• Home Improvement - Moblog

    Floor Project From Hell V: The Stain in the Hall

    David installed the white-painted shoe molding earlier this afternoon, and even got through the angsty moments trying to get the floor brackets for the closet doors re-installed. Now all that remains is the quarter-round. We’d had a bad time with the oak trim that came with the floor product (actually, it was quite expensive) as it was such dense, hard wood that no matter how we pre-drilled and pounded and used an electric nailer, we couldn’t get the nails to go in all the way. So we regrouped, bought plain pine and it’s now all cut and mitred to fit…

  • Home Improvement - Today

    Floor Project From Hell IV: Welcome To Purgatory

    Here’s a quick update on the Floor Project From Hell: We’re almost done! Except we’ve had scope creep! We started laying out the floor after it acclimated on Friday. It’s now Monday; yes, we’re slow, but we hit a minor snag and we’re now setting up for a big finish. Which involves totally repainting the room in a slightly darker color. I’d gone through hell patching about a zillion screw-anchor holes in that room 5 years ago – but there were a couple of dings and places I hadn’t done a very good job. First of all, we knew we…

  • Home Improvement

    Floor Project From Hell III: Payback Time

    Hey, remember that floor project I’ve left unfinished for about, oh, four or five years? Well, this week and next week, we’re on our “staycation.” I get about 6 weeks of vacation a year, and this was the only time I could fit a two-week block in before the end of the year. And so we had decided that since we just did a big trip to England and Ireland (which I haven’t really blogged much about, but we did have a truly awesome time), we would not go anywhere and stay home, doing projects. One of which would be…

  • Geek Out! - Home Improvement - SciFi/Fantasy

    How Geeks Have Fun When It Rains

    Incidents :: Chicago :: Traffic.com Flooding I-190 O’Hare Access Exwy – Outbound At US-12/US-45/Mannheim Rd (#2) – flooding – Troopers planning to shut down I-190 to OHare Airport. Flood CHICAGOLAND TOLLWAYS Flood – The Illinois Tollway Authority and Illinois State Police are reporting numerous flooded roadways and underpasses on the area tollways. The flooding is due to overnight rain. Be cautious when driving, and be aware of standing water. Yeah. Last night I wasn’t sleeping well, and about 330pm woke up to the sound of heavy rain. It went on all the rest of the night, and it’s still raining…

  • Home Improvement - The Road Goes Ever On: 3 Weeks in Britain

    Home, jiggity, blog

    Wow, lots to catch up on. Too much to blog via iPhone, so may fire up the frankenmachine and sit properly at a desk for the first time in weeks. Church this morning was pretty good – outdoors again. Next week we go back to two services, and this year there will be much more differentiation musically and liturgically. Thanks be to God, I’m a High Church 77 Prayerbook / 82 Hymnal Liberal… I’m tired of singing out of Gather (a Catholic, slightly charismatic songbook) and never knowing which prayer to recite because my vicar loves to pull things out…

  • Home Improvement

    Walgreens: Locking up the competition?

    Here’s something odd. I went to Walgreens to pick up my favored brand of antacid/acid reducer. I found it in a locked cabinet, along with several other name brands each in their own locked cabinets. There was a notice saying the rather pricy name brands were secured for the protection of Walgreens’ customers. The “house brands” were all displayed nearby, unlocked. They were lower in price but the highest-quantity packages were in the same price ranges as the lower-quantity name brand products. Stymied, since my particular brand didn’t have a Wal-clone, I wandered off looking for someone to open the…

  • Home Improvement - Hot Off The Presses

    Suburboddity

    The local suburban paper/news site apparently has a little fun with the police log – they publish a “best of” column they like to call “Suburboddity.” Here’s the most recent one, found when I was checking for local news after a big storm in the area. Updated 8/4: Suburboddity :: Latest News :: PIONEER PRESS :: Mental cruelty for a high tech age BUFFALO GROVE, July 31 — At 3 p.m. a resident of Chaucer Way told she had been upset with her husband, so she disabled and put away the TV, DVD player and the DVDs. When she returned…

  • Home Improvement - Hot Off The Presses

    Missing Woman Found, Missed Sleep Lost

    Missing Hoffman Estates woman found alive in nearby vacant house — chicagotribune.com A Hoffman Estates woman who failed to return home after going for a walk with her dog was found unharmed Monday in a vacant house nearby, police said. Astrid Nordgren, 88, who has symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, was found in a house in the 1500 block of Glen Lake Road, said Hoffman Estates Police Sgt. Gregory Poulos. The vacant home is about a block from where she lives with her son and his family in the 1500 block of Fairfield Lane, Poulos said. Well, this is a relief.…

  • Home Improvement - Hot Off The Presses - Mini-Posts

    Whew. Our nearest Starbucks isn’t closing, but…

    … a lot of them are being closed in areas that tend to appeal to ethnic minorities, and they’re sorry that the iconic brand is leaving their neighborhoods. Cafe closings hit minority areas — chicagotribune.com Starbucks has identified 18 stores in the Chicago area among the 600 nationwide targeted to close through March 2009, including several in minority neighborhoods that had counted on the green-and-white medallion to signal rebirth.