Domestic Geek

I change my own oil. Yesterday, I decided I had better get an oil change done before the snow moves in later in the week. Usually, it is a pretty hassle-free process. Yesterday...not so much.

First, we're technically not allowed to work on vehicles where I live. I usually get around this by doing the work on Sundays, but it was raining/snowing this past Sunday. I waited until about 5pm to get started (after owners/manager/maintenance go home for the day). It was still relatively warm outside at that point and I had at least an hour and a half of daylight left.

I gathered all of my supplies (oil filter, oil, air filter, blue towels), my tools (breaker bar, sockets, screwdriver, oil pan, funnel) and set to work. I changed the air filter in no time at all. Usually, I have a devil of a time getting it switched out because the Subaru Baja has the air filter in a really stupid, no easily accessible place. Next, I crawled under the car and removed the plastic panels that project the undercarriage. I then realize that I had forgotten that I was not the last one to change my oil. I went ahead and had it done while it was being serviced for something else. Damn, it wasn't one of the Fram filters with the rubber grip that are relatively easy to get off. It was also on there really tight. I was going to go ahead and get the oil draining while I was under there. Of course, the 17mm socket that I needed to remove the drain plug is missing from the set. I clean myself up as best I can and head back into the house to find a 17mm socket and to see if we have a fuel filter wrench. After much search, I can not locate a wrench, so I call Marcus and sure enough, we don't have one. I tried to use a pipe wrench, but there wasn't enough clearance under there to get it around the filter.

I got in Marcus' Escape and trekked over to Advanced Auto Parts. Why are auto parts stores always understaffed? It was a problem when I worked at one and is always the case still. I found a wrench I thought would work, stood in a line for a really long time, finally paid for it and got back home. Too small. Damn! I package it back up, go back to Advanced, exchange it for the next bigger size (after standing in line forever again) and went back home. At this point, it is dark, so I went inside to find my mini LED flashlight that I really like because I can clip it onto things. I had lent it to Marcus the day before and now I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to call Marcus to see where he put it. After the flashlight is found, I go back outside to try it again and now this one is too big. Are you freakin' kidding me?! I almost started crying at this point. It was dark and getting cold and I have tools scattered all over and I just wanted to be done with it. I got back in the car again and went to Autozone. They didn't have a strap wrench that seemed like it would work, so I went with a different kind of tool (kind of like pliers). I stood and waited to be checked out yet again, picked up a couple of tacos from Taco Bell because I was starving and my dinner I had prepared before starting all of this was now ice cold and had to be reheated, got back home and tried again. The damn filter still wouldn't come off. Did I mention that whoever put it on last put it on tight? Jerk. I went back in the house, found some duct tape, wrapped that around the filter and tried again. After a bit, it finally came off.

The rest of it went pretty quickly from there. I was so cold, though, that I spilled oil trying to get it from the pan into the bottle. I gathered up all the tools, took my garbage to the dumpster, ran my car for a bit to get the new oil flowing and went inside to take a shower. Damn, I totally forgot that the handle on the shower broke the day before. Now I had to go find some teflon tape to make a temporary repair so that I could clean myself up.

So, that's my sad, sorry tale. A quick oil change that turned into a 3 hour ordeal. At least next time, the filter will come off easily and now my car has shiny, new oil before it snows tonight.

Ok, since I can't seem to get myself to blog on a regular basis anymore, I'm giving myself a little assignment. Every Monday I'm going to log in here and doing a recap of the week before (going off my tweets and Facebook statuses). Maybe that little bit of effort will develop into a blog writing habit again (because the inability to blog lately is just that I've gotten out of the habit).

Last Monday I took myself on a little road trip since I was feeling the need to get out of the house. I had been looking for some orange cotton yarn to make the Pumpkin Washcloth on this page. I was having a heck of a time finding a pumpkin orange, though. That's one thing I really hate about trends in crafts...sometimes its hard to find what you want. I decided to head up to Boulder and see if the store up there had any. Well, they ended up having a burnt orange (not quite what I wanted), but it was more money than I was willing to spend for a washcloth.

Feeling a little defeated (since I've looked at all the yarn stores around me, as well, with no luck), I decided to treat myself to lunch. I had received a freebie card from Larry, the owner of Tokyo Joe's, during a little promotion he did on Twitter/Facebook. I stopped at the location in Louisville and then was going to go up to the quilt store in Lafayette since I was in the area. I thought the card got me a free bowl or something. When I fished it out of my purse, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it entitled me to an entire comped meal. WooHoo! So, I went ahead and ordered a big steak bowl, sushi and a drink. I tweeted my thanks to the owner while I was eating and got a reply back. I'd love to meet Larry one day. He seems like a really cool dude.

I had decided to check the web site of the quilt store to make sure they were open on Mondays before I headed North. Good thing I had, they were closed. For good. I was really bummed. That was such a great little store and though I couldn't visit often, it will be missed.

A friend suggested (via a Facebook plea I made) that orange cotton could be obtained at Wal-Mart. I didn't really want to go there as I had decided earlier never, ever to shop there again, but I was weakened by my disappointments earlier in the day and just wanted to get the darned washcloth cast on. I stopped at one on the way home and they did have some. I thought about picking up some other stuff, but I stuck to my intent and left with two balls of cotton. I decided to stop into the Hobby Lobby down the street to kill some time as it was now rush hour and I am really hating driving in Denver with a passion anymore. I was looking at the Halloween and Christmas decorations. I don't know if it is my want to simplify my life or if stuff out anymore just sucks, but I was not tempted to buy one single thing. I did grab a skein of brown cotton that was on sale. Maybe I'll make a turkey washcloth to go with the pumpkin one.

Tuesday night I went to my knitting group in Parker, but I was the only one that showed up. I'm a little bummed, because it appears for all intents and purposes that the group is dead. It's not the first time I had been the only one or it was just me and one or two others. There is a group that meets there on Wednesday (and I did go this week), but it is only two hours and sometimes it is a royal pain to fight rush hour traffic to go down for a two hour group. Plus, I work early Thursdays and sometimes I have stuff I need to do. I really wish there was a group that was closer to where I live, but there is not.

Work was slow this week. I didn't put in a full 13 hour shift any of the 3 days I was scheduled.

Thursday, I won a free dinner for two at Tokyo Joe's from a contest that was on Facebook. I'm on a roll!

Thursday was also when that whole Balloon Boy hoax nonsense started. What a crock. Then I saw a tweet from one of the local news stations that David Layne (the Ward Churchill attorney) was going to represent the Heene family. One attention whore representing another. These people are real pieces of work. This is what this whole reality TV insanity creates. I really wish people would stop watching this garbage.

Friday I got permission to leave work early (not hard when there was little work) and attended a class on starting an embroidery business. Marcus got me a machine two years ago and frankly, I've been scared to learn to use it. It's insane the little games I play in my head, but I think I'm finally ready to give this a shot. One thing the instructor said that really rang true with me is that sometimes we have a hard time giving value to what we do. We think that because we can do it, why couldn't somebody else? Why would they want to buy something I make so easily? I have this problem with my graphic design skills, too. I'm going to head over to the sewing store either later today or first thing tomorrow to see if I can find someone to teach me to run my machine. Today, though, I need to clean the craft room so that I can actually get to the machine. It is a disaster area and I literally can't get in the door. The woman that taught the class owns an operation in Chattanooga, TN. In February, she's going to start allowing people to come to her for 3-day seminars to learn all they can from her about the business. I really want to go as I believe the experience would be awesome. Starting to save up my money to go now.

Yesterday (Sunday), Marcus agreed to go the the pumpkin farm with me. I'm wishing I hadn't asked him to take me. I knew from news stories that the hard freeze we had a couple of weeks ago did major damage to the pumpkins in the fields. Together with the wetter than normal spring and the cooler than normal temps this summer, the crops weren't very good this year. I was still cautiously optimistic that I would find some decent pumpkins. Yeah, not so much. First, the crowds were bigger than I have ever seen. The pumpkins were tiny compared to previous years and mushy from the freeze. Plus, they were still charging full price. I asked Marcus to take us home and apologized profusely for dragging him up there. Oh, well...next year. Fortunately, Target is having a sale on pumpkins this week. I picked up a couple of nice ones for $2.99/ea. They're better than nothing.

We've been lucky this year as far as wasps. Yesterday, our luck broke. When I opened the door to see what the weather was like, wasps were swarming like crazy around our front door. Looks like there might be a nest up the light pole. After we got back from the pumpkin farm, I set about baiting the wasp traps. Looks like I've caught quite a few already today. Man, I hate wasps.

Today I've got several projects on the agenda. Besides housework, I'm working on a sleeve for my Macbook.I want to finish my pumpkin washcloth. I've got a quick graphic design project for a friend that I need to complete. I have to paint the trim on a tile floor Marcus build to put under the rabbit cage and I need a nap. Also, now that Marcus upgraded our webserver so that my craft blog no longer crashes php like it has been doing since January, maybe I can finally finish up my craft blog design and start the reworking of this site.

There. That sums up last week. Let's see if I can get back into the blogging habit.

I know, I've been absent of late. I've been around. Mostly on Facebook, Twitter and Ravelry. I'll be honest — I lost my blogging mojo. Even the big things that happened over the last six months or better, such as shattering my left pinkie at work*, haven't pushed me to compose anything for this blog. Today, however, an event happened that made me go, "I so have to blog about this."

So what is so momentous that I absolutely have to share?

I discovered that the Swiffer Wet Jet totally sucks.

See, I wanted one of these things for ages. The commercial when the thing first came out made mopping the floor (one of my least favorite chores ever) seem like a breeze. I looked longingly at them in the store. I dreamed of having a spotless kitchen floor. For Christmas a couple of years back, Marcus gave me a Home Depot gift card. I used it to buy a Swiffer Wet Jet and, per my standard method of operation, never took it out of the box. It's been sitting on a shelf in our laundry room since. Yes, I hate doing floors that much that even my dream device couldn't get me to do it. (Marcus usually does our floors and prefers using the string mop and bucket.)

Well, Tuesday evening after a long, rough day at work, I reached into the refrigerator to get the tea pitcher and proceeded to knock a big, glass mixing bowl full of sugared strawberries that I had made for shortcake for the preceding day's Memorial Day festivities right onto my foot and all over the kitchen floor. I stood in this puddle of goo crying and in pain while Marcus got me towels to sop up the mess. I did the best I could to get it cleaned up, but I really needed to get to bed and there was a little bit of syrup stuck to the floor in various places. I decided that today would be the day that I would finally give that Wet Jet a try and see what it could do.

First thing out of the box, I was ticked off that it needed 4 AA batteries. I didn't recall seeing that mentioned on the package. After scrounging up some, I got the thing assembled and gave it a try. Following the initial pass across the floor, I was really impressed. It was light and easy to use. I was getting a lot of dirt up off the floor. I thought my floor cleaning nightmares were over. I left for a bit for the floor dry. When I came back, the floor was no longer shiny. In fact, it looked rather hazy. Then I walked on it. OH MY GOD, it was so sticky. At first I thought it was the strawberry juice, but after doing a bit of Googling, I found that it was one of the biggest complaints. That, and that the company changed the pad at some point, so refills were now crappy. Now I was pissed. It says right on the bottle of cleaner that it won't leave a residue. Were these people high? Calling what was on my floor a residue was a major understatement. I broke out the vinegar and warm water and have gone over it several times and it is still slightly tacky. I'll try again in the morning to get it totally cleaned up. I was so mad, I almost burst.

Well, the thing is now residing in the trash dumpster. I thought about trying to use it with another cleaner, but would I? Doubt it. Certainly not going to waste my money on inferior refill pads. I have never been so disappointed in a product in my entire life as I was with this one, I can't believe the POS is still on the market.

*At some point, I will blog about what happened to my finger at work.

Whew, I am so glad I bought the domain DomesticGeek.com when I did, even though I haven't taken the time to move the blog over yet (it'll be soon). I was putting random search terms into Winzy and Blingo today trying to win some stuff and found out that as of this last September, someone is now blogging at DomesticGeek.net. I wonder if she was as upset when she saw the .com domain was gone as I would have been. Of course, she's being more of a DG than I at the moment. I'm not doing much domestic or geeky. She's also doing way better on her 1001 list than I am. Must dust that off and get cracking.

I got in another couple of hours of overtime in today. I would've stayed longer, but the girl I sit by was really grating on me today. By 5, I'd had enough. I need to find some headphones this weekend. My supervisor gave me a replacement keyboard today. I've been stuck using one of those old iMac keyboards because the girl that uses this particular computer on the weekends has a habit of dumping her drinks. So help me, if she (or anybody else) destroys this one, they will feel my wrath.

I'm hoping I can sneak away and get some work done in the archive room tomorrow. I've got tons of stuff I need to file away. It's amazing how quickly it accumulates when the presses are going 24 hours non-stop.

I was feeling a little blue this morning when I got up. I finally put my finger on why once I got to work. I didn't have a chance to kiss Marcus at all yesterday. That hardly ever happens. He was asleep when I left for work and I was dead to the world when he finally rolled in after 11:30.

When Marcus got home, we noticed a horrible burning smell in our house. Not sure if it is the furnace or the newly repaired washer I had just used (or something worse). It's making me incredibly nervous since we can't pinpoint the origin.

Just realized it's been weeks since I posted a Thursday Thirteen. Whoops.

Lots of blogs today now showing a PR of 0, including this one. w00t. Not. I realized that this whole thing is reminding me of why I don't work well in offices or as a teacher in a school system. To succeed you have to play the game and I hate playing games. This whole PR thing is a big game (except you don't get to look at the rule book). That's probably why I'm not jazzed about the SocialSpark thing that Izea (PayPerPost) is rolling out after the first of the year. Popularity contests and game playing. Not my thing.

Sorry I've got nothing profound to post. My carpal tunnel is acting up again this week and this little post has been excruciating. I think I'm going to go ice the wrist and then head to bed.

While wiping down my kitchen counter this evening, I came to the sad realization that I need to purchase new flour/sugar/tea cannisters. They are made of metal and the bottoms have become rusty and are now staining my counters. I've had the same set since my first college apartment, so that must mean I got them in 1986 maybe? I think 21 years for a $20 set of cannisters was a pretty good run. I guess I need to stop at Linens 'N' Things or a similar store sometime soon and procure new ones, preferably glass or ceramic. It's time.

For the record, I love that product CLR. Took the rust stains right out.

I hate ironing.

With a passion.

Have I mentioned that I hate ironing?

OK, to be fair, it's not so much the act of ironing itself as having to do it on an antiquated Ironng Board. I hate my board because it's a pain to set up and take down, the cover gets dirty and dusty since I use it so infrequently, it's too tall for my short frame so it hurts my back (the other setting it has is way too low), once it's up it becomes a collecting spot for everything. There is also no good way to store it. I have one of those plastic hangers on the back of a closet door, but if I open the door too fast, the board comes crashing down. I also have one of those compact ones on the closet door of my craft room so that I can iron fabric when I sew, but it's ugly and unsightly, not to mention totally awkward to use.

I try my best not to buy garments that need ironing but invariably I always end up with a shirt that I love that is made from a fabric that is not wrinkle free. I tend to leave clothes in the dryer too long and need to quickly iron out the wrinkles before work. It's just a fact of life that I have to iron. This is the 21st century, why can't somebody design a board that doesn't get in the way when not in use, but is full sized and easy to use? Oh, wait — somebody did!

The folks at Better Lifestyle Products have the coolest ironing board I have ever seen. It is a full sized board that sets up and folds away in seconds, has a paintable cover so that it blends in with the surrounding decor, can be installed at any height and can be used in the smallest of spaces. There's a nifty video of the board in action on the site. It becomes a complete ironing center complete with clothes rack and iron holder. This is so neat — I want one!

Here's what I hate about living around other people. The total lack of consideration for others.

The people up the street bought an ATV for their kids. Ever since they have been driving it up and down our street. Since we live at the end of a cul du sac, they have to turn it around right outside my craft room. It annoys the living daylights out of me. One of the kids trying to drive it is not even old enough to be in school yet and drove it right out in front of my car loaded down with younger siblings/cousins. Yeah, responsible parents them. These are the same people that crank up their stereo with Mexican polka music when they're working on the truck (not allowed supposedly to do repairs on premises) so that it drowns out my television.

It sucks because when I get home from work, all I want to do is sit and decompress, not listen to the droning of an atv engine all freaking evening.

Must. Get. Land.

I bought myself the greatest little alarm clock at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. It has an internal battery like a computer that keeps the time while the unit is off, such as in cases of power failure, unplugging, etc. The computer chip also takes into account for daylight savings and such. There are dual alarms so that I can have a Monday-Friday work alarm and then a separate weekend alarm. It's also got a radio in it and a huge display. All in all, not too shabby for around $20.

Here's the problem, though.

Even though it has a dimmer function, the display is still really freakin' bright. Now, not being one to like lots of light when I sleep, it's a little annoying. I was thinking that maybe I could put a piece of window tint on it to cut back the glow, but I don't happen to have any scraps of that around. Going and purchasing a kit just to do a small clock is a huge waste of money since I was so happy to get this clock so cheap. Figures that the guy I used to know that did this for part time work moved to Kansas and I no longer have contact with him.

Does anyone reading this have a scrap of window tint that they'd send me? PLEASE?!!