AtomicMrX

I now am the proud owner of Macintosh’s OS X v10.4 Tiger. It is really cool and was easy to install/upgrade my OS. My screen save is an RSS feed! Very cool. It took about 30 minutes to install, with no prompting or interruptions. Mac’s play nicely that way.

The only thing that did take awhile was Spotlight. Spotlight is a very powerful search tool (much like the one that will eventually be in the PC’s OS upgrade next year. Spotlight had to index my hard drive (and external hard drive) so when you begin typing it starts it’s search and narrows the contents based on the more information you type. But at least I was able to use the computer while it indexed my hard drive. So it wasn’t even noticeable.

One of the cool features I have been waiting for is Dashboard. Pressing the F12 key on the keyboard brings up Dashboard over your existing screen.

If you click on the Plus sign in the lower left corner of Dashboard it will take you to the other Dashboard apps/tools as seen here:

Dashboard is cool. You can click on any of the little apps (called Widgets) and they flip over to the back side where the controls and prefs for each app. You can also have multiple apps. For example I can have a weather Widget for Omaha and another for Kansas City. Hit F12 again and it all hides, leaving everything as you had it.

I spent a lot of time last night playing with all the new features of the OS. Made it difficult to go to bed early so I could get my hair cut this morning at 6:00 AM. Yes, that is correct. Six AM. I went to a barber shop with a friend and it’s first come first serve, so we wanted to get in and out in a timely manner and 6:00 it is. The barber did an okay job. It was just nice that I didn’t have to do all the work. I probably will go back, it only cost $13 for my flat top.

Excuse me but I have to go play with my new OS X!

I quit the yard sale at about 11:30 AM because there was just no one interested. I had maybe 6 people from 8:00 AM to 11:00. One was from the previous day and came back to buy Shannon’s writing desk.

So now is the task of putting all that heavy furniture back down in the basement. I wish it would have sold.

I made a realization from the yard sale. When I had them on the Plaza it was a much younger group of people in the area. They were starting off in their lives and needed lots of kitchen stuff and furniture. Whereas here in Raytown everyone is pretty much older and about to retire so they have everything and are trying to get ride of stuff. This is why everything I thought would sell didn’t and if I was on the Plaza it would have all been cleared out.

I don’t think I’ll have another sale here. I may cart my stuff off to a midtown yard sale if someone I know is holding one. Just not worth it here in Raytown.

Today begins day 2 of the Yard Sale. Friday went well. It was very boring at times, but that was okay. I took off work so I could be home Friday for the sale. I’m really glad my friend from Lee’s Summit came up to help for a few hours. Thanks Ron!!! He helped make sales and pass the time. What a guy!

Most of the people came in the morning. I would guess about 20 to 25 people in all came Friday. I’ll see how that compares with today.

Sold a lot of stuff. Ron only has a couple of things left from what he brought over to sale. Mostly what is left is the big furniture items. One bar/entertainment center (ala black lacquer and gold - Shannon’s), a 1980’s computer desk (ala compressed wood and wood veneer - mine), and a really cool writing desk (Shannon’s - and the hit of the sale). Everyone makes comments on how cool Shannon’s writing desk is. One problem, it’s big. I mean chunky big so you would have to have a nice big room for it.

Hopefully all the heavy furniture goes today so we don’t have to drag it back down to the basement (ohye, my back!).

I have been a busy weekend project guy! Saturday I put in seven new door handles (4 that locked, 3 for closets) for my friend Jim. While there I also hung a picture light for him. Then today, I put in three lighted light switches (two for the bathroom: fan and light, and one in Shannon’s room). Now all the rooms have lighted switches so it is easier to find them in the dark. And this place is dark at night with no street lights anywhere.

I finally got the money to buy two ceiling fans (one for the office and the other for the big bedroom). So I had two ceiling fans to put in today as well and good timing with the power off for the light switches. Both have remotes. That was a challenge to figure out how to cram wire and a remote box up into the ceiling box. Lucky for me, one set of instructions was better than the other and explained how to go about it. Weird, because both remotes are from the same company and the same model. So now with a touch of a button I can change the speed of the fan, shut the fan off, turn the light(s) on or off or even dim the lights. The light settings are remembered so the next time you turn the lights on they are on the same dim setting as when they were turned off. Pretty darn cool!

Shannon helped me figure out the breaker box. I would turn off a breaker and he’d walk around the house looking for the light that went off in a room. However, we still have a couple of mystery switches. They must turn off wall plugs or something. But at least now the we can safely get most of the house off or on if we choose.

The trees around the house are all in bloom and they look great.

The ceiling fan in the bedroom and office are helping a lot, already! This is the most comfortable I have been in the office with out the A/C on. It is a hot and stuffy room (plus the computer doesn’t help with all the heat it puts off).

Bedroom Fan (before and after):

Office Fan (before and after):

Lowe’s finally came out and replaced my dented Freezer door. All is good now with the new Side-By-Side.

Yes, I feel like I’ve accomplished a ton this weekend. Feels good. Next weekend (Friday and Saturday) is our Yard Sale and that will prove to be a lot of work as well. I can feel the Winter weight burn off already!

I took off work early today (at 11:00) and worked in the back yard moving our brush/stick pile over to the pile that has begun by the fence opening. We will need to haul all the brush and sticks off to the dump soon to get rid of them. It was a nice pretty day and the backyard is slowly improving.

We still have purchased plants that need to get into the ground. We also need to build up the flower beds in the front so they don’t leak all over the side walk. This Saturday will be a good chance to start those projects.