dj whitebread
Friday, August 29, 2008
Shower
The handyman guy is putting the final touches on the siding outside. That's right... we have a functional shower again. It has been exactly three weeks since we stopped using our shower. I am very happy that this is all done.
The amusing thing was the plumbing repair took literally 10 minutes. The shower pipe just had to be reconnected. That was it. However, getting there took a little longer.
There was the outside siding. Then foam insulation. Then the original masonite siding, which had to be sawed through. Then backer board, which had to be sawed through. Then finally, the puffy fiberglass insulation that just got pulled off... and then, there were the pipes. Amazing... all that for such a simple fix. Our next residence needs to have special plumbing access doors. This is ridiculous.
But, the net effect is that I have a shower. Thank God.
9:50 AM |
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Bathroom update
There is a strong possibility that the guest bathroom will be back to functional as of Friday. I'll see it when I believe, but here's hoping.
4:50 PM |
Sunday, August 10, 2008
It's official...
there are less than 24 hours until my defense. That fact (and the realization thereof) is totally blowing my mind.
I have some work to do today on the slides. Harrick is here, and we'll probably go through the slides this afternoon. I've tightened them up a good bit and added more contextual story, so I think the flow is much improved.
Showering at the gym is kind of a pain, I'm not going to lie. I'm sure the plumber is going to call me during my defense tomorrow to give me the quote on the outside work to fix the guest bathroom. Note to self... turn off cell phone.
So Friday was pretty unpleasant, I think most people will give me that. But honestly, I am still thankful of all the wonderful blessing and opportunities I've been given in my life. Yeah, I can't shower at home and my laptop got stolen... but I still have a wonderful, loving, beautiful wife. I still have a fantastic family that has always supported me. I have amazing friends who I count as family. And barring disaster, I should have a Ph.D. in the next week. All in all, I really can't complain. There are so many people out there in the world who have nothing, and who face horrible injustice everyday that I really can feel nothing but lucky.
And regarding the person who actually stole the laptop. I mean, yes I am angry at them. But most of all, I just feel pity for somebody who's life has gotten to the point where stealing something like that is the best option. It's sad, and that is the feeling that I have when I think about it all.
But like I said, there's too much good in my life to be sad or angry for more than a little bit. Time to focus on the good, focus on the work, and get through these last few days and the defense tomorrow morning.
Labels: laptop, plumbing, work
10:33 AM |
Friday, August 08, 2008
Really?
Today was supposed to start with a nice breakfast with Carrie. Then I was going to come into school and start working on my talk, specifically, try to write out a script so that I could go between the slides smoothly. Needless to say... not so much.
A plumber showed up this morning to inform us that our other shower seems to be leaking. Not into our neighbors apartment, thank goodness, but down inside the outside wall. So basically, they are going to take the siding off outside our door and cut through the exterior sheetrock to check out the pipes. Fantastic.
That was not exciting. But I figured I could just come to school and try to bury my head in work. I stopped downstairs to get some breakfast tacos and when I got up to my cube, I noticed my monitor was nothing attached mode. I then looked over and noticed a severe lack of a laptop. Probing a little bit further I noticed a nice clean cut in the lock I use to secure my laptop. Yep, that's right... somebody just stole my laptop. And when I say "my," I really mean somebody just stole the University of Texas at Austin's laptop. Luckily, they did not steal my external hard drive that was sitting on my desk, so all my data including my dissertation (which is backed up in other places as well) and my presentation slides and graphics are all safe on their. Thank God for Time Machine. I also realized we should be able to figure within what hour of time it got stolen because Time Machine backs up every hour... that will make it pretty easy to pin down.
Let me just say... I usually take my laptop home if I leave work at a normal time and don't plan on returning. I only leave it on my desk when I stay late and know I will be getting in the morning. Last night I left around midnight, and I got to my desk right around 9 AM. The elevators in ACES don't open up until 7AM. Not to mention that somebody was walking around with cable cutters. Luckily, my laptop is password protected, so you can't just hop on and use it. But I'm sure it's at a pawn shop by now. I'm waiting for Sara to get in so that I can send the UTPD the serial number and UT tag number for the laptop so that they can enter that in the database of stolen stuff. Seriously, there's apparently a database of stolen stuff that pawn shops will check on. Well, reputable pawn shops anyway.
So yeah... defense is Monday. Nothing like throwing a few mountains of stress on right before. Woohoo!
9:47 AM |
