Tag: cleaning

Land Ho!

As seems to happen when I am away for the weekend, disaster struck at home.

While I was in Holyoke visiting Sarah, torrential downpours flooded the basement.

Luckily, this has happened before, and so we keep pretty much everything off the floor.
It’s still a pain to clean up, and thankfully, Adam had it almost completely clean by the time I got back Sunday afternoon. I did have to break down some soggy cardboard boxes and clean up a bunch of wet kitty litter for an hour or so. The basement was freezing, since the garage doors were open to air the place out, and by the time I was done my hands were wet and frozen. I took a shower to clean the muck off and warm up, and the warm water of the shower made my hands feel like they were burning.

But it went pretty well considering there was an inch of water in the basement only hours ago.

winter spring cleaning

I’ve been using my morning time to clean, been going through boxes of old documents and throwing/scanning/filing them as needed.

I’m also trying to pare down my electronics, sold my old Sony eBook reader to Scott today, Lyn’s taking my old scanner, sounds like Ben will probably buy my MacBook when I get my new Mac Pro in 3 weeks. He might also buy my old projector.

I have a machine I was building to be a Linux multimedia box, even has a cable-ready card and USB IR receiver… dunno what I’ll do with that, maybe keep it, maybe give it away…

There’s a small pile of old cellphones and accessories I should probably drop in the donation tube at work…

When I get my Mac Pro, I can also get rid of my old Dell desktop, maybe give it to my dad or something.

Sarah will probably take my old Apple (pismo) Powerbook, it just needs a new battery.

I need to see if my mom still wants my old Dell laptop, I can clean that up for her (needs a new battery).

Ben mentioned there’s a company that will replace the power cells *inside* a laptop battery for half the price of buying a replacement, sounds like that might be a good option for replacing those batteries.

I ordered my Mac Pro with the “recycle an old computer” option, so Apple will send a label so I can toss an old computer (I’m thinking the old 386 Compaq laptop running Windows 3.11) into a box and bring it down the street to FedEx where it will go to silicon heaven.

Magazines… I have so many. I want to keep the Make magazines, but I have years worth of Wired, the entire run of Mac Addict, a few years of Maximum PC, and a few others. Maybe my brother or someone would want the NewType anime magazines… not sure if anyone would want the Wireds or others…

Clean, Clean, Clean!

The witching hour is upon us

It’s midnight, movie night is over (we watched Zodiac, a bit slow in parts but good), and everyone has toddled on home. Sarah’s already asleep like a good student should be…

So I’m all alone in the quiet of the house…

as Dave was leaving, I found my nail clippers, which I had been on the point of tearing my house apart for earlier. But I decided to let it go, to not panic. So when Dave was heading out, he asked, “where would your clippers be?” and I replied “right here,” reached down, and picked them up. I swear I looked there earlier, but such is the way of seeking and finding,

So I clipped my nails, there is no one else awake… so time to…

time to…

time to…

clean my tub!


Before (eww)


Nine minutes and one brillo pad later.

Now perhaps I will read for a little, and then retire for the evening.

Gadgets Up For Grabs

I’m still going through stuff, but here are some items so far that I am offering:

Discman-style portable CD player – FREE!

Sony NW-E3 digtal audio player – FREE!

Sony 5-disc DVD player – only $30!

17″ CTX monitor (CRT) – FREE!

Orioles Baseball cap (brand new) – FREE!

Marlins sweatshirt (brand new) – FREE!

Banker-style black sun visor (brand new) – FREE!

Car Visor CD holder (brand new) – FREE!

Small CD wallet – FREE!

50x CD-ROM drive – FREE!

Any of that interest you?

Keyboard Cleaning

I don’t know if you remember, but a while back I cleaned my home keyboard and posted the gross pictures of what I found inside.

Well, now I’ve done the same for the keyboard I’ve been using at work for the past 6 years.

Here’s a sample:


Before


After

If you dare see what was *inside* the keyboard, you can view all the photos.

Not for the faint of heart.

Brillo is Fucking Magic!

After cleaning my tub with Brillo, I was impressed.

After cleaning my kitchen sink with it I was blown away!

kitchen sink

Oil paint has been stuck on since I painted my Galaga cabinet, years ago. I’ve tried other cleaning products but the oil paint was on for good. Brillo? Took it right off. Rust? Came right off. All sorts of crud, came right off.
The only thing it didn’t get off the sink was some discoloration that is soaked into the sink material itself, but I forgive it for that.

Brillo is fucking magic!

Sometimes I forget how great Brillo is. Last time, Brillo saved the glass-top stove, which Adam had accidentally melted a plastic bag on.