Dear So and So

[Xrayted]

I may have to take you up on those doggy goggles if this launcher doesn't work. But I've never met a border collie who wasn't obsessed with a ball and this guy is no exception. He had dogs at the beach barking and growling at him and he was just keeping his eye on that ball in my hand. No other person or dog existed. Lol. He's such a sweetheart.

He was left at her ex's house to be a companion to the boys when they are over there but ex decided to keep him outside on a concrete pad in 20 degree temps, then decided to not feed him or bathe him or let him out of the kennel. She found out through the kids that he was doing that and went right over and rescued him. No asking permission, just took the dog and brought him home. She and her dad cut the huge matted chunks of grunge and feces off of him and took him to a doggy wash. Then in one day, he went from an outside farm dog to an inside family dog. He was still a bit stinky and scratching like crazy because he had so many hot spots so we used clippers on him and took a ton of hair off of him so we could really get down to his skin and then bathed him again. Added a few days of Benedryl, some hydrocortizone cream and better food without grains or fillers. He feels so much better now. He's such a happy dog with his boys and his moms taking care of him. Somehow, he ended up with tons of turkey over Thanksgiving.

It only took 2 days to get the launcher once I ordered it. I ordered it Monday and it got to my house Weds. I'm impressed with the company. It's a really good product. Go check out videos for GoDogGo ball launcher. That thing is worth the $$. I'm going over there in a few minutes to give him his Xmas gift a bit early. He will still have some toys and bones to open but this can't wait. He's going to flip out. UPS I'm not so happy with... they put the box out on my deck with no roof instead of my front door which has a roof over it. So, the whole thing got soaked from the heavy rain we had. I have no idea why they did that. I checked it over and it seems to be okay. Time to go see if Buddy likes his gift. Have a great night, TE. I miss you ladies a lot.

[rebeccaC]

Thinking Buddy is happy to be a loved inside family dog on this journey of his.

Ooh, can you make them puggle sized for small dogs with a Napolean complex?

not goggles but might this work?

[smilingcat]

Too cute to be Napoleon besides, I think he is part of admiralty

Dear handyman who had installed the microwave before we bought this house and to the manufacturer of the microwave.

Two wrongs do make it right some time. It's been a few month when the microwave that came with the house went ZZZZ ZAP FLASH then HUGE KABOOM. Replacement for it was fairly low on the list of things as we had super cheap counter top micro. We only use to heat our drinks, and thaw out or to remove chill from left overs...

Black Friday and Cyber Monday came with some descent deals so we bought a new one. We weren't too particular about the features so it made it easy to pick. Came home from big box store. Removed the old micro over the range, installed the mounting bracket for the new one. Then I pulled out the new micro out of the box. Funny thing??? Top right side had weird curve to it. It was crushed. Remove the new mounting bracket, return the crushed unit to the box store for a replacement. But none available in stock so they would have to order it with delivery charge... No thanks. So found another unit for the same price but it didn't have the features of the crushed unit. Power down feature would have been very nice but oh well.

Came home with the second micro. This time I took it out of the box and made sure it was intact and all the pieces there and it was.

Now about the handyman who had installed the last one. He had swiss cheesed the shelf over the micro because well god knows why? I couldn't use it so I had demo it out and install a new shelf. Pre-cut the opening for the vent, plug hole, mounting hole and installed. Installed cabinets are not square. so had to cut the shelf crooked to fit in the cabinet. made sure the shelf I installed was level left to right and front to back.

And the vent duct work. What a piece of wood work. Demo'd it out too. And I see why there was so much draft coming into the house. BTW, the broken microwave had the vent fan installed all wrong and it was set to vent into the room and not through the vent duct out of the top.

The replacement micro has the same exterior dimension so it was easy to line up the new mounting brackets. popped in the micro and raised it into place. The micro is tilted down on the front side by over an half an inch. Now that we think about it, it explains why the old microwave door flung open. bottom of the mounting bracket is butted up to splash board granite tile. Tried cutting with my angle grinder/saw and it just ate threw the abrasive saw. Didn't want to hammer out the tile... Long story short, I managed to mount the bracket 1/2" lower, install the microwave into place. level left to right and now its about 3/32" low in the back.

So had the micro not blow up, we would never have figured out that it was installed incorrectly. Handyman's handywork was so bad, I didn't have to think about how to make it work. It was back to the drawing board. As for the vent duct work, I think I will make it out of 1/16" thick aluminum (I happen to have sizeable sheets of it).

So now, the door doesn't fly open. Venting actually will vent to the outside, have a shelf over the micro that we can actually use. Everything is now right well except for not being quite level front to back. YAYYY!!!

So appliances either fixed or replace since my teenage days: dryer (repaired several times over), washer (repaired once or twice) dishwasher (repaired once), replaced at least half a dozen garbage disposal, install brand new sink with new faucets, replaced counter top stove, garage door opener (repaired once) and now replaced microwave. Then there was the complete rewiring of my parents house, complete rebuild of my partners deck at her house. I had to demo all of the deck including the footing.

Who says women can't do these things? Whooey to them. I'm a happy camper for now.

[Pax]

Impressive work, Brava!!

My dad was a contractor, he charged extra when he had to work in spaces previously "remodeled", he knew that 90% of the time it would be a fiasco of dealing with prior poor/shoddy/dangerous work.

[Crankin]

This sounds like some of the things my DH has found while remodeling our condo. While the construction and walls between the units are great (and not done this way anymore), the electrical and plumbing was done in several weird ways, only apparent when the walls were knocked out. Then there was the day that he went over there, just to drop some stuff off. While in the basement, he heard some crackling.Turns out the breakers were done all wrong, and it is very likely our new house would have burned down, before we moved in. He fixed that and several other things, but a couple of these things required an electrician or plumber.

[rebeccaC]

Who says women can't do these things?

Not me

Growing up I had a neighbor with a nice wood working shop and I’d spend time helping him when I was a teen. His wife also taught me pottery and bronze casting.
The second summer of undergraduate school I bought an older house with a friend and we remolded it, including some structural/code issues, into two units. After building a good rental history we sold it to pay for graduate school and living expenses. I did enjoy the work, the process and the profit. As much as I enjoyed that learning experience, I’m also glad I bought into a recently built building when I got to the L.A. area. Maybe later in life I’ll have the time to do the designing, building or remolding thing again but just normal maintenance works better for me now….

Too cute to be Napoleon besides, I think he is part of admiralty .

that looks like napoleon’s cockade on the bicorne but yeah bicorne’s were also worn in a lot of the militaries back then and especially in France.

[Crankin]

My mom did all the repair work around the house. She once fixed my disposal after she had tried to put artichoke leaves down there, and there was green liquid gushing out from under the sink.

Me, I take after my dad.

[VeganBikeChick]

I have no repair talent whatsoever; I can barely put new windshield wipers on my car without help. So I'm envious of all you DIYers.

[Pax]

I have no repair talent whatsoever; I can barely put new windshield wipers on my car without help. So I'm envious of all you DIYers.

Don't feel bad, I can build a chunk of a house by myself but I can't change my wiper blades either.

[ny biker]

I can do simple things, especially now that there always seems to be a youtube video to help. In my car I've replaced bulbs for tail lights, the cabin and engine air filters and the front and back wiper blades. I'm usually good at putting together furniture that requires at-home assembly, and am quite proud of my ability to put together bookcases and bedframes by myself even though you really need four hands to get it right. I once used six packs of Diet Coke to hold up the sides of two new bookcases so I could attach the bottom pieces to them. I was able to replace all the door knobs in my condo except for a couple where the holes were not properly drilled in the doors. I replaced most of the door hinges, too.

I wanted to replace all the electrical outlets and light switches by myself, and even posted here about it (years ago). But I couldn't get past the thought that everything would seem to be working fine but really something would be wrong and then the whole place would burn down. So I hired an electrician. Once I tried to put up new curtain rods, but I couldn't get them straight. Finally I called a friend who's really handy, the son of a plumber, and he put them up for me. He made it look so easy.

I tried to paint my kitchen cabinets when I first moved into my condo but I made a mess and didn't like the way they turned out. Luckily I found a good contractor to renovate the kitchen and bathroom -- with new custom cabinets in both rooms. The painters who did the other rooms and replaced all the door trim and base boards were a disaster -- they did a terrible job and dripped paint on my furniture.

I've enjoyed getting into the details of the kitchen and bathroom work, with the cabinet diagrams and the tile designs. But I didn't inherit a natural ability to actually do the work. I would figure it out eventually, I think, but would have to fix too many mistakes and probably a few disasters along the way. And I don't have the patience for that.

[Crankin]

Blueprints and diagrams look like a jumble of shapes to me. I really cannot read them. Nor, can I follow instructions or diagrams to put together anything. Sometimes I can learn by watching someone, but it would have to be in person. Watching You Tube has the same effect on me as trying to read directions, when it's to do with assembling stuff.
This is why I don't do any of this stuff. It got me into trouble when we remodeled our kitchen and bathrooms, because I was shown plans, and said "fine," and in the end I was stunned when I saw the way the cabinets were in the bathroom. Looking at those plans gave me no clue. I get agitated just having to deal with this stuff.
Not that I don't like nice things!

[Pax]

I think it's all in the way we process information and the way we see the world. My wife can't put air in a bike tire, seriously; she is a highly educated and intelligent woman but no matter how many times I've shown her, she just can't get air in... and manages to let all remaining air out. She can, however, sit and learn a computer program in a very short time. I can stare at the same thing all day and it's like trying to read something written in Cyrillic. We're a good balance.

[ny biker]

Dear hormones:

Enough with the hot flashes and the migraines and the water retention weight gain so I can't fit into any of my jeans anymore. Just go away. I'm so sick of you.

[ny biker]

Blueprints and diagrams look like a jumble of shapes to me. I really cannot read them. Nor, can I follow instructions or diagrams to put together anything. Sometimes I can learn by watching someone, but it would have to be in person. Watching You Tube has the same effect on me as trying to read directions, when it's to do with assembling stuff.
This is why I don't do any of this stuff. It got me into trouble when we remodeled our kitchen and bathrooms, because I was shown plans, and said "fine," and in the end I was stunned when I saw the way the cabinets were in the bathroom. Looking at those plans gave me no clue. I get agitated just having to deal with this stuff.
Not that I don't like nice things!

It took some time for me to figure out the cabinet diagrams for my kitchen, but I was glad I did. The contractors left out a spacer in the corner, and the result was that I couldn't open one of the cabinet doors. I was glad that I was able to figure out the problem and the solution before calling the contractor -- it made the fix much easier and faster.

But of course there are plenty of other things that agitate me! I so wish I had an executive assistant to keep my life organized for me. For starters I would like someone to go online and get all my health insurance EOBs for the year, figure out why the FSA people are accusing me of trying to use my funds illegally again even though I only ever use them for doctors, prescriptions and contacts, and get reimbursed for all the copays that have been building up for months. And call the insurance company or FSA company as needed to resolve any issues. If someone would just take care of that for me, it would be awesome.

[Crankin]

I guess I make up for my lack of visual-spatial and fine motor skills by being very organized and verbal. I don't like doing the stuff you mentioned, and DH always is on those thigs immediately, but I know what to do and how to handle it. I seriously don't know how some of the people I work with survive. They don't do their notes and are months behind in treatment plan reviews. Of course, it's the director's fault that she allows this. We went to electronic medical records last week and now it's going to be a little more in your face if you haven't done stuff. They refuse to do work at home (where I do everything, except my notes, which I do immediately after each person), and now we can do it without getting permission to be on the server or breaking HIPPA laws.
OK, that's my rant.