Was able to thaw it with a heat gun... Incidentally, we temporarily had radiant heat floors which was nice.

Nice and scary...in reverse order.  Glad you got it sorted.  That could ha' been a nightmare.

 

Jacob -- that was an emotional roller coaster.

There are two crappy quality connectors that flex when the CD player is hot, instead of just the one. Reseating it immediately fixes the issue. Unfortunately, the thing has to be diassembled to fix it, but we'll do that next time.

I see, one of those a lot of work for a small fix kind of things. Having the problem spotted is great news though.

I think it is just less prone to breaking if there is a freeze due to ability to expand.

 

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!

Packing for ski trip.

Video Skyped with my mother on her new iPad Air. I'd Skyped with her on new years day, having set up the call and handled the tech support issues over the phone. This time she initiated the call and manged it all pretty much all by herself. Not bad for an eighty year old.

Now, United outdoes themselves.  After waiting in line for several hours at the airport to get rebooked on an earlier flight, my father-in-law thought he was able to get seats on a flight on Monday (he is a little hard of hearing and gets confused though).  We get home and look on the computer to find out that my mother-in-law is booked for 2 flights on Wednesday and my father-in-law no longer has any reserved flights.  My husband has been waiting on the phone for about 2 hours to try and talk to someone and can't get through to anyone. Fuckers. 

 

Still couldn't get a hold of them this morning so we just bought one way tickets on Southwest for Tuesday.   [The problem is that my mother-in-law only has enough heart medication to made it until Tuesday.]

airlines are dicks. i think they make most of their money these days on change fees for business travelers, but apply the same shit to everyone else unfortunately

The Joys of Yield Management ... 

It would seem you are not alone http://aerlinesmagazine.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/the-impact-of-yield-management-in-the-airline-industry-on-customers-feelings-of-price-fairness/

Art thing with sisters, was awesome. He did things like spit wine in drops and make pictures of naked women with them. Sent from mah phone-blet via Tapatalk

Just returned from dropping my daughter off at LA's skid row.

 

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Notre Dame club is sponsoring a two day retreat for students working and serving the homeless in downtown LA.  It is one thing to read about these homeless folks and see the newscasts but to see them up close and personal camping out on Hope street (how ironic) in cardboard boxes and under tents made of painting tarps taped together kind of makes one reconsider their priorities. The college kids who are giving up the last few days of their Christmas vacation to work helping others are pretty special. 

Edited January 7, 201412 yr by Augsburger

Very cool of your daughter to do that, Greg. Best of luck to her!

Very cool of your daughter to do that, Greg. Best of luck to her!

this

Really great, Greg! My wife did stuff like that in college, and they are still some of the best memories and friendships she's made in her life! Kudos to her for the goodness she is spreading. I think and hope that she will end up being rewarded in unexpected ways ...

Kudos to your daughter Greg.

Very cool of your daughter to do that, Greg. Best of luck to her!

^This.

Very cool of your daughter to do that, Greg. Best of luck to her!

 

This!

Piling on: That's awesome!

Greg, very cool of your daughter!

 

Not quite the same but we just found out that Brittnie got a gig doing an externship at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division for this summer.  While I am proud, I now get to pay for an apartment in Tallahassee and D.C.  Go Noles!

Congrats to offspring of Greg and Mike!  Good stuff all around despite apartment costs.....

Congrats to Brittinie Mike! hopefully the DOJ can come up with some sort of living expenses (repay Dad for rent money) stipend.

 

And thanks for the kind words everyone, I will pass them along to Emily when she returns.

Edited January 7, 201412 yr by Augsburger

I was just fidgeting with my Blackberry (I know, I'm behind the times and should have an iPhone or whatever).  

 

Anyway, I've had this phone for several years, but have never bothered to figure out what the physical buttons on the side of the thing are for.  So I pressed one, and the voice activation system (which I didn't even know that it had) kicked in, and here's what happened next:

 

Phone:  "Say a command."

 

Me:  "Fuck off."

 

Phone:  "Did you say 'Call Grawk'?"

Awesome

I thought it was quite funny, Dan!  I'm glad you see the humor in it too.  I guess Grawk was the closest match, and there are hundreds of numbers stored in my cell, so you should be honored.

I think a lot of people have "fuck off" and "grawk" closely associated...

Went back to the rheumatologist to have my knee drained 

only 65 ml this time

And another cortisone injection to knee, due to my knee swelling up again. Frustrating.

Both helped, but I had hoped to avoid another visit, as before Christmas I was thinking of discontinuing physiotherapy as I had reduced swelling and made good progress,

and thought I was well enough to take a 10 day road trip to Vegas, etc.

Knee swelled up on trip, and I put it down to "too much, too soon" - loss of extension + flexion due to swelling - no loss of activation of quads as previously - thank goodness, but this may have set me back a bit.

Dr thinks It might be down to effects of previous cortisone injection wearing off.

Either way we have a baseline to work from - I'll see how my knee is next week to see if physiotherapy makes sense - it should be easier this time.

So If I look after my knee, in about two months time, we'll know if my knee has significantly improved, or if we are into a repeating cycle and we can look into medicinal treatment rather than rinse, repeat. Ho Hum.