I’ve recently discovered at work that during conference calls, the host can enter *5 which mutes everyone else and forces the participants to listen to the host.

The social equivalent of “shut up and listen to me” is something I could always use.

Popularity: 3%

We recently finished our current kitchen remodeling.  Essentially we expanded our kitchen island and put on a new counter top.   This got us more working space as well as more storage space with an new cabinet and a space for the garbage bin.  We also painstakingly darkened the cabinets and purchased new cabinet hardware.  The painstaking part was that it took a good 8 or 9 layers to darken it.  Detailed pictures are on Picasa, but if you just want a before and after shot.  Feel free to ooo and ahhh.

Popularity: 1%

This past weekend, instead of having a home break-in, we had a home break-out.

My Saturday mornings usually consist of me attempting to sleep in while cats paw at my face and attack my toes, but this past Saturday was different – I actually slept in.  I awoke, immediately thinking “That’s odd, the cats never bothered me this morning…”  Maybe they had matured to the point where they don’t feel the insessant need to torture me when I’m trying to sleep in.  Who knows?

I grab a morning cup of coffee, and walk to the office to check my e-mail, and that is where I found the evidence.  The window screen in the office had been pushed out, and it looked like the cats had had an early morning adventure outside.  That vague uneasy feeling was in the pit of my stomach – we don’t normally let our cats outside.  Soon enough though, the cats came into the office from the living room, putting on their usually innocent eyes act.  It didn’t work though; you could see the muddy cat paw prints on the windowsill.  Caught muddy pawed.

Of course, now I’m trying to figure out if I need to screw the screen so that when the windows are open, we don’t have any more jail-breaks.

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TV Banner ads without Adblock - I'd gouge my eyes out!

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Automatic car washes mixed with temporary paper license plates that are on the outside of your car leave you license-less!

Popularity: 1%

I recently broke down and bought a “new” 2006 Ford Fusion with about 45k miles on it.  It’s a great car, roomy, fun to drive, and it looks pretty nice – even if I do need to fend off a little bitterness from the wifey.  Buying a “new” car is something I’ve never really done.  The car is black – not my favorite color due to its propensity to show dust easily, but the price was right.  Now, I’ve bought hand-me-down family cars, but never from a dealer before.  It was pretty nice, he took care of the taxes and title/registration transfer.

I ran into a problem on day #2 of ownership though – and here is your challange: find the flaw in my actions during the first 2 days of ownership.

I picked up the car on a Monday night, and drove it home (weeeeeee!).  The next morning, I drive it into work (weeeeee!).  I admired my car in the parking lot at work as I walked away from it.  After work, I notice as I walk up to my car that my suspicions about the black color of the car exposing any and all dust were confirmed!  Blast!  Not to worry, there is a cheap automatic car wash on the way home so I can see her sparkle.  I took her for a quick bath, and drove home.

I pulled into my driveway, and sure enough – she was sparkling!  But wait…something was wrong.  What was it?

Popularity: 2%