo, and then I add a couple right above the first hinge and in the same place on the other side. Once I'm happy with the "centeredness" off the door in the rough I nail in the top hinge, middle and bottom hinge....then usually add some right at the very bottom to stop any bowing. One more tip, use a shim to protect the door stop strip while hammering....
Once the hinges are all secured, I put the door back on so I can align the strike plate jamb, you know to keep the distance uniform. Now I usually end up using like 5 different points at least, sometimes 6...whatever it takes to keep the thing level. If you take a look at some pics you'll really get an idea of how bad it can get sometimes.
a href="http://dennisjudd.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=house&id=IMGP3879">
That's pretty much it.....
August 02, 2006
10 days to go...
Haven't posted for a few days with things being as busy as they are. Honestly I'm really looking forward to the time off from work for the honeymoon to rest and recoup myself a bit.
With everything going on I just think I'm a little over taxed right now, of course it's probably my fault cause I spend a lot of my time during the day to troubleshoot individual user issues and help out with other issues that affect our customers. For some reason when I see an outage of 15k customer, I just can't help but want to get involved, even if it is only sitting on a bridge listening ninja style. I think i'm to nosey sometimes....but fixing stuff is always more exciting than building it for some reason.
so yesterday was my sister's bday, and I think probably I nailed the best gift evar catagory. We had the same jewler who was making our rings make her a pendant. I think she liked it...I probably should have snapped a picture before we gave it to her. It's cool though, I don't want to be all "look what we got her" and stuff like that. I just think that we did good. Sometimes it's hard to think of gifts for people. Of course it didn't hurt that the diamond had belonged to my mom, so we had that already.