Category: Daily Life
Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.
Seeking Referral – Pest Control
Hello Knoxville! I’m looking to establish a contract with a pest control company. I want regular inspections for termites. I’m looking for someone that can advise or treat for carpenter bees and carpenter ants. I’d like a company that can advise on environmentally friendly methods (grubs etc) versus chemicals. I may be seeking treatments for mosquitoes too.
What companies in Knoxville should be considered? Which ones should be avoided?
Bathroom renovation needs a $6400 toilet
We are nearing the end of our bathroom renovation. I think this would complete it:
Things that should go unsaid
"Hey, the stairwell light is working today!"
Driving Knoxville’s First Racetrack
Knoxville’s first racetrack, and location of the first airplane landing in Knoxville, was built by an ex-slave who made a fortune burying the Civil War dead. His racetrack still exist and in this video we drive it.
Nothing starts your day like…
…painting trim on the clubhouse! A carpenter bee found one of our untreated boards but we caught it early so hopefully all will be well.
This weekend’s project – preparing to paint the bathroom
Each weekend, we debate: bathroom or clubhouse. This weekend bathroom won with preparing the drywall for painting.
Best ev’r reminder service fails to its own success – RIP Jott.com
I can’t remember…oh right, RIP Jott.
"We founded Jott in April of 2006. … In 2006 Jott emerged as a leader in mobile voice-to-text applications… we will focus our voice-to-text service investments on carrier and enterprise distribution, and no longer on Jott.com." [Source, Jott blog]
Of all the services I’ve played with and have seen go, this is the first that almost brought a tear to my eye. 
My first Jott was on September 5, 2007 at 9:54am. I spoke into my phone and the service translated my words to text. I would later learn that Jott used a combination of computer software and people at call centers. I imagine that if the software failed to understand a word, that segment of the message would be pushed to a queue and transcribed by person. Jott sat on my speed dial and I could verbally leave a message, send it to another service like Remember The Milk or another person via email/sms/etc, and even set a reminder which would send the transcribed message to me via SMS. I even had Jott installed as the default software for my Jawbone Icon
How the hell am I going to remember anything?! (Springpad of course!)
From the mouths of babes
iPhone: *barrrring bringg*
Amy, 8 years old: "What’s our family’s email address?"
Me: "Um. What do you need it for?"
Amy: "I want to comment on videos on Youtube."
Me: "Uh. We need to talk…"
Knoxville STEM School Excites Students
The student/parent orientation and final tour of the STEM school before major renovation begins was this week. Noah received his official acceptance letter and will be one of 43 students in the sophomore class. A graduating class of 43! My graduating class from Germantown High School in 1988 was 672 people. I can only imagine how unique and special Noah’s education will be. The orientation was akin to a family reunion. Everyone seemed to know each other and be very like minded with regard to the goals of education. The principal is extremely enthusiastic. I have high hopes and think the Knoxville STEM Academy will do great! Oh, one of the highlights was the announcement that all students will be issued an iPad 2. There will be no textbooks. I’m thrilled and I’m thrilled for Noah.
Video source: WBIR.
Heard in 5 states!
What was I doing this morning between 9am and 10am? Hanging out with Bob Thomas, Ed Brantley, Mike Howard, and Brian Hornback on WNOX‘s The Ed and Bob Show! I had a blast! I hope they do this segment again. I think we could have talked for 8 hours on various blogging topics. Shoot, privacy and safety could be an entire show.
- Brian blogs at http://brianhornback.blogspot.com/ and tweets as @brianhornback.
- Bob Thomas tweets as @BobThomasWNOX
- Ed Brantley tweets as @edbrantley
- WNOX is online at http://www.wnoxfm.com/ and can be found on Twitter as @WNOX1003 and the studio is live streamed for video through Justin.tv
- The Ed and Bob show has a webpage, a Facebook page and can be found on Twitter as @ed_and_bob. The show accepts callers at +1-865-243-TALK (8255) or text messages to 41513
- Shameless plug: Cathy McCaughan blogs at http://domesticpsychology.com
Where’s the Jeep?!
I wish Clara Peller was still around to narrate this post for me. She could squawk out, "Where’s the Jeep?" See, last night was the parent and student orientation for Knoxville’s newest high school, the STEM Academy and my 14 year old son will be attending in the fall as a sophomore. With a household of seven, mobilizing our crew is no simple matter and when the plans get changed at the last minute, anything goes. Last night the plan changed to me staying at my client’s office and the family picking me up for the orientation. The STEM school orientation was incredible. The principal is so enthusiastic and everything about the school fits into my vision of the future of our education down to the students being assigned iPad 2’s! The gathering was like a reunion. So many familiar faces showed that it felt like family and the school hasn’t even opened. But that’s for another post. Where’s the Jeep? Well, we left so excited (and with a 5 and 8 year old up past bedtimes) that we just drove home. Muscle memory steered the van, not logic. And the sad, forgotten Jeep stayed somewhere overnight in its lonely parking spot, leaving me this morning with but one question…how do I get to my client’s office today?!
n.b. The Neon has an engine that goes cachug kachug cachug right now and expired tags so it’s not an option. Taking the van strands Cathy at home.
Monday
Oh Monday…
- can’t find parking pass
- tags on Jeep expired
- shoe rubbing heel raw
- fingers cut to pieces from shingling in the dark
- iPhone feels dirty since I haven’t been able to restore it from its latest backup
- one eye itching and watery…no, Spriiiing
- head filled with smog
- today needs to be my administrative day where I just deal with the bureaucracy in my life
- the lights are too bright
- Rain coming and the roof ridge on the club house needs 2 hours or so.
- still no toilet in the upstairs bathroom although progress was made on drywall
- client obligations weighing heavy on my mind
Computer Lesson of the Day
If you find yourself asking, "I wonder how hot that heat sink is?" use an infrared thermometer
Dogboarding
So wrong, yet so right.
Dogboarding from DANIELS on Vimeo.
