First off, Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! I don’t know how much celebrating will be going on in Williamsburg, but that won’t stop me from issuing a big Gong Xi Fa Chai to my readers. Unfortunately, today I was reminded of a severe deficiency that I have. I can’t twirl pens. I was sitting in a meeting and I so badly wanted to twirl my pen, but I lacked the skillz to do so. I certainly didn’t want to hit anyone with an airborne writing implement. And it got me to thinking: what if I am the only Asian person who cannot twirl pens? It was really quite a depressing introspective moment. Back in the Chinese School days, Joan and Rose tried to teach me, but to no avail. I can’t even do the basic twirl using the pointer/index fingers (with the thumb and its webbing providing stability). I’ve tried the twirling the pen over the thumb maneuver as well; this usually leaves me with a strained back from picking up the pen so many times. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. It just seems so hopeless. Does this have anything to do with monkeying around *nudge nudge*? Not really, but it was bothering me today.
On the other hand (the puns just keep on coming), I’m thankful that these are the sort of issues that really eat away at me. It certainly could be worse. Also, the cushion I constructed yesterday matches SO WELL with the dresser and works perfectly. Bwark bwark bwark bwark =).
So the dresser that the new 6-gallon fish tank is on is a bit uneven. When the surface the tank rests on is not perfectly flat, it can cause stress points in the container, and lead to flooding previously only thought possible with the polar ice caps melting. At the time, I had done my best MacGyver imitation by using a large amount of bubble-wrap underneath the tank to even out the weight distribution. With time, however, the bubbles have popped, one by one. I needed something more permanent. I needed… foam. Unfortunately, while I was at the local Hancock cloth/craft store, I could not find any Styrofoam. What they did have, however, was Nu-foam. I guess this stuff is better than regular old foam, cause Nu-foam is… Nu. It said it’s resistant to mildew, and the stuff was pretty stiff for cloth-like foam.
Since the dresser is a blue (it came with the cottage) color, I didn’t want to leave the foam naked. So I bought some cloth to sew around the foam to make a sort of crude cushion. When I brought the materials to be measured and cut, the lady kept looking at me funny, asking me if I was ok with the price, and saying that I had a lot of material. The cloth came to like $1.85 and the foam was about $4… I mean, WTF, do I look like I’m destitute or something? Anyway, I took it home and spent the night stitching the cloth around the foam. It was like wrapping a present, except I was using thread instead of tape. It looks like something someone’s grandma would make, but it sorta matches the dresser. Besides, it’s just going to sit under the tank so it doesn’t have to look all that great. Not that it doesn’t look great anyway. I am like Teh Roxxor Sew-Mastah now. I’m hoping to move the tank onto the new cushion today after a water change (water and gravel are deceptively heavy).
Watched more Chrno Crusade. Reminds me of Guilty Gear for some reason. I keep expecting some Rock and Roll Witch Doctors to attack Rosette and “AzMaria” (OMG this engrish is just too much). Finally, just for old time’s sake: Super Swallow Dance!
Recently it’s been quite chilly here in Williamsburg, and ice has been abundant. I got a bird bath over the weekend (finally), but when I woke to see if any birds were using it, I noticed the surface had completely frozen. It’s just a simple heavy plastic bird bath from Lowes; I’m hoping to put potted plants around it once spring comes. It tickled my fancy to think of little birds ice-skating on the bird bath’s icy rink; however, this seems rather unlikely. And I am not spending money to put a heater into the bath. When Bunky saw me take the ice off the top of the bath (it looked like a big clear platter) and gleefully fling it through the air like a frisbee, she went ballistic. She thought I had gone and shattered the beautiful glass cover of the bird bath. I suppose that these conclusions must make sense early in the morning, but why would any bird bath have a glass cover?
The doors on the car were frozen shut this morning. What a pain. I could not get the doors open, and I didn’t want to break the handles by pulling them too hard. I began to despair that I would never be able to get to work. By some fortuitous happenstance, the rear left door had been ajar the night before, so I opened that door and climbed into the driver’s seat. I felt like I was breaking into my own vehicle… My plan, should this ever happen again, is to spray the door with hot water next time.
When a problem comes along, you must whip it. After months of enduring crappy window wiping, I decided it was time to finally change the wiper blades. I had never done it before; at the time I was thinking: how hard could it be? The first 5 minutes of the job were an exercise in pure frustration. The car was outside and it was raining lightly, but I figured I’d figure it out pretty quick. I was wrong. Who knew that wipers incorporate a rubik’s-cube-like mechanism to release the old blades… The front wipers required me to pry off a little plastic cover thing with my freezing, cold hands before I could remove the old wipers. On the rear window, however, the wiper was some super cheap thing with no release tab/mechanism. Eventually, I got so frustrated that I snapped the blade in half and ripped it off the wiper arm. Mission result: success. The new wipers were easy to install and, since I got the nicer brands, I think they will be easier to change next time. Still, there was a sense of pride in figuring out the solution to this problem.
There were several websites with instructions, but few had pictures. Also, there are like 5 different attaching mechanisms that various companies use.
BTW, I didn’t realize that wipers are sold in single packs, and I only bought one pack for the front windshield. So the front wipers on the car don’t match!!! I am so retarded =(. The one on the passenger side is an old, solid, ugly one, while the one on the driver side is more of a vented metal frame aerodynamic looking one. Since only the driver side wiper really matters, I didn’t bother going back to buy a new one for the right side of the windshield. It looks kinda funny…
Old Blogger | Kabitzin 1/22/2004 | 
Comments (0) 
