I love old houses...

My house was built in 1926 and apparently some plumbing under the concrete dates from around then. Some food got washed down past the garbage disposal which blocked up the drain. A bottle of Liquid Plumber, a bottle of lye, much plunging, a kitchen flooded with greenish/black water, and a sprung leak in the pipe later I found out that a clay pipe under the foundation collapsed. So much for the spare money I had been saving for a trip to the Berea gun show.

They (Ace Building & Remodeling) ended up having to rip out the concrete, replace the pipe, then backfill it and cover it with new concrete. It was all done in one day but unfortunately it took me almost a week to determine that I needed it done. A week without a drain sucks more than I thought. Dirty dishes everywhere, can't rinse them, can't throw them in the dishwasher, and can't cook since the pots and pans will be dirty all over the place.

Once again I'd like to thank the original idiots that worked on my house for not putting in any sort of access point to run a snake, not using the proper PVC fittings underneath my sink, and not elevating the dishwasher output line (all of which have been corrected now).

Nifty pictures here.

I'm back

I just got back from attending the Internet Retailer Mobile Commerce Forum 2010 conference in Chicago. Internet retailers from around the country gather to discuss mobile marketing and technology strategy as it relates to the mobile web. Speakers included mobile executives from Walgreens, Fandango, Travelocity, Rhapsody, Crutchfield, Finish Line, and ShopNBC to name the more mainstream presenters. The overall theme was marketing centric and not as technical as I'm used to, but I did take away information pertaining to topics such as apps versus mobile sites and prioritizing mobile site features.

I have been to Chicago before but as with this trip I barely had any time to do much "touristy" stuff at length. I did get to check out Navy Pier, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and get some sweet Chicago deep dish pizza from Giordanos. I never knew that Bubba Gump was a real place that was actually created for (or after) Forrest Gump was released. The tables actually have license plates on them that say Run Forrest Run or Stop Forrest Stop to indicate if you need something from the server.


Other than that I just took some random urban shots around town as I was walking between places. All of the pictures I took can be seen here.

July is my new favorite month

I just had two pretty awesome weekends back to back. I met an awesome new person who just so happens to not mind taking me with their family out on the lake. We watched the Lakewood and Cleveland fireworks out on Lake Erie for the fourth. I got a few "so-so" pictures while I was out with my Droid that can be seen here.

We also checked out the Bodies exhibit downtown on East 4th. I had already seen it a few years ago in Toronto but that sort of thing is fun to see more than once. I definitely liked it better in Toronto. For one thing, the Cleveland exhibit didn't even have the cut away side view of the pregnant woman (Toronto did). The other two things that were worse about the Cleveland exhibit were: 1) they tried taking a souvenir photo on entering as if you're entering Cedar Point or something and 2) they had people menacingly following you around the exhibit supposedly to "help" you but really there to make sure you didn't touch anything or take any pictures (there were no such people in Toronto).

We then went out on the lake again this past weekend and just tooled around swimming and went up the Cuyahoga river. The tall ships exhibit was also in town so I got some pretty cool pictures of them as well. This time I had my "real" camera which sadly takes better pictures at 3.2mp than my 5.0mp Droid camera. I found out these past few weeks that it's true that the company you keep definitely makes any experience that much better.

Wat?

I haven't updated in awhile and I guess some sort of major things have happened since February so why not?

• I changed jobs some time back in April after being at the last place for two years. It ended up being good timing because they ended up closing the entire office permanently on May 14th. The picture on the right is my new office at my new job taken with my Droid.


• I'm single. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. It definitely helps in the finance department. Of course if I actually start dating there goes that money.


• I got a new car - a 2011 Hyundai Sonata. It's no BMW but with my job being a good 30 miles away I needed something way more fuel efficient than 18mpg.


• I found out I have jerks for neighbors who reported building code violations on my house. Because I didn't already drop $70k into my house or anything and was working on the rest when I could get the money... Let's just say it's been worked out and they didn't accomplish anything.


• Birthday at Brasa again. Awesome.


• Got a new roof put on the house. That was a nice $5000 I'll be paying off for the forseeable future. This was not related to the code violations: it was just badly overdue and leaking.

Steak on a Stone

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I had lunch at this place called Steak on a Stone in North Olmsted yesterday. This is a pretty sweet concept. From their site:

First we heat our volcanic stones to over 750 degrees in our specially designed oven for 6 to 8 hours. When they come out, they are placed upon our stoneware dishes that help to keep the meal warm while the outer dish remains cool to the touch.

Then we place your meal selection directly upon the hot stone. This extreme heat sears the food and seals in the natural juices and flavor of your food. You then simply slice a piece off and by placing it upon the stone, cook each individual bite to the wellness you enjoy.


Basically when they give you the steak to eat the top and bottom are seared and cooked already but the middle/sides are still raw. You cut slices off and individually cook each piece. I'm not one for working for my food usually but it was really good and no more effort than cutting pieces off a steak normally. The cut of meat and flavor easily beat out any Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn, or Outback steak (not that any of those are exactly high quality... just sayin'). The bill for a dinner steak, a lunch chicken sandwich, two sodas, and two desserts was $49. Not bad considering the quality of the food.

Ice festivals and home shows... oh my!

I recently went to the The Great Big Home & Garden Expo 2010 and the Medina Ice Festival 2010.

The Home & Garden Expo was interesting and all, but I'm not sure it was worth the $11/person (and that was with an online discount) + $6 parking to get in. I wanted to see more futuristic homes for that kind of money. They only had three or four model homes setup and they weren't laid out any different than the nicer stuff you'd see in Home Depot or Lowes for the most part. The link to the gallery above shows some of the outdoor gardens that were pretty cool (and other overall shots).

The Ice Festival was somewhat neat (checkout the pictures in the gallery linked above) but our interest didn't last very long. It took maybe an hour or so to walk around and see everything. The works in progress were very rough and it seemed like they wouldn't be done for hours. While I realize art takes time I don't have that kind of patience when its 28 degrees out. The saddest little snowman ever that was just chilling on the sidewalk was kinda amusing though.