The Kindness Rock Craze

Tustin Rocks!

I've been saying this for literally years and now, heh, I'm a part of a Facebook group that paints kindness rocks and leaves them about town for others to find (and sometimes hide again).

Tustin Rocks! on Facebook

I remember painting rocks when I was a kid, but never anything this elaborate.

So this is what I learned today about decorating rocks:

1) Gel Crayons work great on rocks but you cannot use Mod Podge to seal them. It just makes the rock look like a great big smear of all the gel colors you used.

2) You can start all over again and scrub a rock clean with soap, water and a nail brush.

3) If Mod Podge isn't your thing, you can also use clear Elmer's Glue to seal your rock art.

According to Jim

So I got a call from a former client to discuss some future business as he was told to call this week because of impending June vacations for the people he needed to speak to, including me.

As the conversation went, he asked me how was my vacation and I told him about how this year I worked on my floor instead of taking a trip. And he said that he, too, was in the middle of a flooring project. I am my father's daughter. We were comparing experiences with our fathers, tools, father's job... they were both machinists. 

Anyway, with all of the disparaging feelings I was having about things that are basically out of my control, that one conversation was the bright light I needed today. So according to Jim, I'm OK and knowing that was reassuring.  

It's June!

Last year, I was fully expecting that now I'd be recovering from my third major surgery battling Crohn's disease, but the medication the GI doctor prescribed has helped and gave me a tool to use when I'm feeling bad. After having a colonoscopy and finding out that the pain I was experiencing was from an ulcer instead of advanced Crohn's, I decided that it's probably a better idea for me to focus on doing things that make me feel well, eating well and de-stressing my life.

So part of that de-stressing regime has been looking for a job closer to home. I like driving, but having to drive in LA traffic to and from work four days a week (Monday's I work remotely from Brea) is a time waster and it's frustrating when it doesn't keep moving. I live 42 miles from work. In no traffic, it takes me 35 minutes to get to work. But in traffic, it can take anywhere from 1-2 hours to get to work. And, yes, I've tried rideshare commuting, but to be honest, it doesn't make that much difference in LA traffic. The solution is working closer to home. Immediately when I started to look for a new job, there were two different MERS positions that were posted and I got a telephone interview for the one I applied to, but found out that they couldn't meet my salary requirements. So I'm still looking.

Once the senior on my team came back to work after she had recovered from surgery, I scheduled my two week vacation. Last year, for vacation, I flew to DC and stayed with my aunt in VA and while my uncle was in a nursing home recovering from a heart attack. I drove up to Massachusetts and New York to meet up with family among other thing. I accumulated a lot of PTO between then and May planning on that LOA, but I didn't need it, so I had to take a vacation.

So instead of going back to the East coast this year, I'm having a stay-cation for the summer of 2015. The first week, I'm proud to say I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it felt good. The second week, I'm attacking the last of the floor project that was so rudely interrupted by December's broken wrist that I got from falling at work. Oh, and by the way, that infatuation for my therapist went absolutely no where. Which I'm kind of glad about because the new normal after menopause has not been any fun either. So I'm moving furniture and prepping the floor tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

I took time off of work since the 1st hoping that my wrist would feel good enough in order for me to complete the flooring project, but that thought seems like the joke's on me to get that project done. I'm still wearing the splint all the time (except in the shower) and I have a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist on 01/06.

On 01/05, I'm renewing my notary commission. It's an all day affair with state mandated education seminar and then a proctored exam immediately afterwards.

I stayed up New Years Eve and watched the ball drop on tv trying to stay warm. It actually snowed in Southern California the night before so I had to crank up the heat to be comfortable.

Stephen decided to walk home from work in the worst storm of the year and he's been sick ever since.They've been passing around the flu at his work for weeks.

For Christmas, while running Stephen to work and then picking him up at the wee hours of the morning because Walmart was open 24 hours a day between Thanksgiving and Christmas ans he was working graveyard, I bought a Sam ham fir the first time. And I'm happy to say it was pretty good. After eating on it for three days, Stephen made 16 bean soup out of the rest of it in the crock pot.

Before Christmas, I sent my couch, club chair and ottoman to the upholsterers because I couldn't stand the peeling top grain leather anymore. The set was in good shape otherwise. The fabric choice I made from their swatch book turned out to be discontinued and I really didn't like their alternate suggestions (not to mention the $18 per yard price tag), so I took it upon myself to locate and buy upholstery fabric I liked. It was something I've never had to do before, so I did some research online and found three of the biggest, oldest places to investigate. On my first try, I went to Dorrel Fabrics and found a great one for $15 a yard and bought the whole roll and dropped it off at Pete's a week ago at my lunch hour. A few days later, Eddie texts says the are working on the sofa asking me asking about the side details, and I said forget them. I can't wait to get it back.

#600

This is post number 600.

This is what 730 square feet of LVP flooring looks like on a pallet at the loading dock. I ended up buying it at Hernandez Brothers Flooring in Commerce because I didn't like what was offered at a national chain store. I mean, they didn't even carry any choices in 5mm!

The staff at Hernandez Brothers were very helpful listening to what I wanted and matching it with my needs and recommended 5mm Luxury Vinyl Plank (or LVP) flooring. Why LVP? Well the foundation is as old as I am, so after years of wear and tear, its got some imperfections so installing flooring that's 5mm thick actually helps to hide those imperfections nicely.

We took up the carpet, padding and tack strips in three sections and shifted the furniture around for the installation process. 

The livingroom is done! As the largest room with the biggest impact, I knew if I could do this room, the rest would be easy. While the furniture was moved, this also allowed me to paint my accent wall. It was orange for a long, long time. Now it's more of a neutral gray color.

Too Hot

It is so hot and humid in California today, it's almost unbearable. Have you ever seen a  pre-school little girl hold up her dress to cool off? Picture me doing that in my house today. The fans in each room are not cutting the humidity unless you're sitting directly in front of the breeze.

Yesterday wasn't much better. I ate light in the AM and around lunchtime, drove to Commerce to look at LVP flooring. I have to replace the 15 year old carpet and my choice is to go the vinyl plank route. Why?

1. It's a DIY easy to install project
2. It's nano silver infused, so it's super sanitary
3. Even though Lumber Liquidators is in the neighborhood, I didn't like the products they were offering.

So I picked up this white washed oak color that is just what I was looking for. Light, clean, and thick at 5mm and at the aforementioned Lumber Liquidators? They only had one choice that was vinyl plank at 5mm. I feel like I got a good deal. I almost bought the entire pallet. I may go back this coming weekend and buy the rest so my whole house can be floored in that product.

As nice as carpet is under foot, it's just a seething, filthy, smelling mess after 15 years of use.

I don't remember when the weather has been so strange as California goes. There were lightning strikes near the beach in Venice, Palos Verde and Catalina...

http://online.wsj.com/articles/man-dies-after-lightning-strikes-14-in-california-1406519232

Sunday Plumbing Sunday

Old condos leak from everywhere until you fix them. I had this happen to the maze of pipes underneath my kitchen sink last week and I had to fix it over the weekend. I practically had to rebuild it to make it stop leaking. And then I decided if I have to go through all that trouble, I'm getting a new faucet out of the deal. I found one to my liking for $99. It's got a high arch and a swivle head with three different spray settings and that suits me just fine. I don't need the hose thingie. So after three trips to Lowe's, breaking out every piece of plumbing tools I own plus my Dremel to cut one of the pipes, my kitchen leaks no more. I hope. I'm going to check it again when I get home from work tonight.

Sidebar: I took my son with me to Lowe's and he thought it was important for me to know the names of the pipe parts inorder to buy them. He was amazed that I could look at the pictures and find what I needed to fix the sink. Maybe I was a plumber in a former life. Or maybe I just hate to pay the fees my regular plumber charges. Yeah, that's more like it. When I was poor, I did stuff like this all the time because I didn't have the money to spend. Now that I do have the money, I don't want to spend it on stuff I'm perfectly capable of doing myself. When my hot water heater when out the day before 9/11, I called a plumber to fix it. When my toilet leaked, I rebuilt it. When my supply value began to leak, I called a plumber and told him no way when I heard the fee, so in my utter disgust at the potentional bill, I called a guy friend for strength and fixed it.

Yesterday, Oh Man!

Yesterday, I came to work not feeling so hot because I thought I was constipated, so I decided to just sip on tea and coffee all day and avoid the cafeteria which has been feeding me too well. I think I gained about 10 lbs since I started to work here, which is a lot for me considering I'm pretty tiny. I finally broke down out of sheer hunger at about 3:30PM and went to the vending machines because at that time the cafeteria was closed and I bought a bag of sour gummie worms for $1.50. I checked the ingredients for lactose and there was none. Yeah! This did not negate the fact that the other main components were mostly sugar.

I left work at my usual time of 5:00PM and by the time I got to my off ramp two hours later, I had this pain in the middle of my chest that was so strong, I couldn't decide if it was a heart attack or a panic attack. I was thinking on the way home that I needed to do something for my son's 21st birthday, but he was at school until almost 10:00PM, so I decided Tuesday would be better especially since I was feeling like hell. I drove home and parked my car, turned it off and assessed what I was feeling. I took a couple of deep breaths and got my gear out of the car and walked to my front door to let myself in.

After I got inside and as I shut the door, I burped this hellish burp and then the fun began. Gas-gas-gas like I have never has gas before. I took a few of the multi-symptom Rolaids, but they did little to help. It was not fun and I was up until 1:00 something AM dealing with my self-inflicted gas factory by eating mainly sugar on an empty stomach.

I didn't know if I was going to make it to work Tuesday because I didn't get enough sleep but at least my stomach stopped rumbling like from the night before. I did not dare eat anything before my 2 hour commute, so I sent a text message to my co-worker to say I was running late- leaving at 6:30AM and that I would be in the office by 9AM. I went to Albertson's before hitting work and bought some plain bagels, apple slices, wheat thins, salami and gum.

So sitting and thinking (because that's about all I have to do at work when it's slow and there is nothing to do but cruise the internet) about what transpired yesterday with me eating all of that sugar on an empty stomach and getting the most uncomfortable gas attack I have ever had in my life in return, I ran a query on Google on the words ' sugar and gas '.

Low and behold there is a correlation with the chemical reaction that occurred in my gut yesterday with sugar and gas. You won't even believe it when I tell you and it may even solve the high gasoline prices we've been experiencing lately.

Los Gatos Company Introduces Ethanol-Making Machine

...and here's another article about it on Gizmodo

Dear Commentator,

I had a dang useful comment applied last night to my 02/26/08 blog which told me about stainless steel hubs for my busted dishwasher wheels I was complaining about not being able to replace by utilizing a Maytag parts and service website.

J. Matthews reminds me of my dad = engineering metal parts that work because the solution is not cheap piece of molded plastic that's just going to break again. Thank you, Mr. Mathews. I will be checking into your website again just as soon as I can't stand the part malfunctioning because the glue won't hold anymore.

http://www.maytagwheelhubs.com/Maytag.html

Productivity

Sunday, I also finished installing the rubber moulding in my bathroom. Can you believe it? I left it half done for awhile.



Now, I need to tackle the rubber moulding in the main bathroom. Lowe's did not carry the 'dove' tannish color I bought last time like what I installed in my bathroom and I did not like the military gray, so I bought chocolate. I hope I bought enough to complete that project.

One down, only 847 more projects to go...

I installed my new kitchen light today. It only took me 6 months from when I bought it till today. What an ordeal. I could not use the standard setting screws to mount the base. And I only found this out half way through the project, so it was like putting the same lamp up twice. I had to drill one hole in my ceiling and use toggle bolts in order to mount the base. Once I figured it out, it went quick but it took two naps and getting through breakfast and lunch before I decided how to complete the task. But it's done. Two less pieces of clutter in my living room - the box for the light fixture and the 4-pack of energy efficient bulbs. Yeah!

What owning a Maytag Dishwasher taught me, pt. 2

So the part comes to my door via UPS and it's for the bottom try, not the top one like I need. O.K., my bad. I call to get a return code so I can get my money back or exchange it for the part that I actually need. I need the wheel to the right tray assembly.

So everytime I've completed a transaction with them up to this point, I've seen the phrase "satisfaction guaranteed" plasterd on my emails, the website, etc. When I called, it was a totally different story. Not only was I told that the part - the wheel I ordered for the bottom try was non-returnable, I could not even order the wheel I needed from the right tray assembly because it's was not offered as a part without said assembly for $32 some-odd dollars.

So now, not only am I out the $10.32 (part price plus shipping and handling) for a wheel I cannot use, I cannot get the wheel I need without spending another probably $42 for the entire assembly which I don't need. I'm pissed. I'm mad. And now I'm on a mad hunt finding some glue that will work inside a dishwashe because, damnit, I'd rather spend money on groceries than molded plastic I don't need.

Poo poo on Sears parts and service dot com.

It's winter and the Grapevine is closed!

We, the people of California, don't do well when roads get wet and then freeze. We don't believe in sanding the roads. We don't even believe in salting the roads. It seems we don't believe in doing anything except let nature run its course and wait for the ice to melt.

So today, Thursday, January 24, 2008, the major route that connects from north to south ,Interstate 5 , was closed. The CHP is busy putting up the road blocks and taking people off of the freeway.

I believe the snow line on the San Bernardino Mountains is at about 4500 feet and the lower is goes, the colder the valley remains. The weather report looks like something out of Seattle rather than sunny Southern California should have. The forecast is for cold and on and off rain for the next 10 days.

I was lucky enough to get some blue sky over my head long enough to get all of my laundry done today and the towels washed, too. And then the cold wind kicked up again and the gray storms clouds rolled back over my fair city and I retreated back into my condo to put away all of the tiems that I washed.

Better yet, I worked on my condo today! I had bought tan rubber moulding to install into both of my bathrooms awhile ago and I got sick of looking at the ugly wall, so I thought that actually installing the moulding would help cover it up. It was a little tricky, but not so hard and I have four lengths done and then I needed to take a break. So I'm writing this blog on my break. I believe I have three more lenghts to install and then I can maybe work on the walls yet another time and paint! Woohoo! It would be nice to have a nice, normal bathroom for the first time since I lived here and not tore up one.

The sky is falling

So now that I have all this damn ass free time, I decided that I absolutely hate my drop ceiling in the kitchen area and want to tear it down. I've been contemplating it all week. Actually, I've been contemplating it for a while, but only recently, have I made plans, like repairing the ceiling and replacing the light.

So after three days of semi-idleness, Saturday morning is the day I decide to tear it all out. I wake-up early, and start to remove the acoustic tiles. I started by the sink and worked my way out toward the frig on the other side of the room. So by the time I get to the last tile, my back is turned to the light fixture that is suspended in the middle of the room and I hear this huge crash behind me. I turn my head to see the light now positioned face up on the kitchen floor. I think of how many thousands of times I have walked under that damn thing and now that I'm so glad its gone. I still have to remove the railing, but the hazard is no more.

Once all the railing is removed, I have to patch the holes and then apply the knockdown texture to the ceiling area that never got any-thank you. Then I can paint. I'm thinking ceiling white and then after the cabinets get stripped, I'll pick a real color like egg shell or cream... something a tad warmer than the stark white I started with in each room. I'm looking at new products made out of portland cement and recycled colored glass for a solid counter top surface because I think a tiled one makes the room look smaller. I think it's called ice stone. Anyway, wish me good luck with the project. One of many that hopefully gets more into a completed state because we use the kitchen too much for it not to be nice and done.

The weekend's here...

The weekends here and I think I must have been stressed out during work this past week because I have been sleeping most of the day - Saturday. I woke up at 4AM from falling asleep on the couch. I did a few entries on Yelp, then fell back asleep on the couch watching TV. I woke up and I was hungry. Go figure. I had a bowl of berry burst cheerios with vanilla Westsoy Plus and went back to sleep. I woke up again and I was hungry. This time I found herbed goat cheese and garlic crackers and ate half of the cheese clod. And Hey! I did not go back to sleep this time. I channel surfed away from the DYI and the comedy channels because you know I have to watch "So I Married an Axe Murderer" when it's on not only because it's a funny movie, but because Anthony LaPaglia was in his prime them - mmm mmm mmm. Damn Italians - always have a soft spot for them in my heart and I don't know why. He was gorgeous in his 30's - but seriously, I don't know what happened to his physic nowadays because by me reading his bio on imdb.com, I learned he's three years older than me. Ouch. Why do men allow themselves to get chunky and so out of shape? It's so unhealthy.

Friday after work, I went to Ikea in an effort to locate an adequate replacement for the cheesy pine and chipboard cubes screwed to my wall resembling CD racks. Next to my awesome large screen TV and stereo cabinet, the organized CD racks look like something that a high schooler would have for storage. The pine cubes appear quite emaciated just not substantial enough to stand against the other furniture in the room.