Where to start? Since I last posted the bathroom has more or less been entirely finished. Once they finally vacated last Thursday (Day 10) I was overjoyed. There was a board game group at work that night so I hung out and played. I got home around 11 PM, before my wife who was out with friends, to find a puddle in the bathroom coming out from under the vanity. I looked and found that the cold water feed valve to the sink was leaking. I sopped up the water; put a deli container underneath and called the landlord to express my displeasure.

So, day 11 - they come back and fix the valve. I didn't bother to tell him that the seal around the new kitchen faucet was crap. I'll fix that on my own.

Saturday morning, day 12, I'm cleaning up and going to put down a bath mat and realize there is a 2" darkening of the floor around the toilet - what granite floors do when they are wet. So I call the landlord figuring there is some water seepage from the base of the toilet into the floor. No visible water just evidence there is moisture there. He comes over and visits. Long story short, today, day 13, the landlord and the contract stop by and fix the tiny leak in the vanity drain, I had also found on Saturday. The Landlord called me today and told me the contractor assures him there is no problem with the toliet. Not that I care, not my building, so whatever. But they did fix the leaky drain in the vanity.

Bottom line I am thoroughly unimpressed with this contractor's work. The obvious problems aside, the work overall is ripe with cut corners and things that I am going to feel compelled to go back over and dress up a bit. I have to look at them every day.

My friend Kathleen's (creator of theburg.tv) latest endeavor has kicked off in anticipation of it's kick-off.  The All-For-Nots is a band out to "conquer the world wide web..."

I'm excited to see what she's got up her sleeve as I really enjoyed the burg.

I still enjoy watching my favorite episode of the burg - Training. What can I say, I live in Queens and I love the Doppelgängers

All that is left is the vanity, the medicine cabinet, the light fixture over the vanity, and theoretically they are also going to install a new faucet in my kitchen.  The contractor thinks he can do all of this between 8 AM and 11 AM tomorrow.  Yeah right. 

At any rate, the floor is in; the new toilet is in; the shower is in (with my hand picked nice shower head) and I can take showers at home again.  Basically, as soon as he left today and had said I could use the shower I showered, just on principle.

What I'm really afraid of is what he's going to bring for the Vanity.  I mean I already have "Suburban Housewife's Italian Fantasy" (thanks Sarah)  I'm afraid I'm going to get a vanity to match.  It's become painfully clear that because I don't write the check for the work, I am a bystander to be dealt with.  If I really wanted to affect anything I'd have to throw a major fit and piss on the relationship with my landlord, who is pretty great.  Arghhhh.

Well, here is the latest progress. 

I'm guessing this is as boring for you as it is for me, but rest assured you're doing a good deed - this is really cathartic for me.

I love this 80's hit and I have no idea what it means. Apparently, it was a love song?

I promise not too re-point you to or repost EVERYTHING Noam (Pygmy Goats - Man's Best Friend) posts but damn if I can't NOT post this one.

Shawn, I totally get it now. I'd probably go for stew, seems a bit small for kebabs.

I guess it must be day 8... They started last Tuesday.  I'm starting to care less what my bathroom looks like and more that I just get one.  Landlord has said it might be done tomorrow.  Let's all hope together.

I will be using that, big time. I love me the color codes. 

I just want my bathroom back.

Day 5 - Yep they worked on Saturday

Day 6 - Oh yeah the tile is ugly.

GoolgeBlogscoped has an article about the Google Intranet

What the Google Intranet Looks Like

What do around 16,000 Google employees stare at in the morning when they’ve arrived at the office? They might be looking at Moma, the name for the Google intranet. The meaning of the name of “Moma” is a mystery even to some of the employees working on it, we heard, but Moma’s mission is prominently displayed on its footer: “Organize Google’s information and make it accessible and useful to Googlers.”

The article is not all that exciting a read. I don't know really anything about GoolgeBlogscoped and based on the obsessive fascinated tone of the entry I don't think I'll be reading them much.

My wife and I spent some quality time this weekend getting ourselves taken off of spammy useless catalogs we got in the mail.  It all started when we just started going through the mail pile.  She had a catalog in her hand and remarked, "I need to get taken off this one".  I grabbed it and the phone and dialed the 800 number.  Then she handed me another and another until I had called 19 retailers.  At which point we were flabberghasted that we were recieving so much junk.  There are two others Dover Publications and Anthropologie that have no telephone number that I could find in the catalogs.  So overall there are 21 that I attempted to get us removed from (19 successfully). 

Here is the list of catalogs and the 800 numbers if you're thinking about removing yourself, although you will likely need the catalog to provide exact address and name information:

1. The Sharper Image (800) 344-444
2. Garnet Hill (800) 622-6216
3. Red Envelope (877) 733-6383
4. sundance (800) 422-2770
5. Urban Outfitters (800) 282-2200
6. Athleta (888) 322-5515
7. Wine County Gift Baskets (800) 394-0394
8. The Container Store (800) 733-3532
9. Eddie Bauer (800) 426-8020
10. J Crew (800) 562-0258
11. Woolrich (877) 512-7305
12. Uncommon Goods (888) 365-0056
13. Neiman Marcus (800) 825-8000
14. L.L. Bean (800) 221-4221
15. Space.NK (212) 941-4222
16. Fossil (866) 510-4460
17. The Territory Ahead (800) 882-4323
18. Title Nine (800) 609-0092
19. Sahalie (800) 458-4438 (this one deserves special mention, when I called the woman on the phone told me there were THREE catalogs she could help me with.  So, she took me off ALL three, the other two I can't recall and have never heard of)

There are 3 we decided to keep:

1. Archie McPhee
2. Crate & Barrel (we're in the market for some furniture)
3. Heifer International (which incidentally is a philanthropic organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty)

We spread all the catalogs out on the floor and took some pictures so you could see how much stuff all this really is.

Friending, Ancient or Otherwise

“In tribal cultures, your identity is completely wrapped up in the question of how people know you,” he says. “When you look at Facebook, you can see the same pattern at work: people projecting their identities by demonstrating their relationships to each other. You define yourself in terms of who your friends are.”

In tribal societies, people routinely give each other jewelry, weapons and ritual objects to cement their social ties. On Facebook, people accomplish the same thing by trading symbolic sock monkeys, disco balls and hula girls.

While I was in Phoenix last week for Thanksgiving we did a little antiquing on 7th Avenue. We went to a great antique / architectural salvage place called

QCumberz Highly Recommend
4429 N 7th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85013
map

Long story short, we've been looking for a couch / love seat for our living room - something small and well suited for our tiny NYC apartment. Well we came upon the following and managed to get it for $99 - a bargain if you ask me.

My wife initially picked up on the idea of using them as a couch for our living room. I was a bit skeptical because I'm not a fan of goldenrod, but after the fellow at the store told me how easy they would be to re-upholster and I got a good look at them, I was sold. Now all I have to do is get them here from Phoenix - Road trip anyone?

It's certainly old news that Google has released the Android SDK with a $300K bounty for "the best" app. But there are some interesting posts being made on how Google may actually be slowing development down because there are about 10M incentives not to share your expertise and help other developers out.

Is the $10 million Android contest actually slowing developers down? by ZDNet's Garett Rogers -- People with any level of programming skills and a vivid imagination are looking at Google’s $10 million dollar carrot with wide eyes — but is the contest actually working the way Google expected? I’d have to say it’s not — right now anyway. The contest has effectively caused knowledgeable developers to have an [...]

If an inexperienced Java developer is looking to create something unique, they generally start with examples provided in the SDK. When what you need isn’t covered by those tutorials, the next logical stop is to look at documentation or ask for help. Unfortunately, the docs are a bit dry for developers who learn best by example — this is where user contributed code plays a very important role.

The fact there is close to $300,000 on the line for winning projects is making most people think twice about sharing stuff with the community. PHP-like documentation with associated user contributed code would make developing on the Android platform a dream — unfortunately there is no such thing. Unless you are an experienced Java programmer with the skills to interpret the provided documentation without extra code to look at, there is a good chance you are out of luck.

Truth be told, I'm not going to disclose what I'm developing for my entry. The poker folks will tell you - "the pot odds are right". Then again, I am going to be pretty unrelenting in my efforts to get this product together as are most others I'm sure.

Das Keyboard

Blank Keys to Type up to 100% Faster Like on a piano, since there are no keys to look at when typing, your brain will quickly adapt and memorize the key positions. Within a few short weeks users increase their typing accuracy and find themselves typing up to 100% faster.

I just can't justify something this indulgent. I'm already a touch typer who rarely looks at the keyboard. Would it really make me faster? I was counting on 8 hours of practice a day to do that.

Where did day 3 go you ask? Yeah, I'm not sure either. Between work and having construction taking over my bathroom I'm a little out of it.

End of Day 3 - I have a new ceiling.

End of Day 4 - I have a bathtub now and the plumbing is in.