Year: 2007

daltile – not so good retail experience

daltile is a company that makes tiles. As you may know we’re preparing to renovate our master bathroom and want to do a fair amount of tile work both in the water closet proper and in the vanity area – we’re replacing the carpeting (!) in front of the sinks and vanity with tile.

daltile does not sell directly to the public but they do have a nice showroom fairly near to where we work in Roswell. I’ve been there twice and both times dealt with Lynn Blanchet. This is a person who *really* should not be in retail. Pretty tightly wound if you know the type. The first time I dealt with her I just figured that she was having a bad day but we were able to get some information and samples from her so I didn’t think any more about it.

Yesterday we went by to get a bit more information and see about finishing our plans. We’d already met with our contractor and knew pretty much what we wanted but we needed some assistance in putting all the pieces together and getting final quantities determined so we could tell the contractor what to order.

So we showed up for our 2 pm appointment and all I can say is, woah! I have not had somebody behave so condescendingly towards us since I got out of grade school. Right away Lynn’s attitude was one of “Why are you even here?”. After a few questions and abrupt and not very helpful responses, we elected to just cut the appointment short and take our business elsewhere.

We did like the tiles we found but we’ll see if we can’t find something similar elsewhere. It’s going to be more effort in a project that’s already taking longer than I would like. But I try to make it a point to reward excellence and I think there are a lot of folks out there who would be happy to deal with us and sell their products.

Life and Death on the Serengeti (sort of)

Those of you who know me know that I’ve never been much of a cat or dog person. My pet of choice has traditionally been reptilian. Iguana or turtle specifically.

Of course that changed somewhat when I got married. For many moons now there have been cats and reptiles (and para reptiles if you want to be precise) living under the Bourassa roof.

1919Here is Maverick, he’s been with us since about 1997. We had two cats briefly as Maverick and Vern (who passed in 1998) ruled the roost together but Mav’s been on his own ever since.

1917

Now on the scene is Phebe (yeah, I know but that’s how it’s spelled on her nametag). She was a rescue who was passed on to us by friends who felt she needed the companionship that Maverick could offer. She’s such an affectionate cat that they felt bad leaving her at home when they all had to be away during the day.

1913

So the adventure begins. Mav is none too pleased with having to share his little empire. Phebe is just under a year old and full of energy and is one of the friendliest cats I’ve ever met. We started off keeping Phebe in a spare bedroom and letting Mav hear her “talk” and letting her get settled. We had hoped that he would become curious and eventually they could become aquainted through the door and then we could introduce them.

1910

Unfortunately, Mav’s position on all this was to simply ignore the cat behind the door. So we soon enough decided to let the two of them meet and get to know each other in the living room.

1915

When they first spotted each other, Mav simply froze, and Phebe did this amazing sloth/chameleon thing. I’ve never seen a cat move *that* slowly and precisely. Each paw slowly making it’s way forward, no sudden moves, eyes on the prize (Mav).

Every time she approaches Mav she takes the utmost care to not startle him. Or at least she did until recently. Mav insists on continually growling and, when she gets close enough, hissing at her. He’s clearly the submissive cat but he refuses to give in either. So now she approaches slowly.. carefully.. and then lunges at him. The yowling is pretty intense and no casualties among the cats so far. Mich claims that somebody hit her toe with a nail tonight so I suppose she’s the first victim of this conflict.

Anyway, progress is being made. Tolerances are becoming greater. I think, in a week or so, they will be at least civil to each other. I sure hope so anyway. I was on a conference call this morning when they decided to test boundaries again. I’m sure hoping that the contractors in India were being blamed for the background noise on that call…

I’ll post a more flattering picture of Phebe when all this is over. I took a couple of pictures while the camera was handy but that was during and just after a confrontation and she didn’t look very relaxed. For now, just enjoy the various conflict pictures.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention, I’m thinking of calling her “Jessica” instead. This is after the mother in “Dune”. A strong woman who, as a Bene Gesserit witch, had great control over her body and actions. It seemed fitting. Any opinions?

 

Space.com Sky calendar

Full Moon from Space.comThis site is excellent for laying out the simple astronomical events for the coming month. Telling you the date and time of the events along with great little pictures to help you visualize what’s about to come. It also includes handy icons with the event descriptions so that you will know the best tool to use for observation. i.e. Naked Eye, Binoculars or Telescope.

Unfortunately, tomorrow night will be a bust for trying to observe the Moon and Saturn in close proximity (always cool to actually see the moon moving relative to  a background object. But the forecast is looking pretty sweet for Saturday’s Total eclipse moonrise.

Check it out SPACE.com — NightSky

Should parents worry about vaccinating their children?

ABC News: Should Parents Worry About Vaccinating Their Children?:

I always enjoy John Stossel’s reports. But he’s one of the better kept secrets on TV. I find it very difficult to find the shows where his segments are aired.

This article demonstrates, yet again, how we worry about things that we shouldn’t, don’t about what we should and how the media’s insatiable need to sensationalize the irrelevant continues to feed an increasingly ignorant lay person’s (non) reality. Many opportunistic lawyers are not above pandering to these unfounded fears for their own gain either.

Remember – if you read / hear about it in the main stream media. It isn’t something worth worrying about.

Updated Collingwood Treetop walk videos

I just added these videos to YouTube as a more practical way of hosting them.

These are from our August 2005 trip to Canada where we visited Collingwood and did the Treetop Walking Adventure.

This video shows my perspective of the zipline at the end of the walk. I inverted myself to get a more exciting perspective:


This video shows the same scene but from the ground:

New Vision Fitness T9200 treadmill

1903

In the wake of the demise of my Tunturi J770 I went and picked up a new Vision Fitness T92000.

I primarily used “Consumer’s Reports” in making this decision. I wanted a simple, solid treadmill. The Vision Fitness units are novel in that they have several bases (3 non-folding that I looked at) and 3 consoles available that can be used with any of the bases.

I went and “test ran” the different base choices at lunch hour one day a couple of weeks ago and I elected to stay simple and picked up the T9200 base and the simple console. I was tempted by the deluxe console as I’m a sucker for the 5K program, but I’m so used to manually controlling my workout when I run indoors that it wasn’t enough of a feature to justify the extra cost.

The unit weighs in at a hefty 105 Kgs with the box included. I can tell you, *that* took a while to get out of my van and into the gym. My trusty little handcart was not going to be up to the job so I just had to muscle it over.

A couple of hours and a bit of sweat later I had the unit fully assembled and calibrated. For some reason (it was now after midnight) I didn’t feel much like doing my inaugural run at that point.

I now have a couple of runs under my belt and find I really like the unit. The old one had gotten progressively more noisy as the motor began to wear out and I was just used to it being that loud. This one hums along quietly and smoothly.

It has some nice “quick” features, such as “quick speed” and “quick elevation” that mean you don’t need to awkwardly hold onto an up or down button while trying to make major adjustments and run at the same time, such as when you break into a run after a couple of minutes of warm-up walking.

The only ‘nits I have about the machine – and these are really minor – are a) I’d kind of like to be able to see distance and time simultaneously on the display. I think I could have had this feature with the deluxe console so I don’t think I can really complain here. b) the heart rate display takes a LONG time to ramp up. Gripping the sensors after a hard run (not really feasible *while* running) has the display start at about 72 bpm – even though I *know* I’ll be up in the 130 -140 bpm range. It takes a good minute or so for the readout to climb to my actual rate. I presume this is so that the readings reflect a large sample so they can’t be skewed by, say, taking your hand off the sensor to wipe your forehead. I think it would be ideal for workouts where you can keep in contact with the sensor for the duration. The models in the store were like this as well so I’m confident it’s not merely an issue with my unit, this is by design.
As I said, minor little ‘nits. I regard viewing my heart rate as a novelty in any case. It really isn’t so hard to just take your pulse if you really want to know.

Tunturi J770 treadmill for sale

** Update October 30, 2009 **
Just wanted to highlight that I disposed of this treadmill back in 2007.  I just don’t believe in deleting blog entries.
** End Update **

1892I picked up this Tunturi J770 treadmill about 9 1/2 years ago and it’s seen light duty throughout those years.

These pictures show the unit without all the nice plastic end caps on it but I have those in my storage room.
1896

1894

This is a high quality treadmill that cost a little over $2,000 those many years ago. It’s solid for running on and I’ve enjoyed it greatly.
The motor on it is spent, but the rest of the unit is in perfect working order. I was having trouble tracking down a new motor for it so I decided to splurge and get myself a new treadmill. If you have the resources to dig up a replacement motor this is an excellent unit. The running belt still has plenty of wear left in it.

You can have this unit for $200 if you come and pick it up. Leave me a comment if you’re interested.