Okay, so they were supposed to be here between 11:00a and noon to get the TV, and I’ve been here since 11:30a waiting, but they’ve changed to 1:30p - 2:30p because their first appointment of the day (scheduled before me, around 10:30a or so, I’d wager) “is really hard to find.” Oh, and they’ve reserved the right to amend that new window, too.

This is their last ditch attempt to make me give up on my TV ever being fixed, isn’t it?

I worked from home for a while today because my Sunsetter awning was being delivered. That came in a 19-foot-long, one-foot-diameter tube. One tube. It barely fits in the garage. That’s going to be awkward to set up.

While I was home, I decided to call a plumber to fix this toilet I’ve got downstairs. You flush it, and it continues to trickle for several minutes after it finishes filling. I stared at it for probably an hour and was about ready to tear it apart when I decided just to call someone. Ended up calling Bob’s Reedville Plumbing - a same-day service outfit.

The guy showed up and about three seconds later says, “Oh, it’s siphoning.” Siphoning? Yeah, there’s this tube thing that has to end somewhere above the water line in the back of the tank or it’ll continue running. Mine ended below the water line, so water was being siphoned out of the back of the tank into the drain.

I would never have figured that out.

The fix? Move the tube up a quarter inch.

Expensive lesson, though - cost me $121.50 (that’s with 10% off) to learn it. The plumber felt bad charging me because he didn’t do much. But it’s fixed now. Plus, again, I’d never have figured that out.

If you need a plumber in the Hillsboro, OR area - check out Bob’s Reedville Plumbing. Fast and friendly service, there within a couple of hours of your call, and they guarantee they’ll fix any problem in the same day.

The weekend was pretty good (of course, it’s Tuesday and I’m just now getting to write about it… tells you how the week is going so far).

Saturday we went out with Stu and Tiff to the local fun center and played laser tag, some video games, and my personal favorite - skee-ball.

Sunday was the last hockey game of the season, so it was nice to see the Winter Hawks pull that one off. 36 home games per season, and I’m hockeyed out. I’ll be ready to go for next season, but for now… I’m valuing the free time I’m suddenly provided.

I’ve been playing some more Katamari Damacy and I’m really getting into it. I was going to order the soundtrack because it’s really crazy (yet addictive) Japanese pop sort of music, but it’s like $30 everywhere. Thanks, but it’s not worth $30 for the novelty. Instead, I found a guy who’s got it for download and picked it up there. Love it. I’m listening right now.

I’m still working on my pMachine to dasBlog conversion utility. I’m trying to make it reasonably general-purpose, but I’m not sure how successful that will be. When I’m done, I’ll probably stick it up here for “use at your own risk” usage. I was trying to make the code all nice and documented and everything… but for a utility I’m only using once, I may not go that far.

Scott Hanselman works with me on random crap at work, and over the course of time I’ve gotten to know a little more about how he works and stuff he says all the time, and I have to call BS on him every once in a while, so to speak. We all have our catch phrases or whatever, I just find there’s a whole dialect forming solely based on Hanselisms. We’ll call this “Hanselingo” - The Language of the Hanselman.

Hanselminutes: A unit of time in a continuum unique to Scott. Started when I asked him if I could get a feature enhancement on a bit of code he was working on. “Sure, gimme 10 minutes,” he said. Two weeks later, I’m still waiting the 10 minutes. (Yes, it did eventually get done.) That was “10 Hanselminutes.”

Thanks For Your Patience: This is a classic phrase that you’ll usually get in a reasonably patronizing tone when you’re being slow to pick something up… or Scott perceives you’re being slow to pick it up. A “nice” way of turning the situation around and not only making you feel stupid but guilty for eating up time as well.

Cakemail or cmail: An email sent with a non sequitur answer. Derives from a random phrase that one might interject into a conversation (“Hey, Scott, what exactly is this method doing?” “I like cake!”). Typically the result of the fact he’s got 10 things to do and time enough for five of them.

“I’m not sayin’…, I’m just sayin’…: An easy way out when you’re telling someone something they don’t want to hear. “You know, this could really be improved if you held to any sort of quality standards whatsoever.” “What?!” “I’m not sayin’… I’m just sayin’…” Usually accompanied by hand gestures: the “I’m not sayin’” gets the hands raised in the air, like a small, defensive “hands up” maneuver; the “I’m just sayin’” gets the hands pushed forward, palms up, like an offering.

Scott’s the man, but I just gotta give him crap. It makes my world go ‘round. :)

So Jenn and I got home late last night after hanging out with some friends. We’re tired and trying to sleep.

5:19a Sunday morning, we get this phone call. It doesn’t seem to appear on the caller ID, so I pick it up. It’s 5:19a - it’s gotta be life or death, right?

Travis: Hello? Caller: Hi, is Jennifer there? T: Who can I tell her is calling? Caller: This is Raymund. T: Can I tell her what this is about? Come on, man, it’s 5:19 in the morning. Raymund: It’s about a child of ours.

I handed the phone to Jenn, but by the time I got it to her, he had hung up.

That shit weirded me out. I mean, that’s the kind of phone call you get when the guilty serial murderer’s brother knows who the next target is and wants them to wake up and get out of the house.

I got up, checked all the rooms, and found that the caller ID on one of the other phones picked it up:

Raymond Rosales. 541-212-6379.

I looked it up online, and while I can’t seem to find an address for it, it’s an Ontario, OR, based number. Sprint’s the carrier. I couldn’t find anything else.

Anyway, if anything happens to us, call Raymund. That was some fishy shit. I’ve had like three hours of sleep and my adrenaline’s got me up now. I’m gonna have to watch a movie and chill out, then maybe take a nap later today.