Archive for October, 2010

MythBusters (ep 150)


21 Oct

When the Poop Hits the Fan: I always pictured it as hitting ceiling fan. But the large scale test with the less solid “poo” seemed like a pretty good result.

Cold Feet: I wasn’t certain what I thought about this one. To me, being nervous is different from being terrified. People normally claim “cold feet” excuse when they are nervous. When they are terrified, they say so. But it seemed to hold true in situations where the person could have had an out. Tory, who had no way out once his trial started, had less of a result. Makes sense.

 

Refinancing


20 Oct

With today’s interest rates, we’re looking at refinancing our home. Unfortunately, all the programs that currently exist help people who are having problems paying their loan. We aren’t. In fact, we’re a good risk. Chase has never sold our mortgage. This screws us.

Due to falling property values, we owe more than 80% of the value of our home. If our loan were owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, we could refinance without PMI. As it is, we can’t. Amusingly, per Chase customer service, if we refinanced with PMI, they would sell our loan to one of the FMs.

Guest Stars


19 Oct

I love the randomness of guest stars on network television. Take Chuck, so far this season, we have Linda Hamilton as their mom (on a show that had Scott Bakula as the dad), and a cadre of famous bad guys– Dolph Lundgren, Bronson Pinchot, Lou Ferigno, Armand Asante, Eric Roberts, Bautista, and one of the interns from Bones (Joel Moore). Perhaps the odd thing for me was that I was more tickled to see Joel Moore than I was Eric Roberts.

Famous actors are fun, but less known actors that you enjoy showing up in unexpected places are even better.

 

Laundry


18 Oct

I don’t know how families do it. With just two people, laundry feels never ending. I don’t mind doing laundry (I love my washer and dryer); I hate putting it away. I’m bad at folding; I don’t have enough drawer space for t-shirts as it is. I certainly don’t have room for another piece of furniture to put clothes in.

On laundry day, I am seriously tempted by the six item clothing diet, or something similar, just to cut the work down. If I only had six items I wore to work, I’d only have six things to hang up.

 

The View from the Train


17 Oct

The train ride between Seattle and Sacramento is a lovely trip in the fall. Going over the Cascade Range, the foliage was beautiful. For the most part, the trees were evergreens, but there were the occasional patches of deciduous trees in full fall colors, standing out from the green. We passed the Minnow Damn and rode along the Oregon and Washington coast.

We got to travel through small towns that you do not see from the freeway and peak into people’s back yards. The whistle stop train stations were cute pieces of a past we don’t see much of anymore.

 

Sleeping on a Train


16 Oct

Would you believe that too much leg room can be a bad thing on a long trip? Over all, taking the train is a relaxing way to travel, but there was so much leg room that it felt like I was falling out of my seat when I tried to asleep. I had to put down the leg and foot rests and pretend that I was on a plane in order to feel secure enough in my seat to sleep. It was easier to sleep on the return trip when we boarded the train at midnight after a long day.

 

Visiting Sacramento


15 Oct

We had a great time in Sacramento. We were lucky enough to stay with a dear friend who I hadn’t seen in seven years. He was a gracious host and took us to a few wonderful places to eat. Ginger mango chicken is completely superior to sweet and sour chicken in every way, and squash blossom with goat cheese makes a wonderful appetizer.

I also had the chance to meet with a few friends from my budgeting message boards. It was wonderful to finally meet these ladies in person and have faces and real names to put with screen names.

 

MythBusters (ep 149)


14 Oct

We were back to old school MythBusters tonight, just Jamie and Adam and a couple small builds. It was nice to see their joy and the simplicity that made me fall in love with the series again.

I did see a couple problems with their final personal tornado protection tent. It lost its “wing” for the second round of tests, having to bolt the spiked piece to the frame made it less portable, less adjustable (for changing wind speeds), and the whole thing seemed to take a long time to set up. I’d want something a little quicker to deploy.

 

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (3)


13 Oct

Add Judge Virginia Phillips to my list of judges of the year. Judge Phillips has ordered a global injunction against enforcing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In her careful reading of the facts, she has determined that not only does discharging gay soldiers not aid the military’s goals, in fact, it hurts them.

The Justice Department still has time to appeal, and Obama is on record wanting Congress to overturn the law (they’ve already voted not to), but I hope they don’t. This is why we have the judiciary, to make the right decision even when its not the popular decision.

WFTDA Western Regionals: the Venue


12 Oct

Rollin’ on the River was held at Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento. It was built in 1926, and has a lovely ceiling typical of that time frame. It also has cushioned stadium seating. I should have researched this. We packed for bleachers- bringing bleacher seats and stadium cushions on the theory that we would need them to survive 3 days of roller derby. Our travel could have been much easier without those added items.

While the auditorium could have used larger seats (people were smaller in the 20s), it was overall the loveliest venue I’ve ever watched roller derby in.

 

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