August 31, 2007

Tuesday Teaser gift card winner for August

Another month is drawing to a close. As August dwindles away it’s time to draw a name to determine who wins the big, big prize for the month. As usual, the names were printed out, the list was cut into strips and they were all folded up and placed in the official money mug, where one would turn to gold.

Teysha is in Pre-K this year and stays with Grandpa Roy (my next door neighbor) each day after school. Grandma Dot had just gotten home from work and held the money mug so Teysha could draw the name. She was so excited that she started unfolding the winning slip almost before I could get a picture.

And the winner is … Pelf! She’s won a $10.00 gift card from Amazon or Starbucks.

I told Teysha that Pelf is a turtle lady. She thought that was very cool and a wonderful reason to jump up and down and clap her hands. I think it’s pretty cool, too.

Congratulations to Pelf and to all of the Tuesday Teaser winners for August. Mahalo to you all for playing! See you next Tuesday.

Technorati Tags: contest, contest winner, prize drawing

Work shoes and boots

When I first got into pest control there weren’t a lot of women doing what I did. There were other women who came before me, but there were only a few in the New Orleans area. My initial training and my first route handled residential pest control with a few small businesses thrown in. Seven months later I applied for a transfer to a commercial/industrial route. My boss said “no,” the work was too heavy for a woman. That was already illegal back in 1980, but people got away with it anyway. I was tenacious and worked out a deal with the boss. I was given probationary approval to work the route for a few weeks to see if I could handle it. At 5′3″ and a hundred and ten pounds on a good day, I was a little bit of a thing, but I soon proved that my small size did not keep me from doing a good job. My biggest problem was not a chauvanistic boss or accomplishing the required tasks. It was finding the right work clothing and safety gear. By far the biggest hurdle was finding work shoes that suited my need.

My clients on that first industrial route included marine fabricators and suppliers, a gypsum manufacturing plant, a couple of oil refineries and other heavy industrial sites. Well-run industrial facilities will not allow you to enter their plants without appropriate safety gear, so I had to find pair of work boots right away. It was a maddening search and I just could not find a local supplier who was ready for that first wave of women moving into the traditionally male blue collar work force. I ended up buying a cheap pair of men’s steel-toe work boots in the smallest size I could find, and I wore them for several weeks while I waited for a more appropriate pair that I had to special-order.

Two decades later you gals in the workforce are so much better off, and so are all of the guys! MetBoots.com carries every kind of work shoe and can provide precisely what you need. Good work shoes aren’t just about meeting safety regulations. A well-fitted work shoe will keep your feet comfortable and healthy, contributing to your overall well-being. MetBoots has men’s and women’s styles for every type of work situation, in a range of styles that is simply astounding. For those of you who don’t need the heavy-duty steel-toes like I used to wear, there are work shoes, safety shoes and boots that are so stylish that you’ll be totally comfortable wearing them away from the work site, too. Actually, there are even fashionable steel-toe shoes and boots available now. The marketplace has evolved to meet the changing needs of the workforce over the years, and MetBoot is a fine example of that. Their prices are competitive, too (believe me, I know what work shoes and boots cost!) and they offer free shipping on orders over a hundred dollars. My son is not exactly faithful about reading my blog, so I’m sending him the link to MetBoots.com. He doesn’t need heavy-duty work shoes, but he’s on his feet all day dealing in a casino. He thinks the sun rises and sets on Doc Marten’s. He’s going to love the huge selection of Doc’s available at MetBoots.com.

Technorati Tags: safety shoes, work shoes, work boots

August 30, 2007

That’s what she said

When I first started doing Tuesday Teasers I was hoping it would be something fun for my regular readers and that it might attract a few new readers to my blog. My little puzzle game has met those expectations. There’s been an additional benefit, though, that I had not anticipated. Each week I review a blog for my winner. My readers get an introduction to a blog they might not have visited before, the contest winner gets a little linky love and I get to explore new and interesting blogs each week. That, for me, has turned out to be as enjoyable as the puzzle itself. I’ve had some fun the last few days getting to know Kelly over at her blog, That’s what she said.

Kelly is fun. She’s young (she and hubby both recently celebrated their thirtieth birthdays) and she brings youthful enthusiasm to her blog. I know there are people out there who won’t understand or appreciate this, but I love the way she absolutely bubbled while describing a recent visit to The Old Burying Ground in Beaufort, North Carolina. See, we Southerners know that our history comes alive through the stories we find in the cities of the dead. I grew up thinking it was “normal” to routinely visit the graves of strangers and it’s something I still do today, so I knew I’d found a kindred spirit when Kelly started her post with :

“I was so dorkily excited about going to the Old Burying Ground while we were in Beaufort. We took a ghost tour on Thursday night and went by there (along with Blackbeard’s house), and heard some creepy stories. I was anxious to go back in the daytime and get some photos. ”

A ghost tour! I think I’m in love with Kelly. Okay, maybe not, but I know I’d enjoy going on vacation with her. I’d have to kennel my dogs while we traveled, though. I’m not letting her near my boys now that I know she tortures innocent animals. Sure, she says it was an accident, but I’m not going to take any chances, ya know? She’s done her penance, though, by providing a link to an animal shelter in her sidebar, so one can hope that she’s on the road to redemption.

Kelly writes well and covers a range of topics on her blog. She reviews music and books, shares her daily life and makes cookies using Alton Brown recipes. Couldn’t you just hug her for that? (Alton Brown may pretend to be a food science nerd, but I pink puffy heart him anyway.) Her blog is clean and well-organized, though it would be nice if she’d add an “about me” page for people like me who enjoy that kind of stuff. Or for people like me who want to know all about her because they have to review her blog. Just kidding, Kelly! I’ve enjoyed the research and will be back to read more. Y’all should check her out, too. She’s fun!

Technorati Tags: blog reviews, blogs

What I do

Some days are more fun than others. If I do an inspection on a property where the homeowner already knows there are termites in the house or where the buyer has seen the evidence, that’s not very challenging. My job is to make sure as much evidence as possible is recorded, the problem is diagnosed and recommendations are made to control active infestations. A job like the one I did yeterday is much more interesting. The inspection was in a condo on the eighth floor of a concrete and steel building. It was occupied and heavily furnished, with boxes half-packed for the seller’s impending move. There were a lot of areas I couldn’t get to at all. One of the kitchen cabinets was partially cleared out. The bottom shelf was cluttered with the usual stuff, the next shelf up just had a few items on it and the top shelf was empty. I saw a little bit of debris in the front corner of the bottom shelf. The usual stuff - tiny bits of herbs and spices, a few cockroach droppings - and four tiny, suspicious specks mixed in with the other detritus. An average or less experienced inspector would probably have not even noticed them. I’ll toot my own horn here and say that I’m not average. I’m very good at what I do. I frequently find infestations that have been missed by other inspectors.

I tapped and probed the cabinet door. Nothing. Solid as a rock. The cabinet wall above the debris. Still nothing. I started removing the packages from the lower shelf. In the back corner I found a few more pellets, but the walls and the entire bottom of the shelf above seemed solid and intact, so I emptied that shelf also. It was a removable shelf so I pulled it out.

Aha! Success! The edge of the shelf against the back wall was was the source I was looking for. Those are called kick holes. Drywood termites live inside wood (as opposed to subterranean termites, which usually live in the ground and can travel to above ground sources to feed.) Since they don’t leave the wood that they live in, their galleries can get cluttered with their droppings. Thus the kick holes, through which they expel their fecal material. Actually, though, I didn’t need to see those little kick holes to know I had found what I was looking for.

There were several drywood termites visible in the cavity when I removed the shelf. I called the realtor in from the living room and showed him what I’d found before the termites had a chance to withdraw out of sight. He was impressed. He thinks I’m a goddess. He was thrilled to have me carry the infestation away so I could issue a clear report for his real estate transaction (and so I could stage the photos for you. )

So that’s what I do.

Technorati Tags: drywood termites, drywood termite damage, drywood termite evidence, photos, termites, termite inspection

August 29, 2007

Disaster preparedness

Two years ago today I watched, along with the rest of the world, as New Orleans drowned. I “took it personally,” having grown up and spent much of my life just outside the city limits. My father was the chief engineer for those ill-fated levees in his last professional position. I knew we were seeing “the big one,” the hurricane he and others had predicted as inevitable. I watched the horror unfold and my concerns were for all of the friends I hadn’t seen in so many years, and for the city that I loved. I was not worried about my brother, the last of my family to call New Orleans home. A family friend had planned to pick him up on her way out of the city as she evacuated her own family on Sunday. It was Tuesday before she was able to contact my sister and let her know that she had been unable to find our brother. The levees had broken on Monday. Thus began one of the longest weeks in my life. If you want the details, you’ll find them in my post dated September 7, 2006.

It was Friday before the phone call finally came. My brother had been rescued by boat from a second-floor apartment. His upstairs neighbor had taken him in after the waters began rising in his own first-floor unit. He had had four days of deprivation and discomfort, but had never been in great danger. He was evacuated to a launching point and was taken by bus from there to Houston, where he was finally able to find a working phone and call my sister. He had lost everything he owned, but he was alive and well. It was enough.

Two years later my brother and others are still trying to rebuild their lives. Lessons have been learned, many of them at much too high a price. I am certain that he and every other survivor of Hurricane Katrina has an “if only” list. If only we had evacuated. If only we had made better plans. If only we had been better prepared. When my brother eventually arrived at my sister’s home near Dallas, he had nothing left from his life in New Orleans. He made it out with the clothes he was wearing and nothing else.

Two weeks ago Hawaii had an earthquake as we were all watching Hurricane Flossie to see what she would do. A tsunami alert was triggered by the earthquake in Peru and a wild fire was consuming brushland just a few miles from my home. I used those events as a springboard to write about emergency preparedness. It’s a subject I take seriously. I shared with you some of my own post-disaster history and told you about my current emergency preparations. There’s one area of emergency preparedness we didn’t talk about, though, and it’s an important one. Quick and easy access to personal, medical, financial and insurance data is never more important than immediately after a disaster. Many survivors of Hurricane Katrina were left without a single shred of paper to help them access their bank accounts or find their insurance carriers. Most of us have memorized our own Social Security numbers, but what about our children’s medical records numbers? Can you rattle off your savings account numbers, or just the ones for your checking? If you had to start over tomorrow, without even the cards you keep in your wallet, would you be helpless?

Storing personal and family data in a secure online account is an answer that makes sense. AxcessPoints provides a personal data storage system that was designed with emergency preparedness in mind. Their entire program is geared towards storing and protecting your private information securely. Your information is encrypted prior to transmission so that it’s not even available to their own personnel. Plans are available for businesses as well as for induividuals and families. AxcessPoints.com has also dedicated large portions of their webspace to disaster planning links and to the contact information that can help you find assistance and services following a disaster. Katrina taught us all a lot of lessons. Those lessons are wasted if we don’t incorporate the new knowledge into how we prepare for disaster. Check out AxcessPoints and see where they fit into your disaster planning.

Technorati Tags: data storage, disaster plannning, emergency preparedness, personal data storage

Brilliant!

Long, long ago, and probably in a land far, far away, a seamstress or tailor had a bright idea. It caught on and all of humanity has suffered since that fateful day. I will acknowledge that it was brilliant marketing to put a tag inside every garment to identify its maker. Over the years those tags evolved to take on larger tasks, supplying material content, sizes and fabric care. That’s actually pretty brilliant, too, having all of that info right there where it can’t get lost. But we’ve all hated them, haven’t we? Tags scratching our necks or more delicate parts of our anatomy, tags turning into hard and scratchy torture devices in the dryer. The popularity of poly threads made it even worse, those sharp little plastic ends teaching us what it must feel like to be a voodoo doll. And yet we tolerated it because well, I suppose just because that’s the way things were. Then one fine and shiny day - surely it must have been fine and shiny - another brilliant seamstress or tailor or designer or inventor or marketing genius looked through the murk and exclaimed that favorite word of brilliant people everywhere. “Duh!”

Mahalo, my anonymous and brilliant benefactor. I hope that Hanes has named a day after you. Did they give you a parade and throw a feast in your honor? I would, if I only knew who you are. I don’t question why it took centuries for what seems a simple and obvious concept to occur to someone. It’s enough for me that your stroke of genius occurred in my lifetime. I’m elated that someone at Hanes was smart enough to listen to your simple little idea. I’ve been a Hanes fan for years, but their adoption of the tagless concept has made me a customer for life. What’s more comfortable that soft, cool cotton next to my skin? Soft, cool tagless cotton!

The second photo is gratuitous. This post could have been complete without a picture of my favorite white cotton panties. The world doesn’t really need to see my underwear. It just seemed such a shame to waste the opportunity, though, since I had my white cotton panties on display anyway. It’s pure Google bait, of course. So shoot me.

Technorati Tags: Hanes, photos, tagless, underwear, white cotton panties

August 28, 2007

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have a winner! Kelly correctly guessed that the Tuesday Teaser today was taken from a photo of a lawnmower. Congrats Kelly! You’ve won a linky love post for the blog of your choice and an entry in a drawing for a gift card. The drawing will be held in the next few days because today is the last Tuesday of the month and all of the eligible entrants are known. Kelly, Pelf and Jayme are competing for the big bucks (Jayme won twice in August and will be entered twice in the drawing.) I’m all a-twitter! What will our lucky winner do with her fabulous prize? If it’s Pelf, she’ll probably use it to feed turtles. Jayme just might be shopping for some Da Vinci baby furniture soon. I don’t know Kelly very well, but I’ve peeked at her blog. I’m thinking she’d like some extra pcocket money to use for something fun and frivolous! Well, it’s not our business where it gets cashed in, but watch this space for a winner’s announcement coming soon. Congrats to all of the winners and a big mahalo to everyone who played!

Technorati Tags: contest, meme, photo puzzle, photos

I played Quartile!

Last month I told you about a new game called Quartile. I was so excited about it that I ordered it that same day. I’ve had it for about two weeks. Alas, I live a rather solitary life and didn’t have anyone to play it with until my friend came over this weekend. Here are some of my random observations after playing the game once:

1. It’s a good game for a social setting where conversation is as much a focus as gameplay. We played an enjoyable game, though we weren’t paying total attention to the game itself. Quartile does not require complete, silent concentation in order to be fun and challenging.

2. The level of challenge is up to the players. Higher points can be scored by matching a tile to two or more tiles already in place. I created such opportunities for myself several times, but my opponent snatched away the higher-score spots I had hoped to use for myself.

3. I either didn’t notice or, more likely, forgot that the game was packaged in a wooden box. Surely I must have known that when I researched the game before I purchased it, but it came as a complete surprise to me by the time I got it. Very nice.

4. The box is lovely and sturdy, however, the silver paint is already wearing off. Simply Fun needs to upgrade their materials. I paid $40.00 plus shipping and handling for my game. I expect quality at that price.

5. Yeah, about that shipping. The game is aproximately 5.5 X 7 X 2.5 inches and weighs just under two pounds. Postage in a flat rate USPS box would have been $8.95 and my game would have arrived in a few days. Instead I paid $16.00 and FedEx took a week and a half to get it to me. Yes, I understand that someone has to be paid to pull the purchase from stock and get it packaged up, but “shipping and handling” should NOT include profit computed in. Simply Fun needs to offer some shipping options. If I have to wait ten days for a purchase I expect a cheap rate.

Overview: I’m very pleased with the game itself. I’m looking forward to playing it with my son the next time he visits so I can experience a higher level of challenge (he’s dead serious about games!) I’ll also be looking forward to an opportunity to play with a larger group. I think Quartile would be great for an adult game night as well as a fun game for family game nights. The game lives up to my expectations. It’s fun, it offers challenging strategy if you want it and it’s absolutely beautiful to look at and handle.

I am loathe to offer the following information, but you’re my friends, so I must! Steve, the inventor of Quartile, is having a contest on his blog. You can win one of the rare marble prototypes of Quartile by following a few simple steps. Go check out the contest rules and get yourself entered to win a hand-crafted model of Quartile for your very own. Just keep in mind that I fully expect to win one for myself and there are only a few available. That’s okay. When I win and you don’t you’ll have to come visit Hawaii to play it with me. See, we all win in the long run!

Technorati Tags: board games, family games, games, Quartile

Eclipse

We had a beautiful full moon last night when I went outside just after 10:30. We’ve had a little rain over the last week, so the warm, muggy nights have left us for a while. I was cool and comfortable in full-length, short-sleeved pajamas as I sat on the lanai waiting for the show to begin.

At around 10:45 I could see a flattening effect to the left margin of the moon’s shape. I was already starting to get a “crick” in my neck, so I brought a pillow outside and tried lying down on the lanai and looking straight up. The eaves got in the way, though, so I went back to sitting on the rocker, then on the steps and finally on the ice chest I brought groceries home in yeterday. None of those positions helped my neck.

At 10:58 the left edge of the moon had a bit missing, like a cookie just slightly nibbled. The clouds, which had been blowing by in ragged whisps, began to accumulate in earnest. My neighbors Roy and Dot came out to watch from their driveway across the fence. We “talked story” for a bit as we watched the eclipse progress. Their home is the gathering spot for all of their family, and their son had been over earlier in the day doing a power supply repair on his boat, so we talked about fishing and grown kids who store big things like boats at their parents’ homes.

The clouds were in the way for a while, but opened up somewhat at about 11:20. The moon had taken on a kidney-bean shape by then. I coninuted to snap pictures regularly over the next two hours. I could see the moon quite well, but the eclipse had diminished the light output enough that my pictures show next to nothing. By around two o’clock the moon was approaching full again, but was red-tinged. The reddish quality of the light and the dense clouds made it impossible for me to capture with my camera what my eyes could clearly see. I’m strictly an amateur at picture-taking, but last night I found myself wishing for one of those hundred-pound cameras with lots of fancy lenses and filters. I can only tell you that the heavens put on a phenomenal show last night over Hawaii, and that I wish I possessed the skill and equipment to have captured it for you.

Edit: I haven’t found any still photos online, but The Honolulu Advertiser has posted a video news clip that includes some shots of the eclipse.

Lunar eclipse photos on Flikr These are all from the eclipse last night and this morning and are much, much better than mine, Enjoy! Mahalo to Allysther.

Technorati Tags: eclipse, Hawaii, photos

Tuesday Teaser for August 28, 2007

Can you identify the item depicted above? It’s not rocket science and you don’t need high risk life insurance to enter this contest. Just take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll win a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is.
2. First person to identify the item wins.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer.

What will you win?

1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog. The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a PR4 blog. Skeet writes good reviews.
2. The winner’s name will be entered into a drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon.
3. Drawing for the gift card will be held on or about Augist 31, 2007, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in August, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.

Other stuff

1. All comments to this blog are time and date stamped. The winner will be the first person (according to time and date stamp) to provide the correct answer.
2. No hints will be given.
3. Answers must specifically identify the item. For instance, if the item depicted were to be a button on a remote control, the answer “button on something electronic” would not suffice.
4. Decisions of the judge are final. Don’t argue with me. I won’t answer.
5. I will attempt to post every few hours as to whether or not a winner has been declared, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
6. Entries must be posted before 2:30 a.m. Thursday, August 30, 2007, Hawaii time (GMT -10, approximately forty-eight hours from now.)
7. This is intended to be an ongoing feature at Skeet’s Stuff. If it turns out to be a dud it will cease to exist, but all qualified winners will get their prizes.
8. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.
9. Let the fun begin!

Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, blog contest