I had a great time in Rochester for the CSH Welcome Back Party, but I think I might be skipping future Welcome Back parties... More and more of my friends are leaving Rochester, and I know fewer and fewer people who live at CSH. I think this realization comes to all alumni, but I guess I finally hit the sweet spot. It seems that each year I spend more time in Rochester catching up with my friends who are visiting from out of town, and less time doing anything with the house. It occured to us that if all we are going to do is hang out with each other, we can pick a place that's a bit more fun than Rochester... :P This decision doesn't effect Fucked Up Movie Night, however, so I still plan on being at CSH once or twice a year.. Of course, it's very possible that next September I will change my mind and end up in Rochester anyway, so this could all be bullshit.

I have had great warranty luck lately... First off, Apple recalled both of the batteries I have for my Powerbook. This worked out fantastically, because I was just getting annoyed by the diminished capacity of the two recalled batteries. Around the same time, I got an email from Sirius saying that due to supply shortages, my warranty exchange on my Starmate Replay (for a scratchy 1/8" audio jack) was being upgraded to a brand new Sportster 4, which is a much nicer radio. I got that in the mail the other day, the only sucky thing is that I have to send back all of the original equipment for the Starmate, so I had to rip out the old antenna and install the new. I had the Antenna wire hid very nicely through the trunk, and under the molding on the passenger side of the car, so I had to reproduce all of that again. Also, the Starmate ran on 12V DC so lopped off the lighter adaptor that came with it and hardwired it into the cars power inside the dash. I can't exactly return that, and the new radio runs on 5V DC, so I will take some kind of hit on that..

coco_b and I have been trying to finish up all of the lingering projects around the house. She started staining the doors the other day, and I masked off the bathroom to finally prime and paint it. After it's painted, the bathroom needs baseboard and door trim, and all of the old radiators still need to be painted. I want to finish all of the woodwork this weekend so we can finally clean up the apartment fully...

coco_b got a call from the contractor a few days ago asking her to be home at 3pm yesterday to sign off on the bathroom. Corinna and I called bullshit on this right away, looking at the work left to be done in the bathroom. I advised her to call the company before she left work so she didn't waste any of her time. When she did, they were "running behind, but should be done around 6pm". I left work a little early so I could be home at ~5pm to have a word with the contractors. When I got home, the owner, site manager, and plumber were there, surprised that I came home.

They started off saying they hadn't finished, and that they'd have to come back to finish the access panel for the water shutoff as well as the radiator. I took this opportunity to add the chase they were on contract to install to box out the steam main. They looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. My temper flared instantly, as I knew they had convieniently forgotten about this work. I calmed myself down ("He took a duck in the face at two hundred and fifty knots") and pointed them to the original sales agreement which specifically mentioned either moving the steam main into the wall or boxing it out. I was originally concerned when I saw the plaster guy doing the walls but not boxing in the pipe, but I remembered someone mentioned they usually use some kind of panelling for those tasks. But I honestly think they were trying to not do the work, which pisses me off.

I've continued to updated the photos of the job, but don't be fooled by the titles, "Day 15" is not elapsed time, but worked time. This wednesday will be the 4 week mark since the beginning of this job. "Day 15" doesn't count weekends or the several days (one stretch was 4 days in a row) that they didn't do a god-damned thing.

So the contractor eventually showed up yesterday and begun demolition of our bathroom. Corinna waited around all morning for them to come, they were supposed to show between 8 and 9am, but didn't show until 2pm... The guy doing the demolition got most of the wall down (which is a tall order since it is all steel-backed plaster) and came back today to finish the job. I will be taking pictures each day as I did for my parents' renovations. I will also be showering each day at work, which should be interesting.. Fortunately I won't be spending the next two weekends in Boston, so I don't have to figure out a showering procedure for when I'm not at work.

Attended a great lecture today on some interesting image processing algorithms developed by a colleague at our parent division (Goodrich Optical & Space Systems).

Another shot of the finished shelves
Originally uploaded by seangraham.

Corinna just put the finishing touches on our big project for last weekend. We built some open cabinets/shelves from scratch for a space in our kitchen. Our goal was to make them look like they fit in with the existing work in the apartment, and I believe we were successful. Check out this set over on Flickr to see the project from start to finish.

This weekend was hectic.... Friday night coco_b and I met up with her friend Lisa who was in town for a conference. She invited us to a grill party in Allston. Lots of standing, so my leg was a little barky, but it was a great time.

Saturday we spent most of the day cleaning the apartment, and I worked on fixing the PC, which had a under volt on the power supply's 3.3v rail. I replaced the supply, but the crashing persisted.. It seems now that the video card is overheating, so I turned down the settings on the game I was playing and it seemed to improve the sitchmo. I guess ultimately it will need to be replaced, but that'd require a PCI Express motherboard, so it will have to wait.

Today we continued cleaning, in preparation for Coco's parents' visit this week. After cleaning ended, we went over to adamfletcher's family's pool for a quick bit of swimming and grilling before racing back to Harvard Square to see Sir, No Sir! with the film club.

The CFO approved my purchase order for a new air conditioner for the living room a few weeks ago. This weekend I was sitting on the couch like a vegetable this weekend when it turned itself on. I mustered up the energy to get up off the couch and see what was going on. I stared at the thing for about 5 minutes, unable to figure out what was going on and fearing that I'd have to remove it from the window and return it to Target. Finally, I figured out that the stupid remote control that came with the A/C was using the same signal for "Power" as the "Select" button on the Tivo remote. I laughed for about 10 minutes straight, and eventually covered the IR receiver on the A/C with some electrical tape.

Who actually needs a remote on their A/C? I have never had to adjust my A/C so much that I felt a remote was in order. As Ron Popeil says, Just set it, and forget it!