• Eat Me
• SKULLFUCK
• STAYOUT
• SonjaCan’tDoComputers

In the Hertz shuttle the LED display that showed the time and date was claiming it was November 30, 2026. The time was almost correct but it hadn’t been adjusted for daylight savings time yet.

The Hertz desk was having problems using their computer to find a car for us. I guess technology isn’t so hot in Chicago.

Since being back I’ve been told that Chicago has two seasons, Winter and construction. This was definitely construction season. We were cruising on the freeway to get to our hotel. A helpful sign pointed out that our exit was closed and we should take the exit before it as a detour. That sign is placed so you’ll only see it as you are passing the detour exit and the next exit was 15 minutes away. after going 30 minutes out of our way we made it to the hotel in Evanston.

The next morning was business breakfast in the hotel followed by a 3-hour meeting. Then a business lunch int he hotel, followed by another 3-hour meeting. Then there were informal but essential meetings in the hallway afterwards. Then it was time to go to the airport.

Evanston seems like a nice place and the return trip to the airport showed me a large Jewish population (bagel shops, kosher delis, two large temples). The houses have some really nice brick work on them. I was surprised a lot of trees weren’t starting to get leaves yet so a lot of areas looked barren, but it was neat seeing people paddle their little boats in the streams. I think I need to go check it out without business betting in the way.

When you drive in you pay and they tell you to turn off your headlights and turn your radio to 104.1 to listedn to holiday music. Then you cruise through slowly in a line of cars past all sorts of animated lights for 10-15 minutes.

MORTAL CHOCOLATE!

I just looked at a consumer reaction message board for Nasonex and a number of other people started getting headaches after 6 months to a year as well. I’ll have to talk to the allergist about this.

Oh yeah. We also need to move the wood burning stove. It’s awkward and it weighs like 500 lbs. That should be fun.

On the easy side. We finally got a newer, smaller, medicine cabinet for Dar’s bathroom. I hope to install that tomorrow. Also tomorrow I’d like to cut the bottoms off her doors so they can close.

I think the fancy electronic thermometer got left at the BBQ so we have to go check lost and found or buy a new one or both.

I think we’re heading towards a sound blocking wall.

Either we need a smaller cabinet or we need to move the outlet. We haven’t decided on the better choice yet. Nicole is leaning towards the smaller cabinet idea. Sorry, Dar!

Make food, get car, get haircut, put up the light and cabinet and towel rack in Dar’s bathroom, get my sister, get more stuff, move stuff around, set up stuff, stuff stuff, install light stuff, drill stuff, pick up stuff, wack stuff, make free stuff, cook stuff, eat stuff, clean up stuff, explode.

I still need to drill a new hole on either side so I can bolt down the guides for a little extra security. Right now the back wheel could potentially fall off the back, but I’ll have plenty of notice if that’s going to happen in the form of a wobbly tire. Mostly it’ll make it easy to line up the wheel faster.

Today I have to pull out the floor heater so the floor guy can see what is needed for repairs.

Then I’ll remove the floor heater to prepare for floor repairs and I’ll start work on the washing machine drain.

Hopefully tonight I’ll get to the ceiling light in the computer room. I’m going to try to raise the conduit on the ceiling light. so I can install the electrical box in the ceiling.

Anyway, not I just need to work out why sound isn’t being recorded (I think I have a cable hooked up to the wrong hole) and I’ll be set to move forward on Star Wars!

Oh yeah. Sill have to do the shelf in the closet.

The rest of the stuff is piled in the tv room so Dar can start to pack and move her stuff.

We went to OSH and picked out some paint and ran other errands before returning home. I got out the shop-vac, converted it to wet mode, and started trying to get all the water I could out of the carpet before I we tried to rip it out. I covered all the area I could and got about a gallon out of it. Then we went back to OSH for more painting supplies and a utility knife so I could cut the carpet. I decided removing small pieces would be easier and it was.

So I cut rectangles in the carpet and start pulling it and the foam out (yuck!) and find the concrete until the carpet used to be painted green. That makes sense since long ago this used to be outdoor carpet in an area connecting the house to the garage (which is now the tv room). However, it is not what we were expecting. We were thinking we would just leave it as concrete for awhile but now we’ll have to actually do something with it whether it’s paint it another color, or have a better floor put down.

Anyway, most of the visible wet carpet was removed and then we started moving the furniture and stuff from atop the furniture to the tv room (former garage). Then we moved the wood cabinets which exposed the wettest of the wet carpet, then the computers and desks. Finally I pulled out the rest of the wet carpet and carpet tack strips.

Then I was really tired and it was midnight and we’d been going at this all day so I set up a box fan to blow on it and help it dry and I went to bed.

This morning I got up and pulled out the rest of the dry carpet and carpet tack strips, dusted all the walls, removed all the witch plate covers, removed the smoke alarm and heat register, and pulled off the lamp fixture (but left it wired for extra light). Then I used the converted-back-to-dry-use shop-vac to pick up all the junk on the floor.

Today Nicole with the help of Julie will pain the walls and ceiling.

You’re probably wondering why I have movie talk as a category for this. Well A number of laser discs I had waiting to be recorded to DVD were on the floor (including the Star Wars ones) and the jackets of them got pretty wet! I haven’t looked inside yet but they have plastic-lined sleeves so I think they are ok, but this is interfering with the Star Wars project.

The only source for that could be the water heater. So I went outside in the rain to access the water heater closet which is on the same slab as the computer room but divided but some dry wall. In the closet the concrete was wet but that could be from the rain. Then after a few minutes I saw a drip from the temperature and pressure relieve valve. After putting a pot under the outlet fo rthat valve and watching during Nicole’s shower I saw the drip rate increase.

The next morning the concrete was dry but the pot was completely full. Since the pipe from the valve extended in to the pot some got sloshed on to the concrete in the process of dumping it out. From this little bit on the dry slab I could see the water running in the direction of the computer room.

We went to OSH and got a new valve, waited until everyone showered, and then shut off the hot water, turned down the burner on it, and drained some water out of it so it wouldn’t spew hot water out of the side when I pulled the valve off.

I then took off the outlet pipe (easy), and put the pipe wrench on the valve and foun dit was stuck. Then I saw there was putty stuff that was used to seal it in place. I called my parents to ask for advice (since I sisn’t want to bust the whole water heater). My mom answered and she said it sounded like I wanted to talk to my dad, and I agreed, but she was disappointed that she wasn’t getting asked, so I asked her first. I explained it was stuck and had putty stuff and I wasn’t sure how to proceed. She suggested a bigger wrench (I only have a 10 inch pipe wrench).

Then she passed me off to my dad who pretty much suggested the same thing except also suggested cutting away the putty with a utility knife and putting a pipe on the end of the wrench for more leverage. He recommended against whacking the wrench with a hammer to break it free because the wrench is springy and would fly off and cause damage.

The cutting away the putty suggestion reminded me that I have some nice picks for doing that sort of thing and using them the putty came off pretty easily. The valve was still stuck without the putty so I wrapped my hands around the wrench, hunched up, and slowly too kthe weight off my feet. That did it and the valve moved!

I put the teflon tape on the new valve and installed it and then I put some on teh drain pipe and put that in.

Still to do is to change the drainage to it goes to the outside instead of straight down since there is no drain except for the computer room. Also is to find a way to channel water to the outside in case something else fails (like the whole heater tank.

Along the way, I’ve upgraded my capture card to one that does compression on board, I’ve installed Adobe Premiere Pro, and I’m cleaning up space on my hard drive. For not only so I want to record the old version, I want to put back some of the old things that were just better for my private use.

I think I’ll be able to get this done without too much more trouble before the last Star Wars movie opens.