Monday, July 24, 2006

A Black Hole in mySpace

Props to MySpace. No, not because the were sold for $570,000,000.00 a year ago, and not because today they have 100,000,000 registered users. I wanted to give a shout out to the #1 most trafficked site because they are having some downtime (apparently due to power outages, I guess it can happen to anyone). If you tried to access MySpace during this time initially you got some errors, but now they have a friendly message explaining the issue, with the bonus: A Pac-Man simulation!



And no, I do not have a MySpace page.

PS - I spell checked "trafficked".

Garbage Disposals are Garbage

Not the most exciting entry in the world, but the Garbage disposal in "the willow" has had some rough times. It now has a reputation among the teenagers staying in the house (namely Matt, the brother-in-law) as a wimpy disposal. I believe the first incident was some sort of peel. Never mind the fact that I use a disposal to catch incidental food left on the plate while the remaining three other folks in the house from the fiancee's family use it as the food trash can. Who knew. I try to throw every bit of food I can in the trash, saves on disposals.

So this weekend in the flurry of getting the house ready for a last-minute movie night, 15 huge cherry seeds made their way into the disposal. Needless to say an operation was in store. Today I pulled the disposal off and was arm deep into the nasty-ness. The 1st 14 seeds came out without a fight, the last one was lodged in the side in some manner. I believe after an hour of wrestling with it, the bent piece of metal clothes hanger did the trick, and we are back up and running. Tonight I just might chop some broccoli.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

We Didn't Start The Fire (Boston's 80's Sports Version)

I have been looking for this song for a long time, here it is for all of you Boston Sports Fans! (Click the center PLAY button)

Congratulations to... Me!


It's Official. I have dominated my Fantasy FIFA World Cup League. To spice up the World Cup, my buddy Pat put together a 12 person league under the name "Soccer Sucks". With little to no knowledge of Global Soccer, I was able to demolish the competition. I have to credit the fact that before the league started I searched around the internet and found some other fantasy FIFA leagues, ones where they essentially ranked the players for you, and used that info to my advantage. At any rate it helped me enjoy the World Cup a little more and I found myself watching "matches" I might not have watched.

My quick 2 cents on why soccer is not big in the US. I have a rule, if it is common for teams to tie in your sport, it sucks. Do you remember hockey before the lock out where they recorded Wins, Losses, Ties, and Over Time Losses because they all weighted towards your points!?!?! With a straight face on ESPN Chris Berman would say things like "The Bruins are 3-4-1-2 in their last 10 games" or "The Bruins remained unbeaten in 20 games going 11-0-9-0". Soccer is the same deal. If you can have "Friendlies" and tie and walk away, it kinda stinks. Also, the fact that the World Cup championship came down to penalty kicks is a bit of a let down. Oh sure, it's as exciting as penalty shots in hockey, but it's hard to feel good about a win like that.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Insurrection Insomnia (A Look at Home Owner's Insurance)

If you read my 1st post, you know that I am a new home owner. You may not know that I read everything. I read all bazillion pages for the closing of the house (which I requested to have 2 days in advance, I did find a few errors!). I also have read my home owner's policy from a major company that will remain nameless. However I couldn't help but laugh hysterically at the policy, hence the Insurrection insomnia.

The obvious is true, my house (known in the "biz" as a Dwelling) is covered from loss in the event of fire etc. Of course we need to clarify that "my house" refers to my dwelling including attached structures, the construction materials thereof, and wall to wall carpeting fastened to the dwelling. Fine.

But reading further, it states that I am NOT covered for floods, including but not limited to surface water, waves, tidal water or overflow, or spray whether or not driven by wind. Sounds scary but I think I knew that flood insurance was separate, which is a major issue in New Orleans right now.

However, I am also NOT covered for earth movement of any type, including but not limited to earthquake, volcanic eruption, lava flow, landslide, subsidence, mudflow, pressure, sinkhole, erosion, and aliens (I threw that in to see if you were still paying attention). Sounds like a remote possibility, however we can easily see how this house that I can not afford to buy outright and had to borrow money to pay back for 30 years could disappear by some earth movement and I would be out the entire sum. Bankruptcy. That would be tragic.

However, the good news is that I AM covered for damage caused by fire, explosion, theft or breakage of glass or safety glazing materials resulting from said earth movement above. So the best case scenario for earth movement would be for the volcano to erupt just up the street from me and have the lava flow miss my house, but cause the trees to burn and therefore I would be covered.

As if that wasn't enough to worry about as a new home owner, I am also NOT covered for nuclear action, radiation or radioactive contamination. I am (of course) covered by fire resulting from said nuclear action, assuming I am still alive (and glowing) to collect.

And finally I am NOT covered for war or warlike acts, including but not limited to insurrection, rebellion or revolution. Hence the insurrection insomnia as I will add to my list of prayers each night that a war doesn't break out in my neighborhood, or at least if it does, only the fires that were started during the war meet my unoccupied house.

Are you in good hands?

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Blog Props

Let's be clear, I am quite obviously late to the game per se for this blogging thing, however I have been interested in creating one for some time. I am usually pretty bad about emailing friends and keeping in touch back home (Boston) so I figure maybe a blog would be a good idea. Though quite clearly the tipping point in all of this was the fact that Dale has a blog so popular that I think even Mark Cuban himself has visited. So NET here I am, blogging (how's it going so far?) Actually I felt like I needed a starting place to blog, and the fact that I am now a home owner seems as good as any (hence the name of the blog).

So this is the end of month #1 in the new house with the fiancee and so far so good. Meghan and I have survived 2 weeks of her parents staying with us, untold number of bird heads being left in the yard by a carnivorous hawk, and the fact that we now have a dog. I introduce to you the "Four Seasons of Shelby" -

So check back for the random updates of a new home owner like learning to cook corn on the cob, staining a deck, the not so invisible - invisible fence, and everybody's favorite: Softball updates.