AtomicMrX

I’ve done more this weekend than the last few months combined! Lots of little unfinished projects and some completely new. It feels good!

Here’s what I did over the weekend:

1. Finished up the surround sound speaker project.
The two back speakers still had the original (thin) speaker wire on them and I had the Monster Speaker wire in a sack waiting to be put on. The project was halted due to strategy. “How was I going to hide or place the wires?” So the project sat. For about a year and a half the Monster Speaker wire sat in the basement.

So Sunday I proceeded to take the old wire off and put the new on. We had been walking (if not tripping) on the Left Rear speaker wire every since it went up. It hung down from the speaker mounted on the wall next to the ceiling and then along the wall to the floor and across the kitchen entrance to the audio system. I ran the new wire down the side of the hall closet and then sat for awhile to figure the next move. What to do with the wire? Along the wall on the floor to trip on it again or down to the basement. Then I got a sneaky idea. I took the cool air intake cover off (which is right next to the hall closet on the floor) and inside, there was a tiny hole in the metal where it meets the wood beams just big enough to fit a Monster Speaker wire through (16 gage). That got the wire down to the basement which then took a direct diagonal across the basement ceiling (unfinished) to the corner where there is already a hole for cable. So up through that hole which is in the corner of the living room next to the audio system. Left speaker done!

This took all of my 50 foot roll. So to the store I went to get another 50 foot roll for the Right Rear speaker which was going to be a lot easier. For it I just went down the side of the front door to the floor and then shot along the wall on the floor to the corner then to the audio system. I used my staple gun to hold the wire against the sides of the doors and along the floor to keep it taunt and hidden.

End of project 1.

2. Hung the cleaning supplies on the basement door.
I’ve had this hanger for about three months now and finally got the thing up onto the basement door. I think I was stumped because I kept wanting to hang it on the stair wall to the basement. Which wasn’t a good idea and hard to accomplish. So it never got hung. I then thought about the crappy door to the basement. It has holes all over it already so what’s a few more, right! Now all the broom and mop stuff is right there, handy. I also picked up a manual carpet sweeper so we can keep up on the dirt traffic on the living room “white” rug and kitchen floors. It works great for in-between the regular vacuum runs.

End of project 2.

3. Compile 5 remotes down to 1.
We have way too many remotes siting on the living room coffee table. One for the cable box, TV, audio system, VCR, and DVD. I have seen articles about Learning Remotes and wanted one for awhile. So while at Walmart I saw one for $18 and it listed all the component brand names that we had at home so I tried it. It is GREAT. I even programed in a couple of Macro’s. One Macro turns on all the components needed to watch a DVD movie and gets the audio system set correctly for DVD listening. Another Macro turns all them components off. A Macro is “ran” by pressing the Macro button then a number button. This remote will store up to 6 Macros. I set the DVD Viewing Macro to number 1 and to turn off the DVD Viewing stuff is Macro button and number 2. To turn on the TV and Cable box is Macro button and 4. It even lights up in the dark, pretty cool.

End project 3.

I’m tired so I think I’ll go relax in front of the TV. Next week will probably require more overtime. I did 6 hours of overtime last week. I stayed 2 hours after work Monday - Thursday. Ugh! But I need the money so I can’t say no.

With all the rain, the “hairline cracks” in the basement walls have “emerged.” It is evident that most of them were covered up with some type of patching material and with the shifting of the house have reemerged. Since I have no money right now, I’ll just have to wait to do something about it till later. I guess we’ll try to patch it and paint it with one of those water barrier paints for basements.

I am so broke. My money matters kind of slide to the side of my attention. So it will be a tight few months or so till I can get back on track. I had to sell my last full week of vacation just to get back up to zero. I will have to go back to my days of Consumer Credit and watch every penny I spend and cut back where I can. Luckily there are plenty of stocked up items in the basement for me to eat off of.

It will help that we are starting to get some Over Time in at work. I put in 4 hours on Saturday morning and put in 2 hours after work during the week. The Saturday Over Time is for another department that sends work to our department. We have to help them out on Saturdays to keep the work flow moving.

Jaki made it through her ordeal of tooth cleaning at the vet. I’m glad she is doing okay and we are to avoid too much food and water tonight so she won’t throw up. Tomorrow she will be able to go back onto her normal diet.

I was a little worried she’d not wake up from the procedure. Little dogs sometimes have that problem. But she did great and it only cost $70.00 compared to the $200.00 the other vet wanted.

Today is our two year anniversary of when we met. Hard to believe it’s been two years. Shannon bought me a very nice card and some beautiful flowers. I got Shannon a card and treated us to dinner at “On The Border” and we ate till we were about to bust.

Afterwards we went to the Verizon store and got Shannon’s phone looked at. He has been having a terrible time with static. You can’t even understand him. The tech discovered it was a simple problem of too much dust inside the phone creating static. He took a can of air and fixed it in no time. I’m glad that didn’t cost anything. In November my two year contract is up and I get a new phone for free. Shannon will get my current phone and I get a new one. We looked over the phones and everything is getting BIG again. Our phones are very small, almost half the size of some they offer now. I can’t wait for November…. it will be like a early Christmas present to get the new phone.

Well, I took today off to relax and do what ever I wanted to do. I was feeling kind of stressed out and needed a personal day to just do what ever.

So on my day off I cleaned the basement and re-arranged the stuff down there so we would have a work out area instead of a tiny little junk space for working out. And I took the old woven rug from the living room out and put our “new” rug in it’s place.

Some day off, huh!

I enjoy this kind of stuff and it actualy makes me feel better, more relaxed. And that basement was bothering me to no end. It needed a good cleaning. We had mold growing out of the carpet that was down there (an area rug actually) and on top of it was a nice new piece of MDF that I was going to use for a desk until it got attacked by mold. Now it is trash. Sad really.

We got a used “trampolene” from the thrift store. It was Shannon’s birthday present actually. You can see it in the picture.

And for cool lighting (and to get ride of the mold smell!) I added some candles.

So that was my day off. Now I’m gonna sit out on the deck and relax with hopefully no mosiqtoes!

You may notice the large board of MDF in the background of the basement photo. I need Shannon’s help to cary it up the stairs and get it out of the basement. So my project is not completely done.