LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

Gadget

Lauren 1, Heat Vision 0

by 8 Comments

My undying thanks to Lloyd, who took over posting duties this week since I wasn’t feeling well (a cold, a fever, a rash, then a different, more sinister cold). As you have seen, he’s such a good writer that people are footnoting him!

When he fixed the sink earlier this week, I was very grateful that the dripping finally stopped. As we chuckled over his ‘heat vision’ repair, he said, “Be careful turning the faucet off or it will fall apart.” Ummm…. I’m not what you would call a ‘careful’ person, and promptly broke it. The gushing water wouldn’t shut off, so we had to head it off at the supply line. Since then, we’ve been living like pioneers and toting water from the bathroom sink in a pitcher. You know, it wasn’t as inconvenient as I thought it would be.

We used a lot less water, that's for sure.
Anyway, the real part came in the mail today, and while I was sleeping, a little elf came along and made the water work again. Thanks, elf, you’re my hero.

Do NOT buy Moen faucets.

Moen faucets are NOT cool. Do not buy one.

the required quarter

Lovin’ the Mac

by 12 Comments

Good thing my boss doesn’t read this, or I’d make her pretty mad. She’s got this classroom rating thing that says it would be good for children to have a listening center. Phewsh. (That’s a scoffing sound.) Have you ever seen classroom listening centers? They’re nothing like they seem in the catalogs. Headphones all a-tangle, the audio tapes that get destroyed by children jabbing at buttons you’ve told them not to jab, the actual machine being jabbed beyond tolerance, books ripping, cats eating dogs. It’s mayhem, I tell you, mayhem.

Being the rebellious type that I am, I decided to go ahead and have a listening center….. my way – the ‘re-inventing the wheel, gadgety, too complicated’ way. (Mind you, I should say that at no point did she actually say that I had to have a listening center. She was quite gracious and understanding in hearing my grievances.)

I have the recording program Garage Band on the iMac, and in addition to recording requiems, turns out I can read a story¿ add some background music, and put it on my Shuffle. A couple of cheap headphones from Wal-Mart, and we’re good to go. I think they could swallow the Shuffle and it would survive.

Can you see the shuffle?

Back to the gadgets

by 4 Comments

Going along with the love of gadgets, I must mention this from my father. He also loves techno-stuff (he’s got one of those cool iBook laptops with magnetic cable connectors), but he also appreciates the simpler doodads. While in Blue Hill, he gave us a very nifty little bottle closer that keeps pop from going flat. Since Lloyd likes to drink A&W Cream Soda, and usually buys it in 2-liter bottles,  this was a timely gift.

We're gonna pump (clap) you up.

The best part is how the directions make it sound kind of dangerous: “Do not us on glass bottles. Do not over pump. Direct away from eyes/face when releasing pressure (opening bottle).” It’s like a bomb of soda goodness!

Foldy Bowl

by 4 Comments

I love gadgets – or at least the thinking that goes into most gadgets.  (There are some that are completely useless – like the machine that scrambles an egg while it’s still in the shell for ‘easy scrambled eggs’!  Are you kidding me? How hard is it to scramble an egg?)

Anyway, I’ve been visiting a guy’s website, http://www.kk.org/cooltools/ , and if you click on the categories on the left side he’s got articles on all kinds of cool stuff.  I’m drawn to the backpacking things, because even though I’ll never hike in my life, I like all the stuff that goes along with it – the tiny pots, the tiny tents, it’s all good.  One of the things he wrote about was a set of foldable dishes.  They snap or fold together to make a cup, plate or bowl, then unsnap for easy packing.  I remembered that my sister had sent me one of those years ago!  I’d played around with it, but never used it for actual eating.  Well, I tested it can can vouch for it’s bowl-ness.  Behold:

Bowl or frisbee?

Folded, with a little life-giving Life cereal. (I'd already eaten First Breakfast.)

FoodSucker

by 9 Comments

Yeah, I know it’s called a FoodSaver, but FoodSucker is so much more fun to say, and it’s not crass – it’s appropriate!

Occasionally I have been known to convince myself to buy something that we really don’t need. (Occasionally – ha!)  About a year ago I really wanted a FoodSucker, so I waited the normal one-month period before I buy a major thing, all the while creating all these scenarios where I would be vacuum-sealing food left and right!  So I bought one, sealed up everything in sight in one evening….then put it in a closet, never to be seen again until last week.

Overall, I highly recommend them.  You can wrap and store a lot of things for a long time, but never, ever BUY one.  Find somebody who has one that will loan it, provide your own bags, and bake them a cake as payment.   (My favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - I'm yours!