tip of the week...

Since everyone has started editing blog templates and such, I just wanted to share another tip about a very useful program: Notepad++ This program is open source -- so it doesn't cost anything. It is the swiss army knife of text editors -- very useful when editing your html templates, css, etc. It has built in syntax highlighting for a number of scripting and programming languges, and tab-based editing of multiple files at once. It also has useful features like a "find in files" which lets you search for text in multiple files.
I know.... who cares about text editors... but coming soon -> pidgin vs trillian, and avast vs norton

Joyce sent us this magnet, and I was very amused...

Pete Versus the Furnace

So as part of this whole frozen pipes thing, we had water damage to our furnace. On the 26th of December, the furnace tech was here all day trying to rebuild it for us. The insurance said since repairs would be ~1800 and a new furnace would be ~2600 - they would only cover the repair. And since I couldn't get a commitment from the tech on what it would cost until he had torn it apart -- I couldn't just pay the difference and get a new one..

So here it is. Back together and running.. The problem is -- the blower fan runs all the time. You would think that we would notice this sort of thing pretty quickly, but with a dozen industrial drying fans running in your house - you don't neccessarily notice the noise from your furnace. I think we were just happy that the temperature was consistent.

So this past Friday, they finally took the last of the fans out - including the two that were in the furnace room... and it became obvious fairly quickly that the stupid thing was running all the time. Man it torqued me off. We paid over $1800 to have this stupid furnace rebuilt, which took the guy two days by the time he got all the parts in and got it back together.

After I called and let the furnace people know how unhappy I was that it was running all the time and they screwed it up and they better send someone right away to come fix it.. I decided to take a look at it a little closer. This is when I discovered the Fan/Limit Switch.

Here's the original one. Pretty impressive, huh? This thing has a thermostat that reaches into the furnace to the actual heat exchanger, and measures the temperature there.. If it's hot enough, it turns the fan on.. If it's cooled down, it turns it off.. and if it's too hot -- it shuts the whole thing down.

Am I the only homeowner out there who isn't familiar with the fan/limit control? How was I supposed to know that the new one could have a little push switch that says "pull auto/push manual". I sure felt like an idiot when I had to call them back and cancel the appointment because I had "figured it out".

to shave or not to shave...

(picture replaced because jenn said the other one was just creepy...)

So after not shaving for a few days at Thanksgiving, I decided to continue to not shave to see how I would look with a goatee.. The problem is, I am follicly challenged. That is to say, I have trouble growing hair, and apparently not just on the top of my head. This is the first time I have really gone any length of time without shaving - and my goal is to wait until Christmas to see how much has grown in to decide if I like it.. I'm just not sure that it is genetically possible for me to actually grow in a reasonable looking mustache.. (if there is such a thing).

This is the email we got at work "FYI - from Security, they have advised that there has been a shooting at Von Maur at the Westroads. Security has asked that you please be aware of your surrounding if you are leaving the office and that the shooter is still on the loose. "

If your nose is running, and you don't have a kleenex.... Should you just let it drip on the floor, or should you stick out your tongue to catch the snot as it streams down your face?

A new hat!

I finally got a new hat to blog about. This hat is from the Thoroughbred Classic 5K.
I am very proud to say that my family all got off our butts and went to walk/run on thanksgiving morning. This made it much easier to feel less guilty about sitting on our duffs all day pigging out on Pete's delicious fried turkey.
So - here's a link to the results, just to prove I was there...