Sleepy Beauty and PROGRESS on the 2017 Kitchen Project
Posted By RichC on March 23, 2017
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Robocalls are on the rise, even on the Do Not Call Registry
Posted By RichC on March 22, 2017
Well the FTC has some simple advice for those "still" receiving robocalls even when on the Do Not Call List or Registry. Most of us continue to receive unwanted calls on landlines and cellphones, even we are on the registry (and have renewed). It is illegal unless you have giving the caller written permission. Many robocalls nowadays are likely scams and intend to harvest bits of information. Information can be as simple as just answering the phone (a working number). Other are happy linking a name to a phone number or maybe getting your addresses, including email. 
The most aggressive will attempt to verify numbers, like social security, bank accounts and credit cards. No doubt they will be sold on the dark web or to other marketers.
Follow FTC attorney Kati Daffan’s advice:
- Hang up
- Don’t press any numbers
- Block the number
- Report to the FTC … and maybe update the call on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Let the kitchen remodeling and upgrades begin … finally!
Posted By RichC on March 21, 2017
Finally, our long awaited kitchen project begins in earnest. Monday was what Fixer Upper’s Chip and Joanna Gaines call "Demo Day." Our long and drawn out updates and upgrades are finally starting and have grown in both design changes and cost as the weeks have grown into months … if not years!
We really started the upgrade process 7 years ago, back in 2010, when we replaced our Kitchenaid Dishwasher with a Bosch. At that point we new we would soon be upgrading several of our aging appliances and going from white to stainless. Oh we delayed time and time again with painting and new faucets and valves until we bit a bigger bullet in 2015 and bought a new stainless Samsung refrigerator. Two appliances down and definitely a step closer to doing the full upgrade and transition from our "white" 1990s builders grade, well used 20 year old cabinets, etc to something we wanted. When I mention our existing kitchen to someone, they look at it and tell me it looks fine. Well it does from a distance, but the thermo-molded cabinet doors and drawers are starting to peel, the white Corian has scratches and seems yellowish … besides, Brenda and I were both ready for a change.
A couple of the major changes are removing the cooktop and downdraft vent from the island and converting it to a fairly large combination eating area and granite worksurface island (replacing the kitchen table entirely).
The desk area is gone (it only collects clutter) and we’ll lengthen the counter space as well as add a pantry cupboard area with roller drawers as we love the one at my daughter’s house in Wayzata MN (really a second pantry for us). The existing electric cooktop is great, but the trend is to convert from electric to natural gas, so since we have gas, we’ll add a Bosch 5 burner range with the oversize center burner and smaller BTW warming burner. We’ll hopefully accessing the gas line under the cabinets (in basement) and then mount a Bosch commercial vent hood above it.
We really love the existing GE Spacesaver Microwave so plan on keeping it the same since they make an upgraded stainless model. Brenda wanted a second oven and we’ll replace the existing one with a Bosch double-oven ($$$ particularly on that one for those of you keeping score). Hopefully our planning has gone well and we won’t run into any major 
snags.
My final update may have to wait until all the cabinets are in, but I would like to wire the cabinet above the refrigerator for a flatpanel 4K TV — pull the new doors and replace with a removable 40" panel (ie. Visio D-Series 40" Ultra HD Full-Array LED Smart TV — Without Stand: 21.27 inches H x 35.97 inches W x 2.68 inches D). My wife is not quite on board with this yet – I’m working on it.
So let the construction begin!
A beautiful sunrise, then storms – and retweeted tweets
Posted By RichC on March 20, 2017
It was dark for a panoramic iPhone5 photo, but while doing my "last bag" garbage run this morning, I couldn’t resist a photo of the sunrise while the lightning was cracking to the west. Within an hour it was pouring rain and became a dreary, damp day.
On a social networking technology note, it is amazing what a higher profile "re-tweet" can do for an average tweet. I generally post a few things to Twitter each day, often while I eat my lunch. It has been my habit for almost a year and over 1000 of over 20,000 tweets to use a personalized URL shortener; it is easy to know when a media personality re-tweets something that I’ve shared. Generally a tweet gets between 30-50 clicks from my followers, but it can go close to 1000 if someone high profile comments or retweets it. Here’s 4 hours worth of clicks on a couple of today’s tweets.
A Music Monday Two-fer – but still out of the 1970s
Posted By RichC on March 20, 2017
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Simple hack for cleaning the gutters
Posted By RichC on March 19, 2017
Although using a leaf blower may be more fun in cleaning the gutters, it can make a mess of everything below. I generally use rubber gloves, but in the end always slice them up and end up with a bare hand anyway.
Here’s a great idea: Cut an anti-freeze or similar shaped plastic gallon jug in the shape of a scoop and dump the debris into a bucket or plasitc garbage bag.
Forgotten and leftover from Christmas 2016
Posted By RichC on March 19, 2017
My son Taylor is geography and map kind of guy so I gave him a mag-lift spinning globe for his desk for Christmas 2016. His interests and innate sense of direction is probably why he pursued “Urban Planning and now coordinates development for Clermont County Ohio as a county planner. Anyway, I had forgotten that I make a test video prior to wrapping this globe and figured I would post and archive it before I forget again.
Annalyn makes iPad and iPhone Wallpaper updates everyday
Posted By RichC on March 18, 2017
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Our 2010 BMW X5 35d is now officially a great road trip vehicle
Posted By RichC on March 18, 2017
We’ve taken a enough longer road trips in the 2010 BMW X5 35d now to officially declare it an outstanding road car … no surprise really. 
The driving characteristics of this 5000+ pound SUV are enjoyable since the handling is tight, interior space excellent, ride comfort “so-so” and highway power substantial. I don’t really want to admit this, but driving through Wisconsin there were stretches where I was comfortably cruising along at 100 mph … until commonsense kicked in and told me grandfathers are suppose to be wiser than that … so 90 mph became my limit.
Previous long highway trips in warmer weather, and slower speeds, returned 25 mpg easily, but at these higher speeds and colder weather, it was closer to 23 mpg. Still, few full-size, 338/HP/542 lb-ft of torque, SUVs are consistently returning fuel efficiency in the 20s and giving up a couple miles per gallon in the winter is normal anyway. Here’s a recent Fuelly.com chart with the 3/17 fills reflecting our latest Minnesota trip.
Click for larger
Hammock time on a sailboat from Sailing Britaly
Posted By RichC on March 17, 2017
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.