what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[steelyman]

Great show but I admit I like Car Talk better. I would love to see the live show someday.

I agree about Car Talk - at times it was hilarious! As far as WWDTM goes, I understand its popularity but often it reminds me of a high school skit.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Great show but I admit I like Car Talk better. I would love to see the live show someday....

Better hurry--the bros are retiring and ending new shows in September:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/add-two-more-to-the-class-of-2012-a-61714.html

 

[ERD50]

"Fixed" our washing machine today.

DW called me over, said there is a small puddle under the machine. This thing is 26 years old, has washed clothes for our growing family (up to five in the house most of the time), and I have not done a single bit of maintenance on it in that time, outside of cleaning the screens in the inlet hose a few times.

So I'm figuring, 26 years, just replace it, but I really should look at it first, after all she's got today's wash to do. Hmmm, a little wet around the inlet hose. Wipe everything up, tighten it maybe 1/8th turn, wrap it with a towel to catch if it is still leaking, put some papers down, tighten the rest of the hose connections, miraculously avoid snapping anything off. Start a small load. Looks good, towel dry, papers dry. Medium load, same. Large load, same. X-Large load, same.

Maybe it's good for another 26? Yes, it's a Maytag, but they probably don't build them like that anymore.

Last night went to a taping of the radio program "Wait Wait .. Don't Tell Me". I was unfamiliar with the show, my brother and his wife got the tickets. Absolutely hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable.

Glad you enjoyed it. I used to listen regularly, but it fell off my schedule somehow. I would have thought it would take a few episodes to really 'lock in' on some their off-beat humor, but apparently not!

-ERD50

 

[Nords]

Our daughter's home again, which means we're setting up another BBQ.

Ahi & teriyaki chicken are marinating (in separate containers), pasta salad is ready, and the ground beef is ready to be turned into burger patties.

This is going to sound like a lame excuse for someone who's grown up near Pittsburgh, but for some reason I've never grilled bratwursts. The other day I turned off the adblocker on my browser to check the "WordAds" that WordPress puts on the blog, and sonofagun there was an ad for brats. So today I'm grilling a half-dozen of those too.

Now all I have to do is [-]avoid serious exertion[/-] work on a spreadsheet for the next couple hours before I light off the briquettes...

 

[bbbamI]

Booked our flights (free with airline miles) and reserved our room in Las Vegas.

Last year, we were over-budget on medical expenses. This year, it looks like we'll be over-budget on travel. (unless we win in Vegas)

I'll take over-budget on travel anytime.

 

[antmary]

Walt, your photography is pure artistry...beautiful!

 

[Moscyn]

Lazy Sunday for us today. Gym, brunch, TV, afternoon nap, some reading, online surfing and roast chicken dinner with a bottle of wine. That's like a perfect Sunday.

 

[Nodak]

Just returned from a walk, 7:45am and already 75 degrees. Supposed to be 102 with high winds today. Don't think I'm going out again until tomorrow.

 

[Walt34]

Walt, at least what you "do" all day (other than work) is kinda neat. Have you tried taking a photo of a bullet going through an apple?

It would be neat to do that but at those speeds one needs gear that is way over my budget. Think 1/10,000 second exposure times.

Yesterday it finally cooled down enough so I could finally get the grass cut and I was still drenched with sweat when done.

Also fired up the generator that hadn't been run for about five years, then drained the fuel system and put it away again. I've read that the field magnets will lose their magnetism if it's not run for too long. There is a procedure in the service manual to fix that but it's not something I want to be doing in the dark with a flashlight.

 

[ls99]

Called my nieces, confirm they are coming next week, a 7+hour drive. I've done it a few times to their place in NY, first for them to come to western PA.

Yesterday at the camp figured out a way to make cell phone calls. If I spend overnight DW gets nervous since no cell company has coverage there.
So, a bit of tinkering with high gain antenna, rubber band, styrofoam, tripod and a bit of searching for useable signal.

Have a solution.

 

[Nords]

So, a bit of tinkering with high gain antenna, rubber band, styrofoam, tripod and a bit of searching for useable signal.
Have a solution.

I hope you have a Bluetooth earpiece, too, so that you're not hunched over that thing...

 

[ls99]

I hope you have a Bluetooth earpiece, too, so that you're not hunched over that thing...

Speakerphone. Uses less power than with Bluetooth enabled. The birds can and do chime in at times.

 

[M Paquette]

Took DD out for a hot dog and a soda. Oh, the hot dog stand was about an hour and a half away on twisty country roads that the little convertible seems to like...

 

[Nords]

Last night our daughter brought a friend home for dinner. AA was in her NROTC unit and graduated nearly a year ago to become a surface warrior ensign. She's now stationed on a Pearl Harbor BURKE-class destroyer. She has a huge new catalog of sea stories and Navy gossip that we've never heard before. She has a few months left before she finishes her OOD quals and gets her SWO pin, and she's working way too many hours, but she's having a heck of a ride and can't imagine doing anything else.

This morning we met a Craigslist buyer at our local Wal-Mart and finally sold our daughter's 11th-grade TI-83+ graphing calculator (she's two years into college now) for $50.

Then we went into Wal-Mart and spent $55 on important things that we must have really needed.

One of those items was 10 Atra twin razor blades for $15. I appear to be about a generation behind the latest tech and the blades are getting hard to find, but when I only shave twice a week it hardly seems worth the hassle to do the research. I probably won't need more blades before 2014.

BTW we're still selling our daughter's TI-89 "Titanium" graphing calculator for $70. It handles derivatives & integrals and is permitted for use on the AP Calculus exam... and it even comes with the instruction book & USB cable...

 

[REWahoo]

In the midst of a torrential downpour I discovered we have a leaky roof. Fortunately it is leaking around one of the dormers above the front porch and not in the house. Looks like a problem with the flashing. Glad I saved a few bundles of shingles from our last re-roofing job...

 

[Nords]

In the midst of a torrential downpour I discovered we have a leaky roof.

I guess the good news is that you have a torrential downpour...

 

[Walt34]

Yesterday had an endoscopic gastric exam (tube with camera down the throat). That shot the rest of the day because of the effects of the anesthetic. Kinda woozy and "not right in the head" somehow. That became clear when I couldn't balance a bank statement and DW had to do it.

Came home, ate a can of soup, went to sleep for three hours. Still have the sore throat from it.

Good news is nothing serious found.

I did get some shots of a deer that came out of the woods in late daylight. Cameras today are impressive - these were shot at ISO 1600, with clarity near impossible to do with film. Quiet as I tried to be she eventually figured out I was watching and headed to the woods.

 

[MichaelB]

In the midst of a torrential downpour I discovered we have a leaky roof. Fortunately it is leaking around one of the dormers above the front porch and not in the house. Looks like a problem with the flashing. Glad I saved a few bundles of shingles from our last re-roofing job...

Good you discovered it before any damage was done. Also good the leak wasn't over the bedroom ... or you would be having wet dreams.

 

[MichaelB]

Love that show! I plan my Saturday around listening to it. It's kind of incredible the celebrity guests that come on.

So far today I've finished the crossword, made (and ate) gluten-free waffles, done 15 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical, 25 minutes of weight lifting and, once I quit sweating, I'll go mow the front and back lawn. Then it should be time for Wait, Wait!

I listened to the show Saturday. Just as funny the second time around. Also a fair amount of editing I was not aware of. If you ever get a chance to see it live, it is well worth the $$.

 

[Nords]

Morning surfing with our daughter.

Afternoon troubleshooting for a friend who's "temporarily" living in Florida. (For the last five years...) Their local condo tenants reported that the front burner on their 23-year-old electric stove wasn't working right. (It's a heater coil with two prongs that plug into a socket just under the hole that the coil sits on.) The old socket had burned out about six months ago and they'd replaced it, but the burner was giving them trouble again. The tenant/husband had noticed that the wire nuts on his splices were partly melted, so he called me for a second opinion on the problem.

The "new" socket (probably a 23-year-old socket still in the appliance store's inventory) must have had a high-resistance connection between one of its internal plug spades and the burner prong. That one spade was melted and charred, the plastic socket had a fingernail-size hole melted in that side, and the burner prong was charred & melted too. The wire nuts had moved from the centerline under the range to the side where the burner was, so they were possibly melted in the heat that melted the socket.

The other possible cause could be that the range's controller card decided to send five or ten amps straight down that wire until everything burned up. The tenant/wife said that she had trouble with the burner controller knob (understandable since the socket was mostly slag) but she also had trouble with the panel touchpad that controlled the oven. The display would come up when she'd push "Oven" but about half the time it'd spontaneously shut off.

I could've replaced the socket & burner, but it seems like a better idea to treat them to a new stove. So the friend is going to start shopping tomorrow and hopefully deliver the new one in a week or two.

The good news is that the friend (and her spouse) are planning to return to Hawaii when these tenants end their lease!

The even better news is that we're tentatively planning a month in Thailand next January or February. Haven't been back there in over five years.

 

[Chuckanut]

Coffee with a friend, a bit of shopping, and then made a list of all the chores and projects I want to accomplish in the next 4 months. It's a long list and making it was rewarding. Why? Because now that I don't have to go to work anymore, I actually have time to do these things and still have a life.

 

[bbbamI]

DH played bass with Andy this afternoon.

Andy Timmons on Yahoo! Music

I baked peanut butter cookies.

 

[pb4uski]

DW has declared war on two red squirrels who reside in a large cedar tree next to our lake home. The have been habitually raiding our bird seeder. I tried mixing cayenne pepper and black pepper and other hot peppers with the bird seed to discourage them to no avail. So we brought the bird feeder inside and put it on a table by our screen door and talked about trapping them with a Have-a-Heart trap and then releasing them a long ways away.

Before we could get the Have-a-Heart and set it up, one of the varmints actually chewed a hole through the screen door and came into the house and was feeding on the bird seed when DW saw it. She tried to corner it and it actually jumped over her head and scurried away, so she left the door open and it left the building. DW has now declared war on these squirrels and we just rigged up a rat trap (big mousetrap) with peanut butter and bird seed and am waiting to hear the "snap".

However, the poor thing may be so traumatized from its earlier encounter with DW that it may be a while before it gets brave enough to come back and take the trap.

I warned DW that it may squeal and she will have to kill it, but she plans to drown it in the lake. Works for me. Our cat has been useless in keeping them away which surprised me since he loves to hunt mice, moles, birds, rabbits etc I would have thought he would get after these guys since they are intruding on his territory.

I would have loved to get a video of DW trying to corner the squirrel but unfortunately I was away when all the excitement happened.

 

[steelyman]

DW has declared war on two red squirrels who reside in a large cedar tree next to our lake home. The have been habitually raiding our bird seeder. I tried mixing cayenne pepper and black pepper and other hot peppers with the bird seed to discourage them to no avail. So we brought the bird feeder inside and put it on a table by our screen door and talked about trapping them with a Have-a-Heart trap and then releasing them a long ways away.

Before we could get the Have-a-Heart and set it up, one of the varmints actually chewed a hole through the screen door and came into the house and was feeding on the bird seed when DW saw it. She tried to corner it and it actually jumped over her head and scurried away, so she left the door open and it left the building. DW has now declared war on these squirrels and we just rigged up a rat trap (big mousetrap) with peanut butter and bird seed and am waiting to hear the "snap".

However, the poor thing may be so traumatized from its earlier encounter with DW that it may be a while before it gets brave enough to come back and take the trap.

I warned DW that it may squeal and she will have to kill it, but she plans to drown it in the lake. Works for me. Our cat has been useless in keeping them away which surprised me since he loves to hunt mice, moles, birds, rabbits etc I would have thought he would get after these guys since they are intruding on his territory.

I would have loved to get a video of DW trying to corner the squirrel but unfortunately I was away when all the excitement happened.

I am sure this is a PITA, but it reminds me of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!

Good luck on ridding yourselves of the squirrels!

Christmas Vacation Squirrel - National Lampoons - YouTube

 

[Bestwifeever]

...DW has now declared war on these squirrels and we just rigged up a rat trap (big mousetrap) with peanut butter and bird seed and am waiting to hear the "snap"....

Can't you still use the Have-a-heart trap? Why go to the rat trap?