Well over three years ago, I bought a no-brand LCD TV from Niko. The company is now out of business, but the TV is actually still very good quality. However, the Niko rebate was a scam, the TV is solid. The TV I purchased back then was the Niko OTP-3211W 32" and it was pretty expensive looking at the prices you get today, but back then, it was the best deal I could find.

In any event, for over three years, I have been trying to find a remote control that would work with it. Non of the remotes I have tried had the proper codes to work with this TV. That includes CableVision and Verizon remote controls. I tried universal remotes but failed.

That is until last night. The Philips Prestigo 12 Device Universal Remote control came via a Woot deal the other day and I set it up. Although Niko is a brand listed in the set up configuration, that part didn't work. When I went through the rolling code set up, at about 250 codes in, the TV turned off. I was shocked. I cannot tell you how many remote controls I tried to get to work and this one did it.

So there you have it, the Philips Prestigo 12 Device Universal Remote worked with the Niko OTP-3211W 32".

Posted at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Ironically, this is not the first time I am blogging about air filters. Before I start, I should disclose that I am a partial owner in the company I am writing about - so yes, it is something that is awesome. ;-)

RustyBrick recently launched a site named On Time Air Filters - guess what they/we sell? You got it, air filters for your home!!!

I am the type of guy that hates going out to stores to buy stuff like this. To me, air filters are one of those things that should be done like water delivery. You schedule it to be done and someone delivers it to you when you need it.

That is how On Time Air Filters works. You go to the air filter wizard, select the number of filters you want (and sizes), the quality and frequency you need them and they are delivered to you - when you need them. So when you get a new air filter delivered, you know you need to swap out the old, and pop in the new one.

BTW - got air filter questions? You can ask merv via email or on Twitter or Facebook.

Posted at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Business , Homey | Comments (0)

As you know, Sukkots is around the corner. I got my Lulav & Esrog and I have built my Sukkah. I bet this is an interesting for non-Jewish people to see Jews practicing (people shaking trees and fruits and living in a temporary house, outside of your real house - real weird, no?). In any event, I finally finished my first Sukkah last night and I wanted to show it off.

On September 13th, I put up the frame with the help of my father and brother. I don't have pictures of that, but here is a picture of the metal polls fitting (snapping) together.

Then this past Sunday, in a light rain, I put up the nylon walls. They basically velcro onto the metal frame. Here are some pictures of the walls going up:

Tuesday night, I put up the roof (known as S'chach), which consists of bamboo. I got the roll out mats of bamboo to make my life easier. I had three mats to put up. I first took wood polls, laid them across the top of the frame and then rolled out the mats on top of the wood polls.

Last night, I put up the lights, as you can see in the picture above as well. I also hung the few decorations we have. But the decorations are very tasteful. They are basically arrangements of fake grapes and a fruit, next to the grapes. Here is a picture of one:

I then wired up the lights to the outdoor timer box and tied down the wires, so they are out of the way.

This is a continuation of my previous Sukkah posts, including o Sukkah shopping, planning the sukkah, finding out it was two inches too long and you can also see my Sukkah in Google Sketchup.

This is my first Sukkah. What do you think?

Posted at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey , Religion | Comments (1)

A couple days ago, I built my Sukkah using Google's CAD like software named Skechtup. It basically allows you to design full 3D models, including homes, towns, etc. So I decided to teach myself how to use it and within hours, I had built my own Sukkah. A Sukkah is a temporary home used by Jewish people during the holiday of Sukkot (more at Wikipedia).

Here is a video of my Sukkah using Sketchup. I didn't build out the whole deck, but you get the point. Oh, yes, one wall, the one on the side of the home, is left open on purpose.

This is my on going coverage of my Sukkah purchase and deployment process, in which I should have all the right pieces now. I did my Sukkah shopping, planned the Sukkah and then noticed it was two inches too long, but now we should be set. I hope to put the whole thing up this weekend.

Posted at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey , Religion | Comments (1)

My Sister and family bought me NY Jet Slippers for Chanukah this past year. They are really comfy slippers and I really do like them.

The issue is, soon after I got them, they started to rip at the seam. I showed in the picture above, where it began ripping. The thread that kept the slipper bottom to the top, I guess ripped, and it is starting to come undone. I have been pushing off blogging about it, since I always forget to take a picture.

In any event, these seem like good quality Reebok slippers, so I am not sure why they ripped so fast. I guess I can buy a new pair, if I like them that much, or ask Reebok for a replacement. Again, that would require me to actually do something, other than blog - which is hard for me.

Posted at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

To continue my Sukkah shopping experience, after having purchased and planned the Sukkah, I thought perfectly, I was two inches off. Why you ask? Well, I (we) didn't account for the extra inch the vertical connecting bars add to the length of the sukkah.

Here is a picture, as you can see, the vertical connecting piece connects the bars across the bottom of the floor (as well in the middle and top).

So when you have two of these vertical connecting bars, it adds an additional two inches. Since I can only fit 22 feet on the home side, I was two inches above 22 feet long on that side. Here is a picture of the overlap of the polls:

I was worried about the length side of the Sukkah fitting, so that is why I did a test run on putting it up two plus months before Sukkot starts. I called the Sukkah dealer, Esrog Headquarters and explained what happened, and he said he will swap out the middle length bars of 6 feet, to 5 feet, which should make the Sukkah fit fine.

Hopefully this will help others when planning on buying their custom fit sukkah. I also learned that this sukakh is named the Klick Sukkah or the Ease Lock Sukkah or the Snap Sukkah depending on who is selling it. Downloading the Ease Lock instructions (PDF) helped me build the frame, even though I have a custom build.

When I get the replacement parts, I'll try putting it up once again.

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Religion | Comments (2)

The other day, I described my Sukkah shopping plans. I wanted to let you know, last night, I placed an order for my first Sukkah. I put a lot of work into planning the Sukkah and emailing those plans to Sukkah vendors.

First, I wanted to tell you that I purchased the Klick Sukkah from Esrog Headquarters (what is an Esrog, see Wikipedia). Levy, who owns Esrog Headquarters was extremely patient with me and worked with me to get the perfect Sukkah for my needs. We went with a custom version of the Klick, so that I can have multiple entry ways, as well as maximize the square footage for my deck, and leave a portion open for the potential BBQ. I should also mention that Marty from Sukkahs.com was very helpful. In fact, it was between Levy's Klick Sukkah and Marty's Plastic Sukkah, the plastic one kind of looks like a Fisher Price playhouse.

Why did I go with the Klick?

(1) Easy to store
(2) Netted windows and doors (very buggy in my area)
(3) Was able to customize it for my needs
(4) Fabric walls feel more 'Sukkos' to me than plastic

But when it came down to it, I would not have been able to buy, what I believe is the perfect Sukkah without planning properly. I drew I diagram of my deck by hand, wrote the dimensions down and then copied it into Photoshop. I used photoshop to make a, to scale, digital version of the deck and where I want to place the Sukkah. I then was able to place lines on top of the deck, for where I wanted the Sukkah to see how it would fit and line up with the various entry ways. The diagram will also be vital in building the Sukkah each year, basically my blue print.

Here is a version of my diagram:

Why did I use Photoshop? Well, I know Photoshop well enough to get this done right. I switched the settings to use millimeters (which represented inches in my case), instead of the default pixels. So one millimeter was an inch, in my case, which allowed me to draw things to scale. I then dropped shapes and lines on top of the deck to see how things would fit. I guess I could use CAD programs to do this, but I don't know CAD. There are web versions, but I didn't find any I liked with the detail I needed. So Photoshop took me about 20 minutes to set up and I used that as a template going forward.

All in all, I strongly recommend Levy at Esrog Headquarters and if you do buy anything online, just the affiliate URL (just signed up, didn't know they offer it), so I get a commission to pay for the decorations.

Updates to my Sukkah adventure:

• Two Inches Too Long: Snap, Klick or Easy Lock Sukkah

Posted at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Religion | Comments (2)

So I have been in the new house almost two years now, and this Sukkot, I hope to finally build my own sukkuah. What is a Sukkah? See over here.

What I did was measure my deck, which is typically where people would put their sukkah, if they have a deck. I had my wife draw the deck on a piece of blank paper, since I was holding my baby, then I measured every thing. My deck is not a standard rectangle or square, the rectangle gets smaller on the kitchen side. Now I do not need to cover my whole deck with the sukkah, but it might be nice to.

I am not sure, since this is my first sukkah. A 10 x 20 sukkah would easily fit on the large side of the deck and that might be large enough.

So what I did was make a digital version of my deck's dimensions, and emailed a few sukkah dealers that came up on Google. I got one response so far, hope to get more. I am looking for something that is easy, but yet will last a long time and be more useful for my deck's shape and size.

I am thinking that the Sunshine Sukkah as a top candidate, but again, this is premature. I would love to have two doors, possibly three, again, not sure. We will see.

Any Sukkah specialists out there with any advice?

Oh, and how cool is that picture? A sukkah on a boat in Venice.

Update: I purchased the Sukkah from Esrog Headquarters, for more about that purchase, see my blog post named Buying a Sukkah & Planning. The Snap, Klick or Easy Lock Sukkah is now Two Inches Too Long and Esrog Headquarters said they will send replacement parts, so stay tuned.

Posted at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Religion | Comments (1)

Talk about a vague blog post title, "my lots are a mess." Well, that is the case. When I moved to my new home in October 2007, I discovered I had four property lots. One main property lot and the other three were like less than .1 of an acre each. Normally, I wouldn't care, it is not like people take notice to it.

My real estate lawyer suggested that I consolidate the four properties into one single lot. I got the info to do it, but it required several trips to several different government offices to make it happen. The reason she suggested it was to make it easier for the mortgage company on paying the taxes to the government. My first mortgage company really never had an issue, but I refinanced in March of this year and my new mortgage company cannot figure out how to pay taxes on more then one lot.

Every time taxes are due, I get a fine for not paying the $15 or so on each of the three minor lots. It is a huge pain because even though only $15 is due for three lots and the bulk of the taxes are paid on the main lot, there is still taxes due and technically, it can lead to serious legal issues.

So I decided to make the first step forward to consolidating my properties into a single lot. I went to one office today to start the process. That office gave me the info on where to go next, which was next door, so I went to get a letter that my town and school taxes are paid up.

Next I have to the village to get a letter that those taxes are paid up. Issue is, those taxes are not paid up. My mortgage company needs to pay them, hence the issue with them not paying taxes on the smaller lots. Once that gets paid, I will go to the village tax office, get the letter. Then I need to go to a different office in a different city to get another letter that my taxes are paid. Then I go to the real property services office and file papers then, and pay a fee. Then I go to the country clerk in a different building but same city, to file more papers. Then finally, I go back to the office I went to today and file the disclaimer with them and hopefully, by next year, I will have a single property.

Posted at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Yesterday morning I felt sick. I decided to leave work early, at about 3pm, to head home and rest. This morning, the doctor called to tell me he has an opening in the afternoon.

So I just got back from the doctor and he said, I may or may not have the flu. My temperature is just about 100º. I did have some body ache, but honestly, I feel pretty good now. He decided, even though, I don't have all or many of the symptoms to put me on Tamiflu.

The worst part of this is that I cannot spend time with my baby girl, nor can I help my wife with the baby.

Posted at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

Since I had my first kid a bit over two-weeks ago, I been noticing that some of the doors in my house have been squeaking.

The squeaking door is probably less of a problem and annoyance for my kid then it is for me thinking it is annoying my kid, but it the concern of it being an annoyance is an annoyance enough for me. Whoa, long sentence. Running on little sleep, so pardon those...

In any event, I stopped by the local Home Depot and picked up a can of WD-40. The new WD-40 cans have what they call the smart straw, so you don't lose the straw. When using it, I felt, hey - that is smart.

In any event, a couple sprays and bingo, no more squeak.

Did that help the baby sleep better last night? I don't think so.

Posted at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

Last night, I attempted to add TV hookups to a couple rooms in my house. I went to Home Depot, not the new Lowes (in my area), and I bought the materials. I researched everything online and was all ready to go.

I head up to the attic and start scoping things out. What I find are dozens and dozens of wires. About 4 different wires all look to be the same RJ6 wire type. I am not sure if I can split that cable without it impacting other devices (i.e. alarm or phone).

I then decide to see if I can locate where I would drop down the wires. I see some holes from the ceiling, with wires piped through to rooms. Thing is, I don't see the same holes in the area I would need to pipe through my wires.

I search around more, keep in mind, it feels like it is 100 degrees in the attic. After about 30 - 45 minutes, I decide it is best to hire a professional. I close everything up, without making any holes in any walls and head back into the house.

This morning, I called Verizon to do the hookup for me. I actually wish I could have done it. I know I can do the cable cutting, crimping, etc, but I am not confident I can figure out which cables to splice and where exactly to drop it without causing issues that I cannot reverse.

I failed. :-(

Posted at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

Since I was successful at doing some plumbing work, I think I might want to try to do some networking work. I currently only have coaxial TV jacks in the master bedroom. I would love for every room to be TV ready (not that I will have my kids watching TV) but it would be nice to have. Plus, it would be great to learn how to do this, so I add this skill-set to my toolbox.

I reviewed the Lowes and Home Depot how to guides and it seems like this might be something I can do.

Material and Tool wise, I would need the following:

• Wire Stripper
• Crimp Tool
• Fish Tape
• RG-6 cable
• F-Connectors
• F-Connector Jacks
• Wall Plates
• CATV Cable Splitter

My main concern is the fishing part, fishing the cable into the rooms from the attic.

Anyway, I will scope out the details tonight in my attic and if it looks doable, I will go to either Home Depot or Lowes to get the tools and materials.

Like I said, I would love to be able to add this skill to my toolbox.

Posted at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

My home is on lock down all the time. We have a pretty good home security system and we use it all the time. When we are home and awake, it is set. When we go to sleep, it goes into lock down mode.

Basically, if you are awake in my house when I put the alarm in lock down, it goes off. So don't wander around or make too much noise.

In any event, on very rare occasions, I forget to disable the alarm after I wake up. I forgot this morning.

Oh boy does that really wake you up. I turn the corner and bam! Alarm sound goes blasting. You know that feeling when you are so tired and confused, you don't know which way to turn? Well, you feel some of that during that siren wailing. Then you get your composure, and head towards the nearest alarm keypad. You punch in the code and breath a sigh of relief.

That was my early morning, after finding out Gmail went offline for a bit.

Related Posts:

• Forgot to Activate Smoke Alarms :: 7 Months Later, June 2008
• Alarms & Sirens Going Off During Meeting in Grand Central Station, September 2006

Posted at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

The one thing I miss about my previous home, the Monsey condo, is the water pressure. My new home, which I have been at for over 18 months now, has horrible water pressure.

I tried changing the shower head in my bathroom, but that really didn't do much.

The bottom line is that the water pressure is a trickle compared to what it is/was in my condo.

Is there anything I can do? I suspect no but there could be.

I read some sources online that says there are ways to adjust this. But when I had my home inspection, the guy told me that the water pressure is low, but it wasn't horrible. I didn't ask if there was a way to improve it, I assumed if there was, he would have told me about it.

Some of the tips I read online on improving water pressure in a home include:

• Adjust the pressure regulator near the main water shut off
• Old pipes may be corroded (I don't have old pipes)
• Might be a water company issue
• Call a plumber

Maybe one day, I'll just call a plumber and ask a professional about it.

Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

This morning, I was in the bathroom and I heard these weird hushing noises. I then tried to turn on the new faucet to wash my hands but nothing worked. I first thought, did I pay my water bill? I then thought, did I install my faucet correctly? So I tried the tub and nothing came from there. I went to my basement to see if there was a flood or something and there was none.

So I called the water company who told me there was a major water main break in my area. Here is a map of the area of the main break:

View Larger Map

Here is the official release from the water company on the issue and the news piece from the local paper. In these cold conditions, route 202 froze over with ice, making it dangerous to drive.

Right now, my home does not have any water. Some homes do, but they have very low water pressure. The main question is, when will it be fixed and will the water be clean?

Here is a video of the water gushing all over the street:

When I found out it was a main break, I said to my wife - thankfully it is only the water. At least the Internet works. :) I was serious. I brought up some bottled water to the bathroom.

Posted at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

The news is buzzing about Verizon now, all of a sudden, offering remote DVR capabilities for their FiOS customers. Hmm....

I had this feature in November and I documented how it works very thoroughly. But the releases claim this is brand new and was first demonstrated at the CES event today.

Was I part of some private beta that I didn't know about? I personally really like it. I often use it to browse what will be on and quickly record shows that I don't want to miss.

Since nothing is ever on, I rarely have to record anything these days. ;-)

Posted at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (0)

For Chanukah, I bought my wife a matching faucet for the rest of the hardware in our bathroom. Yea, I got my wife a faucet for Chanukah, I know!!! I even used Live Search to save 25% on the faucet.

The hard part was not ordering the faucet, it was putting it in. I ordered it a while back, but did not install it until Chanukah. So the other night, I installed it. Now, I have never done any serious plumbing before. So I was a bit nervous, but at the same time, excited to give this a try.

I read the directions twice, the first time I read it in order and the second time I read it backwards. I had to first remove the old faucet and then put in the new one. So reading it backwards helped me understand exactly which pieces I needed to remove, this way I can retain as much of the old faucet as possible.

There are many web sites that have how-to guides on this. I didn't look for them until I wrote this post. In any event, Home Depot has a good how to over here and a video. In short, shut off water, unscrew both hot and cold water supply lines, unscrew plastic big joints that secure the old faucet. Then place the new faucet in, and screw everything back in.

Now what it doesn't show are two things. (1) Working with the drain stopper and (2) replacing the hardware for the drain. For that, you need to unscrew the sink drain from the bottom of the sink. I found a picture of a sink drain, you basically need to un-screw the metal piece from the bottom of the sink. In fact, the hardware in the sink (typically a silver plate around the sink hole, is screwed into this piece):

So you unscrew this, which is also connected somewhat to the drain stopper device, and then put in the new hardware above the sink drain, then screw back in the sink drain pipe below into the sink drain's new hardware. Then getting the faucet's drain stopper (whatever it is called) to be hooked up with the level you pull up and down was fun.

But after about 30 minutes, I got it working and the new faucet was installed. A few days later, the sink has yet to leak - so maybe I did it right. I did seem to forget to use a silicon glue to stop leakage, so I hope that doesn't come to bite me later.

I enjoy knowing how the pieces in my house work. Now, if I can now get into doing some hard wiring of networking, such as TV, Internet and security systems - I will be set.

Posted at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

About a year ago, I told you about Installing a Twin Flow III K120 Kick Space Heater Under Kitchen Cabinet.

So then in May, yea, 5 months later, they came to install it. First the plumber came and then the electrician came. I thought I was set!

Of course, when I asked both the plumber and the electrician if it will work, should we test it (it was warm outside, so the heat was off), they said, it will work as long as the other guy did his job.

Comes winter and it does not work. So finally get the plumber to come back about two weeks ago. He said, did the electrician plug it in, I said yes. So he came and looked and said a pipe wasn't connected right. Finally, this morning he came back and fixed it. Warm air is blowing out of the thing right now.

It has three fan settings; max, min and off. The max sounds like a blow dryer for your hair (I am told by my wife) and the min isn't that noisy. I have yet to see it working, so I go by hearsay. I hope the min setting is enough to keep the kitchen area warm, cause when it is 20 degrees or less, the kitchen never really reaches the set temperature.

Posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Last night, I turn on my TV and I see a message from Verizon. It said that I can now enjoy programming my DVR from my computer or a wireless device. I immediately stopped everything and read on. I followed the instructions and configured my Verizon account to control my DVRs.

In short, you control this at Verizon FiOS TV Central. After you register your account and activate the remote DVR option, you have access to the DVR (beta) features.

You can view shows that are scheduled to be recorded:

You can see the shows that are recorded and even remove them:

You can see how much space you have on your DVRs:

You can browse or search TV listings and record them, by clicking on the show and clicking "Record."

It then puts the show, in this case, "The Office," in my scheduled recordings:

If I had a Verizon Wireless phone, specifically from LG, I would be able to do this on my phone:

These are the currently supported phones:

I am a happy campier with Verizon. Even though their customer service has been horrible, the features are rocking!

Note, this service only comes the Home Media DVR package, which just became available a week or two ago for me at my home. Yea, it wasn't available originally, and the December rumors turned out to be true or in this case, early.

Check out Verizon's Remote DVR features for more details. This is too cool. I know TiVOs have this feature, but this is part of the bundle for me.

Posted at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (0)

The Rockland Journal News reports that the Town of Ramapo is the safest community in the United States for 2008-09, according to the FBI crime statistics. It is a bit ironic, being that my wife is from St. Louis, which was rated the most dangerous city in 2006. Now, St Louis is 4 places safer than the most dangerous city, scoring a 355.01, pretty sad.

Here is a PDF file of the 2008 City Crime Rate Rankings. Notice, Ramapo, yes, where I live, scored the best with a -89.18. New Orleans, unfortunately scored the worst with 441.40. You can read about the scoring methodology in this PDF document.

Ramapo is part of Rockland County, it is the southwest corner. Suffern, my office, is in Ramapo, bordering New Jersey.

Keep safe!

Posted at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Last night I have a voicemail on my home phone from the water company, United Water.

They said I have not paid my water bill and will be shutting off my water. It is kind of funny, over the weekend, I told my wife that I find it interesting that we never received a water bill since moving in. I then forgot about it and did not call them to find out what is going on.

This morning I called and told them, I received a phone call that I did not pay my bill. They asked from my address and city. I gave it to them and the woman said, your city is not X it is either A, B or C. I said no, it is X. So she finally found my city under A and I said, that is why I never got a bill, I live in X not A. Following me? ;-)

She then asked me, "Did you ever call the post office about this?" I said about what? She replied, "well, they never sent us the bill back, we never got it sent back to us." I replied, how am I supposed to know to call the post office for something I never saw? I cannot explain why they didn't mail you the bill back - you may want to call them about that.

In any event, after a stupid argument, I said - forget the post office. How do I pay up my bill now and how can I make sure you change my city from A to X? She then took my credit card down, I am sure I paid crazy late fees and service charges. And then she promised she changed my city.

A straight forward call did not have to be so aggravating. I mean, how do I control what the US post office does or does not do?

Posted at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

This Sunday I decided to replace all the air filters throughout the house. The A/C guys told me to do it monthly or when you can no longer see the "blue" in the color. So I waited a few months and changed them this weekend. I have a new house, and the A/C is pretty new also, they put in about 4 of these air filters throughout the house.

So I went to the local hardware shop, same place I bought the foam sealant and told the guy there, I need air filters. I told him, I had the blue ones and asked him why are there so many different types. He said, funny I ask, cause he was watching one of those "do it yourself" shows on TV and the guy said, if you can see through the filter, then don't buy it. The blue ones, you can see through. Here is a very nice picture of what a clean blue filter looks like:

If you hold it facing you, typically you can see through it. Most of the filters I replaced, 3 of 4, were fairly clean. The one in my bedroom was completely dusty and filled with stuff.

I purchased something more like these:

They are white, pleated and you can't really see through them.

In order to write this up, I decided to check out EPA's Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home. The guide basically recommends anything above "MERV" 7 or so. I know the ones I ordered online for my bedroom are MERV 7. My bedroom is a weird size and non of the local stores had the size in. EPA said, "filters with a MERV between 7 and 13 are likely to be nearly as effective as true HEPA filters."

So, I guess, MERV 7 or up is the way to go. Depending on which one you get, it says how often you should change them. Most people let the filters go through the summer and change them annually. I think that is what I will be doing.

Posted at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

When the guys installed FiOS in my house, they left these quarter size holes in the outside of my house. I didn't want to allow bugs or water in to the home, so I bought foam sealant.

I picked up a bottle of DAPtex Latex Multi-Purpose Insulating Foam Sealant from a local (small) hardware store. I actually felt bad, so I decided to not go to Home Depot and went small.

When I got home, I had some fun and filled up two small holes with this sealant. Here is a video from a guy on how it works:

Too much fun! Sad, huh?

Posted at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Yesterday I called Verizon because I had major problems with the bill I got for my new FiOS Triple Play set up. They fixed most of the billing issues, so all is good. But the woman did tell me, when I mentioned the issue with the Verzion FiOS Multi-Room DVR Does Not Work With HD Boxes.

The woman told me that they have a tentative schedule to get the multi room DVR boxes working with HD TVs as early as December. I said, cool! But she said again, it is "tentative," and we cannot guarantee it. I said, cool!

Posted at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (1)

So, as you know, Verizon FiOS installed TV and phone in my home today, to compliment the Internet I had with them. When the tech came to install, the first thing he said was that I ordered the Multi-Room DVR, but I have all HD TVs. He said, the HD boxes do not work with the Multi-Room DVR and gave me a face, like - its stupid that they don't, but they don't, so don't ask me why.

At that point, I said, fine, install for me a single, normal HD DVR and give me a normal HD box for the other TV.

The sales rep knew this, but sold me the wrong one. I was convinced that it would be an HD option, heck - who has non-HD TVs anymore (kidding).

So after careful research today, the DVR page (which I linked to above), has this disclaimer in small, gray font (kind of like fake-non-hidden links):

Multi-room features are supported on the Multi-Room DVRs and Standard Definition Model 2500 Set Top Boxes

So, you order one Multi-Room DVR and then you need the Standard def boxes to go with it. The HD boxes will not work with the Multi-Room DVR. Confusing? Yes.

I think it will just be a matter of time until Verizon gets their hands on an HD box that works with the Multi-Room DVR feature, until then, I am where I was with Cable.

Hopefully this helps out someone else, who is looking into this option.

Posted at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (9)

So Verizon installed today, all went pretty smoothly. So after the install, I had to call Cable Vision and Vonage to make sure my services would be disconnected.

I called Vonage, and after a really long time I got someone on the phone. That person took all my information down and then had to get a manager to process the disconnect.

When that person came on, they told me I would be charged a cancellation fee. It came out to just under $100. After arguing a bit, I said, fine - charge me.

So how can you save 50% on your Vonage? Easy. She offered me the same plan and service for $14.95, as opposed to the $29.95 I was paying.

So call Vonage, ask for disconnect, and then tell them, you scheduled Verizon or your cable company to install the triple play or whatever. They will argue with you and then give you a better price.

So call now and save $15 a month, this way I feel that my $100 disconnect wasn't completely wasted.

When I called CableVision, they didn't give me an issue or charge me a fee. They asked why? I told them, "I wanted to be fair and give the other guys a shot." The rep laughed and said okay.

Posted at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Saturday morning, I woke up, not feeling too well. Just felt very weak.

I brushed it off, went to Synagogue and came back home at about 11ish. I rested for about an hour, and then we walked about half a mile to a friend for lunch. I continued to feel weak and tired, but I hung in there throughout the four-plus hour meal. It was a very enjoyable meal, I might add, food was good, convo was good, etc. I just wasn't my lively self, and if you know me, then you can imagine how dead I acted (cause I am never too lively).

In any event, when I got home, after 5pm or so. I crashed. I woke up at about 7ish, thanks to my alarm clock wife and decided to not go back to synagogue. I decided to rest through out the night.

The next day, I was feeling better, but I wanted to make sure, so I only went to work for about 30 minutes and then stayed home the rest of the day. I rested a lot yesterday.

Today, I feel so much better. I have no idea what it was. My wife feels it is exhaustion. I get this like every other month or so. I just get sick for about 24 hours and then after sleeping it off, I feel better. I typically get sick over the weekends, with this. I rarely feel this way during the normal business week. Think that is just a coincidence or there is something more to it?

Posted at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

About 30 minutes before Shabbos started this Friday, I heard a knock on the door. I answered the door to see a young guy and woman in Verizon FiOS shirts. They asked me if I want to switch to FiOS. I said yes.

Remember when I had the dilemma of FiOS vs Optimum when moving to my new house? Then, the only FiOS service available was Internet. TV was not available and Verizon told me that they were not able to switch my phone number. So my decision was to go with super Internet speeds of FiOS Internet, also went with Optimum for TV and Vonage for phone.

So when Verizon came to my door, my first question, after knowing that they know can do TV was.... Can you switch my phone number? They plugged it into the system and said yes. So I said, switch me over. I have no patience for sales calls but door-to-door salesmen, heck - I was sold. In fact, I was planning on calling Verizon to do the switch anyway. Them coming to my door and signing me up, well - possibly saved me time and cost.

Any downsides to the switch? I may miss the Game Channel, which I rarely watch anyway - but I do enjoy when I do watch. With Vonage, my phone was not listed and I was also able to take my phone with me, not that I ever did that. Also, Vonage sent me voicemails via email (not that the voicemails are for me) and maybe Verizon does that also. I did have a FiOS outage in the past, which caused my Internet to go out for about 24 hours. I do have backups. I hear CableVision (Optimum) has better support. But also, with Verizon, I will have a real landline, not a VOIP line, so when the power goes out, I should have phone (yes, I do have a cell phone anyway).

One cool feature Verizon FiOS TV has is the media manager. A DVR that is basically a network DVR. One DVR for all your TVs. So I ordered that. Now, if I am watching something downstairs and my wife kicks me out, I can pause it, and watch it upstairs.

My Internet should be untouched, which is nice. I rather not mess with that, if possible.

In any event, I made the switch and I am excited for the install date.

Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey , Shopping | Comments (5)

Remember all my A/C issues? If not, here they are in order of most recent:

• Vacuum Out Freon For Air Conditioner
• Level Them Freon
• Losing Trust in One of My Air Conditioners
• Sleeping on the Sofa : Air Conditioning Broke

This Saturday, we had family over for a big lunch. Lunch was in the dining room. The dining room and living room have their own A/C unit. That A/C unit stopped working sometime Saturday morning. So by the time we were all eating in the dining room level, it was a warm 79 degrees in that immediate area.

So I called the A/C people back to fix the issue. Did I tell you that the Wednesday before, that same unit had an issue? So they came to level the freon on that unit. So Saturday it failed again. They finally came back last night. They decided to vacuum out the freon and start fresh, like they did with the upstairs unit. So they did that last night and now it is working again.

So far, the upstairs unit has been working since they vacuumed out the freon on July 1st. It is now about a month later and it has not failed since. I still do not have faith in the A/C working, the question is, will I ever.

In any event, I hope this unit continues to work. As you can imagine, this unit failing was not as bad as the upstairs one. Why? Cause I sleeping in really hot heat is not fun. What I don't understand is how did people do this before there was AC? We are so spoiled!

Posted at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

At about 8:20pm, my wife calls me on my cell to tell me we have tons of spiders in our bedroom. So, I leave what I am doing and drive right home. I find dozens and dozens of baby spiders crawling on the north-west corner of our bedroom ceiling. We start killing them one by one with a swiffer and tissues. But it is taking too long.

I then break out my bug spray and start spraying them. They seem to be dying on contact. So I continue my defense by spraying every small spider I see. To make sure, I spray one and then watch it die slowly. The spray is working, so I continue my onslaught. Spider down, spider down, spider down. I then get defensive and start spraying the area the spiders may have come from and where they may be going. I spray around the AC vents, the light fixtures, the air filter and motion detector. I spray the windows, frames, floors, under the bed, on the walls, every corner and so on.

I then decide to see if I can find a source of the issue. I decide to venture up into the main attic. I climb up with a flash light and bug killer spray. Half of the attic is well lit up from the single bulb. The area I need to go into and investigate is very dark. I manage to climb and balance my way into the area and I look around. Keep in mind, it is about 100 degrees up there. I can't find anything. In fact, it looks spotless up there. Everything seems incredibly clean and tidy. So I decide to spray where I would imagine the source came from, but I cannot verify if that was the source.

I come down from the attic 15 minutes later, dripping with sweat. I give my wife the report and then look around more. We kill a few more spiders, change our sheets (to be safe) and I then spray a bit more, as a pre-caution.

This is all after a really long day. It was kind fun to explore the attic at that level of detail. But next time, I hope to go into the attic during the cold winter months. :)

On a related note, see the 80 or so comments at my Scoleciphobia : Fear Of Worms blog post - some of them are hysterical!

Posted at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (5)

My air conditioner sagas continue. I know many of you are sick of hearing about it, but I am documenting this stuff in my "web log" so I have it on record and I can reference back to it when I need to.

On Sunday, the upstairs A/C stopped cooling the upstairs level again. It reached 79.5 degrees in my bedroom that night, thankfully we have a ceiling fan (thanks Mom & Dad).

The AC guys came back Monday morning. He told me that the last time he came (a week before) the Freon levels were perfect. But today, the levels were out of whack. He said that he wants to totally vacuum out everything from the unit. All Freon, air, dust, moisture, and so on. Then he wants to reset or recharge the compressor (I guess by leveling the new Freon levels).

So he hooked up a machine that looks like the image above to the unit. He let it run pretty much all day. Then at the end of the day, he came back with a crew of people to "recharge" the air conditioning unit. By that time, it was 84 degrees in the upstairs level. At about 6pm, they finished and said it was working. It was one degree less, now at 83. 30 minutes later, down to about 80 degrees, then at about 7pm down to 78. By 9pm or so, it was down to the temperature I set it at, I think 73 degrees. The upstairs level was cooled!

Does it mean that it is was fixed? I hope so, but I am not too confident.

Here is the history:

- Sunday, June 8th, first A/C outage. We had to sleep on the sofa downstairs for a few days, until the guy was able to come and fix it, temporarily, on Wednesday the 11th.

- Thursday, June 12th, it broke again. The guy came back Friday, the 13th, to level the Freon again. It now was working again and lasted for a while.

- Sunday, June 22nd, it broke again. The guy came back the next day to fix it. He leveled the Freon levels again.

- Sunday, June 29th, it broke again. The guy came yesterday, June 30th. This time he said he will vacuum it out, as described above.

Will it last or will it break? I am not confident and I am concern. I would hate to have guests sleep over and it break. That is the worse case scenario.

In terms of money... This should not cost me anything. The units are brand new and are covered.

Too funny, I am just about finishing up this post and the AC guy called me to check in. He said, he wanted to check in and see if it is cooling. I said yes. He said, he doesn't think he will need to come back, but since they did the Freon thing during hot weather, it may need to be leveled again. He said, call him if it is needed. And he apologized again. Wow, that was nice to hear.

So I am not confident in it working for the long haul, but I am confident in the company coming back when/if it breaks.

Posted at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (5)

It all started with me sleeping on the sofa, my A/C unit broke. I had the service guy come three times and I am losing trust in my air conditioner, for obvious reasons.

The first time, I was told that the Freon level was overcharged. Meaning, the fan was on, but the compressor shut off cause it was "over charged". Supposedly, putting too much freon in the air conditioner will overcharge the compressor and it won't cool the house. Having too little freon will cause the compression not to cool the house as well.

So when they came the first time, they adjusted those levels. But they didn't do it 100% correctly. So they came back two days later to re-level the freon. Now, a week and a half later, I had them come back again. This time, the A/C unit worked for them when they came back. He did nothing to the freon levels.

He did say that the Freon levels are "almost perfect" and now that it is working, he doesn't want to change them. If it stops working again, call him and they will come back and adjust the levels slightly to make them 100% perfect. He also suggested that they might move the thermostat - but he doesn't think that is the issue.

So now, I am in wait mode. Wait for it to fail to call them back so they can play with it again. Not 100% happy but it could be worse, a lot worse - I do have it good.

How do they test Freon levels? The picture above from this site shows exactly what the AC guy was doing. The tank hooks up to those pressure gauges, which hooks up to the AC unit, somewhere. The pressure gauges tell you if the levels are proper. Supposedly, it is good to get those levels before every season.

Posted at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

A few weeks ago, I told you how my air conditioner broke. Well, they fixed it and then it broke two days later. They fixed it again and it lasted about a week and a half and then it broke again last night.

I am lucky to have a separate AC unit for the bedroom level. But that is the AC unit that keeps on breaking. This weekend, we had guests sleep over - thankfully the AC unit worked throughout the weekend and pretty much died about 12 hours after they left. But now it is broken and I am losing trust in it.

In fact, I was incredibly worried that the AC wouldn't work for my guests. After the guests left, I thought to myself, "maybe it is fixed for good." Soon after, it stopped working. Did I jinx myself?

The sad thing is, it will take a while for me to be confident in it working.

Posted at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

So I have been in my new house for over seven months now. This week, I noticed that I forgot to remove the piece of paper between the battery and the smoke detectors in the upstairs bedrooms. Yes, with that paper in, the smoke detectors won't work.

You think I am dumb, don't you? Well, I am not.

Two days before we moved into the house, I had an alarm company come and install a full home safety system. Besides for burglary, we have fire, smoke, and carbon detection systems. So, those smoke/fire/carbon detectors are all working and configured. The ones that were not working were the cheap smoke detectors that came with the house.

Honestly, I have such piece of mind leaving my house overnight. Knowing that if there is fire or smoke in the house and the "central station" would automatically be notified, is a relief.

Anyway, I have activated those cheap smoke detectors, as backups.

Posted at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

I was blogging about my Linksys router that died and told you I had two wireless networks in my house. Let me explain.

Verizon FiOS installed their wireless router and modem in my basement. The wireless router's signal is pretty good, but isn't as strong as I would like it upstairs on the bedroom level. The house came pre-wired for Ethernet, so, it wasn't a big deal to set up two wireless networks. One in the basement and one in the upstairs bedroom level. I also have hard-wired ethernet ports (two more) on the main level.

Here is a picture of my home network (clearly this is a crude layout). Bottom floor is basement, middle floor is main level and upper floor is bedroom area. Everything else is clearly labeled.

All my wireless access points are locked down, unlike my neighbors. :)

Posted at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (0)

The past few nights I was forced to sleep on the sofa. It was a first for me, since being married for over two years now. But my wife didn't send me to the sofa, she actually slept with me on the sofa.

Sunday night, the first night of Shavous, one of my A/C units broke down. My parents were spending the holiday at us, it was the first time they pulled an overnighter at our place. Sunday night, we all slept upstairs (well, actually, my father and I spent the night learning in Synagogue). By the morning, it was 79 degrees upstairs. It only got worse. By midday it was in the 80s and it got as high as 91 degrees upstairs. So Monday night, we slept on the main level.

My wife and I slept in the family room, with the light on, by pulling two sofas together. Here is a picture of that.

My parents slept in our dinning room, on two mattresses I brought downstairs for them.

We slept like that from Monday through last night. This morning, the A/C people came to fix the A/C. I believe all it needed was Freon.

Thankfully, the A/C units on the main level worked. If we had one unit, I am not sure what we would have done. I honestly need a good night sleep. I can't wait to go to sleep tonight.

Posted at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

Like you guys care, but part two of getting my kick heater installed was the electrical hook up. The plumber finished and so I called the electrician, he came over two hours later - requiring me to run back home...

He hooked up that white electrical cable through the tile, to a power source in the basement.

Now, I just need to put the shelving back in and clean it all up. The contractor should be doing that Monday or Tuesday!

Posted at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Remember I blogged about "Installing a Twin Flow III K120 Kick Space Heater Under Kitchen Cabinet, well, five months later, we are finally having it really installed. The plumber is at my house now, I had to stay home for this, and he is plugging in the pipping now.

Here is a picture of it being installed:

Notice the two pipes on the right side, here is a different picture:

Next step is to get the electrician to hook up the power for the fans in the front. Then, I get the contractor back to close up the cabinet so we can use it for storage again. This device hides under your kitchen cabinet, why am I so impressed with that?

Posted at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Yesterday, I told you about my Home Depot Saga, in buying a Patio Set. The picture here is a picture of what it will look like when I am 100% done, minus the umbrella.

So last night, I set my goal of putting together the 6 chairs. Each chair had (pauses to count from memory), at least 12 screws, and 12 rubber caps, with additional hardware pieces to make them secure (like 2 bolts per screw, washers, and some metal plates to help it rock back and forth).

Once I did the first chair, the other chairs took about 20 minutes each. I completed four chairs last night and I hope to have time to complete the remaining two chairs tonight. I figure I need an hour in total, 40 minutes to build the chairs and then 20 minutes to clean up everything.

Why do my fingers hurt? The screws are small and after using my fingers to secure 48 screws, and then tightening them with this tiny wrench - was not easy on the fingers. Plus, those rubber caps are not always easy to get on.

Honestly, my fingers did not hurt during the process of putting the chairs together. They hurt now when I type this morning. I guess like being sore from a work out that you are not use to - but with fingers. :-)

Posted at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

My dad taught me how to fish, cause - every man should know how to fish, no?

How about stuff like simple electric work? How about laying tile? How about putting up dry wall? Painting, etc?

I wish I knew the proper way to do electric work. I would love to install a few more electrical outlets in my basement but I rather not bring in an electrician to do the work. I mean, it is a small job and why call someone in to simple install an outlet?

Yea, I know the "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" applies to a lot of things, such as electrical work. At least, I can pay an electrician - thankfully.

But honestly, I may read up on doing electrical work myself. I bet my wife would love that. ;-)

Posted at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

This Sunday afternoon, I spent an hour or two so water sealing my deck.

I first went to home depot and went down the paint/sealer row. I found a sprayer thing so that I can spray the water seal on my deck. Then I picked up two cans of Thompson's WaterSeal® Clear Wood Protector. Why that kind? Well, it was the only one that was obviously clear to me. I didn't want to darken the wood too much, and this packaging conveyed to me that it was a clear waterseal and would not change the color of the wood. So I picked this one over the hundred other options.

I then got home, swept the deck as best I could and built the sprayer. The assembly instructions for the sprayer would just so bad. So I put them aside and assembled it by eye. Thankfully, it worked. I then filled up the tank and sprayed the deck.

I have a small amount of sealer left. So I bought the right amount - which was good. I did measure the deck in square feet before leaving, but I wasn't in the mood to spend time figuring out exactly how much solution I needed. So I guessed two would be enough. I got lucky and I used 1 and 3/4ths. I actually need the rest to finish off some of the railings next sunday, so it worked out well.

Posted at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Outside of a screw driver and standard wrench, one of the tools I use incredibly often are hex wrenches. I needed a single hex wrench about a year or two ago, but I wasn't sure what size I needed. So I went to Home Depot and bought a 13 piece set and I am so happy I did. I use it for a ton of things, but mostly for tightening the screws on furniture, chairs and other misc items throughout the house and office.

Here is a picture of it:

The thing on the right is an arm that can be attached so you have more of a grip on tightening screws, if necessary. Here is a taller image, so you can see what I mean. You basically pick the hex wrench, pull out that arm thing and plug the hex wrench into it. Works well...

Posted at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Spring came and now the grass is growing... Since I moved, and owned a lawn, I had to cut my grass maybe twice. But now that the warm weather is approaching quickly, I will hopefully have a full season of grass cutting ahead of me.

Thing is, my lawn is still trying to grow grass. The house we moved into was fairly new construction and the lawn was mostly mud. We do have grass, it is just not plush green grass - not yet. I hired a landscaper, not sure what his plan is, but I don't plan on having green grass for a while. I just want the grass and lawn kept clean, so I don't get on my neighbors bad side. :)

Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

TechCrunch had a piece on new mashup by HotPads.com. It basically shows you the foreclosure rates per capita in any area they have data on.

Of course, being a nosey neighbor, I want to see how bad it is in my area. Yes, it makes a huge difference on the value of your own homes. Plus, I don't want to see a lot of red, cause it may be people I know.

The legend, I posted at the top right of this post shows you the heat maps grades of low to high rates of foreclosure. I can tell you, my home is in the yellow area, with no immediate homes foreclosing, at least, based on this chart. I do see blocks that I know people live on, with homes up for foreclosure - which upsets me. Here is a screen cap of that map:

As you can see, it looks like a scary picture...

Let's zoom out to the Tri-State New York area:

Doesn't look all the great. How about a wide view of America?

Posted at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Yesterday, I installed a ceiling fan in my bedroom. I am preparing for the summer months. I am told a ceiling fan can save big bucks. I.e. I won't have to leave the A/C on all the time, cause the fan should be enough to cool us most of the time.

In any event, with the immense help of my brother, I installed a ceiling fan yesterday. I assembled the fans to the motor. Then came the hard part, the wiring. I removed the current fixture from the ceiling and straitened out the wires.

I then installed the mounting unit in place of the hold fixture. Next step was to place the fan in the fixture. My bedroom ceilings are pretty high, and my ladder wasn't incredibly tall, so it wasn't easy. But I managed to secure the fan on the fixture without falling off the ladder.

After that, we realized we missed a piece, so we had to do the process again.

Once I got it up, I had my brother do the electrical connections. He is really good at that. Then we closed up the loose ends, put the power back on and gave it a test.

First try it worked!

Need help installing your ceiling fan? Check out do it yourself for a walk through.

Posted at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

Yesterday, my brother helped me install a new external light fixture over my garage. Besides for freezing our hands off (man it was cold in the morning), we successfully put it up in place of the old light fixture.

I purchased a RAB fixture that is designed to only turn on when it gets dark outside. The fixture is supposedly very power efficient, as well as very illuminate. It is made for the out doors and good in wet areas.

In the past, I used this cheap fixture that held two normal bulbs. The bulbs frequently blew out, I think cause of being exposed to moisture and the bad, cold weather.

I left them on for a good 25 hours or so every Friday night through Saturday night. Why? Cause I am not allowed to turn on or off lights during the Sabbath. Also, having a motion detector is an issue as well, because when I walk up to the house, my walking will trigger the light to go on (this is a common issue in Jewish law for the Sabbath, it gets more complicated and I won't go into it). The best solution, I could come up with, is a light that goes on at night, by itself. That was this light.

So as a test, I checked it out last night. If you are looking for a light like this, let me warn you that it gives off a very yellow light. Much like street lamps. So if you want a more 'white' light, then this isn't for you. But if you don't care, this seems like a great solution. It lights up a huge area, here is a diagram:

I have the 70 watt version and I think I mounted it either 10 feet or maybe 12 feet high, not sure right now. So it does a good job lighting up the drive way. During the rest of the week, I will keep the light off (I have an override switch), but Friday night through Saturday night, it will stay on - but it will turn off automatically during day light hours (unlike my previous light).

For the front door lights, I purchased attachments for standard bulbs, that detect the night and turn off the lights X hours after it gets dark. I found them for really cheap on ThingFling.com a week or two ago. I get them today, I wonder if they turn back on when it gets dark again...

Posted at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

I decided to groom myself this weekend and get a hair cut and shave. Look how different I look now:

Yes, I know 52% of you wanted me to grow a beard. I can always do it later, it was just time for me to shave and while I was at it, I got a hair cut.

To see what I looked like on Friday, check out my video.

Posted at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

Honestly, I likely won't but should I? I am fairly lazy about my appearance on a daily basis. I am not lazy overall, I work hard, but when it comes to appearance, I am lazy.

The picture of me here is from when I didn't shave in a few weeks. Yea, no haircut for a while also. I bet my wife will kill me later for posting it...

So, what you think? Go for a beard?

Take the poll.

Posted at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (6)

This hits real close to home. The elementary school I went to named ASHAR, which has been educating the community since 1954, was partially destroyed this morning.

Fire guts auditorium at Schreiber Hebrew Academy in Monsey; Torahs saved from The Journal News has pictures and details. The fire destroyed the huge auditorium and lunchroom. It appears that part of the synagogue was destroyed but they were able to save the Torahs. I also hear from friends that the gym is okay but slightly damaged. Looking at the pictures, it seems the fire started behind the stage area, and then grew.

I play basketball at the school about twice a week I have four nephews who go there. In addition, my brother is probably sending his daughter there next year. All my sibling went to ASHAR, most my friends, and even some of my parents friends went there. There is a lot of history.

The classrooms were not touched by the fire, which is a huge relief. But the school was closed today because of the situation.

Reportedly, a car passing by reported the fire to the police at 3:11 a.m. There is no word yet if it was an arson or just an accidental fire. I know ASHAR has plans to move the school to a new location in the next five years.

The good news - no one was hurt, the torahs were saved and the class rooms were not damaged.

Update: The Journal News now has a video that shows more of the damage. It seems like a lot of the synagogue was also damaged. Notice the interview with the current school principle. I should drive by and see it for myself.

Update 2: It has now been confirmed that it was not arson, as I thought above.

Posted at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Ah, the front door. I rarely ever use my front door, rarely. But yet it is there. There for people to knock on, leave packages at, show people out, and to peak through the peephole.

Why am I writing about a front door? Besides for being extremely tired, I am 100% not bored. I had to work up a blog post that brought in some event from my weekend. We had my sister-in-laws, brother-in-law and two nieces over for Shabbos. My brother-in-law said I need to blog about one particular event from the Shabbos. Thing is, I can't get too personal with these posts, so I decided to talk about a front door.

Front door? What does a front door have to do with family? Good question!

Walking back from evening prayers Friday night, I began to walk through the garage door, which has a "shabbos lock." My brother-in-law asked, why don't I use the front door. I said, this way I don't have to bother anyone to answer the door. I just walk in through the garage. So, to make him happy, we went through the front door that time. But I rarely ever use that door.

I know a lot of people that don't use their front doors. I also know a lot of people that do. What type of person are you? Are you a front door type or not?

Posted at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (6)

There are virtually no heaters in the main kitchen area, except for the kitchen table. So I called the builder of my house and he had his plumber stop by. He recommended we install a kick heater to get more heat into the main kitchen.

After waiting and waiting - they finally delivered the kick heater - which will be installed by the builder eventually.

The reason I am writing this, was because it was hard for me to find or research what I needed to have installed by just searching in the search engines. So I thought I would write something that may help other's in my situation.

The builder purchased a Twin Flow III K120 Kick Space Heater from Beacon Morris.

It is used to go under kitchen cabinets, when you have no wall space to put a baseboard heater. That was the case in our kitchen, since it is walled with kitchen cabinets. They will be cutting out a space under one of our cabinets, to install this to our hot water heater boiler. When the heat is on, via the thermostats, a fan gently blows heated air into the room.

On really really cold days, like below freezing, the kitchen doesn't heat up to the temperature set on the thermostat. This kick heater should help it reach the desired heat, and make me feel like I am not burning threw money with the heat on non-stop.

Hope it gets installed asap!

Posted at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

About two months ago I reported that my phone lines were fried. What that meant was that my internal phone line wiring stopped working. So all I did was connect the Vonage line to my wireless phone receiver terminal and let it broadcast to three other phone receptors throughout the house.

It meant I was limited to three phones. For now, that was fine but in the future, I am sure I would want more.

So I called the guy who would fix it to come by today. Before he came, I decided to give the phone lines an other try. Guess what, all of a sudden, it worked! No idea why or how. It was dead for weeks and now it works.

My theory is that a wire sticking outside my house got wet. Then it dried and now it works. The wire, I guess is the wire that Verizon would use to hook up my phone service. Since I use Vonage, the wire remained unconnected and loose outside.

So last night, I put a wire cap on it and wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. This way it hopefully doesn't get wet again and possibly fry my telephone lines again.

So now I got a fourth phone and I can add dozens more!

Posted at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

I broke down and hired a landscaper. I tried to figure if I would buy a mower and a leaf blower - would it be more cost effective. But It would still eat up way too many of my hours each month if I did it myself. Would it be more cost effective for me to hire someone else, a professional to deal with the lawn? For now, that is what I picked. If things change, I can always revert back.

Right now, I got tons and tons of leaves everywhere and it looks bad. I was planning on raking them myself before the big snow storm but after the snow fell, there was no way I was able to do anything about it. It has been warm recently and the snow is almost all gone and the leaves look like a mess.

So Sunday, I called a landscaper and he is signed up to mow my lawn in the warm months and do my leaves, if the weather holds up for him to do it.

Posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Weather | Comments (1)

It has been almost three months since we moved into our new house and the winter months are now upon us. That means, huge gas bills for heating the house. I have been worried about keeping my heating costs down since moving into the house. Looking at the results, the numbers are all over the place in terms of what temperature people leave their heat on. 21% said 72º F or more, 19% said 65º F or less, 18% said 68º F, 10% said 67º F, 10% said 69º F, 10% said 70º F, 7% said 66º F, 4% said 71º F. I have been aiming at 69º F.

To be more efficient and cost efficient, I just bought programmable thermostats. They let me set schedules for each day of the week. So I can set them to turn at 69 or down to 63 each day, four times a day. I make sure to turn the heat up an hour or so before my wife and I get home and then I make sure to lower it when we are not there. This way, if we forget to lower them manually, it is done automatically. Shabbos, a day I can't adjust the heat, I set on different schedules to automatically lower the heat and increase the heat during the times were are in the various heat zones.

I hope this investment of a hundred or so dollars on thermostats returns a positive ROI in just this winter. I opted for the Ritetemp brand simply because I had to buy five and Honeywell is way more expensive. My A/C units and alarm system are on Honeywell, but I went cheaper with the heat. The Ritetemps are guaranteed and come with a 5 year warranty. I actually feel like I am saving money right now...

Installation was fairly easy. Just two wires and four screws and two AAA batteries and it was working. Then I just programmed it and we are now set.

Posted at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (9)

We had a snow storm (wasn't bad) this past Sunday. But the snow was very wet and then froze over at night. It wasn't one of those light snows, it was a rainy snow, which is heavy.

So I got the plow guy to do the drive way but he didn't do the walk way. I was going to do the walk way that day, but I ran out of time. Then over night, the walk way turned into ice. I need an ice pick or blow torch to loosen the ice off. One day, I guess. Good thing we don't use the front door, the garage is our main mode of entry and exit from the house.

Sunday night, I took out the garbage, to be picked up Monday morning. Ever since then, I cannot find the top of that garbage can. Typically, they take the top off and throw it on the grass. When I come home I put it back together. What must have happened was they threw it on my grass, which is all ice. It must have blown away and slid to one of my neighbors properties. From there, who knows where it is? Upsetting, I need the top!

That is how I lost my garbage top in this ice capade.

Posted at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Weather | Comments (3)

>Last night, I came home, hoping to eat something, shower and go into bed with my laptop - since I am a bit under the weather. But when I got home, the Internet wasn't working. My first Verizon FiOS internet outage!!!

So I did the normal things. Reset the router, since the Verizon router didn't show an Internet green light, I assumed it was at least at that point. Restarting didn't work. So I looked at the FiOS box, it looks something like the image at the top right of this post, but mine is a bit different. I had green lights for power and backup, but the next light was red and read "FAIL."

So I called Verizon support and to make a long story (which was fairly short), short. They said they would send someone out to me. That person came at about 11:45am today. I met him at the house, showed him the box and he did a few things. He then determined it was with the wiring. He went outside (my FiOS box is mounted inside) and followed the FiOS cables to the junction box on the telephone poll. He messed around with that box and then I saw the lights all turn green on the FiOS box.

I tested the Internet on my iPhone and we were a go.

That was my first outage.

Posted at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

Yesterday, I was home sick. Sunday night, I was up from about 11:30 until 4:30, in the bathroom - returning what I ate for dinner that night.

Honestly, I don't remember every throwing up that much in on day. As you can image, not sleeping, not having any food in my body and not being able to eat - really tired me out. I did some blogging between 7am and 9am, took a nap and then got back to working from my bed after noon time.

This morning, I am stable. I feel like I lost 50lbs yesterday. I am very weak, but I am able to sit and type. I have an in-person meeting in a couple hours, a meeting I had to cancel yesterday.

Glad I was able to get to work today.

Posted at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

I don't know how I hung up large pictures before I got myself a Accu Mark Gecko Grip Level made by Black & Decker from Home Depot. This weekend, I saw it at home depot and picked it up. I then went home and hung up a large mirror in my entry way.

First I measured the hanging holes on the back of the mirror as illustrated in this picture:

Then I put the leveler at the preferred height and made sure it was level. I then measured to make sure it was centered in the wall. After that, I drew lines in the holes provided in the leveler, as shown here:

Then I screwed in the screws and anchors into the wall and hung it up.

I don't know how I managed to do this before I got this leveler. This could have saved me a lot of time. No more separate rulers, no more making mistakes, etc.

Posted at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (6)

This Sunday morning marked the first time it snowed this season, plus the first snow fall in our new house. I actually shoveled the drive way and did not hire a plow to do it for me. I wonder how long that will last.

Here is a picture of the snow in my back yard:

It may have turned out to be a few inches by the end of the day. Nothing major but with all first snow of the season, the weather channels play it up.

But how about timing....

I got my new car a week ago today and within a week, we get our first snow. So how did it drive? It drove great. I did not slip, skid or get stuck. It drove. So no complaints are what I was looking for. I have no story to tell - which is good but bad for the blog.

Overall, good timing...

Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Motor Vehicle , Weather | Comments (1)

I bought my PS3 about 10 months ago. I used it maybe a couple dozen times. It was a bad bad investment, stupid purchase and in hindsight - I would not have purchased it.

But now that I have it and reselling it on eBay doesn't look good with them lowering the price for this holiday season, I had to make a decision.

I decided to recycle the gift for Chanukah. I will give it to my four nephews for them to use. They already have XBox, which I bought for them years ago. But I guess a PS3 isn't bad to have with the XBox.

So now, they will have both.

If I ever get the urge to use the PS3 or even XBox, I am just around the corner from them. So I will stop by and play. :)

Happy Chanukah!

Posted at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (4)

Yesterday, I had a bunch of house chores to do. So when I got home from work in the late morning, I got to it.

First I cleaned out my car so I can easily turn it in today. Then I swept out the garage, the first time since buying the house. Then I tried to rake the leaves...

I decided to start with the driveway area. About a half an hour later, and half the driveway later, I noticed I wasn't getting too far. Looking at what remained, about 6/10ths of an acre, I decided to call it quits. It would take me days to finish the whole yard. So I finished most of the drive way and put the rake down.

I then turned off the water to the outside hoses, so it doesn't freeze.

That was about it for my chores. I may hire someone to do the leaves or I might just leave it as is. Still need to decide on that.

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Weather | Comments (5)

Yesterday I was sick. I actually tried to come into the office yesterday morning. I drove in at about 6:30am, did a file upload and then drove back home.

I spent the morning in bed on the computer going through forum threads to have Tamar write about at the Search Engine Roundtable and my RSS feeds for Greg and Danny to write about at Search Engine Land.

I took a nap in the middle of the day, a much needed one. But throughout the day I spent time watching the GamePlay HD channel and the Kong Fu HD channel.

GamePlay is pretty cool. You watch professional gamers go at it on your TV. It is like watching sports but only watching virtual people play against each other. So I guess it is virtually being at a virtual game, kind of nuts. It was interesting to watch, to say the least. The Kong Fu HD channel, well - it is Kong Fu, which guy doesn't like Kong Fu?

Today, I am feeling a lot better. I am being careful with what I eat...

Also, the comments may not work. We have 67.19.244.2 trying to spam the hell out of it.

Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

My wife called me when I was at the IM NY thing last night on her cell phone to tell me the phone lines are out.

I tried to walk her through rebooting the thing but I failed. So when I got home at about 11, I rebooted it myself. I did the standard run down...

(1) Make sure phone line is plugged in securely on both ends
(2) Make sure RJ-45 is plugged in securely on both ends
(3) Reboot router
(4) Reboot Vonage box

I still got dead air, no dial tone.

So I plugged a phone directly into the Vonage box and it worked. There I learned my phone lines were fried.

How? I have no idea... It has been like that for a month. I did not change anything for a month. Then all of a sudden, last night, they stopped working.

So in the meantime, I hooked up the vonage box to a phone station which has three wireless hand sets. It will work fine for now.

I am just really bummed about wasting time on it last night and the lines being fried.

Posted at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Orthodox Jews do not turn on or off lights on Sabbath (Friday night through Saturday night). That is why you never see me blog or online Friday night through Saturday nights.

Due to that law, many prefer to set timers for certain things like lights. I just installed Intermatic Wall Timers in the family room and kitchen eating area. My brother stopped by to drop something off, so I did one of the timers with him, to confirm I was doing it right. This wall timer is actually awesome.

Besides for it being flush against the wall and not sticking out, it has tons of features. The most useful part is the push button to turn on and off the light during normal usage. It has seven on and off settings, which are programmable by day and time. It has a "random feature," which can be set to give your house a lived in feel. It also has a sunrise and sunset feature.

I set it to turn on and off for Shabbos usage times. This way I do not have to leave all the lights on in those rooms for 25 hours or so.

Yes, gas and electric are not cheap.

Posted at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Religion | Comments (2)

The other day I asked Do Light Bulb Changers Work?

Well, they do. I went to Home Depot Sunday and picked up the Bayco Light Bulb Changer Kit, which was on sale for $19.

I attached the piece you see on the left of the image to the pole. I inserted an energy efficient light bulb in the gripper and lifted it to the base. I then pushed it in, screwed the bulb and noticed it turned on. I did not want to get electrocuted, so I tried to reach the switch to turn it off while holding the pole.

It did not work, so I tried letting the pole hang from the bulb while I run to the switch and turn it off. I tried that and the pole fell, but I caught the pole before it hit the floor. I then switched off the light, which I thought was off originally, and tighten the bulb.

It worked well.

What was the difference? It came with a smaller gripper that held the bulb in place. I did not have to use the suction piece, which simply did not work.

We now have light!

Posted at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

The worst bulb in the house went out the other day. It is the bulb in the entry way, which requires a really long ladder or a really long pole to change the bulb (maybe about 20 feet high, maybe much more (I really don't know).

In any event, I saw this Microfiber Hi-Reach Cleaning Kit from Bed Bath was on sale, it included a light bulb changer. So I picked it up last night and gave it a try.

I put the thing together and tried out a few of the pieces it came with. I then went with the suction cup end to change the bulb. I extended the pole as far as it goes and then had to walk up most of the stairs to reach. As I began trying to unscrew the bulb, I had this fear that it would not stick.

I had my wife grab a box, one of the hundred we used to move, and place it under the bulb. Soon after, I was able to get the bulb out, but as I lowered the poll, the light bulb came loose of the suction cup and fell to the floor.

CRASH!!!

It landed in the box, the light bulb actually did not shatter. It would have, if the box was not there.

Next, I tried putting up the new bulb. I got the new bulb to suction to the pole, but ever few seconds it would fall off. So I tried using some of the other pices, those did not work out too well. So I came back to the suction, got it to stick for a while. As I started lifting the bulb to the fixture, I got nervous again. So my wife put the box back.

I got the bulb to reach the hole to screw it in. As I turned, I lost the suction on the bulb. I waited, tried to reposition, but I knew I had no chance. The bulb would fall. I tried to push the bulb in and continue turning, but I failed.

The bulb came crashing down to the floor. Bingo! It hit the box again, and the bulb survived.

I then decided to give up and put it away. Who knew changing a light bulb can take up so much time!

My question, is this worth trying again? Do I need a different tool?

Update: See my new post, Light Bulb Changers Do Work: We Have Light!

Posted at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (8)

So the winter has finally arrived, with it being 39 degrees here in Suffern, NY.

I have been asking people in the community what they set their heat at. Most were proud to give answers such as, no higher than 68, 69, etc. But one person shocked me by saying a crisp 65 degrees. Why? Heat and electric can cost several hundred per month.

Every house has its own temperature. It depends on how well insulated the house is, how big it is, the type of windows, siding, etc. So each house needs to find their own comfort level. My question to you, and I have provided a poll below to find out your answer, what do you set your heat at in the winter months?

Posted at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Weather | Comments (4)

Last night I reorganized the devices I want to have on a battery backup, just in case the power goes out.

I placed low cost battery backups in a couple strategic locations throughout the house. I then made sure the following items still have power, even if the power goes out.

1. FiOs wireless router
2. Vonage box
3. Upstairs WiFi router
4. My alarm clock

So this way, if the power goes out I still have Internet access for a little while. Plus, I still have phone access for a little while (until the Internet goes out or the Vonage box goes out). Oh, and if the power goes out in the middle of the night, I hope my alarm clock still goes off.

Site note: Buy.com has a great deal on a battery back up... It goes as low as $28 if you buy it under a brand new Google account with Google Checkout, after rebates... Here is my aff link:

Posted at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (0)

Last night my wife picked up a light fixture to go over the new mirrors that were installed in the house.

By the time I got home it was dark. But I don't like to wait on things, as you can tell by my blogging habits.

So I convinced my wife to stand with a flash light so I can install the fixture. Here are the steps I took:

(1) Shut off power the fixture at the fuse box
(2) Read instructions
(3) Took off existing light bulb fixture
(4) Tied new wires to the light source
(5) Attached plate to wall
(6) Took off plate from wall after realizing I forgot to attach "mounting screws"
(7) Attached mounting screws and reattached plate to wall
(8) Grounded electrical to grounding source, attached wiring to light fixture
(9) Removed grounding, removed wiring, detached plate from wall after noticing the screws I used were too long

RANT: Why didn't they say use the shorter screws? Why in the picture are the mounting screws longer than the non-mounting screws? Why are the mounting screws given three different names in the directions.

RANT OFF

(10) Put on new mounting screws
(11) Attached plate to wall bracket
(12) Grounded electrical to grounding source, attached wiring to light fixture
(13) Attache fixed to mounting screws
(14) Capped off mounting screws
(15) Put in test light bulb and turned on lights
(16) Turned on power in fuse and it worked
(17) Installed light covers
(18) Screwed in light bulbs (energy efficient ones)
(19) Leveled the fixture

Then ran off to play basketball. It made me 15 minutes late.

Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

I was kind of hoping that I wouldn't have to cut my grass until next season. But it looks like the prolonged summer is making the grass grow even at the end of October.

Thing is, the length of my grass doesn't only impact me, it also impacts my neighbors. Being new to the neighborhood, I don't want people to think I am a slob. And I have a feeling, people who see homes with long, unkempt grass, might get that impression.

So for the good of the neighborhood and to not have to walk with my head down in front of my neighbors, I know what I must do.

I must cut the grass.

Oh, then comes getting rid of the leaves.

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (6)

Yesterday afternoon, the shower door and mirror guys came to install shower doors and mirrors in the bathrooms. I have to say, I was disappointed with the service. Besides for them not listening to my wife's requests and chipping a mirror, see the picture below --- it gets worse.

One of the installers come down and ask to speak to me. I say, "how is it going". He taps on his note pad and says, "its time you pay". I ask him, "are you done?" He said "no." So I said, "why should I pay?" I add, "I already gave a 50% deposit three weeks ago." He said, "Well, most of it is done." I replied, "I am not paying until it is all done."

Those things really make me upset. I wasn't mad, I was just really disappointed and embarrassed for him. It is just not right to ask for payment, when:

(1) I gave 50% already
(2) The work is not done
(3) The mirror is chipped
(4) And the manner he asked for the money

We called the owner today to show him the problem with the mirror. He said he will replace it. Who knows how long it will take.

Now, let me take you back a bit. Remember the The Invisible Shower Door where I told you this company said they already installed my shower doors? See why I am even more upset and not trusting?

This is one problem I had so far with the work that needed to be done on the house. I have been very fortunate.

Posted at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

So yesterday, I spent some time putting up shades in the house.

Since I spent a heck of a lot of money on the house, I thought we go cheap in certain areas, such as drapery and shades. I actually have a client with the domain Drape.com, not bad... Anyway...

I went with Redi Shades. They are paper shades and can easily be put up.

You can buy them at the Home Depot for about $4 or $5. I got two kinds, the original ones for the downstairs level and the room darkening version for the upstairs bedrooms.

You basically cut them to size with a razor blade and then peel of a stick and stick it to the top of your window. They hang from top down and you can clip them at the bottom to adjust the height.

The main issue is that I have tons of 6 inch, 12 inch, etc. pieces of blinds. Not sure if they can be used or what to even do with them.

Oh, they also make "arch" versions like this one:

Supposedly, you do not need the special arch version. All you need to do is cut the original version down the middle and it works the same way.

Posted at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (14)

I completed a few items in my Things Remaining To Be Done in House list. By far, the most important item, is now complete.

The networking guy came to the house Sunday to fix the networking wiring that goes up to the master bedroom. The cat 5 cable was simply not working from the basement patch panel, up into the master bedroom wall jack. So he came over with his fancy tools and told me that it appears from his device that the cable is cut somewhere from the basement up about 6 feet. The total cable length he said was about 45 feet and if it was cut in the middle, it would have been a pain.

So he extended the cable from the basement from 6 feet up to the patch panel and within 30 minutes, I was up and running.

Now my FiOS internet connection is also wireless upstairs and running at lighting speeds.

My whole house is covered in strong WiFi, which is great. Not only because of my laptop, but also because of my iPhone.

Posted at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

As I noted on my Things Remaining To Be Done in the House list, I still have to get the shower doors installed.

Currently, we are using the bathroom with a bathtub/shower and a shower poll. But we have some bathrooms that require shower doors. So I gave a deposit to have those done about two weeks ago. I hear nothing and decide to call today.

What was the status? The shower doors were done, the lady told me. I said, "done?" I said there is no way they were done, I woke up this morning and there was no door on any of the showers. She then asked me to hold.

During this time, maybe, I thought, just maybe, the frameless versions of those shower doors are really becoming so transparent that they are invisible. Maybe, maybe, they installed invisible shower doors. Wouldn't that be cool. An invisible wall that keeps the wetness inside the shower but allows a human to walk directly through.

Guess what? I was right. I called the lady back and no, there were not any invisible doors installed. They said they will install them soon but they have not been installed yet.

There goes my invisible shower door dream.

Posted at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (8)

I still have a list of things to get done in the house, but sometimes I forget what is on that list. So why not blog about it to remind myself.

(1) Hang up shades for windows
(2) Buy shades for sliding glass doors
(3) Hang up art
(4) Get shower doors for non-bathtub showers
(5) Get two mirrors
(6) Fix cat 5 cable in bedroom
(7) Fix some heat issues
(8) Buy ladder
(9) Replace broken light bulbs
(10) Get painter to finish up the touchups

(11) Pay mortgage. :)

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

Yesterday I wrote My Tree is Gone, My Tree is Gone!. But I lied, it wasn't 100% gone until yesterday.

Yesterday, they came back, removed the tree and the stump and covered up the hole that was there after they got rid of the stump.

Before:

After:

I took the after picture at night, so sorry about that.

This morning, I saw two deer in my backyard, just walking around...

Posted at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

Yesterday I come home after work and notice a big tree in my front yard.

Then I walk into my backyard and that the big tree that was hovering over my house and deck was cut down!

I hired a company to remove the tree. It was too close to my new house for comfort. The deck was constantly a mess from the tree shedding on it and I was nervous a branch would fall off, hit the house and damage it. So I removed it.

The stump still needs to be removed and the tree needs to be removed. But almost there.

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

I moved into this nice, new house and part of that is new stuff and learning how it works.

I already read the garage door manuals and this weekend I read the security alarm system manuals, but I still have a huge list of manuals to read to master my house.

The manuals include:

• Fridge
• Oven
• Microwave
• Dishwashers
• Verizon FiOS
• Optimum
• Boiler
• Much more...

I learned a ton from the alarm manual, FiOS, not so much. I learned how to program my card with my garage door opens with that manual. Most people don't read manuals. I often don't but some manuals, I really enjoy reading - nothing like finding powerful features that can be utilized in your daily activities.

Posted at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (7)

Yesterday, I moved.

Moving typically requires a moving company. I was terrified of moving companies. I know so many people who got ripped off by these companies. They load up the trucks, and then seize your property until you are willing to pay up money well above the estimated price. Then they damage your stuff and it is a legal battle to get reimbursed. I finally found someone who had great things to say about his movers.

He recommended a moving company named Santi Express, so I called, scheduled an appointment. The owner came over, she knew the neighborhood well, living in it herself, and gave us a fixed price in person. Fixed price! She then spent the time to go over every step of the process and what to expect. I was well prepared for the move when it came time for that big day.

They sent over four men to do the move. One was the manager, I think, and he led the way. They were extremely organized, professional, courteous and detailed. The process was relatively quick and I would say even a bit enjoyable, believe it or not. Nothing was damaged, no walls were bruised, in fact, I think my wall unit was put together better than the original installation!

So overall, I am happy with Santi Express, very happy. I would personally recommend them, if you are moving.

Posted at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

Wow, it was so weird sleeping in a new house yesterday. We moved from a small place to a fairly large home, so it was just weird.

After a long day of moving (which I will blog about later), you finally put everything away and then get ready for bed. Then it hits you. Wow, this is mine, this house, well - it is mine in 30 years, I guess.

My parents brought Chinese food over for dinner last night. We ate in our new kitchen. It was very nice. kind of surreal. Until one of the RB servers started acting up. But then the server issues got better and I was able to enjoy the moment again.

Waking up this morning at 5:40 am (EST), was weird. I look around and its not my old place. But then I go through the routine and get out of the door normal time. I then learn that I am 7 minutes further from my synagogue than I once was, so I now need to set my clock 7 minutes earlier. I will miss those seven minutes, but its for a good cause.

Thank Yous:

My mother was absolutely outstanding. She was with my wife and I most of the day. She helped with all our packing. She was there when the movers came and loaded the trucks. She was critical in last minute packing. Then she was there to unload us and unpack with my wife. She bought us dinner and even more importantly "shepped nachas" from my wife and I. I can't express enough how much we both appreciate that.

My wife. Well, she did most of the packing with my mother. She actually got the whole house done the same day we moved. I woke up this morning and my clothing was in the dressers. Wow. I would say 99% is done, expect for the 1% that I have to finish. So huge thanks to the wife for doing this all and taking the leap to the new house and community.

Also need to thank my dad for helping at the end and at the beginning figuring out all this house stuff. He has helped countless times with this move.

Sister and brother-in-law for the garbage cans, tables, misc items and welcoming us in to their community. Oh, I am sure we will be eating over by them on Saturdays very often. So lots of pre-thank yous for all of that.

My brother and sister-in-law in Israel for providing halachic guidance during this time.

My brother and sister-in-law in America, my brother was critical in helping set up the network in the house last night. Which got my online with FiOS and got my phone line working with Vonage.

The in-laws for their support with all of this. As well as my sister-in-laws and brother-in-law. Friends. Cable guy, Verizon guy, movers... I hope I didn't forget anyone or anything.

Next up, the moving experience.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey | Comments (3)

Pulled off a 'double closing' today.

Sold my condo and bought a house, all within two hours (not including commute).

Time to move.

Posted at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

This blog might be a tad slow this week, who knows...

Why? Not only are we moving servers this week (a huge pain when moving hundreds of domains), but I am also physically moving my home address this week.

Just pure madness between those two and an everyday schedule.

Posted at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , RustyBrick | Comments (2)

I am so into search, so into search, but when it comes to local things, I am trying to avoid search for answer.

Here are some examples. When choosing a company to cut down a tree in my new backyard, I didn't want to search for "tree services" or something like that. I wanted to ask people in the local area, if they used anyone. So I asked around and got some leads and then got quotes. My mind is now made up on what I should do for that.

Right now, I am in the process of looking for cleaning companies that specialize in new construction. So a search on new construction cleaning brings up tons of organic results and tons of paid results. But who can I trust will do a good job? Oh, I should check out Google Local or Yahoo Local, or maybe Yelp to see reviews. But I did, and none have any real reviews...

Live in my area? Want to recommend a company that specializes in new construction cleaning?

Those are two of many many examples.

Posted at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (51)

Remember how I recently had my mailbox installed?

So I decided to make sure the mailbox worked.

I mailed myself a letter from my office to the new mailbox. Yesterday, I drove by to check on things and my letter was waiting for me, in the mailbox.

So I guess it worked.

My wife finds it weird that I made out the letter to myself. She felt it was like an inside joke, but an inside joke that I only got. I.e. a joke that only I personally would laugh about.

I said that is the point. It is even funnier that it is an inside but inside joke!

I guess I have a weird sense of humor, but it made me smirk and plus it showed me that the mailbox does work. ;-)

pause -- pause --

Not laughing? Of course not! It was an inside joke!

Posted at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

This weekend I tried to install a curbside mailbox at (hopefully) my soon to be new house.

I purchased a cheap mailbox and post set at Walmart ($36 total) and began work. I first began hammering in a wood post into the ground. It is important to place an additional piece of wood above the wood post you are hammering in, while hammering. So I got that wood piece about 8 inches into the ground, it was solid. I then placed the black plastic post around the wood post. It was at that point where I think I put the wood post in the ground at the wrong angle.

As I was re-reading the directions, that come in a different language, my new neighbor drove by. He said, hey! You are allowed to put the mailbox over there? I said, I don't know. Why? He replied that there are laws at to where you must place your mailbox. At that point I gave up. I decided to take the post out and put it back in the box. I asked the contractor who is making modifications to the house to install it. He did, and I assume he put it in the right location.

So my advice on how to install a mailbox? Get a professional. :)

Well, honestly, it was easy, if you know what to do. eHow has a nice step by step on How to Install a Curbside Mailbox, if you want to be brave and do it yourself.

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

A few weeks ago I wrote about my dilemma in picking a Internet, TV and Phone provider. This week I finally made a decision, thanks to the helpful comments and advice. So what did I choose.

I picked three different providers.

(1) Internet: How can I not go with Verizon FiOS. It is super speeds and nothing, to-date, compares. So I picked FiOS. I have an install date.

(2) Phone: Vonage. Why? Because Verizon and Optimum both required that I get a new number, since I am moving to a new zip code. Vonage allowed me to transfer my number. So I ordered Vonage, it is being delivered soon. I requested a transfer of number and I plan on using Vonage at my current residence and then moving the box with me to the new residence.

(3) TV: Optimum via CableVision. Verizon didn't have TV service available in my area, so I signed up with CableVision. No other choice outside of getting a satellite provider or using an antenna.

If Verizon comes out with TV, I will likely switch because I rather pay one bill but this is the best I can do now.

Posted at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (0)

Buying a home in the New York area, as you may expect, is not cheap.

The deal is, for a loan larger than $417,000, you need to get a "jumbo mortgage." Now, in NY, the typical house will cost you more than 417,000 even after putting 20% down.

What makes things worse for home buyers now, is that the jumbo mortgage rates have jumped from 6.87% to 7.64% in a couple weeks. Why? Well, because the lending market was too free going back in the day and many borrowers are going into default. So mortgage companies are now going bankrupt.

This rate hike is not something to laugh at, it can increase your payments to a few hundred dollars per month!

The WSJ has a very clear article on this named Home Inequity where they explain that borrowers with the good credit are not getting hit with this. You see, someone needs to make up for the loses. Now, overall, it is much harder for people to get mortgages, especially jumbos. Which, I think, it should have been for from day one. Lend wisely, like you would to anyone. But due to lending practices, the jumbos are all out of whack with the typical "conforming" loan which have been going down because those are under $417 and backed by the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I personally locked in a solid rate, but it cost me to do so. In addition, I am trading up, so I am selling my current home to the person I am buying from, so that helps a ton. It is just weird times for the real estate market. Pricing of homes are declining but some mortgage rates are increasing. Timing it right, is well, what they say, "it is all about timing."

Posted at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

I just came out of the bathroom!

I walk into the bathroom, there is this guy turning on the faucet with a paper towel. I go do my thing and he is still there, scrubbing his hands with soap. I wash my hands with soap and water. Turn off faucet. Dry hands.

He is still there washing his hands.

Remember when I wrote that 2 out of 3 don't wash hands but only 7% don't after using the bathroom. Yea, I have seen those people also. But is there "excessive" hand washing?

Typically, the female race, I believe, do a better job of cleaning their hands, than their male counterpart. But this specific guy, I am sure, beat out most of you girls.

Posted at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (4)

As some of you know already, I was house shopping. It looks like we pretty much agreed on a house, so I decided to call Verizon about their FiOS offering last night.

The representative told me that Internet and telephone are both available BUT the TV connection is not. Ouch!

I seriously wanted to have all my networking items with one company. TV, Internet and Phone - all in one.

So then I called Optimum to see what the deal is with moving, since I already have Optimum. They said that you have to disconnect your service before the new service is moved and installed. Huh? So I have to go without phone, Internet and TV in the new house? I can't insure that both are up and running, so I don't loose anything? Technically, if I am moving, I have to be disconnected first, the rep told me.

So I have a few options. Get Internet and Phone with Verizon FiOS. And then sign up as a new customer with Optimum for cable. OR I just move my current Optimum over to the new house, but probably have some down time. TV is no big deal, but Internet and phone are.

Any advice?

Posted at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Homey | Comments (3)

So, as you know, I am selling my Monsey condo and also looking at new homes.

We are down to the point where I had an inspector come and look at a home we are interested in.

I was honestly amazed at how valuable that inspection was. I used House Master based on my realtor's recommendation and wow, was I impressed.

The inspection took about 2.5 hours. The guy who was doing it was incredibly knowledgeable, clear and professional. I felt like I was watching an instructional video. Everything he said seemed planned but at the same time, all personalized.

He starts off by introducing himself and what he will be doing. We went through the entire house from outside and in, from top to bottom and through all the electrical work also.

The invaluable part is not just about him telling you what needs to be done or fixed. Not just about how good condition the house will be. Not just how long your roof, siding or heating will last.

The main thing I got out of it was that he showed me all I need to know to maintain the house in the future. He showed me that I need to clean the gutters 2 or 3 times a year, replace the filters yearly, check the windows for moisture, and on and on. He showed me what to do if there was a major leak in the house. How the heating system works and when to expect to change each piece of the system. The same with the water tank. He explained the potentials of the house. In addition he explained if I make a change here, I can expect X, Y and Z.

He basically gave me my blueprint for the future of this house. And all I paid for was to make sure the house was in good working condition.

Of course, I came out of the inspection glowing. The house was done more than right. There are a few minor items, all easy to take care of.

I have my printed report in hand, and I am awaiting the standard Radon results, that will take about a week to come back. But I already have a professional report, binder, DVD on home maintenance, more documents and an electronic copy of the report on hand.

I highly recommend House Master and I highly recommend you go along with your inspector through your potential house. The amount I learned from it, is simply invaluable.

Posted at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

I was doing some research on Radon.

Yea, Radon. The EPA has some good information on it, that scares the @#$$@# out of you.

Radon is a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste. Its presence in your home can pose a danger to your family's health. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America and claims about 20,000 lives annually. EPA has launched a new series of television, radio and print public service announcements encouraging people to test and fix their homes for radon. This is a good time to focus on testing and on fixing homes with a radon level of 4 pCi/L or more.

In fact, they have this very easy to understand A Citizen's Guide to Radon: The Guide to Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Radon.

How does Radon get into a house?
- Cracks in solid floors
- Construction joints
- Cracks in walls
- Gaps in suspended floors
- Gaps around service pipes
- Cavities inside walls
- The water supply

Do I have radon in my house? No. Just doing some research on it.

On a more scientific level, I believe, but can not vouch for it, Wikipedia has some useful information on that front. "Radon (IPA: /ˈreɪdɒn/) is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Rn and atomic number 86."

Cool stuff, I guess.

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

U.S. house prices are headed for their first nationwide drop since the second world war, and problems in the subprime mortgage market aren't helping, says Douglas Duncan, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Good to know, since I am looking to buy. But where I am looking, there is an unusual demand within the community.

Posted at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

Part of the Monsey Condo Selling also involves looking for a new home.

So Sunday, my wife and I went with our realtor to look at homes. We looked in a few different communities within the area we were looking and found one place we really like.

I actually wrote up a lot about the house and decided not to post it.

Bottom line... If I sold my condo today, I would most likely make an offer on this house.

But no sense in wishful thinking until I am in a real position to buy.

So why look now? I am told we need to get our house hunting feet wet.

Posted at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Remember, this Friday I posted My Condo For Sale in Monsey - Home For Sale?

There I said, I was hoping to achieve top rankings in Google for terms like [condo for sale in monsey], [monsey condo], [apartment for sale in monsey], [monsey home for sale] and so on.

Well, I checked Saturday night, and I am doing pretty well.

- condo for sale in monsey

Notice the Flickr results are mine also, so I have three of the top four results for that search.

- monsey condo

Top four listings here

- apartment for sale in monsey

That is Tamar mocking me moving to a house, which links to my post.

- monsey home for sale

#2, not bad.

Will it last? I doubt it. Since this is fresh content, Google will give it some love for some time. Hopefully by then, I would have sold.

So step one, complete. I will send any leads to my agent.

Step two, is to sell.

Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey , SEO Tips | Comments (5)

Who knew that when I bought my condo in Monsey that I would be looking to sell a year and a half later?

Well I am potentially looking to sell my condo now. It was a scary decision but I think the right one.

Why is it scary? Well, I simply bought at the peak, so I will have to take a loss on the condo. But at the same time, I don't think the loss will be more than what it would have cost to rent for the past two years or so.

We are just ready to buy a real home and it is exciting but at the same time - a bit scary, as I said.

The good thing is that our condo is in great condition to sell. It was completely renovated two years ago before we moved. I mean completely! The condo management did all the work themselves, so it was done right. They knocked down the walls, gutted all the piping, redid the whole kitchen and wood floors. I had them add a small room for a washer and dryer, which required them to install a new circuit breaker and water lines into that area of the condo. I also added two new air conditioners that are both energy efficient and powerful. In addition, the condo has one of the largest, if not the largest, patio of all condos. The neighbors are nice and friendly also.

I put a lot into the condo and I expect to make less of the purchase price of the condominium. Yes, this is sad. But it is currently a buyers market, so I am on both ends. I am selling and buying. The location is where most people in Monsey want to be. I live in a very orthodox Jewish area - in the heart of Monsey. I would be moving far out to a less Jewish dense area, but into a full home (hopefully about an acre). No, I did not find a home yet, I won't until I know I can sell the condo.

Here is a picture of the condo I took at about 6am this morning from the outside (a bit dark outside then):

Any tips for a first time home seller?

OH: If you are interested in buying this condominium or know someone who is interested, let me know. How? I guess use the RustyBrick contact form and I will get it.

Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey | Comments (9)

One thing I do a lot of, is picking up or dropping off the cleaners. I don't do it every week, my wife also does it, so whoever puts it off long enough for it to bother them, will likely do it.

My brother-in-law (he is the one who posts negative comments on the blog here), told me about My VIP Cleaners. This is a service that you call or email (love email) to pick up your stuff and clean it for you. So you email them, I have stuff to be cleaned, they pick it up from your house (even if you are not home) or office, clean it, and return it a few days later. You can also go on a schedule. Every Monday and Thursday they will come to my location and clean my clothing for me.

The delivery fee is nothing, they only charge for the laundering. And the prices are very competitive with what is around here:

Laundered Shirts (hanger): $1.25
Laundered Shirts (boxed): $1.35
Blouse: $4.75
Pants: $4.50
Skirt: $4.75
Dress: $8.95 & UP
Sweater: $4.50
Sports Jacket: $5.50
Two-Piece Suit: $8.95
Tie: $3.00
Wash & Fold: $1.25 lb.

What is also funny, is that the President of the company is the son of a friend of my father and mother. So why not give them business. Looks like they cover a lot of areas in the NY, NJ area.

I'll let you know if the clothing comes back in one piece, but what I have heard so far, is only positive.

Posted at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (5)

Yesterday was my birthday (thanks for all the comments, emails, IMs, etc.) and as I told you, I planned on going out with my wife for dinner.

We went 30 minutes away to Noahs Ark, one of my favorite simple restaurants.

For starters, I ordered a matzoh ball soup, that came with noodles... Good stuff.

The main course was one of my favorite chicken dishes, a breaded chicken cutlet. It came with two cutlets, a order of huge fires and some vegetables. I know it isn't the healthiest but it was my birthday.

For dessert (which I never get) I ordered this deep chocolate cake... it was solid!

Thanks Wife!

Posted at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

So it looks like I am going to keep the PlayStation 3 I ordered a couple weeks ago. Honestly, I haven't played all that much, but I intend to play Saturday nights more often.

Sunday, I picked up Resistance: Fall of Man and I played a little. After getting accustomed to many of the controls (took several minutes) I really started to enjoy the game. The graphics are wow! The actions and controls really put you in the game, which makes it incredibly exciting. I am playing the game offline first, this way I can hopefully learn all the features and get even more accustomed to the controls. Then, once I beat the game, I plan on playing it online.

What about Madden? Well, that too. But for some reason, I have yet to figure out how to save a game mid-way through so that I can pick up later. Resistance is easy to save and pick up later, which is important, since I frequently have to stop playing throughout the game. But I hope to get a Madden league going with the guys and then possibly join an online league (but not yet, because that requires commitment).

In any event, Resistance rocks, I am glad I got it. Nothing like killing aliens to relieve stress from the week.

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , Computers , Homey | Comments (13)

I don't think I have ever missed Tuesday basketball three times in a row. At most, maybe two weeks, but not even when I went on my honeymoon.

The first two weeks, I ended up stuck with work until well after 10pm each day.

But last night I missed for two reasons.

(1) My wife is sick, so I wanted to help around the house. Yea, I am a good husband. :)
(2) It was freezing last night and the gym really doesn't have heat. So it is like a big tin box, when cold outside, you feel it in the gym - minus the wind. So it was probably 15 degrees in the gym last night. Playing ball like that, after a while works, but it takes a while for you to feel the basketball in your hands.

I will make it next week.

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Sports , Weather | Comments (2)

I am crazy, I know. I actually purchased a PlayStation 3 Saturday night and had to go to a different store to find a sold out Madden 2007.

The graphics are very nice, very. Thing is, I don't have much time to play.

I think I am going to set up a "Game Night" at my house for a few of my friends. Maybe a Saturday night. I joked with my wife that the wives can cook up food for us while we play.

I played a couple of games with my favorite team, the Jets. Wow, I am so bad. But I assume that will improve over time.

Will I keep this device? Totally depends on if I have time to play. I can return it within 30 days. I am not the type to return things. But this was expensive and if it just sits and collects dust, I think I will return it.

Posted at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , Computers , Homey | Comments (6)

I wanted to DVR 24, but I messed up. I knew 24 was airing on Sunday for two hours. I thought the Monday showing would be a repeat of Sunday's show. So I did not DVR it.

Anyone know how I can see it? :)

Oh, and Prison Break starts their new season Monday. Monday's will be jammed packed with TV viewing... 24 and Prison Break - the two shows I like, will be aired on Monday.

Posted at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

I want to DVR 24 Sunday the 14th and Monday the 22nd. The DVR I have from CableVision allows me to record shows that I like, but you cannot do that, unless the show is currently on the channel guide. A show that has not aired yet, won't be on the channel guide. So you can schedule a manual recording for shows that are not on the channel guide, but you cannot go past two weeks in the future, which is kinda dumb. I can set the DVR to record all shows on Monday at a certain time - which is what I will have to do, but I can't tell the DVR to record Monday, January 22nd and 9pm at this time, which is what I want it to do.

If I had the TiVO series 3 then maybe I could schedule the recording from my trip and wouldn't have to go at it backwards.

Posted at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

Until last night, I did not have a DVR, yea, I know, sounds crazy. But true. I watch TV Monday nights and Sunday nights, and it didn't bother me to not have a DVR. But when I missed the season finale of Prison Break while at SES Chicago, I was upset. Then my wife and her office was on TV one night and I wasn't able to watch that either. So that night, I ordered a DVR from the cable company.

I did not get the TiVO because it is a lot more expensive. The cable company sent me a DVR that records in HD quality about the same amount as the TiVO. I would like the remote ability to control what the DVR records via the web, like the TiVO but I am hoping they will add that feature over time.

Last night I set it up and we were off...

My wife came home, she didn't seem to interested about the DVR, other things were on her mind (and they were more important than a DVR). In any event, I was watching House and she called me, she needed my help with something. I got up immediately and helped her. About 15 minutes later, I came back to the TV, hit the rewind button and picked up from where I left off. I then speed through the commercials and almost caught up in real time to the show. This was all in hi-def, let me add.

So this is not only a cool gadget, it helps with being a good husband.

PS - I hope to use it for recording 24 when it starts airing.

Posted at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2)

One of my responsibilities in the house is to take out the trash. Sometimes I am proactive about it, and sometimes I need to be reminded about it.

Last night my wife asked me to take out the trash. I told her I would do it on the way out to basketball that night. I forgot.

I then told her I would do it on the way out to the office this morning. I forgot.

So tonight, I will hopefully do it on the way to basketball. If not, then maybe tomorrow on the way to work?

At what point to I make it to the dog house?

Posted at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (11)

As you know the other week I ordered the iRobot Scooba 5900, I got it Monday and charged it Monday night. Last night I gave it a test run. After following the instructions to set it up, for some reason it kept telling me to "Check Tank" in blue, meaning the tank is empty, but I filled it up. Anyway, after hitting the power button and trying again, the Scooba began its work. Here is a video of it in action...

The end result? It is a bit noisy, but it did a great job. I am very happy with it.

Dishwasher, washing machine, meet the Scooba!

Posted at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

Woot has an awesome deal on the iRobot Scooba 5900 today. So after wanting this puppy for a while, I finally ordered it. Yea, it is like a dog that cleans, but it doesnt bark or poop either, I guess if it did poop, it would clean it up after.

The iRobot Scooba will hopefully save me and my wife about two hours per week of cleaning our hardwood floors.

This device goes around your rooms, vacuums up most small dirt (not big stuff), then pours down some cleaning solution, scrubs the floor with it and then sucks up that wet water (as much as it can).

The iRobot Scooba reportedly can't get into the corners, so those will require manual work. But out of a 100+ reviews at Amazon, with a 4 of 5 rating, I think I will give this puppy a try.

I'll update you guys down the road, letting you know how this thing is doing its job.

Posted at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

I killed four spiders yesterday. A Daddy Long Leg and then three other ones. Two of them looked like small Daddy Long Legs, and the other one had a fat base, so it kinda was creepy.

The Daddy Long Leg was killed in the morning, after receiving an emergency call from my wife to rush back home at 6:30am to kill this huge spider. It wasn't that bad. :)

The three others were killed at various times throughout the early evening.

Why the sudden influx of spiders in my home? I suspect the cold weather is bringing them indoors? This is our first winter in this home, so who knows. I keep spraying with insect killer, but is it really working?

Here is a good spider resource plus I found Jeremy Zawodny's fear of falling spiders pretty funny.

Posted at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (7)

I try to watch one show each week religiously. That show, this year, is Prison Break. It airs on FOX 8pm (EST) on Mondays.

I am home from basketball that day, so it works out nicely.

Plus the show is action packed and has a crazy plot that makes it fun.

I missed a couple shows this season so far, I wonder if I can download them via iTunes?

Update: My wife's friend read this an emailed me an article named Suit Alleges 'Prison Break' Idea Stolen from yesterday.

For four years in the 1960s, two brothers were on the run, fleeing authorities after a prison break at a juvenile facility. Robert Hughes, wrongfully incarcerated at 16, turned to older brother Donald, who helped him escape.

Sound familiar? Like Fox's "Prison Break"? The Hughes brothers think so.

In a federal lawsuit, they say their agent sent Fox a manuscript in 2001 chronicling their experiences and the network wasn't interested in it. So they were surprised when, last fall, Fox began airing "Prison Break.

Posted at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (6)

I grew up a Met fan, was a big Darryl Strawberry fan back in the day. But as I grew, I got bored watching baseball and lost a lot of interest in the game. That with the Mets really not playing all that well, didn't help me with my interest in the game.

However, we all know the Mets are in game 7 against the St. Louis Cardinals as I type and watch this on my Niko. They win this game, they go to the world series, who would of thought?

Now, my wife is from St. Louis, her family, especially her dad, is a huge Cards fan. He loves baseball, knows more about the game that I will ever know.

I want the Mets to win, I really do. But if they lost to any team, St. Louis is the first one I would opt for in a game like this.

Yea, I am a kiss up. ;-P

But I really want the Mets to win right now, so they can lose to the Tigers.

Posted at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Sports | Comments (3)

Like with ראש השנה I will be traveling to the in-laws for the Sukkot (סוכות) holiday that begins Friday night. Blogging will be light this Friday and also I won't be able to blog Monday AM until after about 11AM (EST). I will try to schedule posts to go live tomorrow AM, like I did last time, but I cannot promise that. Also, I will try to connect via my Treo and MacBook, if it works this time. Who knows maybe we will see Jesse Jackson at the airport again? :)

So Sukkot, what is it about? Here are some good resources for you to learn about it.

• Aish.com
• Judaism 101
• Wikipedia
• OU.org
• Ask.com Results

Posted at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey , Travels | Comments (1)

I will be off tomorrow from blogging and work. I just wanted to wish everyone an easy fast and meaningful יום כיפור.

Some Yom Kippur resources (I do not valid any of them personally, they were just ranking well in the search engines).

• Wikipedia
• Judaism 101
• Ask.com
• OU.org
• Aish.com

If I have done anything to hurt anyone in any way, I hope you forgive me.

All the best,

Barry

Posted at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (1)

After the holiday, sometimes Ronnie (my brother) brings in left over junk food. So today, he brought in a bunch of junk, including one of my favorite chocolate candies, Nonpareils. That is a picture of the large amount of mini-nonpareils that was sitting on my desk just a few minutes ago.

I used to like them a lot more, but now, after a few handfuls (um, that means like 400 mini-nonpareils) I kinda get sick of them.

In any event, I prefer the colored sprinkle ones that are full-sized.

I looked up at the Wikipedia if Nonpareils had an entry and they did...

Nonpareils are a decorative confection of tiny sugar balls, traditionally an opaque white but now available in many colors. Their origin is uncertain, but they may have evolved out of the pharmaceutical use of sugar, as they were a miniature version of comfits. The French name has been interpreted to mean they were "without equal" for intricate decoration of cakes, desserts, and other sweets, and the elaborate pièces montées constructed as table ornaments.

But that is not the only meaning for the term nonpareils, it is also used for an open source interactive document editing system, cool!

Tasty treat! Don't worry, I didn't eat too many.

Posted at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (6)

Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה), the Jewish New Year, is this Friday night. My wife an I are flying to St. Louis tomorrow morning, to spend the weekend with her family. Blogging will be light this Friday and also I won't be able to blog Monday AM until after about 11AM (EST).

In any event...

Google has put up a Google Doodle with a Shofar in it. The Shofar is typically blown during Rosh Hashanah services. Aish HaTorah has a good article on Symbolism of the Shofar.

You can currently see the logo at google.co.il.

Happy New Year to all you Jews. :)

Posted at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey , Travels | Comments (4)

It has been almost 4 months since my wedding and we are still getting wedding gifts, pretty cool. Side note; we just got in our Thank You cards and have begun writing thank you notes to all of you who have sent us gifts, they should be out within the next few weeks...

The latest gift was this really cool digital photo frame from Philips. I looked it up and it looks like Engadget.com has a detailed review of it from 09/2005, so I won't do the review thing here.

In any event, loading pictures is fairly easy. It has a ton of features. But it would be sweet if it was wifi enabled, so I can tell it to randomly choose images from Flickr tagged with a certain word.

Basically, last night I went through all our images in Flickr with Yisha. I tagged all photos I want to be placed on the digital photo frame with an obscure tag. Then I went to that page of pictures with that tag only and exported them to the Philips 7FF1AW Digital Photo Frame. It was a manual process. It would be very cool to just tag photos and them automatically rotate wireless from Flickr on that frame.

In any event, this photo frame is way cool - one of the coolest gifts we got (in geek terms)...

Posted at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

When I got married, I bought a new flat screen LCD high-definition TV. I searched months prior for the best deal; price and quality. I decided to buy the a no name brand, but got some excellent reviews, from Niko. The TV is excellent, it is my first LCD and my only complaint is the remote control. The remote stinks and there is currently no universal remote control handling for this TV.

I bought it from Tiger Direct, they had the best deals, and the reviews were plentiful while the product was in stock. It offered a $100 rebate that would go through OnRebate.com. I filled out all the paper work, handed in all the papers and original UPCs and the email receipts (since that was the only receipt I got from Tiger Direct).

Niko rejected the rebate because it was an email receipt. Supposedly, I had to go to the Tiger Direct web site, login, go to the invoices section and then print out that version of the receipt. No where did it state this... Oh, and get this. Niko does not accept any resubmissions, no matter what.

It looks like I was not the only one who fell for this, here are two others.

Posted at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (3)

WebMD has an article says 2 Out of 3 Americans Don't Wash Hands. Wow! Shocking!

A thousand Americans participated, evenly split between men and women. All were at least 18 years old.

Here are the percentages who admitted they might not wash their hands properly in these situations:

- After sneezing or coughing: 37%
- After handling animals or pets: 27%
- Before eating or handling food: 10%
- After going to the toilet: 7%
- A bit more than three in 10 said they wouldn't skip or skimp on hand washing in any of those situations. But the remaining 69% didn't make that clean-hands claim.

But Germans have dirtier hands than American's.

So how can you better wash your hands, the article says?

• Wash your hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds.
  
• Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap.
  
• Use warm water if available.
  
• Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all hand surfaces.
  
• Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds -- the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice.
  
• Rinse hands well under running water.
  
• Dry hands using a paper towel or air dryer.
  
• If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
  
• If soap and water aren't available, use an alcohol-based product to clean your hands.
  

Or get a singing, music playing soap dispenser. You can buy the Soap Genie™ Automatic Dispenser, which plays a charming musical chime while you wash at, Amazon.com, SkyMall, Sharper Image or other fine retailers.

Posted at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Just Funny | Comments (2)

My wife found these tables she wanted at Bombay, so I was like, let's just order them online and have them shipped. At the time it was about $50 less, and then we forgot about them. When we remembered, and checked the price listed on the Bombay site, it just felt wrong ordering them for $50 more.

But we saw a coupon listed on the site, and we tried adding that coupon code at the checkout step, but it did not take. We then called the 800# but they were already closed. So I told my wife to call the next day. Yea, she did call. And it turned out to be a $100 less if we picked it up from one of the local stores. So while at the mall we ordered it from Bombay. I then came back Wednesday night to pick it up, the thing was, I was in my small car.

I have the Lexus SC 430 (2005), although it is a sweet car, it doesn't fit much in it, especially not large boxes. Heck, even their promotional material kind of mocks the space limitations. It says, "still leaving enough room for a set of golf clubs."

Anyway, when the guy from Bombay took the box out of the storage area, he looked at the car and laughed. I looked back at him and said, everything always manages to fit. I first tried putting it in the trunk and tying the trunk down. That didn't work too well. Again, the Bombay guy was smirking. I then moved the top down into the trunk, which kinda made the Bombay guy go 'ooo.' I then moved the passenger seat as far forward as I could, and pushed down the front of that seat into the dashboard. I placed the box in the space behind the passenger seat, it barely fit. I smirked at the Bombay guy and said, I told you, everything always manages to fit.

I then squeezed myself in the drivers seat. Picture the box taking about a 3rd of my seat. My right shoulder was under the forward part of the box. I was completely unable to look through the rear view mirror, and the right side mirror was 95% obstructed. I couldn't look right to see if cars or people were there either. But I drove slowly, I didn't take the highway back, I took the side streets. And I made it back with the box intact that night.

I wish I had a picture of it, also a picture of all the weird faces I got from other drivers on the road.

Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)

After a long five hours of digging we have finally put most of everything away. This is what remains.

- Items to return placed in wife's car for whenever....hopefully I won't have to go to the store
- Items in a bedroom waiting to be put in closet
- Boxes by door, ready to be thrown in a dumpster

So, I figure within another 7 to 14 days, everything should be nicely put away.

Now, we need to go out and get a new dresser or two. We had some issues with the ones we brought over from a previous home. :)

Posted at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Category: Homey , Shopping | Comments (2)

The constant digging out of stuff you accumulate is never fun. Yea, I told you about how I love to return stuff, but yea, we still have a room filled with boxes of stuff we either need to return or put away. It has been a slow process.

Last night, we moved the final items out of Yisha's old place and into our place. Well, we moved it out of Yisha's place but now it is sitting in our SUV waiting to be brought into our place. It is like never ending.

So today, after I finish up at the office, I will be moving things again. It could be worse, it could be a move from a home we lived in for like 50 years then into a new one. If we (well, really she) accumulated this stuff over 25 years or so, then imagine an other 25 years of stuff. Not looking forward to it.

Ok, gotta get finished with work so I can start putting things away again. Fun fun!

Posted at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (0)