Musings

Current mood: Introspective

Currently listening to: The Fan

So, what do you think of my re-design? I know, I know, it’s really just the old design, except with the links on the left, and a wider body. But, y’know, it took WORK to make it so. I had to expand some images to give the site it’s “rounded” borders, and I tweaked a few other things as well. Overall I’m happy with it, and frankly, tweaking somone else’s complex CSS stylesheet is much easier than creating your own from scratch. Of course it also gives me more understanding of what can be done with CSS, which is good. So if you like the new design, or if you hate it, let me know with the comments link below.

On a tangent, I was watching Good Eats last night, as the start of their “Cooking with Kids” week. Now, this got me thinking about being a kid (again). And I couldn’t help but think back to my own experiences as a child. I mean, it was pretty good!

For starters, I found myself interested in science, and somehow my parents got me an old microscope kit. Sweet! I wanted to play with chemicals, and *bam!* … A chemistry set! I became interested in astronomy, and I found myself looking through an old telescope (I still have it) and posessing several very good astronomy books (I still have those as well).

I was lucky enough to grow up in the time when playing with legos actually meant building something, rather than just snapping together a few special-made pieces (which cannot really be used for anything other than the one set depected on the box). So, needless to say I ended up with a lot of legos (I still have them, in case you’re wondering).

As an added bonus, my dad (bless him) let me play (work) in his workshop (with power tools – yay!), giving me an appreciation of woodworking. I still have many of the things I made back then today – a pair of speaker shelves (for my surround sound speakers), a shelf for my bedroom, and a house made for my guinea pigs (this is not in use at the moment, because George doesn’t like it, but when I have a house and can have pets, you can bet I’ll grab it).

I guess I’m just glad things happen as they do sometimes (though lately I’ve begun to wonder… more on that in a moment).

On a completely unrelated note, the other night we found WATER dripping through the ceiling into our apartment in the bedroom (onto the bed, no less). This leak had been there for some time, but had been very quiet as of late, but now was leaking again. I finally got frustrated enough to call the landlord, and he came and found that the source was water on the floor from the upstairs bathroom. Apparently the upstairs neighbors aren’t very neat when they take a bath or something, because the floor was covered with water, and it pooled into a corner (old houses are never level) and dripped through into my ceiling. ARGH.

So today he was over doing whatever it is he did; he’ll be replacing the damaged ceiling tiles tomorrow, as well as fixing a long-broken light switch in the kitchen (one of the old “pull-chain” type lights, where the pull chain doesn’t “click” and stay on anymore).

As an ADDED bonus, last night I went out to get Amanda some ice cream (she’s been moody), and found a cracked EGG on the roof of my car. How nice! I still don’t know who did it, but I questioned the downstairs neighbors, who have the most kids. They said it wasn’t them, which leaves Mary-Anne on the 2nd floor with me (not likely, she’s nice and never around anyway) or the friendly water-spilling people on the 3rd floor. I left everyone notes (some of which were a little bit nasty, but hey, I was angry) asking that if they knew who did it, to let me know. So far no reply, but I didn’t really expect one. Still, it just confirms one fact: I need to get OUT OF HERE.

The last straw, or actually the straw after the last straw (the egg was the last one) is that tonight, after eating dinner (Tiki-Tiki chinese takeout) I got to wash the dishes and… no water! ‘Hmmm,’ I think, ‘what could be going on?‘ So I check the bathroom – plenty of water there. I check the under-sink valves (who would have turned them off I don’t know, but why not check the obvious first) – and they’re fully open. So, I grab my flashlight and venture down into the dungeon that is the basement, only to find the floor covered with water and the valves to my sink shut off. I turn one on to see what happens, and water starts gushing out of the pipes just up through the ceiling (or the floor of the 1st floor). Nice. So, I’m without a working sink tonight, and I don’t have the landlord’s number (I wrote him a letter about the leaky ceiling).

I need to get out of here – PRONTO!

So, as a final note, if anyone knows of any property for sale or rent along or nearby Route 2, anywhere between Fitchburg and, say, Concord, please let me know. There’s about a half dozen towns along that corridor (I’d name them but my map of Massachusetts is huge and won’t fit on my desk), and … well, we should be able to afford something around there… if we can find anything. I’m desperate – even renting again would be preferrable to staying here. Naturally I’d rather buy, but that’s a ways off yet, even if I started the process today AND had a property in mind (I know how long it takes to buy a house). *sigh*

Well, that’s all for now, folks!

-Keithius