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We got back from a seven-day cruise on the Norwegian Sun yesterday. I’m still digging out from under all the emails, snail mails, Facebook posts, and golf group changes.
The cruise was great, as always. We’ve never been on a bad one. This one was particularly fun as we cruised with ten neighbors. While we rarely saw each other during the day, we met each evening before dinner for a drink and to share dinner. On the second night we joined a progressive trivia challenge. We missed the first night, but still came in second.
In the week I was gone, we had seven new guys sign up to play in our Thursday golf group. I’m the “Commissioner” of the group. I arrange the tee times, make up the foursomes, keep the statistics, and handle all the details of what is involved in maintaining the group. Thus, I’ve been scrambling to revise the schedule and add tee times for next Thursday. Fortunately, Royal Oaks, where we’re playing, was very accommodating in adding players.
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© 2012, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.
So I finally made the leap to a new theme. The old one was called Simplicity, but was kind of boring. This one is called Ahimsa by Ravi Sarma. It’s a tad more colorful and has these neat rounded corners on everything. The theme is skinable, so I’ll be able to change the color scheme, if necessary. Now the only thing left to do is to revamp the Now Reading library to display properly under this theme.
I hope you enjoy the new eye candy.
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© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.
I’m getting bored with the current theme, Simplicity. I’m going to change it, but I haven’t found one that floats my boat. Also, every time I change themes, Now Reading, the plug-in that displays the books I’m reading, breaks. The theme writers don’t use the same names for similar style elements, so plug-ins that use templates that display whole screens break if the names change. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and have the new theme use the same style names as the old theme.
Some People Get TP'd, We Get Bulbed
After a fun visit with our son, David (aka the Fig), our adopted daughter Shannon (aka #2 Daughter), and two of our three granddudes, Lane and Jackson, Mrs. Major and I left about 6pm for a Christmas pitch-in with the Villages Homebrew Club. We had a great time gabbing with the club members and spouses, eating yummy food, and sampling several brews. When we opened our garage door a couple of hours later, we were greeted by an array of Christmas lights, strung from every conceivable protuberance and the blaring sound of Christmas music coming from my garage radio.
Of course we took several photos and texted this one to the Fig and #2 (also to #1 who is still in Indiana). Turns out they were all waiting at a nearby restaurant waiting to hear from us. As #2 and the dudes had a 2.5 hour drive home, we were surprised they waited. But glad.
I finally got all the strings down and tied up back in the big box. No way was I going to try to put the strings in their original boxes.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Alva Edison
When we selected the features for our current home seven and a half years ago, we elected not to have the ceiling fixtures reinforced in the two spare bedrooms as we didn’t plan to hang ceiling fans there. The Villages wanted to charge us $100 each, so we opted out.
Fast forward a few years. The front bedroom became Mrs. Major’s sewing/hobby room and the back bedroom became my “study”. Now, Mrs. Major, who is almost always hot, ended up in the warmest room in the house. She usually has a portable fan or two blowing up a storm while she is in there.
Fast forward to last Friday. After seven and a half years, being the loving, yet procrastinating, husband that I am, I suggested we hang fans in both bedrooms. (I figured as long as I’m going to hang one, I might as well do two.) So we went to Lowes and picked out a couple of fans. Since there was still light left after we had visited a friend who is in a rehab facility near Lowes, I decided I would go up in the attic and reinforce the existing fixture mount by screwing it into a 2×4 placed above it.
Since it was about 40 feet of twists, turns, and contortions from the attic above the garage, which has a plywood floor and a drop-down ladder installed, to the light fixture site, I decided to get into the attic using the hatch in the hallway, about 10 feet from the fixture. It was still a little over, under, and around, but at least it was closer. Our attic has about a foot of blown in fiberglass insulation. You can imagine what happened when I opened the hatch. I spent the next 10 minutes collecting insulation.
Up I finally went. Unfortunately, once I located the fixture and uncovered it, I discovered the electrical box was a flimsy plastic one that would never support a ceiling fan. I was barely strong enough to hole the light fixture.
So back to Lowes…actually I think it was Home Depot this time. I bought two Saf-T-Braces and a couple of masks to minimize my coughing. By then I called it a day.
Saturday we had an event at 10:30 that would last until around 1:30 and another we had to leave for at 5:00. So, between the two, I finally got the Saf-T-Brace and fan installed. So much for the first fan.
The next day, Sunday, I removed the fixture in the study in preparation for the installation of the second Saf-T-Brace and discovered that the box was metal and was screwed directly into a stud. No need for reinforcement. The installation of the second ceiling fan went smoothly.
So tomorrow, I take the second Saf-T-Brace back to Home Depot.
Old Dad, I hope you enjoy this post.
Turns out there was enough of the #8 tooth (right front upper incisor) to save after it had broken off. So the dentist did a root canal, added a post and the assistant created a temp…much too white, but they said the permanent crown would match #9. The finished crown gets installed on July 13.
Yesterday, they stabilized #8 by gluing it to #7. It just broke loose, now #8 is wobbling around in my face.
I’m about back to 100% from my ulcer incident. But…
Yesterday, I cracked my right front incisor (tooth also called #8). It’s one of the two that I had crowned in December ’09 because #9 was off colored as a result of a collision with my brother, Dan, when we were but children. My dentist and Mrs. Major had been after me for years to take care of the unsightly tooth, so I finally did. Now #8 is broken…not only just the crown but also the tooth. I’m scheduled for a root canal and a re-crown on Monday to the tune of about $1100 (my share after insurance). Sigh.
If I’m lucky, that’s what will happen. If the tooth is cracked into the root, the tooth is not restorable and I’ll probably have to have a bridge or a gap. I’m sure the gap will be the cheapest…the bridge costing an arm, torso, and first born child.
Some say bad things happen in threes. Hopefully, the third thing will happen to someone else…someone on a different planet.
Three Stations: An Arkady Renko Novel by Martin Cruz Smith
The Drop (iBook)) by Michael Connelly
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