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A tale of two web sites
I’m a frequent shopper at my local big-box home improvement warehouse chains. I’ve got my pick of them, too — at last count there were 3 Lowes and around 8 Home Depots within 30 minutes drive of my house. Welcome to the Baltimore-Washington corridor. I’m also a web surfer. I like to plan projects at…
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Snowblower
It’s actually snowing here in the mid-atlantic, although I’m predicting another non-event similar to so many others we’ve had in the past 3 winters. I think that when all is said and done, we’ll end up with maybe an inch and a half of snow, not quite enough to cover the grass, topped with a…
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Sony Universal Remotes
I just bought a pair of Sony Model RM-VL600 universal remote controls (or “remote commanders” as Sony likes to call them), and figured I’d post my first impressions. First, a little bit of background. All of our TV comes over the air — no cable, sattelite, or FiOS. Upstairs we have an old analog TV…
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They warned me
Everyone warned me the time would fly by, and they were right. Today was my oldest son’s first day of kindergarten. In what seems like the blink of an eye, he’s gone from infant, to toddler, to preschooler, to kindergartener. Kind of scary how the time flies. Next thing I know he’ll be in high…
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Weekend update
Kind of a lazy weekend so far. It’s too cold to really want to go out and do anything, so everyone is just puttering around the house. Yesterday I drained the pool water back down below the tile line. First time doing that so far this winter. Since closing, the water had crept back up…
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Back to the grind
The holidaze are now in the rear-view mirror, I’m back at work, the kids are back in school, and we’re back to our normal, boring day-in day-out routine. For me, unlike the previous two years, the break didn’t feel too long. That may have been because it was only two weeks as opposed to 16-18…
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Summer’s almost over
Well, here it is late summer again. And I must say — I’m ready for fall. If you’d have told me 20 years ago that I’d be writing that now, I’d have looked at you like you were crazy. But it’s true.. I’m just not crazy about summer these days. It’s not really the heat…
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What a week
Timeline for last week: Monday, April 3: Our second child, Andrew Charles, is born via c-section. Birth weight is 8 lbs, 4 ounces. Length 21″. Tuesday, April 4, really early A.M.: Our older boy, Michael, comes down with the “Stomach Bug Of Death” (hereafter referred to as “SBOD”). Frequent projectile vomiting, diarrhea, malaise, and general…
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Maryland’s iFile
Well, I filed the taxes this morning, and for the second year I filed the fed taxes electronically with TaxCut, and for the Maryland state taxes I used TaxCut to prepare the return and then filed online with Maryland’s free iFile system. Net cost: $15.95 fed eFile fee – $15.95 H&R Block eFile rebate, +…
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The TracFone Activation Saga
My family bought a TracFone prepaid phone as a Christmas gift for my Grandmother. I got the fun job of activating it. Most of these prepaid phones are self-activated using the carrier’s web site, and TracFone is no exception. Christmas Day, around 1:00pm: Installed the SIM card and battery into the phone, a Nokia 1100.…