Archive for January, 2009
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
This was something I was totally unaware of, so I am guessing many of you are unaware of it too.
After the tennis clinic this morning, I stopped by Whole Foods to grab some sushi. I also got some ice cream and whipped cream. I have been jonesing for a warm brownie sunday. I mean, I really want one. I explained this to Laura in great detail last night. Ruby Tuesday makes the best one I have ever had, but I am not at Ruby Tuesday, so I have to handle this myself.
I got what I needed and was ready to go to the checkout counter, when I realized that I was a little thirsty. I usually just drink water because buying drinks is a huge rip-off, but I figured that since the sushi was going to cost so much anyway, what’s wrong with treating myself to a little juice? I walked over to the juice area and lifted my hand to pick up a small “Pom” pomegranate bottle. My hand got about half way to the product, when I noticed that the little bottle cost $3.89. What??? That was out of the question. Then, I saw another store brand pomegranate drink and actually picked this one up. It was only $2.99, but still a very small bottle. I decided to put that back down when I saw a 2 quart bottle of black currant juice for lest than $3. That was more along the lines of what I was looking for. I basically bought it because the label said that black currant is high in anti-oxidants.
Currant Affair - Black currant juice
After I left the car and started driving, I cracked that bottle open and gave my new juice a taste. It tasted different, but pretty good. I continued drinking for the rest of the ride.
When I got back to the house, I decided to do a little research on the health benefits of the black currant. As it turns out, the black currant is a pretty healthy food to eat.
Now, let me be clear – the black currant is very healthy, but the drink that I got has a lot of sugar in it. I’m sure if I spent a heck of a lot more money, I could have gotten a more “pure” juice. For my purposes, this did the job.
You can read up of the blackcurrant over here and check out the health benefits here, but let me just tell you that it has an extraordinarily high vitamin C content, good levels of potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B5, and a broad range of other essential nutrients (I got that from Wikipedia). It treats diseases, ailments and aches. From what I read on Wikipedia, it’s pretty neat.
I really wish you would read about it. There is a long story about how the black currant was banned from being grown in the U.S. because of the threat it was to the logging industry. It’s pretty interesting reading. Who knew that a fruit was banned from being grown over here? Now that it’s back and grown in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon, it’s getting some traction again, but still remains fairly unknown.
Well, there you have it. A new food that is really good for you. Next time you are in that expensive juice aisle, you might want to check out the black currant.
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Thursday, January 29th, 2009
If there is one thing that I have noticed during this winter, it’s that the bathroom is really cold in the morning. I keep the door closed because I want to concentrate the heat, so that might be the reason. Either way, the whole thing got me thinking.
Can bathroom exhaust vents cause your house to lose heat? I am thinking yes. I did a Google search on this and came across a good article on “Ask The Builder” entitled, “Bathroom Exhaust Fan Leaks Cold Air.” It pretty much covered what I was thinking.
Basically, a bathroom exhaust fan is simply a fan attached to a hose that leads outside. The fan pushes the moist air you create from taking a shower outside, so you don’t rot everything in your bathroom. Some of the fancy fans have lights in them and I am told that the fans vary in quality. I guess they are supposed to have flaps in them too. The flaps stop the cold outside air from leaking directly into your bathroom and house.
I just walked into the bathroom to see if any cold air was leaking through the fan. I put my hand up to the vent and didn’t feel any cold air. Since that felt okay, I pulled down the attic door and went upstairs to see what that looked like. I saw both bathroom vent hoses leading outside. Nothing seemed too out of place.
Now that I am downstairs, I am thinking that I didn’t really do much to see if there was a problem. I mean, I still have to take the vent cover off to see if the vent flap is closing nice and snug. If not, I have to fix that. Then, I would like to cover the exposed vent hoses with insulation. An exposed vent hose in a cold attic can cause the air in the hose to get cold. That air can enter the house if the vent flap isn’t working correctly. Do you see where I am heading with this? I guess it doesn’t help that the boiler is kicking on and off all night, creating a vacuum in the house. Cold air is probably being pulled in through those vents.
I might need to do some more exploration to see if there is some sort of a “makeup air intake port” anywhere around. If not, I probably need to put one in.
Now, I admit, I am no expert at this. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Here is a list of famous left handed people. I think this is pretty interesting. Be sure to notice the last name on the list. I would say it sure makes you wonder. About what, I am not sure about that.
- James A. Garfield
- Herbert Hoover
- Harry S. Truman
- Gerald Ford
- Ronald Reagan
- George H.W. Bush
- Bill Clinton
- Barack Obama
- Benjamin Franklin
- Steve Forbes
- Ross Perot
- Nelson Rockefeller
- Joan of Arc
- Alexander the Great
- Julius Caesar
- Napoléon Bonaparte
- Prince Charles
- Henry Ford
- Ted Koppel
- Caroline Kennedy
- David Letterman
- Jay Leno
- Bart Simpson
- Jimi Hendrix
- Paul McCartney
- Jay G
Oh, the list goes on and on. I bet I can make an even bigger list of famous right handed people. For the full list of famous left handed people, check over here.
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Thursday, January 29th, 2009
…and lost.
It was fun though and now I am sucked into doing this every week. The club likes to get its members involved. The only bad part about it was that I missed “Lost.” If I had any idea that Lost was on, I certainly wouldn’t have played tennis.
If you care to remember back, yesterday’s clinic was canceled because of the weather. As it ends up, a gentleman at the club needed someone to play in the tennis ladder. They gave me a call and I accepted. Out of about 27 people who participate in the ladder, I think he ranks about 20. I now hold the esteemed position of 27. I should get a jersey with the number 27 on the back of it.
He was pretty good and had a lot of good shots. I played well, so I really have nothing to complain about. I just didn’t play as well as he did. Toward the third set, I started getting warmed up. Unfortunately, the match is winding down in the third set.
I think I am going to get a lot of good experience playing in the ladder. Now, when I go to the clinics, I know what I need to practice, instead of randomly hitting with the rest of the people. If I had my way, I would be taking lessons once a week again. I really want to do that.
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
I spoke to an old friend last night on the telephone. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, including the economy, the world in general and the stock market. Now, I have known this person for many years and thought I knew what he was all about. Last night’s conversation revealed that I wasn’t aware of nearly as much as I thought I was.
As it turns out, my old friend knows quite a bit about the stock market and is very enthusiastic about his knowledge. Now, you know me…I’m always ready to listen and discuss the world of high finance. We had a grand old conversation about the various types of stock indicators. The funny thing is, as much as I have heard about all the different types of tools my trading account offers, I really had no idea what any of them did. Last night’s conversation peaked my interest.
For a long time, I have had a suspicion that people were getting rich off of this stock market. I always knew that by setting “buy” and “sell” triggers, you can basically set your purchasing and sales on auto-drive. Whether or not that’s true, is debatable. I suppose that if it were true, everyone on earth would just take a class on how to set triggers and we would all be rich. Now I know that by analyzing stock indicators, you can get a much better picture of how to analyze past performance of a stock to predict its future movements. The problem is that our predictions are oftentimes so wrong, that we lose money.
If you have the time, the brains and the patience, I believe that you can study stock indicators and how to set triggers and make money in this stock market. There are some conditions that would have to be met first (in my opinion). They are: you would really need the time (all day), the money (and the willingness to lose it) and the intellect (to realize what exactly you are doing). I suspect that many people would get excited about learning about this type of thing and jump in to the market being a bit green. That basically describes me. The good part about how I roll is that I know what I am good at and what I’m not. I tend to stick with things that don’t offer very many negatives. I am a very patient man.
I suppose my point for this post is that we can all make money in this economy if we put out minds to it. If you are a stock market wizard and care to share your success stories, you can leave a comment on this post. I am sure you would have an audience of very interested readers.
By the way, if you would like a short description of stock indicators, you can visit this page. If you would like to delve into what each technical indicator does or its definition, you can visit this page.
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Throughout this winter, I have been putting together a short mental list of things I am going to tackle once the good weather arrives. I thought I might share that list with you, partly to entertain you and partly to remind me what in the world I had on my mental list once I have the urge to do some of these things.
EXTERIOR:
1. Order tons of pine trees from ArborDay.org and plant them all over the place.
2. Get the lawn in order.
3. Begin work on Laura’s garden. Need fencing and shrubs.
4. Clean out under porch. Take nails out of 2×4s and stack somewhere else so they are hidden. Throw out vinyl lattice (unless of course you want it).
5. Order more pellets to restock basement for next year.
6. Repair driveway again from this winter’s damage.
7. Admire mailbox.
8. Order 30 yards of mulch.
9. Mulch front garden and top off last year’s mulch.
10. Enlarge garden in front to include those 3 large rocks. Mulch that too.
INTERIOR:
1. Finish painting upstairs bedroom.
2. Remove carpet and tile from downstairs (main floor) and install tile over the whole area.
3. Paint downstairs (main floor).
4. Continue wondering how difficult it would be to replace suspended ceiling in basement with sheetrock.
5. Continue fantasizing about turning the laundry room into a giant bathroom with a giant bathtub and a giant shower.
6. Finish painting upstairs.
Wow, that’s quite a list. Am I going to get all these things done this spring? Heck no. I think I might be able to get those pine trees though. I am getting tired just looking at that list.
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
If you live in the northeast and haven’t looked out the window yet, let me be the one to tell you that it’s snowing again. Ah yes, the snow.
I was talking to my sister last night and mentioned that I have pretty much isolated the things I don’t like about winter. I told her it’s the darkness and the overcast skies. The past week has been cold and sunny here and I have been totally fine. Neither the snow nor the cold bother me in the least. The main thing that gets me down is the darkness and it is actually starting to get lighter in the evening now. Come March and daylight savings, we’ll be back in business.
I crawled out of bed this morning and was really hoping to play tennis. I took one look out the window and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t happening. I began my usual morning routine with tennis completely out of my mind. Then, the phone rang. It was the tennis club asking me if I would be coming to the clinic if they could gather enough people. I said yes and hopped in the shower. I was excited to drive in the snow again and to play some of the game I love so much.
Well, while I was in the shower, the tennis club called back and informed me that there would, in fact, be no clinic this morning. That’s a shame, because I really enjoy the Wednesday clinics.
The lady who called me was worried that I had already left, because I didn’t answer the phone. She showed such concern and sincerity. I loved that. She is really nice anyway, and I really like her. I gave her a call back to let her know that I was only in the shower and for her not to worry. She chuckled, I chuckled. It was like a chucklefest.
So, that’s my story. I almost played tennis today.
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Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Okay, so listen to this. I received my Home Depot gift cards yesterday. I got a pretty decent amount’s worth. So basically, they have been burning a hole in my pocket ever since. So what did I do about it? Well, I ran over to Home Depot and picked up that RIGID 4 gallon wet/dry vac I was talking about. It’s going to be a big help during those “cleaning out the pellet stove” times.
RIGID 4 gallon wet/dry vac
Actually, I just cleaned out the pellet stove a few minutes ago. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was worried about ruining our regular house vacuum by sucking up ashes from the pellet stove. I mean, it’s not like there is a huge amount of them. I do empty the ash pan first, but there are still some remaining ashes hanging around. Those need to be vacuumed. I tried using the dust pan and brush, but that doesn’t have the best results on the floor tile grout. The ash kind of gets smeared in there.
The reason I got the 4 gallon wet/dry vac is because is was the smallest size RIGID makes. The reason I got RIGID, is because I like the brand. I have had decent luck with their other products. Also, this vac has wheels on it, so I can roll it around when I am vacuuming out the car and stuff like that.
The only thing I am worried about is the ash clumping up in the filter. After I used the vacuum a few minutes ago, I did notice the filter got a bit dirty. I banged it against the side of the vacuum and the dirt pretty much fell off the filter. I figure this is bound to happen with any type of vacuum I use, so I might as well use a wet/dry vac. Also, once the filter has been banged around for its last time, I can always pick up a replacement.
Now that I used up a little less than half of my gift cards, I think I am going to hold on to them until Home Depot starts selling trees and shrubs again. Then, I can head over there and go on a shopping spree.
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Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Have you ever had one of those nights where everything was just way too fun? That’s what happened to me last night.
Around 8:30, I finished up dinner and walked back up to the kitchen to put the dishes in the dishwasher. I did a little tidying up and poured myself a nice glass of Brandy. Then, I took a small sip and walked up to my office for a little work. That is basically where the problems started.
I had a few more small sips of my drink and started getting into my usual 8:30 – 11:00 routine. A little work here and a little work there. I wasn’t doing anything all too serious, so I decided to turn some music on. Of course, I started listening to my new favorite band, “Days Of The New.” Seriously good music. Well, the next thing I knew, I had the music playing way too loudly and my drink was gone. The worst part about the whole thing is that I was halfway through a blog post. Let me just tell you this – it was magical.
I always worry about those types of posts. Good thing I never actually publish them because I mostly tell you what I really feel. Well, this time was a bit different. I finally started working on my story. Remember the one I told you about? It’s the one that’s going to knock your socks off. Yeah, I am trying to make this one worthy…worthy enough to be a chapter in my most unique book that my sister Lauren is going to put together for you.
I saved the post as a draft last night and just took a quick look at it. It’s not long; probably a few hundred words. I was quite surprised to see that it was better than I had hoped for. I would really like to post it, but I’m a little nervous about what people will think. It’s pretty odd at times. I’ll think about it. It isn’t that big of a deal because it’s just a prelude anyway. Maybe I’ll have my mother edit it before I do anything with it.
——
So Rob came over to the house tonight. I told him to remind me to get a picture of the two us us together so I could write about the visit, but he forgot. So, unfortunately all you ladies out there won’t get to see a picture of the two most handsome guys on the east coast. Maybe next time I’ll put the camera on the desk or something to remind me.
I think we had a really good visit. I gave Rob the house tour and then we talked business for a while. That was fun because I like seeing the fire in Rob’s eyes. He is a born entrepreneur…maybe even more than me. Let me remind you that it was Rob who was doing this stuff before me. He’s one of the people who came up with crazy ideas that actually made money long before I ever did anything. All I need to do this time is keep him on the straight and narrow and things should be fine.
After we talked business, we headed out to pick up some pizza and salads. That was cool, because I got to show him the new car and how it drove around these winter roads. I asked him if he saw the “driving in the snow” videos and he told me he hadn’t. So, I am linking to it right here. Michele, please pull him to the computer and have him click this link. Thank you.
The pizza was pretty good. The salads were pretty good. Typical stuff, but Rob liked the thin crust.
After we were done eating, I thought it would be a good idea to load up a big bag with about 42 empty beer bottles. I am giving them to Rob, so he can use them for his beer making. I am also letting him borrow the capper and some caps. I gave him 6 of my prize-winning beers too. We cracked one of the chocolate ones open and I have to tell you that they are tasting much better these days. Very full of body.
As Laura and I were saying good-bye to our dear friend, we made a vow that we wouldn’t let another year go by without seeing each other again. We have way too good of a time together to let these years pass by so fast like this. After all, we are only an hour and a half away.
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Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Colleges turn french fry oil into fuel
Students have begun making bio diesel fuel by converting used cooking oil from the dining hall.
Overcoming Information Overload
Daniel Tammet: “Our world is generating more information with more resources and technology now than at any time in history: through TV and radio programs, cell phones, magazines, email, websites, blogs, and other media… Being overwhelmed by a continuous maelstrom of information can be just as damaging to our minds as having too little of it…”
Dark flow: Proof of another universe?
For most of us the universe is unimaginably vast. But not for cosmologists. They feel decidedly hemmed in. No matter how big they build their telescopes, they can only see so far before hitting a wall. Approximately 45 billion light years away lies the cosmic horizon, the ultimate barrier because light beyond it not has not had time to reach us.
Sweden’s Fix for Banks: Nationalize Them
The Swedes have a simple message to the Americans: Bite the bullet and nationalize. With Sweden’s banks effectively bankrupt in the early 1990s, a center-right government pulled off a rapid recovery that led to taxpayers making money in the long run.
War against ivory trade takes to the sea
It’s the “other” ivory. And this week, conservationists in London stepped in to stop its sale. It might not be as well known as the stuff that comes from elephants, but the ivory from the narwhal, the tusked whale of the northern seas, is just as much in demand – and with that demand comes a threat just as severe as the one elephants face.
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