Today I got a few things from Home Depot to start a little garden in my back yard. It’s a small modest vegetable garden, but I hope to ‘grow’ it in the future. I got 2 tomato plants, 1 bell pepper, and a few green onions. I also ran some drip irrigation with a timer so I don’t forget to water it and kill it. I also installed another security camera in that area so I can monitor the garden remotely as well as keep an eye on that site of the house.
Yesterday my kitchen faucet decided that water should come out in all other directions in addition to downward. It was spraying water out all around the handle. I never did like that thing and this was the perfect opportunity to replace it with a new one. So today I spent a great deal of time under my kitchen sink. Removing the old faucet was a pain in the butt. I didn’t have the proper tool to remove the large plastic nuts, so I made my own tool using an old pipe and a hack saw. 
I then went to Home Depot and selected a nice shiny new American Standard Fairbury Single Control Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet which has a new lower price of only $98. I installed it and sealed around it with silicone. I also re-sealed around the sink with silicone as well. Looking rather spiffy now.
Today I cleaned out the gutters which were neglected for probably 20 years. It took a while because they were totally filled with muck and roof debris. I had to replace a few nails too. I then washed both my car and Dave’s truck because I managed to spray them both down with lots of dirty gutter water. Then I replaced my mailbox with a shiny new one! And finally I repaired 2 leaking toilets. Tired now. Just wana play games for the rest of the day. 
On Sat 11/21 we had Sausagefest 2009. As usual there were many friends and lots of sausage. I made sure both grills were working properly to maximize throughput. Victor and Kenji did a great job organizing the event. We had two video game rooms going. One for Singstar and one for the new Mario game for Wii. Here’s the pics.
This morning I evicted the flying rats, i.e. pigeons, from their perch in my front entry. Weeks ago they setup nest on top of a pillar by my front door. It was cute at first but then they got big and started pooping on everything from the walkway to the walls to the lights, to the mailbox! At this point in time I think they all just hang around because they like to sleep here at night and scare guests approaching the front door as they sit on the light ready to go in for the kill. This morning I washed out the area thoroughly and put up metal screen to keep them out. YAY!
The past 2 weekends I have been concentrating on moving all my stuff from my parents garage to my garage. It is quite a task as you can imagine. I have accumulated A LOT of electronics junk over the years. Some of it I will consolidate, some I will toss. Last weekend dad helped me move my workbench and shelves. My garage is almost exactly the same configuration as my parents’ garage so the workbench fit right in with minimal modification. This past week and weekend I assembled the shelving which was challenging all by myself, and I put up pegboard. I also did the electrical for the bench and lighting. All on GFCI of course so I don’t shock myself.
After:
Don’t get me wrong now. I like dogs in general. I just hate the little ones that live next door to me. Those little rats just never shut up! If there’s a cat or skunk oout there at midnight, they will bark incessantly for 3 hours solid! It totally sucks. It gets most annoying when I am trying to watch a quality movie on the big screen with those irritating yipping sacks of fur going off all the time. I am sorry if this seems harsh but I’ve had to put up with this for over a year now.
The Solution: Punish them with SCIENCE!. I bought a device that looks like a bird house but actually delivers a burst of high frequency sound that dogs do not like whenever they bark. I have modified it so that it is powered externally. This means no batteries to replace. Also I have wired it up to my AMX automation system. From the touch panels we can turn the Bark Control device on and off as well as see its current stats. i.e. Is it delivering auditory pain waves or not. The manual states it is good for up to 50 feet. I have placed it on the corner of the fireplace pointed straight at the neighbor’s backyard.
So far it seems to be working a little. not a 100% reduction but there is a difference. It may take more time for the dogs to learn how it works based on their individual stupid levels. Here’s some pics of the device and the mod.
Today I did something constructive! I FINALLY installed the lights I bought months ago for the front of my house. I placed two on the front of the garage and one outside the front door’s security door. The house has one light inside the security door by the front door, but the security door blocks too much light and we could never see who is at the door at night. We also could not see the doorknob to unlock it at night. My friends and room mates started using ‘indirect messages’ to make me do this when months of direct requests to install the lights were ignored by myself.
YOU HAPPY NOW GUYS!?!?!? Ya, I thought so!!! LOL
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