Obligatory quarterly post????

Ever notice how I tend to say I’m going to keep on top of things, and never do? I have no idea what causes that. Bleh. Anyways. I won’t promise that at all this time. Maybe it’ll have positive results.

So what’s been up with me? Well, finally plonked down on a good digital camera. I got a Canon 40D DSLR.  Which I would link to, except that Canon’s website is full of FAIL and won’t serve up a homepage right now. (GO ORACLE!) I so far LOVE the camera. I haven’t uploaded much, but you can certainly check out the cream of what I have taken on my Flickr account. I really want to get a macro lens for this bad boy and have fun. Things look so awesome close up. <3

Been working in the yard, as well. I took out all the white landscaping rock around the edge of the property and replaced it with sod. Unfortunately, this area gets so much sun, that while it was growing awesomely for a while, when the sun started to really shine and the days got hot, I got burned patches. I think what I need to do is plan for some shade trees, and plan out a new irrigation system. Right now, it is laid out so badly that I can’t possibly hit all the zones I need to. So….time to rip it up, get a controller that does two more zones for flowerbeds, and do it RIGHT. Also think I’m going to hire a landscape architect to draw up some plans for me – I’m hoping I can find someone who is just trying to get their foot in the door and would be willing to do it semi-cheaply. Well, here’s hoping, at least.

Also, my venerable F-150 truck seems to be showing its age. I believe I got screwed by a Grease Monkey franchise out here, because now I have rod knock where it never existed before, and when I brought it in to have it looked at, I was WAY low on oil – despite having no oil spots under where I park the car, or any indication I was burning oil. Le sigh. Not sure how much it’d be to get that fixed…. But I’ve been looking at a new/used car anyways. Now, my more ecologically-minded friends might kill me for stating this, but I started to do the math, and I don’t save all that much by going to a really high mileage vehicle. The Jetta TDI, which gets a real world average of 42MPG, would only save me $700 a year. Not a huge deal to me.

So I test drove a BMW 135i and 335xi, Subaru WRX, and a Mazda 3.

1. BMW 135i – God Jesus is this a fun car. Zippy as heck, gets 25MPG, feels like it is on rails. 0-60 in 4.7 seconds, I was in “hello Mr. Officer!” territory before I knew it. My gripes about the vehicle is near-useless back seats and the convertible had shitty rear visibility -  But the real dealbreaker was a request for low speed from a stop. It just felt like the car had to make up its mind, and when it did, it was a hyperactive GO GO GO that I really didn’t want.
2. BMW 335xi – Same Engine as the 135i, slightly larger frame, All wheel drive. I cannot stop thinking about this car. Handled like it was on rails, low speed requests were answered with refined haste, and it was still zippy as all heck. No roll AT ALL. Corners like a fighter plane. Good god, I know why BMW can command the prices they do.
3. Subaru WRX – Granted, the guy I had to test drive with was a bit of a prat. But this car was zippy, sure..not off the chain like the 135i was, but still nice. But good lord, the handling was ass. Rolled over more than my dog. Not impressed. Not for $30K.
4. Mazda 3 – This car totally surprised me. It’s a non-turbo 4 banger, but was plenty zippy, and handled much much better than the WRX. It’s not AWD, which sucks for here, but FWD is a little better than rear for snow, at least. I was amzed at this vehicle. For $21K and 29MPG, it had no right to be as nice a drive as it was. I would definitely want to add a turbo onto it – the Speed3 only comes in standard. (Sorry, it’s semi-auto or nothing for me anymore.)
5. Lancer EVO – I got to sit in it. They wouldn’t let me drive it. The seats can’t fit my fat American ass. The salesman was apologetic, but they want to keep those low mileage. Whatever.

Anyways – the search continues. Right now, the BMW 335xi and the Mazda3 are in the top running. If the BMW was $10K to $15K cheaper, or if I could find one used, I’d already be driving it. The experience was THAT good. Seriously. If you haven’t, go drive one. These are truly class machines.

So, I’ll leave this post here. Maybe more in another couple months.

Why is it home disasters that cause me to post?

I’m not sure why, either. Ahwell.

When I bought this house, I got an inspection done on it, like any responsible buyer. The inspector brought to my attention some water in the basement, but he theorized that it was due to grading problems in the front lawn, since we could turn off the water to the house, go look at the water meter, and not see the little red splotch move at all. Thus, no leaks between the city and the valve in the house.

Fast forwards to this year, where the problem has gotten worse. I figure it’s time for me to have someone do an injection seal on the foundation where the pipe penetrates from the outside. But I look closer…that’s a lot fo water dripping out of there..hmm. I turn off the main valve, and go look at the meter. Sure as anything, that little red splotch is spinning. Slowly, but….ARGH.

So tomorrow is a $4300 adventure. Maybe more. Ugh. They have to yank the whole pipe out and replace. Sigh. I’m handy, but I’m not that handy. I suppose if I was more inclined to do things myself, I’d trench it out myself and save money, but…argh. Ohwell. At least I get a 10yr warranty out of it. The house has already done its settling in its 30 years, so this should be the last time.

In other news, life goes well. The job I got back in October has proven to be one of the best moves ever. The management rocks, my co-workers are all great, I can see myself staying there for some time. I’m always challenged. And for me, that’s about all I can ask.

Going to start going to the gym a bit more often. I had wanted to get a personal trainer, but I think with this new expenditure, I’ll hold off on that and just do what I already know to do. I’ve told my dog he’s going to have to eat puppy chow for a few months, while I feast upon ramen. Money just got tight.

I’d been wanting to do some landscaping projects around the house, as well as replace the flooring in the living room, as well as string in some data cables and coax cables into all the rooms. I’m going to have to scale back my projects and only do things that I know I can do myself. The flooring shouldn’t be a big deal, I thinkthe pussywillow and Aspen I wanted to cut down are going to get another year, though…. But most of it is something I can do, given the right tools and a little training. (Read: A few days with the Internet.)

I love Spring. I love Summer and Fall, too, but Spring holds a spot in my heart as the time of year where everything miserable about winter goes away, and you’re left with sunny, but cool days. The flowers are already coming up in the beds, I think after this whole adventure is done, I’ll start putting in some real planters out there…as good of a time as any, I suppose.

Timing….

Of all the times for my furnace to crap out on me, this weekend is not the best. My regular guy is out until tomorrow afternoon.

Argh. Anyways, the furnace has been out since about 8AM, after a 14F night. I think the humidifier is causing some sort of short, as I can’t get the blower to turn on, the the GFI was tripped on the plug the humidifier is on. Fun times. Tried everything I know, this is probably a replacement part in the making. At least it’s under warranty.

Went to Lowe’s and got some El Cheapo space heaters so I can keep areas with pipes warm to prevent a multi-hundred plumber bill. Thank god it’s only supposed to get down to about 25 tonight. So far, the temp hasn’t dropped below 60, this house really does have some nice insulation, thank god.

No project ever takes the time alloted to it.

About four weeks back, I decided that since I was going to be starting a new job in a week, and had some time to spare, I’d finish the garage. The garage was a real mess. I have pictures, but let me give you the lowdown. Only the back wall was drywalled. The rest was un-insulated pegboard. The back wall had multiple holes, scuffmarks, deep gashes, water stains, some of the drywall seams were coming apart…you name it.

So I tore down all of the pegboard, and started to put in insulation. After that was done, time to do something I’d never attempted before…hang drywall. That went surprisingly easy, I was amazed. All I needed to do was mud and sand it, then paint. But little did I know that sanding is godawful, and that I’d blow out my back right as I started painting. Argh.

So tonight I finally felt well enough to start painting again…and ran out of paint with about 5/6th of the garage primed before I ran out of paint. Argh. I can see it now, if I get married, I’ll be one of those guys who always seems to get yelled at by the wife for not finishing projects.

Well, at least I accomplished another homeowner task last night that I’d never done before…emptying the water sprinklers. After finding out I’d have to pay $100 to have some tool come over and do it for me, I did a little research, went to Home Depot and got $5 worth of brass fittings. Hooked it up to my air compressor, and lo and behold, that little bastard had more than enough capacity to blow out the pipes. ROCK. $95 saved.

That’s about it for my home improvement stories. I’ll post pictures when the garage is done.

And oh yeah, my new job owns. More about that later.

The crazy things they do in Iowa…

Thought I’d post this for my Crazy Iowa friends…

Pressing the giant restart button

This website has been spending a lot of time spinning its wheels. I’d mostly make posts to LiveJournal, but I recently have come to realize that I have a pretty good thing going here. So, I’ve pressed the giant reset button in the sky, nuked all old comments and articles, and will be starting over, and hopefully utilizing this site more than I have in the past.

I’ve added in a link to the site of two of my friends who used to live here in Colorado. They made the decision to move to Iowa, and buy some land out there. The land has two barns, both of which are but empty shells. They’re remodeling both of them, and even plan to live in one! Truly some amazing stuff, let me tell you. I can’t do half of the things they can in terms of home improvement, but perhaps that will change here shortly. Hats off to them, that’s a huge project.