Deep Thoughts, by Rick Root

Boat Update - Ready for the Water!

2008-05-11T21:15:09-07:00

So, I can't remember if I blogged my boating issues a few weeks ago but we took the boat out for an initial test run 4-5 weeks ago and it failed miserably. We had to get towed back in! Engine overheated.

Now, she's finally ready for the water after quite a bit of work. I did most of this work myself with the help of my dad and Laurie's boyfriend Charles. Charles is an auto mechanic and boat enthusiast. He runs an automotive service center in Cary called Techni-Quest.

Anyway, here's a list of all the stuff we did this spring:

replaced the running boards on the trailer - new plywood and carpet
replaced the stern drive water intake pump
installed a new thermostat - for some reason the boat didn't have one
replaced the engine water circulation pump
replaced faulty tach and fuel gauges
replaced faulty cigarette lighter with a power outlet (for plugging in cell phones, ipods, etc)
Installed new stereo

Had I paid other people to do all this it probably would've been really expensive, but since I only had to buy the parts, it wasn't bad at all. The most expensive part was the engine circulation pump at something like $60. The stern drive water pump kit was like $25. Probably spent maybe $300 if you include the stereo.

I also learned a LOT of boat engines, how stern drives work, etc.

Can't wait to get out on the lake!!

HELP! I NEED YOUR VOTES!

2008-05-07T12:54:53-07:00

Actually, my boss' daughter's reading buddy did a book review for a contest and we want her to win.

Please to go the following link and vote for "The Thief Lord"

http://www.storytubes.com/vote/hrt.php#

Thanks!

Don't eat those peanuts!

2008-04-24T06:28:53-07:00

An old man and a young man work together in an office. The old man always has a jar of peanuts on his desk, and the young man really loves peanuts.

One day, while the old man is away from his desk, the young man yields to temptation and scarfs down over half of the contents of the jar.

When the old man returns, the young man feels guilty and confesses to his crime.

"Don''t worry, son. I never eat the peanuts anyway," the old man replies. "Since I lost my teeth, all I can do is gum chocolate off the M&M's."

Rick Root General Dentistry

2008-04-21T10:59:10-07:00

Okay, stop asking. You've all heard the radio ads from the yellow pags where Rick Root, DDS, talks about how business has improved since he started advertising in the yellow pages.

No, it's not me. No, I haven't changed professions!

If you've surfed into this page after doing a google search, I suggest you hit your back button and try another link =) I think he's in Vero Beach, Florida.

Going to Williamsburg this weekend

2008-04-21T09:54:16-07:00

We're using some timeshare points with our Wyndham Vacation Resort timeshare to go to Williamsburg this weekend. I got an email about a month ago saying that there were some points discounts for various resorts, and that included a 40% discount at the Wyndham Resort at Kingsgate in Williamsburg, a very nice older resort that has been renovated to be a "Gold Crown" style resort (like all of Wyndham's newer resorts). Last time Emily and I stayed there last year, we were in a 1 bedroom lockoff, but even the half-kitchen had granite counter tops, and the TV in the living room was a flat panel! Anyway, the 40% discount ran through the last weekend in April, so that's when I made the reservation for.

We filled out an educational leave form for Emily so we can take her out of school on Friday. We're going to take her to Colonial Williamsburg. We'll see if she finds it interesting. I've never been there.

Saturday we're going to go to Busch Gardens and ride some rides!

The forecast for the weekend looks decent.. Partly cloudy and 78 on Friday, and then cloudy and 78 on Saturday - and only a 20% chance of precip both days.. then Sunday it says "Few showers" and a 30% chance of precip but we'll be coming home Sunday. If that forecast holds out, I'll be perfectly happy.

Hey Steve, wanna hit Busch Gardens with us on Saturday?

Fred Aikens: Spammer for NC State Auditor? No Thanks

2008-04-21T08:22:31-07:00

I mentioned a week or so ago that candidate Pat Smathers spammed me, and I hate spammers.

Add Fred Aikens to that list, a candidate for NC State Auditor. Mr. Aikens spammed me today.

If you don't like spam, don't vote for spammers like Fred Aikens.

Weekend Boating Update

2008-04-21T07:26:54-07:00

Typical.

On my way to the boat ramps Saturday morning (around 9am) I stopped by the gas station to fill up a small (2 gallon) gas can. I have no idea how big my boat's tank is, nor do I know how much gas I use or whether or not the fuel gauge works. So I wanted to keep a few gallons of gas on the boat with me in case I run out of gas, that way when I fill up next time I'll know how big the tank is - and whether or not my fuel gauge works. I suspect that it does not.

I get to the boat ramp at Jordan Lake (Seaforth recreation area) around 9:15, and get the boat into the water by myself. It's a little tricky to do by myself - takes a little more time because I basically have to get the boat off the trailer and get it tied to the dock and THEN drive the truck up and park it. So I did this and just as I was driving up to a parking spot, my sister Laurie and her boyfriend Charles show up. Charles is a mechanic, he owns an automative shop in Cary.

We head out on the water, and one of the things we test first is the accelleration. The boat has always had a problem with quick accelleration - Charles cleaned out the carburator for me last year and noted a strange issue with the accellerator pump. I don't really want to replace the carburator, but I'd like to be able to accellerate without a problem.

Well, the problem still occurred and I stalled the boat out a few times before getting it going. My tachometer doesn't work - Charles says the engine won't last long if I drive it at full throttle too much. I'm gonna have to get Adrienne on the tachometer. After all, she was a calibration technician in the Navy. I don't think tachometers are all that different on battleships. At any rate, it sounds like it's running about 5k RPM at full throttle. I rarely run it at full throttle anyway.

We stop the boat and Charles takes the air filter off and has me pump the gas a few times. He puts the air filter back on and I start the boat up and he asks to drive. He gasses it and we plane right out, no problem. I'm like "How'd you do that!?"

Apparently, if you put the boat in gear and give it a little bit of gas (just enough to get above idle), and then "floor it", it has no problem.

Laurie says the boat is just finicky and "you've got to drive her like she likes to be driven."

Just like a woman. No wonder we give boats the names of women.

Anyway, we cruise around looking at the campground at Poplar Point (one of the many campgrounds on Jordan Lake), and we stop in front of the beach to check something out. I can't remember why we stopped, but we did. The engine was *HOT*. I didn't even notice the temperature gauge, but it was spiked all the way. The engine was smoking, and Charles got a little lake water in his hand and poured it on the engine and it boiled. Oops.

After about 15 minutes of letting it cool and checking things out, Charles says he thinks I'm actually out of gas. Good thing I filled up the gas can earlier, eh? Even after pouring the gas in, she still won't start. About a half hour total goes by and not only won't it start or even sound like it wants to start, but we've now killed the battery too. Damn.

And since it's pretty early in the boating season and it's only about 11 o'clock now, there's nothing but bass boats, and since we're off by the beach, nobody really things we need help apparently. So we got out the paddle and rowed to shore and hitched a ride with a camper back to the boat ramp on the other side of the lake.

Once there, I went down to the docks and waited for someone with a boat that I figured could handle towing me back. Boaters are pretty friendly like that, if you've got a problem. A couple fishermen in a converted ski-boat with a good sized outboard engine helped me out. I ended up leaving my shoes in their boat and didn't notice before they'd taken off after getting me and the boat back to the ramp. Oh well.

so I trailered up and took her home. First thing I did was hook up the jumper cables and try and start it, and thank god, it started right up. I had the water hooked up so I ran the engine for a few minutes and it only took about 3 minutes of running and "medium" speed to get the temperate gauge back above half. Not good, I've definately got an overheating problem.

Charles suggests I take the boat up to an auto parts store and get a thermostat. The thermostat apparently controls the water flow by using a special kind of wax that starts to melt at a certain temperature and is completely melted at another temperature.

the auto parts store tells me I need to take the thermostat out before they can tell me what kind I need, so Charles tells me (on the phone) where it is, and I take off the thermostat housing. It's not there.

What the hell?

I end up buying a shop manual online and it says I definately need a thermostat. See, without a thermostat regulating the water flow, the water could flow through the exhaust manifold too quickly, and NOT take any of the heat with it.

However, since I've had this boat now for 3 years and never really noticed an over heating problem, we suspect that the bigger problem is the water impeller (a small pump in the lower unit that pulls lake water in for cooling). If that's not working, the engine gets no water at all. You can't run a gas engine very long without some kind of coolant.

So I ordered a new thermostat, a water impeller kit, and a water circulation pump kit (just in case). About $130 worth of parts, and if I don't need the water circulation pump I can send that back and get $75 back. I'm pretty confident that the water impeller is the problem. I probably fried it accidentally but running the engine for more than a few seconds without water. Lesson learned!

Hey, at least I know the temperature gauge works, and I know that my tachometer and fuel gauges do NOT work.

Ah, boats. Gotta love 'em!

Getting the boat out....

2008-04-18T07:50:13-07:00

yay spring!

I'm making my first trip to the lake tomorrow (Jordan Lake, southwest of Raleigh). Got the boat from storage last week and aside from a broken fuse, that caused the blower to not work, it started right up. So I'm taking it out Saturday for the first run of the season.

BOAT = Bring On Another Thousand

I've been pretty lucky so far with this boat. It's a 1986 Glasstream 172 bowrider with a 140hp mercruiser stern drive. It's a piece of crap in terms of looks... couple years ago I probably had about $700 worth of work done to it mechanically (replace the bellows, which had a whole in it) and some bearing or something in the lower unit that was pretty worn out)... but last year I had my sister's boyfriend do a spring tuneup (adjust the timing, clean carburator, etc)... so I'm hoping this year, given how easily it started up .. that I won't have any problems this spring. knock on wood! Of course last year I spent about $700 getting it reupholstered (we know a guy!), so it looks a bit nicer than it used to.

So far all I've done this year is replace the blower ($25, and it wasn't necessary - I discovered the broken fuse AFTER the fact), and replaced the running boards on the trailer - new plywood and new carpeting on those. Assuming I have no major mechanical issues I'm probably gonna buy a nice bimini top for it. A little shade would be nice.

I need more (and higher paying) freelance work so I can buy one of these:

http://www.searay.com/2008_sea_ray_sport_boats_210_sundeck.asp

Pat Smathers: Spammer for Lt. Governor of North Carolina? I think not

2008-04-14T20:36:56-07:00

I hate spammers.

And now, you can add Pat Smathers to that list. I've never heard of him before and I don't know why he emailed me but somehow I'm on his spam list. Smathers is a candidate for the Lt. Governor of North Carolina.

If you hate spam, don't vote for spammers. Don't vote for Pat Smathers.

Time to get the boat ready!

2008-04-12T21:01:54-07:00

Okay Jordan Lake is still cold (58 degrees as of Friday). But it's warming up and the weather is certainly getting nicer - it was 80 degrees here yesterday!

Last year, I didn't get the boat ready until Memorial Day (by then, around here, it's summer and the water is plenty warm to swim). But that's because I was having the upholstery redone, and though the guy who did it did a fantastic job at a VERY affordable price, he did have the boat for like 8 weeks!

I got the boat from the dry storage at the Marina yesterday and brought it home. For those of you not in the know, it's a 1986 Glastream 172 (17" bowrider) with a 140 horsepower Mercruiser stern drive. Nice little recreational boat, good for tubing, runs fairly well.

I took the cover off, cranked the throttle, and started it up (after a few attemps). It actually started pretty well this year, but I didn't winterize it until well into January so it really hasn't been that long. I hadn't technically had the boat on the water since the end of July (bad drought), so it really put out some smoke. I took a look at the exhaust - oops, forgot to take the plast ic bag off! lol. Turns out having the bag tightly wrapped around the exhaust caused the air intake valve to pop loose on the engine but I didn't notice it until a bit later. Funny how the engine needs oxygen. After I corrected that issue it ran cleanly and stopped smoking. Phew!

Of course, my blower doesn't work so I ordered a new one from Overtons. Only $20 and should be pretty easy to install (hopefully) so that's good.

Charles (my sister's boyfriend) might go out Saturday with me for a test run. It was misbehaving a little last summer. Charles owns Techniquest Auto in Cary. I'm probably going to be redesigning his web site in exchange for his services =)

I took the boat over to my dad's this evening, and he and I replaced the rotted running boards on the trailer with new ones (had to buy a sheet of plywood and some outdoor carpeting), and we finally put the two front seats back on hinges. I bought the hinges last summer but just never got around to putting them on. So the front seats just kinda sat there loose.

Other than the blower, she's pretty much ready to go I think. I still haven't gotten around to installing the stereo. I could do it myself except for the wiring. I removed the old wiring to the old stereo because it wasn't done properly, but I don't know enough about wiring to know where to correctly hook up the wiring. The physical installation of the new stereo itself should be pretty easy, actually. I posted something on craigslist looking for someone in the area who is familiar with boat writing and car stereo installation. I don't really want to take it someplace like Best Buy cuz I don't think they'd have a clue.

Smart Investing - Smart401k.com

2008-04-10T18:45:27-07:00

Okay, so as you know, I work at Duke University. This means I have a ridiculously nice 403b retirement plan (that's 401k for you for-profit folks!). Regardless of my contribution (as long as it is 5%, I think), Duke puts in something like 7.3% of the first $45,000 of my salary, and 13.3% of everything above that. For me that works out to about 10% of my salary. Since I'm currently contributing 10% myself, that means I'm getting approximately $1 of Duke's money for every $1 of my money. That's a good match.

By comparison, Adrienne gets a 50% match up to 6% of her salary, so even though she's putting 15% into her 401k, she's only getting 3% from Wyeth - meaning she gets 20 cents for every dollar of her money.

Well, we'll take it anyway.

But the fact is, we're not investors. I don't have the time to investigate the 70 different Fidelity funds that I can choose to invest in. I think the vast majority of 401k and 403b investors are not knowledgeable investors. I mean, I know I'm 30 years from retirement and I'm able to be somewhat risky with my investments, and I know how to look at historical returns and such but I really just don't have the time to be a fully-informed invester.

Enter www.Smart401k.com.

Smart401k.com is a company founded by Adam Bold (and others). Adam Bold also founded "The Mutual Fund Store" and has a nationally syndicated radio show dedicated to mutual fund investing. Anyway, the idea is that you sign up - either quarterly or annually - answer a survey about your investment objectives, how willingly you accept risk, etc, and then you tell them how much is in your 401k and what your investment options are.

Once a quarter (or more), Smart401k.com provides you with recommendations for investment allocation. They notify me via email that new recommendations are available, I log into the web site, review the recommendations, then head over to the Fidelity @ Work web site and reallocate my 403b according to their recommendations. It's that easy.

Now I've only been in the service for a month, so I can't tell you how well things are going. Ask me in 5 or 10 years. All I know is that their recommendations are almost certainly better than anything I would come up with.

Check 'em out.

www.smart401k.com

Brian Vander Ark and Edwin McCain Gig Together

2008-04-09T20:25:43-07:00

So my friend-in-fandom Trudi posted on the Brian Vander Ark Fan Forums that several of Brian's new announced tour dates are gigs in which he is opening for Edwin McCain. I've been listening to Edwin McCain *ALMOST* as long as I've been listening to Brian and The Verve Pipe - I discoverd TVP in late 1993 and probably discovered Edwin McCain in 1995, maybe 1996. I've got four of his albums - Honor Among Thieves, Messenger, Misguided Roses, and Lost in America.

You may remember Edwin McCain for his biggest hit "I'll Be" which was featured for a while as the theme song to the TV show Dawson's Creek. He also broke into the Top 40 with a song called "I could not ask for more" but that was more popular as a country song by artist Sara Evans.

Anyway, he's a fantastic singer and I've always enjoyed his music. I'm half tempted to buy a plane ticket to chicago to see the House of Blues show... or perhaps a road trip to Cleveland, and a little side trip to Cedar Point would be in order.... hmmm...

Movie Review: The Mist: 5 SUCKS!

2008-04-05T18:49:09-07:00

I usually watch a bad movie and say "that was bad" and go a bout my life. I wasn't angry with the makers of Event Horizon for making a terrible movie, nor was I pissed off at the makers of Oh Brother Where Art Thou for making a bad movie that a lot of people seemed to like.

But The Mist Sucked, and I'll tell you why. Don't read further you don't want to know how it ends.

I actually was enjoying the movie until the last 5 minutes. It wasn't a good movie by any means, but it was tolerable entertainment.

The main character, his boy, and 3 others escape the supermarket in a car and attempt to drive out of the mist, and eventually they run out of gas - still in the mist, still surrounded by the sounds of horribly nasty creatures.

5 people in the car, and four bullets. The adults all seem to agree that suicide is the best route, and the main character shoots the other four passengers - including his own son.

Then he gets out of the car, and is rescued mere MOMENTS after shooting his own son.

Worst possible ending. No wonder nobody went to see it in the theater.

Nobody wants to see a movie where someone has to shoot their own kid.

Nobody.

Def Leppard Rocked the House in Greensboro!

2008-03-28T06:15:47-07:00

So, me and Doug and Crazy John went to the Def Leppard, STYX and REO Speedwagon concert last night. I'm a member of the Def Leppard fan club so I bought us floor seats near the front (row 19). The stage setup during the DL show included a catwalk and a round "outer stage" the came all the way out to about row 13-14. They played a couple of slow songs in the middle of the concert and did them acoustic, and four of the band members (obviously not the drummer) came out to the catwalk stage. I went to the restroom during the "slow" set =)

They played a lot of songs from High N Dry (1981) - Let It Go, High N Dry, Bringin' On The Heartbreak, Switch 625, and Mirror Mirror - probably the most well represented album along with Hysteria. And of coruse they played stuff from Pyromania (Photograph, Rock of Ages), but for me the coolest thing was hearing a live version of the instrumental "Disintegrate" from 1999's Euphoria.

I was a Def Leppard fan in the 80s, of course. Hysteria was released when I was 15, and spent two years on the billboard charts. But I never saw Def Leppard back then, I didn't get out to many concerts at all, really. But I've now seen them 3 out of the last 4 years - in 2005 with Bryan Adams, in 2006 with Journey, and this year with STYX and REO Speedwagon. I actually had tickets to last year's Raleigh date with STYX and Foreigner but wasn't able to make it. But this is a band that I'll probably go see every time they tour. They really put on a great show, and they still know how to rock.

All three shows I've seen, they've ended by saying "Don't forget about us, and we won't forget about you."

This is me not forgetting! See you in NC next summer!

Brian Vander Ark Forums

2008-03-26T10:32:30-07:00

If you've been reading my blog you know I'm an avid fan of Brian Vander Ark, former lead singer of The Verve Pipe and current solo artist.

I recently launched a web site for Brian Vander Ark Fans and, to be perfectly honest, I'm blogging about it to help search engine rankings. =) There are forums for the Verve Pipe, but they really suck. I thought we needed our own place to discuss Brian's olo career, and since he's released 6 albums now (3 studio, and 3 live), he deserves it.

So go check out BVAfans.com.

If you're not familiar with Brian, check out his myspace for audio samples, and his website.

Check out the video for "The Heart That Keeps You", a song from his 2006 album "Angel, Put Your Face On".

Do it for the music, man!

Damn those UConn Huskies for MESSING UP MY BRACKET!

2008-03-21T16:18:58-07:00

Not like I was doing all that well, I'm only at 15 out of 21 right now I think. But I should be at 16 of 21. Those durned Connecticut Huskies, faced with injury, got taken to overtime by 13th seeded San Diego and lost.

Of course, since I'd also picked #5 Drake over #12 Western Kentucky, I now have neither team in the round 2 game, so there's one completely hopeless game.

The good news is that, assuming #1 UCLA makes it past #9 Texas A&M, they will (in my opinion) be practically assured of a win over either #12 W. Kentucky or #13 San Diego, and I have UCLA going to the final four, along with all of the other #1s. I know it's never happened, I just don't have the balls to pick any upsets this year.

Weekend at the Wyndham Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle Beach

2008-03-18T10:03:38-07:00

So Adrienne and Emily and I, along with Adrienne's mom and step-dad, took a weekend trip to Myrtle Beach this weekend. We used 66,000 of our annual timeshare points to stay in a 2 bedroom ocean view unit at the Wyndham Ocean Boulevard resort.

I've stayed at Ocean Boulevard before, with my sister, but not since it was completed. It has four towers, three on the ocean and one across the street, along with 2 indoor and 2 (somewhat heated) outdoor pools, a (nicely) heated outdoor lazy river, and something in the neighborhood of 8 hot tubs scattered amongst the four towers. Plus a game room with pool and pingpong tables, a computer lab, an ocean front "bar and grill", etc. With a full kitchen and washer/dryer in the unit, it's a pretty sweet place.

Anyway, we arrived early Friday afternoon for our 2pm checkin, and since Adrienne was diagnosed with strep that morning, and Emily started complaining about her throat hurting on the way down, the very first thing we did was Adrienne took a nap and I took Emily to urgent care. Great way to start a vacation! Well, we got Emily on antibiotics too so the weekend went pretty good. Jan and Bob arrived around 6:30pm and we all wandered down to Main Street in North Myrtle Beach - only 3-4 blocks from the resort - and had dinner at a seafood joint whose name I cannot remember. It was pretty good though. I was the only one that got seafood, and I got the soft shell crabs which were fantastic and apparently in season. Biggest soft shells I'd ever seen!

Saturday morning, North Myrtle Beach celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a parade and a festival. We walked up to Main Street again about a half hour before parade time and bought Emily a cool little duffle bag. And she needed it too, because the parade was long and lots of the paraders were tossing out candy and beads. Emily ended up with like 16 strands of green beads and a whole slew of candy. As far as she was concerned, it was the best parade ever.

After the parade, we headed back to the resort for our vehcile, and drove up to Barefoot Landing (a few miles down US-17) to get a kite for Emily at Klig's Kites. Klig's sells all kinds of kites, including some very expensive ones (like $300!) but we bought a nice little kite for Emily that was $25. A lot more expensive than the $2.99 drug store kites, but flies a lot better and will probably last a lot longer too.

After shopping, we hit Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. Nice place, good service, great food. They "Pick Your Shrimp" special is a pretty good deal. I had sunset glazed and malibu shrimp (5 of each) plus popcorn shrimp and a side of slaw for $11.99. And it was all good.

Back to the condo for some kite flying, a little time in the ocean (BRR!), and a little more time in the lazy river before we headed out to Mutiny Bay Miniature Golf. Emily has done mini golf before but never to real extravagant mini golf course, and this qualified. We mini-golfed along the "rocky shores" of a pirate-infested "lagoon", and even witnessed an barrage of "cannon" shots between the pirate ship in the bay and the stone fortress around which we putted. Emily was very impressed.

We followed that up with a light meal at Denny's (well, I had the french slam, but adrienne and her mom both had just soup). Rushed back home just in time to get into the room before the nasty storms hit (including a tornado warning that was issued while we were eating dinner).

Sunday, we spent some more time in the indoor pool, and we tried to fly the kite but the wind was erratic and there were lots of downdrafts, making it dangerous to others for us to be out flying the kite. We spent some time in the game room playing ping pong and had lunch at the pool bar before heading out to the NASCAR Speedpark, a go-kart racing facility. Emily was only tall enough to go on "The Qualifier" track, which she did twice (at $3.23 each), and then we spent $5 in game tokens in the arcade. We netted enough tickets for two tootsie roll pops and a "Magnetic Snakes and Ladders" game. I guess $11 for an hour of entertainment for the 5 of us wasn't too bad (though the entertainment for the adults was watching Emily ride the go-karts). She'd never been go-kart racing so she thought it was the coolest thing.

Jan and Bob left after that, and Adrienne took Emily down to the pool for a bit while I researched seafood restaurants. We eventually settled on a place called The Sea Merchant which turned out to be pretty good and it was very close to the hotel (about 6 blocks down Hwy 17). I had Grouper Parmesan, which was great. Adrienne had the crabcakes, which were only disappointing when compared to the crab cakes we had at The Channel Marker in Atlantic Beach, NC.

Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed down Hwy 17 to go to Ripleys Aquarium. It was kinda cool but very small. We were in and out in about an hour. Good thing the adult tickets were free, I don't think it would be worth $17. The North Carolina Aquariums are just as nice - nicer - and cost a lot less. Ripley's Aquarium is only 21,000 square feet, while the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores is 93,000 square feet, while the Georgia Aquarium (which I went to in February while on business in Atlanta) is over 550,000 square feet!).

Overall, a great time, even though the weather was a little on the chilly side - low 70s on Saturday, mid 60s and windy on Sunday), and I don't think it was even 50 degrees when we got to the aquarium on Monday around 9:30am!

Home Projects

2008-03-03T12:12:34-07:00

So we recently had Dalton Carpets in Raleigh replace the carpeting in our living room and sun room (aka TV room) - and Emily's bedroom. Builder grade carpet isn't meant to last, and ours was in need of replacement when we moved in 2-1/2 years ago. And after 2-1/2 years, it was so horrible even a professional cleaning did nothing for it. Anyway, Dalton Carpets doesn't have a showroom or warehouse, they just come to your home with samples, and offer good pricing for installed carpeting. The salesman who came to our house was very nice and professional, and once we told him what we had in mind he showed us some carpet options, and the carpet looks really really fantastic. I love it. The installers were very professional and quick. I would definately recommend these folks, and we'll use them again when we recarpet the master bedroom and second bedroom.

Our next step, to prevent carpet clash on the second floor, is to install hardwood flooring in the landing, and we're going to hardwood the stairway. I had home depot come out and measure and give a quote, but they total cost was like $2800 - $2100 of which was for the staircase. And they were going to do the staircase in strip flooring. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a stairway done with tongue-and-groove strip hardwood flooring.

Anyway, I ended up buying the materials for the landing (4 boxes of Bruce "plano plank" oak hardwood floors, some underlayment, and a few special order pieces) for about $380 plus I'll have to rent a flooring nailer. And I called Stock Lumper Company in Apex - they sell pre-made, unfinished oak stair treads, so I'll get 14 of those for about $500 total. Dad is going to stain them to match the flooring so that'll be nice.

Hopefully, the hardwood won't be too tough to install. I think the stairway will actually be relatively easy, since we're just ripping off the carpet, replacing the original pine treads with the oak ones, and painting the risers white.

All told, it should cost us less than $1000.

Water Conservation Idiocy at Charlie's in Durham

2008-02-29T10:48:22-07:00

We're in a drought. Everyone around here knows it.

Some restaurants have chosen to take good steps towards reducing their water usage. For example, using plastic silverware, plastic cups, paper or styrofoam plates, etc. Cut down on things that need to be washed and you cut down on water usage. Not great for the landfills, but in a drought, it's far more important to reduce water usage.

But Charlie's Neighborhood and Grill took water conservancy one step too far.

They're refusing to server tap water, and instead are selling bottled water. They're only charging a buck for a bottle of water, so it's not a huge profit but it's still profit over serving a glass of tap water for free.

But the fact is, they're still serving soda, tea, and coffee - all of which are made with tap water. The water used for the soda is of course run through a filtering system but it's still water coming from a city water connection.

So why can I buy sweet tea but not a glass of water?

I know why. Because if they started carrying bottled soda and bottled tea, their profits would decrease dramatically. The markup on fountain drinks and things like iced tea and coffee is pretty high.

Don't give me water conservation as the reason, because if that's true, it's just plain stupid.

New Carpet Coming Soon

2008-02-18T07:33:55-07:00

So our house is about 10 years old. Builder grade carpeting has a life expectancy of about 5 years, and our carpet - especially the stuff in the living room downstairs - is dead dead dead.

My sister had her house recarpeted by Dalton Carpets a few years ago and said they did a pretty good job, so we gave them a call. They have no showroom and no significant warehouse. All the carpet is ordered from the factory, and they offer excellent prices for installed carpet. We had been looking at Home Depot, but even given their relatively low $199 "whole house" installation, we're getting a MUCH nicer carpet and pad at a lower price.

Here's a sample of the Shangrila Palomino we're having put in. It's a high density Frieze style carpet that should be very suitable for our high traffic living room. And it won't show the dirt we track in either!

We're also carpeting Emily's room - even let her pick the color - she went with a Westn Hill "Electric Blue" carpet. The clash with her 'disney princess pink" walls will be blinding so we're gonna get her room repainted pretty quickly!

We're also having Home Depot come out to measure on Thursday for doing hardwood on the stairway and second floor landing - that way we won't have carpet clash between Emily's room and the landing =)

How many ACC Students does it take to change a light bulb?

2008-02-05T12:10:00-07:00

At Duke it takes two - One to change the light bulb, and one to write a study showing how they did it every bit as well as those Ivy League schools.

At Carolina it takes three - one to change the bulb, and two to throw the old bulb at the Duke students.

At Wake Forest it only takes one. The other 5 students are all busy doing other stuff.

At North Carolina State it takes nine - three to demand that the bulb be fired even though it's still working, five to track incoming flights containing possible replacement bulbs, and one to change the bulb,

At Maryland, they don't change bulbs because they think that's something Duke does.

At Boston College, it takes one to change the bulb, and three to complain about how nobody in Boston cares.

At Florida State, nobody really knows, but everyone praises Bobby Bowden for getting it done.

At Miami, the students don't change light bulbs - the cubans do it while the students are down at south beach.

At Georgia Tech, it only takes one, and he’ll not only change the light bulb but will figure out how to power most of metro Atlanta in the process.

At Clemson, no one can confirm that they even have electricity.

At Virginia, it takes 3 - one to change the light bulb, one to fashion the old light bulb into a bong and the third to score some really good shit.

At Virginia Tech, it takes one - but only after football season is over.

Brian Vander Ark's New CD

2008-02-04T07:54:00-07:00

It's pretty awesome. Of course it's not in the CD databases yet so if you rip your copy you'll probably have to type in the track names and such.

Check out Brian's web site and his MySpace and my new bvafans.com forums

I've scanned the covert art and such... if you'd like to borrow it for your own purposes, have at it!

Front Cover - my mom says he looks good with short hair!

Back Cover

Inside Front Cover - yours probably doesn't look like this!

Inside Liner Flap - or whatever you call it!

Ben Forta Lied to Me!

2008-01-31T13:43:00-07:00

No, he didn't. Not really. But I made you click!

I was using hyberbole when I said it in #coldfusion a little while ago, and I should've known better, because sometimes jokes don't travel well over the internet, particularly when you're referring to the much loved Ben Forta. Hey, I go out of my way to see Ben when he comes to town too.

Here's what happened.

You all know there's a lot of confusion in the CF world regarding Flex Data Services. Or Livecycle Data Services. Or BlazeDS. Might as well through in Flex Remoting too.

Well a week or so ago, Ben presented about Flex 3 and AIR at the Triangle User Experience group (ie, the local flex user group), and talked some about BlazeDS, the open source version of LCDS - with yet another name.

I asked whether or not I could install BlazeDS on a Coldfusion server, and Ben asked "Are you using CF8?" I said that we were, and he said I didn't need BlazeDS because CF8 comes with a "full version" of LCDS. This surprised me because I thought it came with some kind of limited version of LCDS.

Well, it's a full version only in the fact that it's exactly the same as the commercially licensed "full version" of Livecycle Data Services. But it's the EXPRESS edition, which means you can only use it on a single CPU. Legally. Technically you can run it on a dual CPU machine - nothing will stop it - but you'd be in violation of the license agreement.

So it's really only a full version if you don't consider the licencing limitations. And in the real world, aren't most people buying dual CPU machines for production purposes?

And actually, read this, from the Adobe web site:

LiveCycle Data Services ES Express is a free limited-production version of LiveCycle Data Services ES (formerly Flex Data Services 2) that allows the deployment of any single application on a single, nonclustered CPU.

If that's the same version that's included with CF, not only is it limited to a single CPU, but it can only be used to deploy a single application.

No, Ben didn't lie to me. But the fact is, I cannot LEGALLY use the included version of LCDS without doing some very funky things to restrict the process to a single CPU, and I could only deploy a single application with it.

For clarity, here's how I understand things.

BlazeDS - unrestricted, open source version of LCDS that includes "remoting" and "messaging" components. Suitable for connecting any Flex/AIR app to just about any back-end that it gets ported to. For sure right now it supports Coldfusion and Java remote objects, maybe others.
LiveCycle Data Services - commercial product which includes remoting and messaging modules, as well as "Data Synchronization" and "Data Management" modules. This was formerly known as Flex Data Services. There are three editions/versions of LiveCycle Data Services:
- Trial Edition - free, unrestricted, time-limited version. No technical limitations beyond the time limitation.
- Express Edition - free, full-featured version that is limited by the licence agreement to a single CPU, and deployment of a single application. It is a separate product that you can download free, and it is included as an optional product with Coldfusion 8.
- Regular Edition (not titled such, it's just "LiveCycle Data Services ES") - unrestricted commercial version. In the past there was a pricing model that allowed you to have 100 connections or unlimited connections. I'm not sure if that pricing model still applies.

I hope that's right, someone feel free to correct me.

Brian Vander Ark - New Studio Album!

2008-01-08T06:26:56-07:00

As you all know, I'm a big Brian Vander Ark fan. The former lead singer of The Verve Pipe just finished his third studio album and it's available for pre-order now.

Just go to www.myspace.com/brianvanderark and click on the big pre-order banner at the top.

While you're there, listen to some of the new songs from the new self-titled album, and a few from his second official "bootleg" CD of last year's "Lawn Chairs and Living Rooms" tour (Brian performed at my mom's house in Fuquay-Varina, NC as part of this tour!)

Check out this "Behidn the Scenes" video too:

Behind The Scenes - Album 2008

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Iowa Caucuses - Go John Edwards!

2008-01-03T11:24:02-07:00

I'm happy to see that Hillary Clinton slipped in the polls this week as the Iowa Caucuses approached. She's got too many skeletons I think. I like John Edwards - I think it'd be cool to have a North Carolina man in the White House, and I like his "populist" views.

It'll be interesting to see how it turns out this evening with the democratic race so close in Iowa.

Trying for more free stuff

2008-01-03T11:21:04-07:00

So, as you know, I've gotten all kinds of free stuff from freepay. It started with a Mac Mini.... I've also gotten an iPod Shuffle, iPod Classic, and an iPod Nano. And a 24" TV/DVD/VCR combo. Plus an ipod for my wife's step-sister, one for my wife (after we moved), and a few ipod's for friends of mine.

It doesn't work as well as it used to, but I did manage to get a free nintendo wii last year. Sort of. Technically they were out of stock and were not going to get any in, so I opted for a $250 amazon gift card instead, which I used to buy christmas presents with.

My daughter got a Nintendo DS for Christmas. And now Adrienne and I want our own. So I'm trying to get one. It only takes four referrals, which should be pretty easy. I use my blog and some other web sites to help me get stuff (see the "free" link at the top of this page?)

http://gaming.freepay.com/?r=42231725

You must sign up and "complete an offer"... join blockbuster online, get a 30 day "Great Fun" trial membership, join the disney DVD club, buy some ringtones, etc.

I'm doing the "Great Fun" trial membership. It's only $1, and they send you a $20 exxon-mobil gas card.. you just have to remember to cancel if you don't want to pay the "ongoing" membership fee.

Trailer Racing in Figure 8

2007-11-29T05:29:00-07:00

I was talking to one of my coworkers yesterday who mentioned that when he worked for Wachovia in Charlotte, some of his coworkers were into bus racing.

I did some searching and sure enough, school bus racing is real - and even televised on the speed channel apparently.

But even crazier still, I found this ...

TRAILER racing in figure 8

Apparently this occurred in Michigan. I remember being a kid in Michigan and loving to go to the demolition derby's that always occurred at the local city and county fairs.

I'd totally go see this =)

Nine words and phrases women use that men confuse

2007-11-08T08:09:18-07:00

Nine words women use...

Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are Right and you need to shut up.
Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. This is the same five minutes that are left in a football game before a man can do chores around the house.
Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing, usually end in fine. ( refer to #1 for the meaning of Fine).
Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Do Not Do It!
Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing).
That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants you to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome.
Whatever: Is a women's way of saying ^#*@ You!
Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's Wrong?' For the woman's response refer to #3.

Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.

Send this to all the women you know to give them a good laugh, cause they know it's true.

Hillary's Double Talk - More of the Same!!!

2007-11-02T09:24:15-07:00

This is just typical of Hillary. She says what she wants you to hear, when she says it. And here's some lovely examples of her double-talk.

I can understand changing one's position from time to time. I think it's okay to have voted for the Iraq War way back when and to admit now that it was a mistake.

But Hillary changes her opinions from day to day, from hour to hour, and from sentence to sentence!

Take a look.

xxx

John Edwards first major TV ad in Iowa

2007-11-01T06:54:12-07:00

Apparently, John Edwards has launched his first major TV advertisement in Iowa.

Check it out here:

http://johnedwards.com/watch/heroes/