Tommy saw my post from yesterday this morning about the not-so-turbo RoadRunner Turbo broadband. He sent me a text message this morning to tell me that he’d get it taken care of. It’s good to have one of your best buds that works at Time Warner. :-)
Here’s a test hardwired straight to the modem:
Here’s a test on wireless while sitting near to the router:
Before RoadRunner Turbo:
Hmm… first try:
Second try. Closer to router:
For kicks I tested my neighbors connection (no clue which neighbor this is):
Reset the modem again. Also reset the router. Tested in office near router:
Back on the couch, where I was sitting before I signed up for an addition $10/month for “Turbo Charged Internet!”:
I’ll have to try again tomorrow.
Today I decided that I want to get a plastic tire swing for Maly. I found the perfect branch from which to hang it from in the oak tree in the backyard. I was looking for a very specific tire swing — the same one that I had when I was growing up in Bear Creek back in the early 80’s.
I checked craigslist, HomeDepot.com, Target.com, Walmart.com, Lowes.com, ToysRUs.com. None of them had the swing that I was looking for. I reluctantly checked eBay and I found four. Again, I reluctantly placed a bid on one of them. Once my bid was confirmed, I noticed that I could setup a text (SMS) message notification for when I was outbid or when the auction ended. My first thought was, “Cool!” Then I stopped and thought, “Oh, right. This is eBay.” I just have this gut feeling that if I give eBay my mobile number, I’m going to start getting text spam. Not necessary from eBay, but from someone smart enough to harvest cell phone numbers from eBay. I just don’t trust eBay anymore. EBay’s reputation as a whole has gone down the crapper.
I haven’t used eBay in years because it’s full of scams. And even if I did find a $2 item that I wanted, I’m not going to pay $40 to have it shipped to me. So, I’ve been a big fan of craigslist over the years, especially for selling stuff. I used to be methodical about selling unused things on eBay, but it soon became just too difficult and time consuming to list items.
So hopefully this eBay purchase will go without a hitch.
This evening Maly and I took a walk to the mailboxes to get the mail. There was an envelope from the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center. When we got back to the house, I put Maly in the bathtub and while she was taking a bath, I opened the envelope. I was a little hesitant because I thought the contents might contain bad news about the patient.
To my surprise, I found a check for $251.94 for my mileage driving to and from San Antonio.
I’m taking that check to the bank first thing tomorrow and then I’m going to write a check for double that amount, paid to the order of the National Marrow Donor Program.
Thanks go to Rob for introducing me to Fantastic Contraption. Now my free time is spent working on physics projects in a Flash game.
Here are my successes, and some failures:
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=357978
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=358643
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=358880
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=358931
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=360580
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=360794
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=360846
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=360954
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=360982
I’m sitting out on the deck at 12:30 a.m. and listening to some music…
It’s Sunday morning.
Over the years a single 4×4 support post has been warping on the deck:
It was perfectly straight when we built the deck three years ago:
That post has been pulling its counterpart away from the house:
I went to the ol’ HoPot yesterday and bought a comealong. I pulled the warped 4×4 back enough to where I got the counterpart 4×4 close to the house again:
It’s looking a little better:
But it’s not good enough. I’m going to the HoPot today and picking up either an 8-foot 4×6 or a steel bar to clamp to the warped post to “retrain” it.
I’m hell-bent on getting that post unbent.
UPDATE:
We went to the HoPot where I went with the 8-foot 4×6. I also picked up six heavy duty clamps that are tested at 550 lbs.
I had Elise hold the 4×6 up against the warped 4×4 post on the outside of the deck while I clamped the top and the bottom to the 4×6. Here you can see how badly the 4×4 is warped (keep in mind that the post is still being pulled 3″ toward the house with the comealong):
Clamps are in place and I’m starting to straighten out the warped 4×4:
And now I’m happy that I have a straight 4×4 post:
Now to do a little research to see how long I need to keep my 4×6 brace clamped to the 4×4.
I’ve been in touch with the folks who run Project Michelle over the past couple weeks. They even interviewed me as a PBSC donor to help raise awareness of National Marrow Donor Program.
Michelle is a 26-year-old with Leukemia who is desperately searching for a marrow donor. Today ProjectMichelle.com was voted up to the #1 spot on Reddit. That is truly amazing and so exciting.
I hope this helps in raising awareness in marrow donation and lots of people sign up to be part of the NMDP. And hopefully one of those people will be a match for Michelle!
“Good night, baby. Thank you so much for helping Daddy. I love you very, very, very much.”
And then a kiss.
That’s what I told Maly as I finally put her down for bed at 10:30 tonight while hearing the sound of running water come from the faucet in the bathtub.
Elise miscarried tonight. The spotting started this morning. The grueling delivery aspect started tonight around 9:30, not long after we’d retreated to the living room after having a nice, long conversation while sitting on the front lawn while Maly swung. It started out to be a regular evening, but Mother Nature decided it was time.
Elise is okay. I’m okay. Maly is okay. I intentionally kept Maly up – I don’t know why, I just felt like we needed her. She didn’t see anything traumatic other than a little blood, and we assured her that everything was okay although she was very curious throughout the experience.
At one point Elise needed some time to herself. I distracted Maly by taking her to the living room and showing some videos from Maly.TV. She curled up in my lap and I held onto her.
I kissed her countless times on top of her head and thanked her over and over again. Maly has been our little angel in so many difficult situations over the past two years. She doesn’t even know it but she’s been the tie that’s bound this family.
And now our family dynamic has changed yet again. Elise is in good spirits considering what she’s enduring — cramps, contractions, frequent trips to the bathroom, and, what they call in the medical profession, “tissue”. It’s not been a fun ride, but it’s been yet another experience we’ve endured as a family.
We’ll carry on…
When Friday Night Lights used to air every week on NBC, I used to profess to Elise, “Man, that is just like Bellville.”
Last night as we were eating dinner at Galileo’s Mexican restaurant in Bellville I thought to myself, “Man, this is just like Friday Night Lights.”
[flv width=”500″ height=”375″]http://www.maly.tv/video/20080727_swinging.flv[/flv]
20 Bonus Points to anyone who can name the song and artist that was playing on the radio as we walked through the garage!
