Tuesday - 2008-0429-0830 - Rain - London - Shaftesbury Avenue; Trojan-Spy.HTML.Fraud.gen; Saturday; Sanding Living Room Windows; Federal Tax Return; Lowe's Shopping - Sander, Paints; WalMart - Atomic Clock, Unit Pricing; Visit from a Lawn Care Pro; People Selling Chocolate Bars; Sugar High; Lights in Ichban; Lowe's and Bamboo Flooring

Rain - London - Shaftesbury Avenue Larger Image

Another photo by Juan-Luis. "My first office at work overlooked Shaftesbury Avenue from the 4th floor, and with the rain on the window I couldn't resist."

I wonder why I like fuzzy images. It may be because it requires more action by my brain; it causes me to do some type of analysis of the points of light and shadow. It intrigues my curiosity.

I've started getting a bizarre assortment of e-mail. Lots of message that appear to have originated from my address but are returned because of an incorrect destination. Messages warning me that as a customer of some entity that I should be on the watch for tricksters. Of course, I'm not a customer of said entity. It's as if there has been a complete switch from the more traditional e-mails from a fictitious individual.

An e-mail arrived the other day, and I thought I could examine it without opening it. Under the "file" listing at top, you can select "properties" which gives you two choices: general and details. Under "details," you will see "message source." This is the "raw" info of the message. It will show the actual origination point and the path. In the past this has been a way to look at the mechanics of the message without opening it.

But not this time. It triggered the anti-virus software. And fortunately quarantined the message. The virus was the "Trojan-Spy.HTML.Fraud.gen." The anti-virus info says, "This family of Trojans utilizes spoofing technology. The Trojans themselves are contained in fake HTML pages. Messages, purportedly from banks, financial institutions, internet stores, software companies etc. are sent to users. These messages contain a link to the fake page; this link exploits the Frame Spoof vulnerability in Internet Explorer."

This tells me that I most likely should not even attempt to look at the source info.

I have no idea what I did Saturday. I think I still felt so-so and didn't don anything.

My big accomplishment for Sunday was sanding the windows in the living room. First I used a wire brush drill bit. But that has a tendency to "tear" the wood. I was thinking I could use it to get at some of the wavy parts of the wood. I then moved over to the orbital sander. Which did a great job. But I still was left with lots of small areas that were unreachable. I was very impressed with how well the wood looks.

I bought the pre-stain, stain, and gloss coat last week. I wish they would attach directions in larger print. The gloss coat can has light black letters on a silvery label. Almost impossible to read.

Over the weekend, I checked my bank account on-line and discovered that my tax refund has been deposited Friday. A very pleasant surprise. Especially considering that I filed the return on the 12th or 13th.

With the refund available, I was able to hit Lowe's Monday like a drunken sailor in Singapore.

First item I went after was a special sander that would allow me to reach those spots that I could not reach before.

I also picked up a gallon of satin "Pebblestone" paint, a grayish brown color, for the east wall of the living room. And two quarts of high gloss of a dark, almost chocolate-colored paint called "Sweet Bark."

The master plan is to have two opposite walls in satin "Pebblestone"; two opposite walls in eggshell "New Haven Clay", a light terra-cotta hue; with high-gloss "Sweet Bark" for the base and door trim. I'm still undecided about the crown molding. I'm thinking of going with "Sweet Bark" for it also. However, the molding is polyurethane, so it will require a different primer. Now that I think of it, the shutters are polyurethane,. But I used a spray primer and color. Hmmmm! Decisions, decisions.

I discovered that cheap tray liners are available for paint trays. I've been using trays for one color paint, but then finding out I could not use it for another color paint.

All-in-all, a very successful expedition.

My next stop was WalMart for some food and assorted household items. I also needed to buy a new Atomic Clock. The one I had suddenly started constantly changing the date and would not stop. (Damn! I should have pulled the batteries and re-set it. Duhhhhh!)

How stores decide on unit pricing has to be one of the great mysteries of the universe. I wanted some heavy-duty scrub sponges. They were priced as follows: six for $5.97; three for $2.97; or two for $0.97. All exactly the same item. If you think about it, if you get three packages of two, you'll have a total of six for half the price of the largest package. I guess they figure if they make the pricing as complicated as possible, no one will catch on.

Friday when the garage sale ladies stopped by, I was pointing out the sheer size of the property. (Remember the total property is almost an acre; and the back is very time-consuming to keep up.) The lady from Sussex, indicated she knew someone who was very good and fairly inexpensive. I gave her my number, and he called and stopped by about 30 minutes later.

I was extremely impressed. And it turns out that he is related to someone I worked with, in fact a former supervisor, for whom I have a tremendous respect. WE set a price for the back.

But what was very exciting was that he had ideas on how to rework the beds near the house with plants that would compliment the look of the house. To my overworked brain, this was wonderful news. And he had some suggestions on how to improve the look of the front lawn. He even took a soil sample.

He also had some very positive comments about the house, even asking how I done certain things.

As I was watching "Top Gear," someone knocked on the door, and it was two ladies selling chocolate bars for some church function. One lady said she deliberately wanted to visit because she was so impressed with what I'd done with the house. Of course, I wanted to rush over and hug her. This led to a 30-minute conversation of what I'd done and what I was planning to do. And the ladies were absolutely fascinated by everything.

I'm unaccustomed to compliments, so to receive two unsolicited on the same day, sent my brain chemistry into overdrive. It took me about an hour to come down. I felt like I gobbled a box of Whitman samplers.

At lunch today, I was noticing the lights around the buffet area. It is circular in design, covered by a giant umbrella canvas. On the outside are spherical lights about three inches in diameter. For some reason, I realized that the lights were actually above and shining down into the varying colored glass spheres which are marked by tiny interior bubbles. The sphere are held in place by three metal prongs. I was transfixed by the very clever idea that I'd never noticed before.

After lunch I stopped at Lowe's to find out more about flooring. I'm quickly reaching the point where flooring will soon need to be addressed. It far more complicated than I thought. The floors can be laminate, engineered or actual wood. They can be glued, nailed or floated above the current floor. They also require a combination vapor barrier/underlay. Different floors meet different criteria. Yikes!

However, I did find out that I can get genuine bamboo floor that can be placed using a lock and fold method. " Only very recent have we seen the lock and fold. No glue or tapping is required. Boards are placed on a cushioned underlayment connected one by one with adjoining pieces actually folding over to create a secured connection or fit."

The following link Bamboo Flooring gives an idea of the look of the floor.

(In Tuesday - 2008-0429-0830 / Out - 2008-0430-0015) This entry was written in mutiple settings.

Pax! Erin go braugh! Je accuse...