Duane's little web log

Of all people Kristin was bugging me to update my blog. Whodda thunk? Really, she just wanted to see how the color came out in my bathroom. Here are a couple of (pre-iPhone) camera phone pictures. All things considered, the black tile doesn't look too bad. :^)

So I get this voicemail at home today. It goes like this:
"Hi this is ____ from the Shasta county superior court, traffic division..." I'm thinking SHIT, my traffic school certificate just got there. I am SO late, and my insurance is going up EVEN MORE!
"I'm calling to tell you that I received an accident report..." Now I'm thinking, yeah so I got in an accident in the bay area. WHY DO THEY CARE? Is this going to affect my insurance too? (ok, so I wasn't exactly rational. Who is when the traffic court calls? "I'm not sure why you sent this to us, I think that they usually go to the DMV. I was calling to let you know that we're sending it back to you. You should get it in a couple of days. Call us at ____ if you have any questions." how on earth did they.... OOOOOH. I accidentally printed the wrong envelope when I was mailing my accident report in to the DMV. I could have SWORN I typed that rediculously long address in, but then again, printing envelopes with open office isn't exactly a cake walk. OOPS!

Per your blog request...

My Top 3 Quotable Movie Picks...
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Meet the Parents ("It's only a game, Focker!")
Meet the Fockers

They all make me smile?
Hope all is well you!
See ya,
Lori.

Dazed and confused... I know this movie by heart, love it!
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
How to lose a guy in 10 days
Clueless
i can't think of a last one
House Party
there I did it
:)

Ok, the comments aren't going to happen anytime soon. The trials and tribulations of hosting your own blog page. Email me instead!

Cheers,
Duane

So I was in a bit of a funk earlier, and my co-worker quoted a movie that made me smile. I was thinking that when I get my new iPhone, I'll have to rip a handful of movies to be able to watch them on-demand. I'm opening up comments on this blog to get your feedback. What do you consider the most quotable movies? The ones that you would watch to the end if you caught it on TV, and quotes from most of the movie make you smile. I'm shooting for 5 movies or so. Here is my preliminary list:
Blazing Saddles
The Princess Bride
Ghostbusters
Stripes
Office Space

Secondary list - Movies I could watch over and over and over, but aren't necessiarily quotable:
The Fifth Element
Love Actually
Groundhog Day

I saw this today in the comments of a post on the dilbert blog. I was going to forward it to Damian, but he's not online. Probably taking a nap or something. I know he reads this blog, so he'll get to see it tomorrow I guess. Come to think of it, since it involves dry ice, Greg would appreciate it too. He's not online either. He's DEFINITELY taking a nap. Punk.

The bathroom painting is complete. I finished around 10:30 last night, so I haven't actually seen the paint in daylight. Pictures to follow soon.


Cheers,
Duane

Ok, how do you interpret this image:

It's obvious to the most casual observer that I took this in the middle of the street as a car was approaching, right? Well, actually it's a picture of the stage from my seat at the Police show. The show was very enjoyable. Here are a couple of quotes about our seats:

"On the bright side, there are a handful of people that are farther away - 20 feet - but farther!"

As we're leaving the park... "Almost everyone in this stadium - tens of thousands of them - are closer to the bart station than we are."

To give you an indication of HOW FAR away we were, hold your fingers about 1/8" apart and at arms length. That's how big Sting was on stage. Thank God for the big screen TVs. Still, the show was good and the music was good. It was worth the $60

In my quest to make my space more friendly for someone special, I decided it was time to let the 70's throwback waterbed go. I'm ashamed to say that I've been sleeping on a hardsided single bladder waterbed since I was about 10. I've been sleeping in this particular bed since 1986, and on this particular matress for at least a decade. Not that they go bad like a normal bed. Springs don't wear out, fabric doesn't wear out. The most that happens is that eventually the seams wear out and leak. ANYWAY, the bed has been taken down, and the room looks quite nice empty:



This weekend, I picked up a memory foam mattress at Costco for cheap ($499). I figure if it doesn't work out, I can always take it back. While online yesterday, I saw a great deal on a bedframe. I drove out to the sunset district, and picked it up last night.

I put it together and set up the new bed on the frame. I think it looks great! I'm quite happy with the results. Now we'll see how the sleeping goes. (Ignore the ridge in the middle of the mattress and the lumpy look. It's still decompressing)

I decided to try to set the tile this evening, if not this weekend. I've got 7 tiles to fit the space where the tiles were notched for previous medicine cabinets. I decided that the fit might be a little close, so I was going to do a dry run to make sure that all of the tiles fit with the spacers in place. After taping 6 tiles in place with the spacers rather tenuously pinched between the tiles, I went to fit the 7th tile and discovered that it was about 3/4" too long. There is no way that there is 3/4" of an inch in slack between the tiles. I double-checked that the new tiles are exactly the same width as the existing tiles, which means that one or more of the original seven tiles was shorter than the standard size

Fortunately I have a tile cutter (of course, I'm the tool guy) I cut the tile to size, and it fits quite nicely. In the upper picture, it's the tile closest to the camera. I'm pleased that I decided to dry fit the tile, as this would have been a mess with 6 tiles set and me trying to cut the last tile to size with the mortar already applied.

Cheers,
Duane