LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

Home 'Improvement'

An ad for Google

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First up: It only took two trips to the hardware store, but the faucet is completely installed. We no longer have to make our lemonade with bathroom water!!

I wasted water for this photo.

Ok. Here’s what I really wanted to talk about – Google Docs rocks! I’ve had to keep track of a lot of different types of stuff lately, and since my little laptop doesn’t have any regular software on it, Google Docs is a great alternative.

They have a Calendar feature so you can keep track of things, a Documents section that is a word processing program, and a Presentation feature (I have a presentation at the early childhood conference this week). All you have to do is set up a Gmail account, and all these wonders can be yours!

The best part is that you can work on your files from anywhere. If you have an internet connection – you’re golden! The only drawback: if you don’t have an internet connection – you’re hosed.

It's about our outdoor classroom. We can't afford an inside.

It’s totally fabulous! Well, until our robot overlords take control and delete all my stuff. Then it’s not.

Nice, isn’t it?

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Not too shabby.

Pity that it doesn’t work.

*sigh* This faucet thing is going to take nigh unto forever. We got stuck when the stupid nut that held the old sink down wouldn’t budge, but yesterday evening we finally got it loose, then I had to go to a meeting. Before I left, we put a paper towel soaked with vinegar over all the holes in the sink to dissolve the decades of hard-water build-up and grime that marked where the old faucet lived and died.

Today, the sink is sparkly, and the faucet is attached to the sink, but that’s it. The old water supply lines aren’t long enough, so that means at least two trips to the hardware store. (One to buy wrong, once to perhaps buy right.)

Stretch!

Lloyd thinks that we could just aim the supply lines at the intake lines, turn ’em on – and hope for the best.

Water always wins

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Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
Stupid faucet.
Leaking water
Under sink.
Getting hotter.
Nut won’t turn.
Getting madder.
Knuckles hurt.
Getting sadder.
Leave ’til later.
Getting tired.
Stupid post.
Uninspired.

This is right before we gave up.

“Lunch”

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Right before the Brothers left for Missouri, we had lunch together. And by ‘lunch’, I mean that Lloyd cooked up some baked beans, then had his brothers help run speaker cable from the piano, down a hole, across the basement, back up another hole, and hooked it up to his computer. We ate when the food was good and cold.

I'm 'helping'.

We probably have some code issues with these wires.

Thank goodness I'm not tall enough to reach into those cobwebs.

See, his giant new monitor leaves no room for the stereo speakers that used to live by the tiny monitor. Occasionally he likes to blast music throughout the house – usually when he’s cleaning (so no complaints here) – and he needed those speakers set up in a convenient spot. The piano top does very nicely.

piano-top

Thanks, Brothers. You’re welcome anytime.

Fixed!

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Timeout to bask in a moment of self-satisfied pride. ~*~ Thank you.

I fixed the stupid door to the trash can cabinet! As you may recall, it plagued me with not closing properly – always hanging open a couple of inches. I had tried a few days ago to mess with adjusting the hinges, but it didn’t work and I got distracted.

Tonight, I was going to figure it out. I started with the usual fiddling around, and then I thought, “Ooo. I could post about this,” so I got my camera. Taking a picture made me notice this:

This is the picture taken after I cleaned.

See how that little doohickey is not parallel to the thingy? That’s the trouble. The other cabinets have parallel infrastructures. (I’m trying to wow you with my technical jargon.) I tried the first thing they teach you in DIY school – force it. Forcing it back into place didn’t work, but I figured it was because it was still hanging from the cupboard and I was at the wrong angle. I took it off the cupboard, laid it on the countertop, and continued to try and force it back with the flat end of my you-should-never-be-without-one 6-in-1 screwdriver. (If I get you one for Christmas, it’s because I love you.)

Still not working. Next up: property-value-lowering dismantling! I think it’s really a testimony to Lloyd’s powers of concentration that with all this clanging and muffled swearing, he did not look up from his computer screen once.

That is broke. Fix it.

Out came the roundy part of the hinge, and lo & behold – there’s a broken spring! I knew it! Well, I didn’t know it, but I knew something was wrong. Luckily, I had bought some replacement hinges for the other cabinet door that gave us trouble, but never got around to fixing. Popped those hinges in this door, and it’s as good as new. Much cleaner, too – the door to the trash can gets mighty disgusting. I’d never notice it if it wasn’t for the internet.

The end. By the way – I figured out how to label stuff with Photoshop. Double win!

Sticks to your ribs…

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… and your bowl.

cat-hair

I’ve actually become accustomed to eating cream of wheat since the cupboard incident. I remembered a summer in college when I lived off of cream of wheat and strawberry jam sandwiches. Well, cream of wheat is pretty healthy, is dirt cheap to make, and best of all – requires a morning ritual, which appeals to my ‘stuck-in-a-rut-and-loving-it’ness. I get to use the tiny pan, my mom’s cool bowls (just over half the tiny one of wheat, half the giant one of water), and a plastic whisk that I searched all over Omaha and Lincoln for but finally found at the Wal*Marts. A sprinkle of dried cranberries (purchased by the half-ton at Sam’s) and some cinnamon sugar and I’m good to go. (Well, good until Second Breakfast. Second Breakfast is extremely important in the course of a day.)

Regarding the title of this post, did you know that cream of wheat is just a grainy step away from being wheat paste? I can’t just toss the bowl in the dishwasher without a soak and a scrub or the bowls become permanently paper-mache’d.

UPDATE: For Beth, this is for you.