Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Printer Pair

My old printer, which I got before leaving for college in 2005, has been on its last legs for quite some time, but we printed so infrequently we just dealt with it when we had to.  That ends now.
After seeing the Brother laser printers and all-in-ones praised on the blogs I read, I decided it was time to get one.  I planned to put it on my Christmas list, but it appeared at an all-time low price of $80 for (early) Black Friday at Best Buy.  I actually bought it at Amazon, since they matched the price temporarily.  At the time of publishing it is still $80 at Best Buy.

If you were looking closely at the photo above you might have noticed that throughout 10+ years of ownership, I never removed the protective film on the old printer's screen.  Yes, I am that guy.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Chasing Chairs

After working at Hyundai for six months, I finally came to the conclusion my office chair sucked.  I requested a replacement that would work better for my abnormal height, but my two emails were ignored, so I decided to buy something for myself.  The first one I tried was the Steelcase Think (seen above), which I found on Craigslist for $80 (~$800 new).  This was an older model in decent shape, but it was a little dingy.  I shampooed it and decided a couple days later it wasn't right for me, so now Chrissy uses it in our home office.

To find my next chair, I went to a used furniture warehouse and stumbled upon this bad boy made by, and I'm not making this up, SitOnIt Seating.  Retail price for this chair was also ~$800 but I paid $40.  The depreciation on used office furniture is brutal.

After shampooing, it looked like this.

Shampooing wasn't the only thing I did.  As it came, the armrests were too far forward and they hit my desk.  I was prepared to do some major surgery to fix this, but I realized I could just switch sides so they would angle backward instead of forward.
Before
After
I also did some grinding on the plastic frame that holds the mesh back.  The top of the frame was just hitting my shoulder blades, so I had to do something.  You can see my setup below.
I got to use all three outlets on the splitter I recently added to my retractable cord reel to power the Dremel, light, and Shop Vac simultaneously.  I also placed a steel plate under wherever I was grinding to avoid cutting the mesh.  The end result is a chair that is now custom fit to me and is working great.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

How to Fit a 4x8 Sheet of Plywood in a Prius (Project Preview)

All you have to do is trick a Home Depot employee into cutting it up for you.  For no additional charge.
I will be putting our Thanksgiving guests to work assembling everything next week.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Shoddy Shoes

After many, many years of service, I have finally retired my "garage shoes."  They were starting to expose my toes a little too much, which felt unsafe in some situations.

I got these stylish new slip-ons for $10 at Big 5.  What a bargain.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Anatomy Scan Follow Up - Special 300th Post

I'm not sure how the first week of November is almost already over and yes, I promised an update. I am so sorry for the delay but hey, I'm growing a human so you can cut me some slack right?

SPECIAL NOTE: This is our 300th post on PekemaProjects.  We know you've enjoyed them all.

First things first; I'm 29 weeks today. What? 11 weeks left!! I had to keep this pregnancy a secret longer than that and now that's all the time remaining. Andy and I can't wait to meet Hope so we are getting very excited in these last precious weeks. Occasionally (frequently) one of us will sneak into her room just to be in there and near her things, and the other will jump in totally outraged saying "you're in here without me???!!!!" like we are missing out. It's amazing how much her room feels like her space, it feels special and ready for her.
Anyone else excited I managed to wear a bra this week?
As you may recall, last week I mentioned my follow up anatomy scan. I have completed the ultrasound (despite Hope using it as an opportunity for a dance party) and passed with flying colors (and even passed out a little bit from laying on my back). Meaning, my Dr emailed me to say the placenta previa is completely gone. YUP, COMPLETELY!!!! No additional scans will be necessary and I am free to deliver this baby however she sees fit. Thank goodness for my bump being giant, I think that helped. I feel such an immense amount of relief and honestly some genuine excitement for the big day. I know, pain is scary, and how could I look forward to such an intense and long day? Well, I think a big part of my excitement is just knowing I have the ability to deliver my child naturally instead of automatically being in the C-section camp. I've always imagined (yes, some girls think about having children as much as they do about their wedding day) going into labor on my own and the anticipation of meeting my baby overwhelming me to the point that there is no fear. So, knowing I can go into labor naturally without bleeding to death is exciting, even if I ended up having a C-section anyway. I'm also a fan of Hope choosing her own birthday! So, now that the scary stuff is officially over (I am the 84%!!) lets just keep our fingers crossed for a safe and healthy delivery in January. Now I just have to think about weird things like how much she kicks in a day (the Dr makes you see how long it takes to get 10 kicks) and what position Hope is in, (transverse, Breech, or head down). I didn't know you had to think about any of that before getting pregnant. It's a little bizarre, thank goodness for Kick Counter Apps. The rest I'll leave up to my Dr to worry about.

No placenta previa for this gal!

Whew, glad that's over! Want to see some Halloween silliness? This year, with me being very pregnant, I wasn't feeling up to our usual all out costumes and multiple parties. BUT, wasting a Saturday Halloween is just plain wrong AND the Halloween Spirits smiled upon us and bestowed two house parties upon us. House parties are great when you want to eat and sit down so I was game for both! I was very lackluster in the costume department so Andy took the reigns this year. First he came up with his costume and then thought long and hard about mine. He insisted that the bump be part of the costume (I understood and agreed with this instinct) and since he did 100% of the work of thinking it up and making it for me I gladly smiled, put it on, and had a blast at both parties (thanks again to the awesome people who hosted this year! And a big thanks to my awesome husband). Andy went as a "Liar" (VW Emissions Engineer) and he dressed me (and Hope) as a VW beetle! He made hope the top round portion of the car. The costumes were a hit, some people thought my bump was fake and one clever man at the grocery store made the point that Andy did a lot more to make my costume than just designing/creating the cutouts! Hahaha, clever guy figured out that Andy IS the father! (Maury Povich Joke? No? ok.)
The VW Engineer and his Bug
The front of the Bug (We added a 60's flower to the belly button later)
Side view of the completed costume.
So there you have it, all good things! I do have one funny Hope anecdote before I go rest this bump; last night I laid on my left side to go to sleep and that little stinker decided she wasn't ok with that sleep position so she promptly and firmly planted both feet on my left side and somehow managed to make it feel like she was standing up in my stomach putting all of her weight on my squishy organs. It was very not comfortable, I got the message and rolled over just as quickly as my roundness would allow. Stinker. As if sleeping isn't hard enough already? There are only two positions I can sleep in, left side or right side, both cause a decent amount of pain in the hips and back and she wants to be picky? Again, what a stinker.