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After 13 years of relationship, Emma and I went into Wash, DC and applied for a marriage license! She's going to make an honest woman of me yet!
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The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks different on this wall
than it does on this wall,
and a whole lot different
on this wall over here,
but it is still sunlight.
We have borrowed these clothes,
these time and space personalities,
from a light,
and, when we praise,
we put it back in.
Just as one man can be a father to you
brother to another and uncle to yet another,
what you are searching for has many names
but one existence.
Stop looking for one of the names.
Move beyond attachment to names.
Every war and conflict between human beings
has happened because of some disagreement about
the names.
It’s such unnecessary foolishness
because just beyond the arguing,
where we are all one people,
there is a long table of companionship
beautifully set
and just waiting for us to sit down.
It turned out to be a mess, and the installer had no idea what he was doing ...
]]> First, the mess - I had pre-wired to the TV and to our office just to speed things up - I ran RG-6 to the old phone block side of the house - but the installer said he had to run the fiber under the powerlines and install to the opposite side of the house(!).Then, he assured me lashing the coax to the power line wouldn't cause a hum problem, even tho I warned him it wasn't a good idea. And when he installed internet, he got the router working and surfed my machine to CNN and then some other site to verify it was working. But he actually tried to load some Windows executable onto my machine. Of course, its a Mac Mini, so it wouldn't install, but I pulled the keyboard away after that and said I'd do anything else he needed. He then connected the line going downstairs to the splitter behind the desk and we heard a HORRIBLE hum from my stereo - I rushed downstairs and turned off all my power amps and such - Then I told him That was it - no deal- pull all this junk out, I'm NOT accepting your install.
I powered down all the junk in the basement and he drove away, leaving the router with me (!) He refused to leave with it, so I had to take it to UPS and get to shipped back.
After the holiday I made a phone call to VERIZON and talked to a CSR who cleared everything up for me, told me how to ship back the router/modem and all of that.
Of course, today I get my first bill for the service! I called again and explained all I had was POTS, same old copper line as before - and nothing was installed, nothing extra would be paid for! She sorted that out, then we found they had slammed some kind of unlimited LD service on my bill, at $21 a month. I told her to remove that as I never ordered that and since I didn't USE LD service, why would I even buy such a feature?
Here is the deal. I had a $35 credit on my account from overpaying my May bill - normal phone bill is $30-35, so this should have been a bill for roughly zero ... So, there should be no need to pay anything this month - but I'll send a check for $30 just to show I'm not delinquent.
Let's see if they manage to get it sorted out by next month.
If its wrong next month I'll give them another call, and again, wait and see.
Bottom line, I have a perfectly fine cell phone with SPRINT - it'd be a shame to kill the VERIZON landline, but if they can't get the bill right, why enable further incompetence on their side?]]>After 13 years of relationship, Emma and I went into Wash, DC and applied for a marriage license! She's going to make an honest woman of me yet!
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The Beautiful South: Miaow
You've gotta love this update on the old RCA Logo. But for contractual reasons, this album art was prohibited and the band went with a couple dogs in a lifeboat in a stormy sea. ]]>
My upstairs speakers are based on a mid-70s pair of JBL L200 speakers. I loved the look of the cabinets, but the sound was a bit limited. So I added 2405 slot super-tweeters and built new crossovers to make them 3 ways. A few months back I bought a pair of JBL 2397 Smith horns - they are mid-range horns, made of grey painted MDF, and designed for a 2 inch compression driver, tho I'm using them with a pair of adapters and my (cheaper) 1 inch drivers. They replace the "round" horns that are in the cabinets, hidden behind the textured foam grill. They sounded very nice but the grey industrial paint was UGLY. So, I found an audio friend who offered to make me a pair in nice wood, and I chose walnut, to match the JBL L200 Cabinets they sit on. They look great and sound WONDERFUL!
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Watch this space! http://savetheblade.com/
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For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.
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The system uses an aluminum track that gets screwed to the wall, and has wooden brackets with metal tips to support the shelves
The problem is the dressers, cabinets and desk unit have these hooks bolted to the inside - and they don't mesh with the aluminum tracks - so there must be some additional fitting or adapter that I don't have thats needed to hang those units to the tracks 
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It's Teak veneer with Birch drawer interiors - each piece is 35 1/2 wide, tho the height and depth vary. 
Its a little rough and the seller wants way too much money, but its flexible and doesn't rely on proprietary hardware like that old SCAN system I got in FEB ...
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A friend gave us a small plastic pond, and this year I dug a hole for it, wrapped it with a rubber pond liner and formed an overflow into the creekbed, then stacked around it with rocks I found in our yard ... I put a few plants around it and laid some square slate pieces around it for a surround. Don't like the look of the slate, but it will do for now.
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