The (Other) End of the Internet

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My daughter has happened upon a deal involving a mobile home. The owners have promised her and her boyfriend that if they will pretty-much rebuild the place then they’ll be allowed to live there rent-free provided they keep the place up. I’m pretty sure this deal involves the owners paying for the materials and The Boyfriend getting the work done. I wish I’d fallen into a deal that nice when I was still twenty years old and able to do anything and everything.

This place is going to need the roof fixed, the ceilings and floors replaced, and probably new drywall throughout because of mold thanks to the leaky roof and the fact that it’s been sitting vacant for quite a while. My daughter has, of course, already decided that the shower in the master bathroom simply must have the faucets replaced with a Single Handle Brushed Nickel Bathroom Faucet she found on sale because, as she so eloquently puts it, “it’s Kewl”.

The one thing about this deal that makes me a little nervous is the fact that there is nothing written down that spells out exactly what will be expected of them and exactly what they can expect in return. I tend to believe that an oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Some call me a pessimist because I think like that. I prefer the term “realist”.

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You know you’ve reached the bottom of the “things to do” barrel when you go on the internet and actually look up the answer to “will a stone sink in water”.

For the record, the answer, according to answers.com is “It is more dense than water, and [presumably] it is not shaped in such a way that all of its weight can be displaced before the stone submerges. “.

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Things have been REALLY busy around here. This is due largely to the fact that we have an almost-two-year-old whose hobbie is getting into stuff she’s not supposed to. Things have been slightly easier for the last couple of days because she’s discovered Barney the Dinosaur. He’s kept her attention enough that I’ve been able to dig up a CPU fan I had lying around and connect it to an AC adapter my brother handed me and screw it into the back of the overheating laptop in place of Santa’s Airplane and it appears to be doing a MUCH better job.

The only two drawbacks are that 1) I have two cords to plug in when I use the laptop now and 2) if I use the wrong outlet, the fan causes interference on the baby monitor that Mom uses to keep an ear on the living room and front door when she’s in the bedroom (particularly at night). It means I have to sit a the “play table” which is way too low for a full-grown person to sit at comfortably, but at least I can use the laptop again.

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This is a special thany-you to North Arkansas Electric Company. At some point early this morning, for reasons I’m don’t have all the details about, they found it necessary to disconnect our electricity for about a half hour this morning. When they turned the power back on I attempted to restart the “good” computer (AKA Frankenstein) and discovered that the monitor won’t turn on. I suspect that there was a minor power surge that took out the monitor’s AC adapter because the power switch was still turned ON when the power was reconnected.
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So, now the machine that is at least FAIRLY reliable has no monitor and I’m down to using the laptop that overheats at the drop of a hat unless Santa is perfectly positioned and has a brand new AA battery (which I’m running out of).

*GROWL*

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Even as I was typing that title, I found myself going, “Well, DUH!”, but apparently there are people who do just that. The reason I say that is because I just read an article talking about how what is being sold online as a popular weight loss pill is often a counterfeit that does nothing - or worse.

The Food and Drug Administration has posted this warning about the counterfeit pills.

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My mother-in-law has decided that it’s time to get rid of some of the excess baggage that’s been hanging around her house forever.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, you must first understand that my mother-in-law is one of those people who never throws anything away because it might come in handy … someday … eventually … maybe.

While helping her go through some stuff today I happened upon a bag of Tootsie-Roll Pops that I’m pretty sure is old enough to vote! All I know is that the wrappers are stuck to the candy and nothing short of a hammer and chisel will separate them.

A box on the bottom shelf in the bathroom closet contained, among other things, a bottle of phisoderm that my wife was using back in high school (did I mention that she graduated in 1985?)

I can’t wait to see what we turn up tomorrow.

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Recently I was asked to review the e cigarette available from PremiumEcigarette.com. Now, given that I haven’t smoked in five years, my wife helped me out by agreeing to try it. She was very pleased with it. This e-cigarette contains a nicotine cartridge that is available in varying strengths from 16mg down to 0mg and my wife is planning to use the varying strengths to step down and eventually quit her nearly-3-pack-a-day habit. During the quitting process, the e-cigarette delivers nicotine, but NONE of the other things that make cigarettes so harmful, such as tar, carbon monoxide, and all those wonderful things.

I made this video to try to explain this device from a non-smoker’s point of view. Please bear in mind that I really don’t like being in front of a camera; I would much rather be the one TAKING the picture, so please be nice.

*This review is a result of a feedback campaign by PremiumCigarette.com The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the product.*

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I stumbled upon a blog entry that I just had to share. It’s called 15 Ways Science Will Kill Us All. You’re sure to laugh when you read this, but when the laughter dies down, you’ll never look at things like your computer, your dog, or the night sky quite the same again.

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Recently, I read a comment online that boiled down to “do what you’re going to do because anyone who has a problem with it doesn’t matter anyway”. This sounds to me like a comment that might be made by someone who’s biggest worry in life is where to find the best day creams because the poster is so terribly self-centered that they can’t see even TO the end of their own nose, much less PAST it.

To say, in a public forum, that anyone who disagrees with you doesn’t matter… For that matter, to say that another human being doesn’t matter, for whatever reason, is, in my not so humble opinion, beyond arrogant. I believe that God has a plan for this world and that everyone in it plays a small part in that plan. I don’t believe there is a person on earth who “doesn’t matter” in God’s eyes and I really feel sorry for anyone so full of themselves that they honestly feel they can decide what God did wrong.

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The Obnoxious Neighbor was droning on yesterday about something or other while I was standing in the cold with an armload of groceries and a very full bladder. I honestly wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying because I was trying, and failing, to silently get the point across that I needed to do something other than listen to him yammer on about something.

At one point I heard him say something about having conjugated linoleic acid, so I can only assume he was talking about some foreign language class he’s taking.

So, how exactly do you tell someone to shut their bloody pie hole without being rude or offending them?

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