A Leak or Not A Leak?

So here we are trying to figure out what needs to be done to put the house on the market and what do we find? We find water damage in a storage closet in the basement. A storage closet that stored a bunch of my middle school through college things I just couldn’t throw away. My mom’s comment was that the junk we accumulate sometimes finds it’s own way of throwing itself out. Anyway, we call a plumber in and he doesn’t think any pipe is leaking, rather that it is a leak from around the tub caused by back splash from the shower. I am a little dubious about his analysis and his solution which was to put an ugly coat of silicon RTV around all the edges. Unfortunately, there are no signs of where the leak is actually originating, so his professional analysis is all we have to go on. On the other hand, it was Laura who last correctly diagnosed a plumbing issue rather than a professional plumber. Maybe I can get here to look at the problem.

The Strength of One’s Convictions

The old limerick don’t be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the communist party was running through my head the other day. It must have been a bastardized version of the line from The Producers (1968) because I cannot find an original reference to it. The thing that got me thinking about the limerick was that I am certain there are communists who believe it with the same conviction as those who believe abortion is murder or the earth was created only a couple thousand years ago. Now there are some conviction that I just cannot accept as being in any way logical and there are those that I can accept as having some internal consistency. Then I realized that my convictions are just as crazy. Convictions like that open minded people would believe in liberal ideals. I am not sure if there even are open minded people. Just people who figure they came to their conviction through rational thought. Another one of my convictions is that I don’t think I should have to pay for anti-virus software. I mean, if someone is selling defective software that could damage the users computer or allow identity theft then isn’t it there responsibility to fix their software? So my compromise was to use a free anti-virus program. Specifically AVG’s free program, which was recently at version 8.5. Then I got a pop-up message saying they were discontinuing support for AVG Free 8.5 and that I needed to upgrade to version 9 for like $50. WTF was my first response. I don’t want to pay for anti-virus software. Maybe I should finally ‘be a smarty’ and switch to Linux. But I figured I would look to see if there was another free anti-virus program available. Well, there was and interestingly enough it was AVG Free 9.0 which you can get here. I understand commercial efforts, but it still pisses me off when they try to scare you into spending money. Well not me. And Micro$oft shouldn’t expect me to run out and upgrade to Windows 7 any time soon either.

Grumble … grumble … grumble …

Update and Something Nice to Say

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but I have been too busy to even right down some random thoughts. I traveled to Vancouver and to Long Island last week. The Bills actually won a game. My girlfriend is being courted by many different potential employers and is having to travel way too much. Work is very busy – it is our best year ever in terms of sales and there is still two months to go. The old Astrowars gang want to regroup but I still think it will be without me. My dishwasher slightly flooded the kitchen and the washing machine sounded like it was going to fail. I wore a tuxedo for the first time in a decade (the black tie wedding of a cousin). There is more, but I am forgetting what it is right now.

On to the nice thing to say. I have not had good things to say about Maguire Ford in the past. See here. Well there was another problem with my car and so I took it into the dealership. For what must be a first for me, they fixed the car in the quoted time, for the quoted amount, and cleaned the car as well. Now for any normal repair shop that would not be so significant, but it pleasantly exceeded my expectations for Maguire.

Happy Buddha Vegetarian Restaurant

And now for a restaurant review. We were traveling to Long Island for a wedding and had a couple of hours (well 45 minutes after traffic and a several missed turns) to get some dinner before needing to pick up my sister at LaGuardia. A Google search led us to pick the Happy Buddha Vegetarian Restaurant in Flushing. You can read about it here

We were looking for a vegetarian restaurant and this one seemed very interesting and not too far from the airport. Google Maps street view showed it to be in a little China neighborhood, which of course it was. We found street parking not too far from the restaurant although the parking meter was covered by a black plastic which created a small fear of ticketing or towing. Us big city neophytes not knowing the rules. By the way, what does a blinking green traffic light mean in Vancouver? (it was normal red and yellow, just blinking green). Anyway, so Happy Buddha Vegetarian Restaurant serves the whole menu of Chinese food but all vegetarian. So we got sizzling beef and BBQ duck. It was amazingly meat like. The sauces were very tasty and the textures were great. The vegetables seemed very fresh. And while English was obviously not the staff’s first language, they were very friendly and the service prompt.

I highly recommend this restaurant and hope that I will be able to go there again some day.

The Best Airline Seat Ruined

I was flying a red-eye from Seattle to Dulles on a United Airlines Airbus A319 in seat 6A. Seat 6A (or 6F for that matter) is one of the best seats I have ever been in. It is the first row in economy class with the dividing wall to first class in front of you but it has a gap at the bottom so that you CAN put your bag under the seat in front of you. More leg room than the one time I flew first class. Comfortable seat. Good recline. And with no one in 6B, it was looking to be a good flight. Then Mr. Annoying sat down. He spent an hour using one of those hand strengthening tools that went squeak squeak squeak squeak loader than the sounds of my iPod at full volume. It was a red-eye with no actual meal service, but this guy wanted a meal. And Alcohol. Specifically Cabernet Sauvignon. Then, after the plane started to descend, he decided to blow up a pillow and put on a sleeping mask. Right at the same time as the pilot is announcing our anticipated arrival in less than 30 minutes. I mean come on. Why couldn’t he have done that at the start of the flight.

A Calm Before the Travel

It has been another busy week. With Laura traveling and customer visit and new work piling on when the old work is not yet finished, it was a stressful week. I have been told that I am grumpy when Laura is traveling, but I don’t think that was it. A late night call early in the week brought me to the ER for the first time where a friend rested from what the doctor called a ’slam dunk’ heart attack (turns out that doctor was entirely wrong, but not after the hospital could charge a very sore arm and a leg). Oliver got to play a whole night with his girlfriend Maxi who we watched for one night. It was kind of a birthday present for Oliver who turned 3 this week. Happy birthday old man.

While I was working with one customer who was visiting our facility it turns out that one of the other customers is having a problem and someone needed to go and well I pulled the short straw. So off to the airport I go on a Sunday

But before that, there is a Saturday. A wonderful Saturday. My brother and sister-in-law came to town and we had a nice lunch at the Nines. (don’t know the Nines? It is one of the best places to get deep dish pizza in Ithaca) Then we has a relaxing afternoon. We went for a run with Oliver and calibrate Laura’s birthday present Nike +iPod which finally worked. Oliver was not the best dog on the run, but okay. We had a nice salad for dinner and relaxed more. Watched TV. And Laura made us hot chocolate with more of the Vegan marshmallows we brought back from San Fransisco. And in the mean time, I am not thinking about the 24 hours of traveling I have over the next 3 days.

Sports Fan Productivity Loss

Whether you are a fan of a good team or a fan of a bad team, the fact that you are a fan means that you are not as productive an employee. Worst are fans of the NFL. Undoubtedly such a fan will waste time on Monday either talking about how good their sports team did or, more likely for a fan from Buffalo, trying to avoid all the other sports fans who want to make fun of your team for how badly they lost.

1-4, how pathetic. (Personally, I put all the blame on the offensive line which seems to get more offensive to me with every Sunday)

It’s time like these I would like to pretend to be a Yankees fan or even a Sabres fan and say who are these Bills you are talking about…

Julia and Laura (and Me)

Tonight we made a recipe out of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking that Laura recently purchased after seeing the movie Julie and Julia. It was the first time we made a recipe from it. We were inspired to make a recipe after watching The French Chef which we got on Netflix (again, after seeing the movie Julie and Julia). The recipe was a potato dish similar to a dish Julia made in the first episode of The French Chef and following the recipe as written in the cook book but changing Polish Sausage for vegan Grain Meat Sausages (they are really good and can easily replace hot dogs at BBQs). The dish was cooked in Laura’s birthday present from her mom – a brand new Le Creuset enameled cast iron roaster. Other than me forgetting to add enough salt to the sauce, the dish turned out really well.

For dessert we had smores cooked over a nice fire using the vegan marshmallows we brought back from San Francisco. They also turned out really well. The reason for getting vegan marshmallows is that they do not use fish gelatin like some other so called meatless marshmallows do.

In conclusion, I would like to recommend 1) watching the movie Julie and Julia, 2) eating Grain Meat Sausages, 3) purchasing Le Creuset enameled cast iron bakeware, 4) eating Sweet and Sara vegan marshmallows (preferably in smores), 5) watching The French Chef (for a good laugh and many good cooking tips), and 6) using Netflix. As per the new FCC regulations, I disclose that I have received no payments or gifts from the applicable corporations or their associates.

Stairway Walks and More in San Francisco

We traveled back through Muir Woods on our way from Mill Valley to San Francisco. Muir Woods has a lot more Redwoods. These Redwoods are cool. We didn’t see the very biggest ones, but we did see some that you could walk through.

In San Francisco we stayed at the Harbor Court Hotel were we had a great view of the Bay Bridge. While the hotel was well decorated and the bed was nice, the room was a tad small, it was noisy being in the big city, and the staff was unfriendly to the point of being rude.

Our friend Val lent us her copy of Stairway Walks in San Francisco. There are a lot of stairway sidewalks due to the hills. Some of these were hidden gardens between city streets that one would not notice without a guide. I think we did about 4 hours worth of walking the streets and stairways of San Francisco. Lombard Street is an example of both a stairway and the wacky switchbacks that seem very popular around there. I think there were 5 switchbacks on that one block. Name the Simpsons episode it was in for an extra 10 points.

Around every corner there seemed to be a view of either the Golden Gate or Bay bridge or Alcatraz. We didn’t make it to the Rock, but I got a picture of it.

And of course, I got a picture of the other very San Francisco thing, the trolley car.

We did succeed in our goal for the trip to San Francisco, which was to bring back some Vegan marshmallows. Sadly no one in Ithaca carries them.

California Conspiracy

I have uncovered a wide conspiracy here in California. It seems that the people of California are conspiring to keep all the tasty vegetables for themselves while shipping the less tasty ones to other states where we are forced to eat them or not get any dessert. (see note 1)

I wish I had my sunglasses because now that I have revealed this conspiracy I am sure the Governator will be after me so I need to disguise myself with sunglasses … that and it is really bright here. (see note 2)

Also I want to wish Dr. Laura Fields a very happy birthday. (see note 3)

1) As a kid I was always forced to finish all the stuff on my plate before getting dessert. Some of that was rather un-tasty vegetables which I am sure came from California. Now, the vegetables that come from our garden are tasty and I can have dessert whenever I want it.

2) While it is very bright here in California and many tasty vegetables obviously grow here, I am not convinced that happy cows come from California. The cows actually seemed rather sad having to graze on what looked like dry brush.

3) I am not sure how many times that I wished Laura a happy birthday. The goal was to get to 30, but I lost track around 20.