Liloia.com Archives: February 2007
February 27, 2007
Stop buying ink cartridges!
I don't mean for you to stop buying them all together, but just stop buying them online from the spammers. What? It wasn't you? Well someone has to be doing it, right?
It used to be the case that a young (or not so young) entrepreneur would come up with an idea, identify the market, fine tune their product and sell till their hearts content. If the product or idea didn't work, they would go away.
By this logic, spammers who solicit us to buy generic Viagra, cheaper car insurance, Home Depot gift cards and replacement ink cartridges should have faded away into nothingness as the annoyed public deleted their unwanted emails and marked all of these fraudulent marketers as "spam".
So why is it that we are still seeing this coming to our inboxes? Are these businesses the front for an Italian mafia who needs a reputable (but poorly managed) company through which to launder their vig? Is it the vehicle by which young missionaries from large Midwestern states are slowly turning the blue states red through their works? I can't possibly imagine that these are real businesses making a real profit that is supporting the mortgage, cable bill and collectible porcelain Siamese cat figurine habit of a respectable member of society.
So what is it you ask that keeps these people going? It's you! Ok, well not you, you, you and you, but definitely you. Some of us must be out there clicking away and mindlessly buying things online that we didn't ask for. Have you seen a Fuller Brush Man come by your house post 1976? Probably not. Aside from the occasional teenager shilling fake magazine subscriptions Americans have made it clear that we don't want people coming into our homes to try to sell us products unwanted.
So why is it that we accept emails from companies we have not done business with, nor ones that we have at least signed up for a membership/account with? It baffles the mind.
All I can ask is that when you see these emails; delete, mark as spam or if at all possible burn with holy water.
That is all.
February 16, 2007
February 14, 2007
Oh and....
The car on the left is Tara's car. The only way we know it's her's is that I saw it rgiht before it was completely covered. Other than that we would have no idea.
Snowed In
Tara mentioned the snow were were having earlier. It turned out to be somewhere between 24-36 inches so far, and more is coming. The three of us went out around 8 PM and played in the snow while walking our buddy Robbie home.
School was closed today and it seems to be closed tomorrow. Which is good since the plows haven't come by at all and there is too much snow even for a plow to drive through.
Done -- 4 Years Later
After 4 years of missing entries on the site, I finally finished re-entering entries back into the site. We now have all entries back onto the site from June 2001 up to and including this entry 6 years later. We have been working on the site since late 1999 but some of those entries were incorrectly tagged in a Berkeley DB crash in 2001 and we lost some as well as mis-dated some others.
We now have 1,501 entries on this site. Backed up, cleaned up and ready to go.
We move into the house later this year and there will be lots to talk about and more to show in pictures. Here's to 7 more years of blogging and many more.
February 7, 2007
ILM Project List
Lists are funny things. They illuminate facts that you don't otherwise notice and turn a jumble of thoughts into a clear plan of action.
We made a list of what needed to be done in the house. Not a lot of detail, but every major project accounted for. If you're us, you look at this list and think two things:
1) It's possibly easier to simply build a house from scratch.
2) We were insane to think we could finish all of this ourselves between two jobs, Cub Scouts and no construction experience whatsoever.
All areas
-- Insulation
-- Replace all plumbing pipes
-- Replace heating system (except new heater in basement)
-- Replace electrical system
-- Drywall, paint and trim
Kitchen
-- Pergo Presto Beech Blocked flooring
-- French door on right side of chimney
-- Large doorway re-framed
-- Ceiling evened
-- DWV tucked into Living Room/Kitchen dividing wall, changed to PVC if necessary
-- Copper heating pipes removed or rerouted into wall
-- Pass-through from existing small doorway to 6' to the left
-- Cabinets on far wall and dividing wall, ending at small doorway
-- Ceiling fan fixture over dining area (already purchased); three-way switches located at kitchen entrances from side porch and living room
-- Recessed lighting over food preparation area; dimmer switch located at French doors
-- Refinish door from side porch
-- Replace basement door
-- Basement landing area plaster replaced with drywall; built-in shelves and light fixture added
Living Room
-- Pergo Presto Beech Blocked flooring
-- Remove bathroom
-- Remove existing ceiling and replace with drywall
-- Two ceiling light fixtures; three-way switches at kitchen and front porch entrances
-- Refinish large front window
-- Refinish front door and screen door
Front & Side Porches
-- Level and insulate floors
-- Concrete footers if necessary
-- Low-pile berber carpet
-- Remove front exterior door (reuse on side porch)
-- Replace exterior front door with matching window in a symmetrical location
-- Install two ceiling light fixtures; switch at living room door
-- Keep slats from the house's previous exterior, which are the interior porch walls now
-- Heating system added
Summer Kitchen
-- Cabinets on driveway wall
-- Freezer on driveway wall
-- Washer/dryer/utility sink on long wall nearest kitchen
-- Small bathroom (toilet, small vanity, sink) in corner that abuts kitchen
-- Rolled vinyl flooring & trim
-- One ceiling light fixture with two-way switches at both doorways
Mudroom
-- Frame & insulate floor over existing concrete
-- Low-gloss tile flooring
-- One ceiling light fixture with two-way switches at both doorways
-- Raise exterior door as-needed to accommodate change in floor height after re-framing
Stairwell
-- Refinish stairs in light stain or polyurethane, depending on final color
-- Replace missing balusters
-- Carpeted runner up stairs and down second-floor hallway
-- Refinish, but don't drywall rough edge on second-floor ascent
-- Refinish stairwell window
Master Bedroom
-- Enclose second-floor landing, leaving 2' of space on interior side for linen closet accessible from hallway
-- Re-frame master bedroom to include walk-in closet in previous landing area
-- Floor & doorways leveled
-- Carpeting
-- One ceiling light fixture in room; switch at doorway
-- One ceiling light fixture in walk-in closet
Bedroom 1 (top of stairs)
-- One ceiling light fixture in room; switch at doorway
-- Carpeting
-- Floor & doorways leveled
Bedroom 2 (next to bath)
-- One ceiling light fixture in room; switch at doorway
-- Carpeting
-- Floor & doorways leveled
-- DWV tucked into an interior wall
Upstairs Bathroom
-- Re-frame bathroom
-- Floor & doorways leveled
-- Replace existing tub and add acrylic tub surround
-- Tile flooring
-- Vanity, sink, toilet
-- Lighting over sink mirror
-- One ceiling fixture
Basement
-- Replace damaged area of the foundation
-- Replace concrete entry steps and door
-- Replace damaged interior stairway
-- One - two lights; switch at top of stairs
Exterior
-- Deck added to height of kitchen French doors; spanning kitchen and 20' out toward backyard; steps down to yard on back; trapdoor to exterior basement door
-- Run underground power to garage outlets
That's quite a list.