Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged.  I suppose it is due to the safe return of my dearest husband. :) 

I dropped my phone Saturday morning.  Dang.  I wasn't even being a clutz.  I put it in my pocket.  Unfortunately, the reversible jacket had the pockets unzipped on the other side too.  *pout*

This time (don't ask) the screen had no images, but it was responding to touch.  I got my replacement phone in, but discovered I'd been doing a pretty poor job of backing up my data to the SD card and/or the cloud.  *sigh*

I went round and round about how to get the data off.  I knew it had to be possible.  I NEEDED my chores tasklist and my menstrual data.  I had to find a way!  I tried some different remote desktop type software, but couldn't get anything configured in the blind.  Then I decided I could root the phone and remotely control it.  That seemed to be the only option.  I wasn't sure I wanted to do that. 

Enter Mr. Dube.

Thanks to Mr. Dube, I came to find out, the Android SDK has screenshots built in!  (Check out his awesome step-by-steps).  Screenshots are nearly as good as screencasting.  You just have to manually update. I have never gotten around to messing with developing an application for Android, so I had no idea that this feature was included.  The only thing I had to do blindly was to turn on USB debugging. 

I got it all set up and took frequent screenshots while I dealt with each application that was holding my data hostage.  In a couple days, I'll hook it back up again and do the best I can to wipe my old phone before sending it back to the cell phone before sending it back to the cell phone insurance company. 

Thanks for making it so simple Mr. Dube!

My Job Rocks Sometimes...

I got this email this morning after pardoning a student's late assignment.  Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

"Oh Ma'am, you have saved me 5 zits and a few grey hairs!

Thank you so very much!!
...
Husband is coming home in a few weeks....got to lose a few pounds....so my brain may not be working due to lack of carbs! lol.

Susie Q"

Encouragement

For starters, this blog post is due in large part to my Grandfather requesting a new blog entry.  (How cool is that!?)  "Hi, Papa!  Thanks for reading my blog."

A couple days ago, I got a package.  I didn't open it until this morning because I thought it was the Christmas present I ordered for my step sisters.  I suppose I should have been clued in to the fact that it was about 12 times as large as it should have been and didn't have the right return address on it, but I wasn't.  This morning I decided to open it and do some wrapping.  

When I first opened it I saw packing peanuts.  Um.  Those would not be necessary for the gift I bought.  The next thing I saw was an envelope with the name of my Alma Mater on it.  My next thought was "what kind of crap are they spending their money on in order to get me to donate?"  (Sorry!)  

From the envelope I pulled out these two cards.  (By the way, Cedarville, I celebrate Christmas.  Perhaps you mean Thanksgiving + Christmas?  I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one.)  I turned them over to find two lovely hand written notes to encourage me during Aaron's deployment from two dear couples who work at Cedarville.  I cried. 

Also included in the box was some chocolate.  At first, I thought that the item had melted in transit.  But, no.  It is a replica of "The Rock" at Cedarville--an iconic piece of local dolomite (which I now know thanks to the handy reference card included) that students regularly paint and occasionally set on fire.  (Did I get all my grammar and punctuation right in that sentence?) 

Also included was this pretty little Cedarville Yellow Jackets ornament.  Yay.  :)

 

Thank you Cedarville, Ropers and Grigorenkos for making my day.  

Garage Makeover

Recently, my sister and I got my bedroom in order.  Finally, a year after moving in, there are no boxes in my bedroom.  The only thing left is to a get a picture or two on the wall. 

Friday, when I was pumping up the tires on my 4Runner (which, by the way, took a very long time because they were really low), I found more wolf spiders than I really wanted to find.  I already knew I had a spider problem in the garage (and an organizational problem!), but I was just ignoring it.  Well, after this discovery I decided that the garage would be my weekend project.

I started out with a late night trip to Lowe's on Friday in order to get some shelving, a dehumidifier and some 18 gallon Rubbermaids.  I figured if I was going to do the project, I might as well do it right.  A couple weeks ago I had finally found the shelf that I wanted so that helped expedite the process.

Well, really, I had started the project last weekend bye un-mounding the pile of boxes to figure out which were ours and which belonged to Josh (we are keeping his stuff while he is deployed).  I brought ours inside and have yet to do anything with them.

Okay, okay.  I'll get to the pictures soon.  Thanks to Aaron for reminding me to take pictures.  Also, I take back anything bad I ever said about the huge shop vac he bought from Nate when we were still living in apartments.

Just to give you some scale for the pictures, the garage was one of the major selling points of the house for us.  I have tons of stuff, two cars, a weight set, and I still have room to spare!  In all, the whole project took me about 12 hours.  Unfortunately, between the boxes I brought into the house when this whole thing started and the additional stuff I brought in during the clean up, the basement now desperately needs major organizing and unpacking.  It already needed it, but now all the more so... As if I needed another project, I accidentally stepped off the rafter when I was in the attic spraying for bugs.  Thankfully, the ceiling held, but now I have to paint the ceiling in the hall because the little nubbies on the ceiling came off.  Fortunately, my hallway is less than 20 square feet and bounded on all sides so I don't have to paint a ton of ceiling.  :)

Finally, you get to see the pictures.  I'm pretty proud of this.  I also really need a shower!


Here are some 'before' shots.

From 20100912 - Garage Makeover

From 20100912 - Garage Makeover

Here are the 'after' shots.  

From 20100912 - Garage Makeover

Note that none of the blue tubs have anything in them yet.  All the boxes along the side and most of the ones on top are Josh's.  I don't mind having them at all, but I'll gain even more space when that stuff goes.  Of course, the weight bench is his, so that will go too.  I will be sad.

From 20100912 - Garage Makeover

From 20100912 - Garage Makeover

This one shows that my lawnmower fits sideways between the cars with walking space too. :)

If you want to see more pictures than the ones included here, you'll have to go to my album. 

20100912 - Garage Makeover

RIP Large Birdie

I'm not sure how to tell this story.  It seems like such a simple story--showing both brilliance and stupidity on the part of Team Lancaster. 

Before my main man, master of home fix-it projects, left for his latest year-long 'business trip', he put a wire mesh over our dryer vent because we were getting birds in it.  I asked him if he had made sure that the birds were out before he placed the screen.  He said that he had not.  I didn't think any more of it and I didn't hear any birds.  You must know that our dryer vent actually goes up a wall and over one stall of our garage before exiting the exterior walls of our house.  There is a lot of dryer vent...

When I came back to our home after finishing up with school (I'm done, by the way!), I noticed that there was a hole in part of the vent, closest to the exterior wall.  Directly beneath, I found a mostly eaten baby bird carcass.  I figured that that would be the end of it.  I purchased some repair supplies and figured it wasn't a big rush to get it fixed. 

A few days ago, my dryer stopped working.  This didn't really surprise me.  That happened once before in Alabama and I figured that it just needed a new thermal fuse.  Speaking of the master of home fix-it projects, he diagnosed and fixed that for me for about $11.  He is a genius.  Well, today, I finally pulled out the dryer and found the multimeter and got busy.  When I disconnected the dryer vent from the back of the dryer I looked inside.  I had my shop vac all ready to clean it out.  Inside I saw what looked like a wadded up black trash bag.  On closer inspection, I discovered that it was a full size bird.  Oh.  No wonder the dryer had been drying a little more slowly than usual and no wonder that the fuse got tripped.  Yippee.  I disposed of the vent piping, bird and all.  He didn't really smell.  Perhaps he was mummified by the heat from the dryer. 

Despite the failure to remove all the birds before closing up the exterior dryer vent, I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring out the problem and fixing it.  All that is left is to get a new fuse and put it in.  I'm expecting my clothes to dry in half the time now that the outgoing vent is unblocked.  I also took the opportunity to vacuum out all the trapped lint in the dryer and to clean the floor in my laundry closet.  All in all, a successful day. 

RIP Large Birdie. 

Team Lancaster, signing off. 

Budget tips

I just found these numbers about car maintenance from AAA and thought I'd reming you about the food numbers from USDA while I was at it!




http://www.aaapublicaffairs.com/Assets/Files/200948913570.DrivingCosts2009.pdf

Maintenance on your vehicle is costing you about $0.06/mile. Make sure you're putting that in your budget! If you have two vehicles and you're driving them each 1000 miles/mo, that's $120/month that you should be saving out for maintenance costs (including tires). Thanks AAA!



http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2010/CostofFoodMar10.pdf

The USDA provides some guidance on food costs. Even the thrify play for 2 people rings in at $350/month. Whew! For me, that information was a relief! Hopefully it is for you too! I no longer feel guilty about my food budget.

Google Scholar Idea

I love Google Scholar, but it would be a lot more useful if results were not ordered by how many times they have been cited, but rather by  how many times per year since publication.  So, a result that has been cited 10 times, but is 10 years post-publication would not rank nearly as high as a result that has been cited 5 times, but is only 2 years post-publication.   In Google Scholar, results are listed by relevance, but if you click the "Cited by" link, then they are listed by citation count.