Lauren’s Neighborhood

Looks like I'd better get crack-a-lackin' on building this years displays.  Eeek!

I don't think I'll ever cease to be amazed at the number of lightbulbs we go through at our house.  If you ever have a friend who is moving into a new house and you are thinking about a moving-in type of gift - think lightbulbs.  Bulk packs of 60 and 100 watt are always good.  Of course, now everything is going green with those little twirly ones that look cute and offer the possibility of extinction if one of them breaks and spills mercury all over your house.  "Hey, did something just go in my ear?"  Some of them are a bit pricey.

When we redid the kitchen, we put in a tract lighting system.  It is pretty cool, well, fiery hot actually - it has seven 50 watt halogen bulbs that you can aim at various work centers in the kitchen.  So the stove, sink, fridge and coffee pot all get special attention - like they are in the big show.  That's fine until one of them burns out.  I'd say we've been through roughly 15 bulbs since last August.  15 at 3 per pack and $14 per pack works out to $70.  Another two packs and we will surpass the price of the tract system.  I assume that the company that manufactures the fixture ALSO owns stock in the company that makes the bulbs.  (If you own a Wii, this is exactly the same synergistic relationship that Nintento has with Eveready.)

I'm still surprised, as I probably should not be at this point, with the number of bulbs we go through and the timing of them burning out.  If the light pointing at the sink burns out, I replace it and within a day, the light pointing at the coffee pot goes out.  If the light in the living room ceiling fan burns out, I replace it and then the one next to it goes out.  Now it doesn't happen all the time - I'm not walking from room to room with my ladder and waiting.  It only seems like that.  I've switched to the new compact florescent bulbs where possible and they promise 11 years between changes.  Ahh - 11 years.  I can be blogging or something during all that free time that I'll have - but wait!  I put two into the fixture in the living room and within a week, one of them was out.  Dang - maybe it was a dud.  At closer look, however, I found out it was the fixture itself that had failed.  The bulbs will now out live the fixtures.

I had a few strings of those Christmas tree white lights on the bushes in the front yard.  Originally, it was a Christmas decoration but then I left them on all year and they looked pretty nice, that is until they started going out.  I could have gone through each and every bulb to see which one it was but instead I opted to just throw another complete strand overtop of those.  Long story short, when the last one went out I pulled out about 300 feet of old wires from the bushes and I have yet to replace them. 

My newest enemy is the photocell switch that is supposed to turn the outside lights on at dusk and off four hours later.  I came home for lunch and all the outside lights were on.  I can usually tell this because I can hear the electrical meter spinning out of control.  I checked the switch and it looks fine - I mean, it looks like a switch, it just doesn't work anymore.  I'd turn off the power going to the outside outlet but unfortunately due a twist of fate I used the same outside outlet for the pond pump so I'm going to have to get a new switch.

I think my next investment is a pair of coveralls that says "Maintenance" on the back.

I dropped a note to Degree for Men to tell them I thought it was "neat" that they were doing product placement in Eureka.  They are a sponsor, but they are part of the show - like a sponsor FOR Eureka.  I like the idea.

Here was their reply:

Hello DeWitte,

Thanks so much for writing!

We are pleased that you took the time to share your thoughts with us.
All of our advertising is created to sell Degree products in an
entertaining and informative way.

Thank you so much for your interest in our advertising. Your comments
will be shared with our media department.

Thanks again for your interest!
Your friends at Degree
JB

(They are my friends now!)  Thanks, JB!

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I had a really good customer service interaction with Amazon last week.  I bought an MP3 and it did not download.  They have a link on their site that says something like "Call You Now".  I put in my number and the phone rang like two seconds later.  The CS person reset my link so I could re-download the song.  That's cool beans.

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We went to see this over the weekend for Nathan's birthday:

It was great.was really good.  I'd buy it and watch it again.  There were a couple of songs from Hello Dolly, here is one of them:
Michael Crawford - wow!

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We went fishing over the weekend.  The tourists were the real show:

NJ Woman "OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!  I CAUGHT A FISH!!! OMG!"
NJ Woman "GET THE CAMERA!"

I can't emphasize how loud this came out.  Try envisioning that in 72 point type with a few extra "!"'s on the end.

There was also this old guy who caught a crab and made a dive for it - sadly, without even the least attempt to block his fall.  I'll leave the visuals up to Jamie on that one.

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We watched that McCain/Obama political forum thingy - does anyone else feel like McCain knew the questions ahead of time?

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I took Friday off and we tore into the garage attached studio and took everything out of it - Clean Sweep style, tarp and all.  It was quite refreshing.  Nathan wants to make it into a workshop and I'm all for it.  We'll get everything in place this week and I'll post a picture.  I'm sure we'll start making something ridiculous and sell in on Etsy.

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All this and then President Musharraf resigned.

I think that's everything (for me) so far.

I also noticed this warning(?):

Who are they then?  You can imagine the lady on the left, right after she heard the camera, saying "Hey - cut it out, you sick weirdo!"

I guess it is "buyer beware".

I received this one via email for training:


I realize sex sells, but it seems a little unfair that the only guy out hocking wares is this guy:


Vox is totally missing out on some serious moola from me because there are many links I might actually click on:


And, if you really knew me, you'd be able to get me to click almost every time on:

and definitely on:


because I see some crazy stuff out there that really needs to be blogged.

So, c'mon Vox - how about some better ad partners?

It's actually the cleanest that the sink has ever been. I didn't look for the video, because - EWWWW!

Dammit!

As Chef from South Park:

[sings to Thriller beat as a zombie]
I'm gonna make love even when I'm dead
Your body might get cold, but it's always hot in my bed
Make love, don't you be afraid
Just because my heart ain't beating, it don't mean you won't get laid.